Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Sunday 26th July 2020
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 26/07/20
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Again, Fulani Herdsmen Attack Southern Kaduna Village, Kill Pastor, Nine Others
At least 10 persons including a pastor of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), Shamah Kuyet Ishaya, were killed by gunmen during an attack on Zipkak community in Jama’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
The latest attack comes few days after 21 people were killed by bandits at Kukum Daji Village in neighbouring Kaura Local Government Area of the state.
A resident told SaharaReporters that the attackers numbering about 20 and armed with AK47 rifles, stormed the community on motorcycles around 6:30pm on Friday, shooting sporadically.
He said the gunmen were communicating with one another in Fulani language.
“There was a rumour three days ago that the community would be attacked. The villagers immediately called an emergency sitting. It was while the community meeting was ongoing that the attacked occurred. People were running in different directions, confused and wailing.
“So far, we have recovered 10 bodies. The associate pastor that was shot dead just concluded his marriage rites last week Saturday and the wedding scheduled for December 19. Amongst the number of dead is also a very aged woman who was shot on the head.”
He said 11 others sustained injuries from gunshots while five houses were burnt.
He added that six of those injured were taken to the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Plateau State, for treatment.
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Rainstorm Kills Seven Persons, Destroys Several Houses In Niger State
No fewer than seven persons have been confirmed dead and others injured following a rainstorm at Rafin Sanyi area of Suleja Local Government Area of Niger State.
The incident, which occurred on Friday, destroyed several structures while farmers lost several farmlands and animals to the natural disaster.
Chairman of Suleja LGA, Abdullahi Maje, who confirmed the incident to journalists in Minna, the state capital, said the downpour began at 9:30pm when most residents were asleep.
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He said, “We have already deposited seven corpses at Sabon Wuse General Hospital morgue and are searching for several others that are missing.
“Several houses had also partially collapsed in the area, while trees fell on roads and vehicles in different parts of Rafin Sanyi.
“The roof of several buildings, supermarkets, kiosks, and public buildings were also blown off by the rainstorm.”
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Nigerian Resident Doctors To Embark On Strike Action Over Government’s Failure To Address Welfare Concerns
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The National Association of Resident Doctors has threatened to embark on a fresh strike action to force the Nigerian Government to meet their demands.
The resident doctors gave government three weeks ultimatum to either meet its demand or they would embark on strike.
The ultimatum will elapse on August 17, 2020.
President of NARD, Dr Aliyu Sokomba, said this while speaking of with journalists after the end of a virtual National Executive Council meeting where the decision was reached.
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He said, “NEC resolved to extend the suspension of our strike action by three weeks to give the government time to address our demands, failure of which will leave us with no choice other than to resume the suspended strike on Monday, August 17, 2020.”
Part of the demands of the resident doctors is the payment of COVID-19 hazard allowance, provision of personal protective equipment, inclusion of the Medical Residency Training funding in the revised 2020 budget, salary shortfall for 2014-2016.
The doctors are also demanding for procurement of group life insurance for health workers, COVID-19 inducement hazard allowance reinstatement of disengaged resident doctors at Jos University Teaching Hospital.
The resident doctors had on June 22 suspended an indefinite strike action after one week.
The strike was suspended after intervention by Nigerian Governors Forum.
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BREAKING: Adeleye Wins AAC Governorship Primary Election In Ondo
Adekunle Adeleye has won the governorship primary election of the African Action Congress held on Saturday in Ondo State.
Mr Adeleye won the election after he scored a total of 57 votes to beat his closet rival, Adekunle Ajayi, widely known as “Wiseman”, who polled 50 votes.
The third contestant, Mr Olumide Akinsanmi, polled two votes.
The primary election took place at the International Event and Culture Centre, DOME, Akure.
Gabriel Adelaja, Chairman of the AAC National Electoral Committee for the primary, declared Adeleye winner of the election having scored the highest votes in the exercise.
Adelaja said a total of 112 delegates voted in the election while only two votes were voided.
He explained that the exercise was transparent and would always serve as a template for other political parties in the country.
He said, “We have conducted this election under a very peaceful atmosphere. AAC is a party with great ideology that should be reckoned with in this country.
“Now that we have elected our candidate, we would ensure that AAC wins the October governorship election in Ondo and I urge our supporters to rally round the party’s candidate.”
Speaking after emerging victorious, the AAC governorship candidate said he would work with other aspirants, who lost in the primary election to ensure that the party won the governorship election in Ondo.
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10 Students Injured In Ondo As Group Supporting Governor Akeredolu’s Re-election Attacks Undergraduates In Campuses
At least 10 undergraduates of Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, and Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa, were attacked and beaten by some thugs on Friday evening.
The thugs were said to be working for a group known as ‘Aketi Students Support Group’ seeking the re-election of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo.
Led by immediate past President of the National Association of Ondo State Students, Mr Olarewanju Akeredolu, the group is said to have been moving around campuses in the state to coerce students into supporting the governor for a second term in office.
SaharaReporters gathered on Saturday that trouble started when members of the group stormed the ACE and OAUSTECH and attempted to force students to endorse Governor Akeredolu.
A source disclosed that leader of the group got infuriated by the resistance of the students and moved in thugs, who unleashed mayhem on the students.
Confirming the incident, Okunomo Damilola, President, Students Union Government in OAUSTECH, said the group arrived at the gate of the campus to distribute some items and asked few students on campus to support Governor Akeredolu’s second term bid by taking photograph with them.
He said, “But we told him (Akeredolu) and his members that we could not do that. We said if we did that, it means we are satisfied with the present situation in our campuses.
“Governor Rotimi Akeredolu reviewed upward our tuition to N200, 000 as engineering students and we don’t have enough lecturers, no power supply on our campus, lecture rooms are not enough, no laboratories.
“Now, some group of people are coming to us because of their selfish interest and personal gains to coerce us to support the same governor who made education costly for us for another four years.
“When we declared to them that we can’t support the governor, they attacked a few of us on campus with their thugs.
“They snatched and destroyed phones of some of us who were taking photographs and recording their violent activities at our school gate.”
When contacted by SaharaReporters, Akeredolu confirmed visiting the schools for the endorsement of the governor but denied attacking students of the two institutions for refusing to support for the governor.
Akeredolu explained that his group was touring campuses in the state to distribute palliatives to students, who were still on campus and couldn’t travel back home as a result of COVID-19 and the lockdown.
He added that he and members of his group had earlier visited the Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko andthe College of Health Technology, Akure, to promote the second term ambition of Governor Akeredolu without any issue.
Reacting, the National Association of Nigerian Students Joint Campus Committee, Ondo State Chairman, Akinteye Babatunde, and Adekunle Oluwatayo, Director of Media and Publicity, called on the Commissioner of Police, Bolaji Salami, to order the arrest of the leader of the group, who attacked students.
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Edo 2020: Governor Obaseki’s Re-election Bid Divides Esan Indigenes, Stakeholders Call For Unity
Godwin Obaseki
The re-election bid of Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki, has divided major political blocs among the people of Esan, one of the largest ethnic groups in the state, SaharaReporters has learnt.
A group known as Association of Esan Professionals allegedly made up of close friends of Governor Obaseki, had declared total support for him, angering other political blocs in Edo Central, who feel the Peoples Democratic Party candidate does not merit their support judging by his performance in office in terms of service delivery to the people.
Kicking against the adoption of Obaseki as candidate of Esan people, another group, Coalition of Esan Development Forum, accused the AEP of supporting the incumbent for selfish gains.
In a statement, spokesperson for the CEDF, Kenneth Edewele, said that they were worried about the future of democracy in Esanland as a result of recent developments.
Godwin Obaseki
The statement reads, “At the onset of the purported endorsement of Governor Obaseki, the Esan Professionals sold a dummy to the people that former Governor Adams Oshiomhole was actually an enemy of their people because he could not produce an Esan governor or deputy in 2016.
“As the dusts begin to settle, Esan Professionals were unveiled as a group of elites working to create a cabal so as to control, bargain and distribute power in Esan land.
“When Oshiomhole was campaigning for his second term in Edo State, he had so many projects to campaign with than Obaseki now.
“Most of the road projects used for campaign by Governor Obaseki today were actually started by Oshiomhole and because they required continuity, the people voted Obaseki to carry on from where his predecessor stopped.
“Records also emerged that Esan Professionals have been working behind the scene to bring Obaseki into PDP since 2019, when they made him support PDP candidates against his party, APC candidates.
“Obaseki provided funds for the House of Assembly candidates of PDP across Esan Central. Though they all lost the election, he decided to punish 14 of them by shutting them out of the midnight inauguration of the state’s House of Assembly as his preparation for what is happening today.
“If Esan Professionals could not pressure the governor to rescind his decision and allow peace to reign in the state, that means they were part of the imbroglio right from the onset. Some of the legislators-elect represented Esan people. In whose interests are Esan Professionals working for?”
Edewele revealed that a few leaders, who are bent on Obaseki, had collected huge sums of monies and SUV cars that allegedly came with the governor into PDP.
He added, “If they meant well for the people, they would have insisted that Governor Obaseki picked an Esan person as his deputy against Philip Shuaibu just as Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu did when he chose John Yakubu as deputy in 2016 under PDP to justify their so-called Esan agenda.
“Truth is, there was never any negotiation but a fanfare because they were all happy that Obaseki had come with money for them. But the people are wiser.”
Obaseki kicked off his re-election campaign in Benin on Saturday.
He defected to the PDP from the All Progressives Congress after a fall out with former National Chairman of the party, Oshiomhole, whom he succeeded in office as governor.
The build up to the September 19 governorship election in Edo has indeed stirred up all sorts of controversies with many fearing that violence could blur the conduct of the exercise.
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Student Detained On Orders Of Ex-President Jonathan For Creating Parody Twitter Account Denied Access To Lawyer After Coronavirus Report
Babatunde Olusola, an orphan and final year student of Chemical Engineering of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, has been denied access to his lawyer by operatives of the Nigeria Police Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID), Abuja.
Human rights lawyer, Tope Akinyode, made the disclosure on Saturday after police blocked him from seeing the detained student.
Olusola was arrested on the instructions of Jonathan for creating a parody Twitter account of the former President.
Sources told SaharaReporters that Jonathan, who is on a peace mission to Mali, was aware that Olusola was an orphan whose academic pursuit was under threat owing to his continued detention.
Also, Jonathan had knowledge that parody accounts do not violate Twitter rules.
This is in addition to the fact that Olusola made express clarification in the biography of the parody Twitter account that it does not belong to the former Nigerian President.
SaharaReporters exclusively reported how the undergraduate took ill and had been exhibiting symptoms of Coronavirus like sore throat among others.
Mr Wan, a Chinese and Olusola’s fellow inmate at the FCIID headquarters, tested positive for Coronavirus the same week the young man took ill.
Rather than test or treat him and other inmates, policemen have been wading off Olusola’s lawyers ever since SaharaReporters published the story of his ill health.
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BREAKING: Student Detained On Orders Of Ex-President, Jonathan, Over Parody Twitter Account, Falls Ill, Suspected Of Contracting COVID-19
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A particular Sergeant Lasisi, who is also Olusola’s Investigating Police Officer, has been discovered to be having some unjust plans against the detained student.
Despite perfecting his bail conditions, the student’s surety was yet to be verified by government officials after more than one week.
Akinyode said it was disturbing that his client’s release was being stalled by the police for no reason.
He said, “Twice I was denied access to Babatunde last week. I was told the IPO had to give his approval before I could see him.There’s no law that says a lawyer must obtain an IPO’s permit before he sees his client. This disgusting trend must stop. We will challenge it.
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Group Condemns Arrest Of Journalist By Niger State Government Over Report On Blog, Social Media
Yahaya Usman
Pro-democracy and rights group, Concerned Nigerians, has condemned the harassment of journalist, Mr Yahaya Usman, by the Niger State Government over a published report on his blog and social media pages.
The group in a statement said the current trend of harassing and arresting journalists suggested that state governments in Nigeria were trying to silence critical voices by waging a silent war against journalists on trumped up charges for their reporting regarding the activities of government.
Yahaya Usman
Chief of Staff to the governor of Niger State had in a petition to the police, alleged that Usman posted official secrets on his social media platforms.
The Chief of Staff further asked the police to investigate Usman’s ‘source’ of such classified document.
The journalist was detained on Friday night and the police are pressuring him to disclose the source of his information.
Deji Adeyanju, the group’s Convener, condemned the harassment of the journalist, calling for his immediate release.
He said, “We condemn the incessant harassment and unlawful arrest of journalists and dissenting voices in Nigeria. These acts are a violation of the public’s right to know.”
Adeyanju further stated that Usman was one of the best, ethical and professional journalists in Nigeria and his harassment and arrest was anti-democratic and an affront on press freedom.
He said, “We are concerned that the authorities will write a petition to the police, calling for the investigation of a journalist’s source carrying out his duty as an independent journalist.
“The authorities at all levels must know that press freedom is one of the building blocks of every democratic society. Without it, we’re not the same country. Nigerians, regardless of their political beliefs, have the right to do their job without being hounded.”
Usman was arrested for revealing that the Niger State Government in April this year borrowed N3.5bn short term loan from Zenith Bank to cover the shortfall in inflows from the Federation Account Allocation Committee.
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Shehu Sani Slams Nigerian Government Over Failure To Curb Killings In Southern Kaduna
A former lawmaker representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Shehu Sani, has described the endless carnage in Southern Kaduna as terrorism.
He said the incessant spilling of blood in the area was as a result of inept leadership by both the federal and state governments, who had abandoned their constitutional duties and responsibilities.
Sani disclosed this in a statement on Saturday in reaction to an earlier position by the Presidency stating that the killings in the area was a revenge mission.
The lawmaker said the leadership of the Northern region had lost its conscience while the country had lost its will and spirit to protect citizens.
The statement reads, “The violence and bloodshed in Southern Kaduna is unconscionable and stands unreservedly condemned.
“The blood of the innocent is being spilled in the most unimaginably cruel and unspeakably evil manner and with impunity. In Southern Kaduna, the North has lost its conscience and the nation has lost its will and spirit.
“Terrorists have turned Southern Kaduna to a mortuary and a graveyard. The federal and state government must live up to their moral and constitutional duties and responsibilities by ending the slaughter and carnage now.
“Where the people cannot be protected from systemic killings and are not allowed to defend themselves, the government carries the sum of the moral burden of guilt and complicity.
“The national flag is splashed with blood each time an innocent man or woman is killed.”
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Ondo AAC Holds Governorship Primary Election To Pick Candidate
The African Action Congress will today hold its governorship primary election in Ondo to pick its candidate for the exercise in the state.
The election is to take place at the International Event and Cultural Centre, DOME, Akure, the state capital.
Three aspirants including Adekunle Adeleye, Adekunle Ajayi and Olumide Akinsanimi are contesting for the AAC’s ticket ahead of the main governorship election on October 10, 2020.
SaharaReporters gathered that no fewer than 115 delegates, who are members of the party, would be voting in the election.
The delegates are drawn from the 18 local government areas of the state.
The 12-member National Electoral Committee headed by Mr Gabriel Adelaja will be overseeing the conduct of the exercise.
Ondo State AAC Chairman, Alex Adeniyi, said the party had made arrangements to ensure the exercise was conducted in line with the COVID-19 rules.
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