Sahara Reporters Latest News Today Sunday 24th January 2021
Sahara Reporters Latest News Today and headlines on some of the happenings and news trend in the Country, today 24/01/21
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Borno First-class Monarch, Shehu Of Dikwa Is Dead
The Shehu of Dikwa, Borno State, Alhaji Mohammed Ibn Shehu Masta II El-Kanemi, is dead.
SaharaReporters gathered that the monarch died in the early hours of Saturday at a private hospital in Abuja after suffering from an undisclosed ailment.
The late monarch’s funeral prayers are expected to hold at Shehu Palace in Maiduguri on Saturday.
This is the third in the series of high-profile deaths in Borno State within short intervals, after those of Shehu of Bama and Emir of Biu in 2020.
Former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff appointed the late El-Kanemi in 2010 as Shehu of the newly created Dikwa Emirate.
That appointment split the 100 years old Dikwa Emirate into two: Bama and Dikwa Emirates. The old Dikwa Emirate was made up of four local government areas: Bama, Ngala, Dikwa and Kala- Balge with 24 districts with the palace in Bama town.
The new Dikwa Emirate now has three local government areas: Ngala, Dikwa and Kala-Balge with 12 districts while Bama Emirate now has one local government area with 12 districts.
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Herdsmen: Buhari Deploys “Tactical” Police Team from Abuja To Conduct Assessment Of Oyo Violence
President Muhammadu Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari has deployed a police tactical team to assess the damages caused by the Friday clash between youths and Fulani herdsmen in Ibarapa North area Oyo State.
A top official of the Nigerian Police told SaharaReporters on Saturday.
President Muhammadu Buhari
The source said the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeko, had been asked to lead the delegation of the police tactical team to Igangan to ascertain the level of damages to the settlement of the Seriki Fulani of Oyo State.
The source said the team would meet stakeholders and traditional rulers to assess the extent of damage done to the village.
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IGP Has Ordered Arrest Of Sunday Igboho—Presidency
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According to the source, Governor Seyi Makinde has been asked to send a delegation to Igangan alongside the federal government delegation.
Our source revealed that the full report of the development is expected to be submitted to the Nigerian government.
The source said; “I think the major issue is the fact that the Federal Government is suspecting political influence in the matter involving Hausa-Fulani and the farmer clashes in Oyo State. But everything will be clear when the committee completes its investigation.
“I am going to be part of the investigation. I believe the necessary steps would be taken after the investigation. We are not saying anyone is guilty, but we shall see after the Investigation.”
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You Are Igbo, Don’t Succumb To Pressures To Arrest Sunday Igboho, Kanu Tells CP Ngozi
Oyo CP Ngozi Onadeko
The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has advised the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Ngozi Onadeko, not to superintend over the arrest and killing of a popular Yoruba activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, otherwise known as Sunday Igboho, and other agitators over the continuous herdsmen attacks.
On Saturday, the IPOB leader stated that it was better for the CP to resign than to allow the arrest and killing of Igboho and other protesting Yoruba youths, as had been subtly approved by the Presidency.
Oyo CP Ngozi Onadeko
Kanu added in a release by IPOB spokesman, Emma Powerful, that the CP, being an Igbo woman, must not succumb to the Federal Government’s devices to silence the South-West agitations.
He said, “You are an Igbo woman, so I expect you to be reasonable enough to know that the Fulani IGP posted you to Oyo to superintend the arrest or possible killing of Yoruba youths to ferment enmity between the East and the West at this critical juncture in the history of the liberation of all indigenous peoples across Nigeria, including you and your family.
“I will advise you to resign honourably from your position as a certain Yoruba CP did in Abia State when he declined to order men under his command to open fire on IPOB protesters.
“I am warning you not to do anything likely to jeopardise the safety or well-being of Sunday Igboho otherwise you and your family will have the might of IPOB to contend with. The silly game you people always play in that zoo will no longer wash with us.
“Suddenly Fulani have realised that appointing an Igbo woman as Police Commissioner is a good thing because they want to use you. Nothing should happen to Igboho.”
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IGP Has Ordered Arrest Of Sunday Igboho—Presidency
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Boko Haram Fighters Kill Nine Soldiers In Nasarawa
Boko Haram
Boko Haram fighters have killed nine soldiers in the Doma area of Nasarawa State. The soldiers were sent on a rescue operation in a forest along Mararaba-Udege road in the state, linking Otukpo Oweto in Benue State.
The slain soldiers were led to the forest by an officer Felix Kura, an indigene of Benue State.
Boko Haram
According to TheNation, the slain officers were on a mission to dislodge the Boko Haram terrorists from the forest who kidnapped some indigenes of the state and held them captive.
The operation led to about five Boko Haram terrorists’ death before they were overpowered by the terrorists whose weapons, it was gathered, were more sophisticated than those used by the soldiers.
According to reports, the slain soldiers were from the 177 Guards Battalion, Shitu Barracks in Keffi, Nasarawa State.
“As soon as they ran into the ambush and they realised they were being overpowered, Kura was said to have told his colleagues to escape.
“The authorities of the 117 Guards Battalion have informed the families of the slain soldiers of their fate, and a signal has been sent to the headquarters,” a source said.
A source in the barracks said, “We lost nine soldiers in that mission and not seven, it is quite unfortunate but that is the supreme price of a military officer.
“We are currently collaborating with Four Special Forces Command of the Nigerian military headquarters in Doma LGA of the state to reinforce and launch a reprisal; we are not giving up. We must overrun them and make sure we dislodge them completely.”
The Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, had on Friday raised the alarm over the terror group’s activities, Boko Haram in the state.
After a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, he had told State House Correspondents that Boko Haram fighters were regrouping in the state.
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“When Will You Order Arrest Of Herdsmen Terrorising South-West?” Nigerians Tackle IGP, Presidency Over Igboho’s Arrest
IGP Mohammed Adamu
igerians on Saturday reacted to a statement credited to the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, and the Presidency’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, over the arrest of Yoruba activist, Sunday Igboho.
They demanded answers on when the herdsmen terrorising the South-West communities would be arrested.
IGP Mohammed Adamu
On Twitter, a cross-section of Nigerians was reacting to the IGP’s order that Sunday Igboho, be arrested for condemning and giving the notice to quit to the killer herdsmen in the region.
The Nigerians lambasted the IGP and Garba Shehu for being biased, adding that nothing had happened to the northern youths who also gave the notice to quit to Catholic Bishop in Sokoto State, Matthew Kukah.
The Presidency had on Saturday said the IGP, Adamu, ordered the arrest of Sunday Igboho, for giving Fulani in Oyo State an ultimatum to leave the state.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, was quoted as saying this during an interview with BBC Hausa.
According to the BBC report, Shehu said he had just got off the phone with the IGP who told him that an order had been given to the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Ngozi Onadeko, to arrest Igboho immediately and transfer him to Abuja.
Here are reactions of Nigerians to the crisis on Twitter:
IGP orders arrest of Sunday Igboho over eviction notice to herdsmenSo, when will IGP order arrest of herdsmen terrorizing the good people of Yorubaland?Being selective in enforcing law and order is inimical to our collective coexistence.— FESTUS OGUN (@mrfestusogun) January 23, 2021
But they can’t arrest those Herdsmen destroying properties??Misplaced priority and stupidity— bulbing😉 (@_bulbing_) January 23, 2021
Herdsmen are the first citizens of this country, my people there’s nothing like one Nigeria.— @prince_ironsi (@prince_ironsi) January 23, 2021
FG should be seen to be fair to all Nigerians irrespective of religion and ethnicity. I condemn the action of Sunday Igboho but why has no fulani herder been arrested and prosecuted despite the carnage in Benue, Oyo, Ondo and other parts of the country??— DAN ATIM 🇳🇬 (@dan_Atim1) January 23, 2021
@solbity2k3
When those that threatened and gave ultimatum for the Bishop of sokoto diocese to either apologise or leave their state are still walking around without orders… It is a Shame
@SbMomoh
Have they ordered for arrest of a young man that threatened Bishop Kuka? because he is a Northern everyone is watching the whole trend in Nigeria.
@drjay247
@GarShehu and @NGRPresident is more concerned with protecting the entity (Nigeria), rather than protecting her citizens. Boom! Soldiers are being deployed to Igangan. Wonder where they were when people were be kidnapped and butchered. What a proactive government we have. “Shior kelebe tuwe”
@BajTunji
Those who make peaceful changes impossible only make violent changes inevitable. War is looming
@forhomre
But the North gives similar notice all the times never have any of them been arrested for such the highest is the Presidency will as the public to disregard it
@lloyds_melone
Iss like ya’ll are mad! Frm whoever that ordered the arrest to the ones planning to carry out the arrest. You won’t arrest those that started the havoc buh shunning pple protecting their territory. Shame!
Where was IGp when Fulani Youths were causing mayhem in Yoruba land?— Olori Grace (@OloriTijani) January 23, 2021
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Alleged N19.9m Fraud: ICPC Drags Ex-Presidential Aide, Obono-Obla To Court
The Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission has arraigned a former chairman of the disbanded Special Presidential Investigation Panel for Public Property’s Recovery, Mr Okoi Obono-Obla, on allegation of offences bordering on fraud.
Obono-Obla was arraigned before Justice Olukayode Adeniyi, of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Apo, Abuja, for allegedly forging an Ordinary Level certificate.
According to a release from the ICPC on Saturday, he was charged alongside his Special Adviser on Protocol, Aliyu Ibrahim, and the Managing Director of ABR Global Petroleum Resources Limited, Daniel Omughele, on an allegation of diverting N19.9 million, meant for the furnishing of SPIP’s office.
ICPC in a 10-count charge accused the former SPIP boss of knowingly presenting a fake result with a credit pass in English Literature to the University of Jos, with which he secured admission to read Law, contrary to Section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act,2000 and punishable under the same section.
The ICPC Spokesperson, Mrs Azuka Ogugua, said, “The commission alleged that while Obono-Obla did not sit for the Ordinary Level General Certificate Examination (GCE) in English Literature in 1982, he presented a result of the same GCE to the University of Jos, in 1985, containing Credit 6 from Mary Knoll College, Ogoja.
“An offence which is contrary to Section 363 and punishable under Section 364 of the Penal Code Act 532, Vol. 4 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
“The charge further revealed that Obono-Obla, Aliyu Ibrahim and Daniel Omughele, in July 2018, diverted N18.2 million out of N19.9 million released to SPIP for office furniture by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Cooperation.
“Ibrahim was accused of receiving the money from six contractors who had won bids for the office furnishing contrary to Section 26 (c)(i) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under Section 68 of the same Act.”
The commission noted that the accused pleaded not guilty when the charge was read. The counsel, Paul Irokore (SAN), A. C. Ozokwo and Emmanuel Okere for Obono-Obla, respectively prayed the court to grant them bail in liberal terms.
The Counsel to ICPC, Samuel Ipinlaye, who did not oppose the bail, however, prayed the court to grant them bail on such conditions to ensure their attendance in court for trial.
The trial Judge, Adeniyi, while ruling on the bail applications granted them bail in the sum of N10 million each and a surety in like sum.
It will be recalled that the ICPC arrested Mr Obono-Obla in March 2020 after being declared wanted by the commission in October 2019.
The case was adjourned to March 17, 18 and 19 for trial commencement.
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20 Die In Delta Gas Explosion, Houses, Properties Worth Millions Destroyed
No fewer than 20 persons died while houses and properties were burnt to ashes following a gas explosion at Osadebe Gas plant in Agbor, the headquarters of the Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State.
SaharaReporters learnt that the incident, which occurred Friday evening, also left several persons with life-threatening degrees of body burns.
The victims are currently receiving treatment at the Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Asaba and the University Of Benin Teaching Hospital, Edo State.
Speaking with our correspondent, an eyewitness disclosed that there was a fire outbreak at the Osadebe Gas plant along the Benin Asaba expressway, adding that as the inferno raged, persons and houses around the vicinity were caught up and burnt to ashes – some beyond recognition.
“The situation was terrible and beyond everyone. Before our eyes, people and houses were being roasted like animals. However, some of the victims we rescued died on the way as they were being taken to the Central Hospital, Agbor, while the fire service people were also on the ground.
“Some of the victims who were successfully taken to the Central Hospital, Agbor lost their lives because there were no doctors and nurses to attend to them. It was a black Friday for us As we talk, some of the victims that were later rushed to the hospital are being attended to now, but no one has been able to know the actual cause of the explosion.”
The state Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, the Secretary to the State Government, Chiedu Ebie, and the member representing the Ika South constituency in the state House of Assembly, Festus Okoh, and other top government functionaries have visited the scene of the incident as well as the hospitals to see some of the victims.
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Buhari, Now Is Time To Speak To The Fulani Youth, By Fredrick Nwabufo
Fredrick Nwabufo
Leadership must be responsive to diversity. It is the rudimentary ingredient to fostering unity among variegated people. Where leadership becomes insouciant to diversity, every other thing fails. This is where the Buhari administration hit its nadir. The government abused, disregarded and mismanaged the delicate ethnic and religious balance on which Nigeria pivots.
In fact, President Buhari never cloaked his prejudice and oblique aspect. After the 2015 election, he infamously said those who gave him five percent vote were not deserving of the same treatment as those who gave him 97 percent vote.
‘’Words on marble’’ — Buhari: “The constituents, for example, gave me 97% of the vote cannot in all honesty be treated on some issues with constituencies that gave me 5%. I think these are political reality.”
This is from the president of the most powerful black nation on the planet. Compare Buhari’s blighted utterance with the statement of Joe Biden, US president, who declared that he would be the president of all Americans, and that he would work for both Democrats and Republicans.
The truth is Buhari is not fit to be the president of 21st century Nigeria. He is of an age that is long lost and forgotten. Owing to the obvious twisted proclivities of his administration, the fissures dividing Nigerians according to religious and ethnic caste widened cosmically. It is a general truth that Nigeria has never been this fractured.
Fredrick Nwabufo
The ethnic and religious taxonomies are very pronounced. IPOB in the south-east, supremacist groups in the south-west and south-south — and confusion everywhere. Some of these groups were not there until after 2015 – owing largely to the ethnic incitements of the Buhari administration – a divisive government which elevated nepotism to a state policy.
As a matter of fact, there was Boko Haram and farmer-herder clashes prior to the Buhari administration, but Nigeria fell to the suzerainty of bandits, who happen to be from the president’s ethnic stock, under Buhari. The scale of pillaging and savagery is unprecedented. From Zamfara, Katsina to Oyo and Ondo, the blood of the innocents cries out. Some roads have become ghost avenues; villages and businesses abandoned – all because of leadership failure which enabled the enterprise of banditry.
What is frightening, as some say, is that these people are of the assumption that they own Nigeria because Buhari is the president. This is what Olu Falae, a statesman who has been a recurring victim of bandits, said: ‘’When I was a child, herdsmen were our friends, they would bring their cows here and we would sing with them after selling their cows, they were not threatening anybody. But in the last 10 years or 15 years, they became violent and they have become a different thing altogether and I suspect it’s because the President is a Fulani. The ordinary herdsman ignorantly believes that they own everything in Nigeria, both all of us in Nigeria and whatever we possess.
“For example, a few years ago, one of the herdsmen hanging around my farm, met one of my workers and asked my workers why I was disturbing them, that I should be planting my maize on one side and allow them to graze on the other side, even on my farm. He was proposing that I should share my farm with him. Has such a person got any sense of property, right? Did he think he has no right in that place?’’
It is really disturbing. With a crisis of deadly potential precipitating in the south-west over the siege by bandits in the region, it is time for the president to act – by initiating a process of prevailing on the Fulani youths to desist from this path. Miyetti Allah, the Fulani socio-cultural group, has been instrumental in securing the release of captives from bandits and in establishing links for dialogue with them. For example, the freedom of the Kankara schoolboys of Katsina was by dint of Miyetti Allah. The group has also intervened in other situations. Can this group do the bounden duty of speaking to the heart of the Fulani youths?
A few days ago, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi met with some Fulani communities in Kaduna and sermonised them. About 600 bandits reportedly agreed to surrender their firearms. This is leadership. Really, this precarious occasion in the life of our nation calls for leadership by all Fulani leaders. They must rise up and talk to their won.
NIGERIA, DIVIDED WE STAND?
As I said in a previous article, crime has no ethnic face. There are people of criminal inclinations in every group, race, place and religion. We defeat the fight against insecurity if we lend ourselves to ethnic prejudices. And we must take caution not to tinge the enemy in brushstrokes of ethnicity. Let us not make banditry about “all herdsmen”. Asking Nigerians to leave a state because they are not natives or because a few of them are trafficking in blood goes against every shred of humanity. The enemy are the bandits not an ethnic group.
Our unity should matter to us. There are people working overtime to plunge Nigeria into crisis. They profit from blood and build their political assets from anarchy. We should not let these blood dealers celebrate. We have lost many souls to violence already; we should not lose more precious souls to a crisis of attrition.
Fredrick Nwabufo is a writer and journalist.
Twitter @FredrickNwabufo
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Miyetti Allah Cautions Oyo Youths, Says Banditry, Kidnapping Are National Problems
The Secretary-General, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Mr Usman Baba-Ngelzerma
The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria has said that banditry and kidnapping are national problems, adding that the security agencies must be allowed to deal with them, and not people taking laws into their own hands.
The Miyetti Allah National Secretary, Baba Usman, stated this in an interview with SaharaReporters on Saturday while reacting to the violence against the Fulani community in Igangan, Ibarapa area of Oyo State on Friday evening when the Seriki Fulani’s house and property were destroyed.
The Secretary-General, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Mr Usman Baba-Ngelzerma
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Usman described the action as “condemnable” saying the regional security outfits should work in tandem with the existing security agencies.
Violence had erupted in Igangan, Ibarapa, on Friday. The Seriki Fulani told SaharaReporters in an interview that he, his wives and children were sent out of the settlement. He added that 11 vehicles and houses were burnt in the process.
A popular Yoruba activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, otherwise known as Sunday Igboho, who was widely rumoured to be behind the attack, had dissociated himself and his supporters from the incident, saying some aggrieved indigenes carried out the violence.
The Miyetti Allah in its reaction on Saturday said the action was worrisome and condemnable.
Usman said, “We just heard what happened and we are trying to find out what are the causes of all these things. his is an act of taking the law into one’s hands. This is what should be allowed for security personnel to handle appropriately.
“Whenever there is an establishment of security outfits, whether in the north or south, we always advise that these outfits work together with the security agencies. The issue of this banditry and kidnaping is everywhere in the country. Didn’t you see what is happening in Kaduna, Zamfara and Katsina? We believe the security (forces) are doing their best in trying to stop this.
“What is taking place in Oyo is condemnable. We always say that the law should take its course.”
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E2%80%94igangan-indigenes Why Ibarapa Youths Supported Sunday Igboho —Igangan Indigenes
The Igangan Development Advocates has said the people of the town and other communities in Ibarapaland in Oyo State have been under constant attacks and oppression of Fulani herdsmen in the area.
The IDA’s convener, Mr Oladiran Oladokun, who said this in a statement on Saturday, said the people had been crying for freedom for a long time with no one to help.
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He said this was why youths throughout Ibarapaland trooped out on Friday to welcome Sunday Igboho to execute the eviction order he gave to the Seriki Fulani of Oyo State seven days earlier.
Igboho had addressed the youths on Friday, saying all criminal Fulani would not only be driven out of Igangan but from the entire Yorubaland.
The IDA convener said the people needed somebody who would remove their oppressors’ burden from their necks and Igboho offered to do that.
He said, “For years, farm plundering was their full-time business, growing audaciously in bounds even as the Seriki Saliu ensured no Fulani was prosecuted for offences they were caught committing.
“With no disciplinary measures ever meted at the now reverential Fulani herdsmen, their audacity has grown from just grazing upon the sweats of Ibarapa farmers to maiming and lynching any farmer who dares to raise a voice.
“Igangan and Ibarapaland are a peaceful place where the Fulani culture of undue exploitation under the draconian reign of their kingpins became cancerous.”No one was spared that was why everyone was there when Sunday Igboho responded to our cry.”
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