Author: Chief Editor

•Says Boko Haram will soon become history The Defence Headquarters yesterday appealed to Nigerians, especially those living in the North, the epicentre of Boko Haram insurgency, not to be discouraged by the recent killing of rice farmers in Borno State. It also said the federal government would have the final say on whether or not to engage mercenaries to assist the military in defeating Boko Haram. This is as the senator representing Kano Central Senatorial District, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, has said President Muhammadu Buhari is breaking the law by keeping the service chiefs beyond their years of service. The DHQ…

• Insists president will serve out tenure The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has described calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign every time there is a setback in the war against terror as a needless distraction and cheap politicking. Mohammed also dismissed claims that Boko Haram fighters are collecting taxes from the people, adding that the occupation of territories by the insurgents is now “a thing of the past.” The minister, at a meeting yesterday with the Newspapers’ Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) in Lagos, urged Nigerians to stop playing politics with security. The meeting, which…

• Court asked to arrest commissions’ proceedings • IG denies authorising suit, queries force legal officer The presidency yesterday expressed shock as the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) launched a legal bid to arrest the ongoing proceedings by judicial panels set up by state governments to investigate allegations of brutality against the law enforcement agency’s personnel, which triggered the #EndSARS protests that later snowballed into an orgy of violence in October. A top presidency official, responding to THISDAY inquiry on whether or not the police suit has the consent of the Buhari administration, said they were surprised when the news broke…

Justice A.M. Liman of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos has ordered the final forfeiture of the sum of N235.4 million traced to the account of a convicted fraudster, Okeke Obinwanne known as Invictus Obi, to the Federal Government of Nigeria. Justice Liman had, on March 23, 2020, ordered the interim forfeiture of the money domiciled in First City Monument Bank (FCMB) following an ex parte application dated December 18, 2019, by the Lagos Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). In granting the interim forfeiture order, the Judge had also ordered the commission to…

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said he had no quarrel with the Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams. The former president said he had refused to grant Adams’ request to visit him when he was president and after he left the office. Obasanjo said he had a reservation for Adams’ past way of life,­ which he said, was not in acc­ordance with his standards­ and principles. Obasanjo said his meeting with Adams at the residence of a chieftain of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, in Le­kki was not on a reconciliatory mission. Obasanjo in a statement by his Special Assistant on…

The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Hassan Kukah, has condemned the attack and killing of some villagers at Gidan Namune, Katsina State on Tuesday. In a statement made available to THISDAY on Thursday by the Communication Director of the Diocese, Rev. Fr. Christopher Omotosho, the Bishop said: “I am heart-broken. Gidan Namune is a village in Kankara Local Govt Area of Katsina State. It is a Christian community and one of our church outstations of St. Joseph’s Parish Layin Minista, all in the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto. On Tuesday, December 1, 2020, the village was attacked by some unknown…

Former Executive Secretary, National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof Usman Yusuf, has said President Muhammadu Buhari led government has failed in tackling the growing insecurity in the country, insisting that the situation calls for collective efforts of all Nigerians to put an end to brutal killings of Nigerians. Yusuf who spoke yesterday on the Morning Show of ARISE NEWS Channel, the broadcast arm of THISDAY Newspapers, said: “It is clear to everybody that the government has failed to protect us but I am glad the nation is now paying attention. What happened recently in Borno State, where rice farmers were killed…

Former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, has cautioned the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, against interfering with the party’s ongoing reconciliation efforts. Saraki warned that himself and other members in the reconciliation committee would not hesitate to resign if Secondus and his colleagues in the National Working Committee (NWC) failed to give members of the committee a free hand to operate. Saraki said: “We are however very clear that our most important partner in this assignment is the NWC. Therefore, we seek your support and cooperation to ensure the success of this committee on…

Abimbola Adelakun aadelakun@punchng.com Last week Thursday, while at the fourth quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council in Abuja, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, delivered a damning verdict on the abject state of insecurity plaguing northern Nigeria. According to media reports, the Sultan specifically stated that the northern region was the worst place to live in the country. This was not the first time that the Sultan would complain about the decay of northern Nigeria. In February, while at a security meeting in Kaduna, he also warned that the setting up of a security outfit, Operation Shege-Ka-Fasa,…

Niran Adedokun niranadedokun@gmail.com It’s doubtful that Nigeria has ever been at this juncture where life means nothing. Last month alone, only God knows the number of lives summarily terminated in the violence that has become a daily occurrence in Nigeria. Another peculiarity of this season of anomie is that no part of Nigeria, no class of Nigerians and no demography are spared of this wanton return to the brutishness of primacy. The nation woke to the slaughter of over 43 hardworking farmers on Sunday. That gory incident happened on rice fields at Zabarmari, in the Jere Local Government of Borno…