Wednesday, 3 March 2021

The president has ordered security forces to go into the bushes and shoot whoever they see with AK47 - Garba Shehu

Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, says President Buhari has directed security agencies to go into the forests and shoot anyone seen with AK47.

Garba disclosed this when he appeared on BBC Hausa. Garba while speaking on efforts being made to rid Zamfara and other northern states of bandits, said the government is resorting to lethal force.

“The president has ordered security forces to go into the bushes and shoot whoever they see with sophisticated weapons like AK-47. He ordered that whoever is seen with terrible weapons at all should be shot immediately.” he said

The presidential aide also stated during the interview that the no-fly zone placed on Zamfara state was as a result of strong indications that choppers were being used to transport arms to bandits in the state.

“Even in Zamfara, there is a strong suspicion that some of those choppers are being used to ferry arms for bandits and also to evacuate gold and illegally smuggled out of the country, so the country loses everything in the mining.

As you are aware, the Nigerian gold market is a big business and the government wants to do two things at the same time by doing this; end banditry and economic sabotage through the smuggling of gold."he said

Recall that on Tuesday, March 2, President Buhari placed a no-fly zone on the state as well as banned all mining activities carried out by non-state actors. This directive came following the recent abduction of 279 schoolgirls in Jangena.

 

 

Ranching is private business, Oyo won’t provide land for ranching - Governor Makinde

Governor Seyi Makinde has stated his administration won't be giving out lands for ranching. 

The Oyo state Governor said this while making a clarification on his administration's adoption of the National Livestock Transformation Plan which is already being implemented in Kwara State.

Makinde tweeted; 

“My attention has been drawn to this tweet regarding the implementation of the National Livestock Transformation Plan during the joint security meeting, yesterday. For the avoidance of doubt, when I said we would implement the plan, I didn’t mean a wholesale implementation.

“We will be taking aspects which are beneficial for our state. As I have stated on several occasions, our position in Oyo State is that ranching is a private business and should be carried out as such. Our admin won’t be providing land for free to private investors for ranching.”

No big deal in Super Eagles travelling to Benin Republic by Boat - NFF president, Amaju Pinnick says ahead of AFCON qualifier clash

President of Nigerian football federation, Amaju Pinnick has said there is no big deal with the Super Eagles squad travelling to neighbouring Benin Republic for an African Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier.

The Eagles are expected to travel to Benin on March 25 for the AFCON qualifier second leg clash.  

Coach Gernot Rohr has already said it's likely they will cross the border by boat so as to avoid the bad roads linking both countries.

Amid concern over the trip, NFF president Pinnick believes there is no big deal in the players travelling to Benin by boat.

Speaking on The Morning Show on ARISE News, Pinnick noted that the federation is yet to conclude on the means of moving to the neighbouring Benin Republic for the encounter, but admitted that there is no big deal if they travel by road. 

“Going to Cotonou by boat, I do that all the time. When we were going to inspect we did it. There is nothing wrong with exploring other forms of adventure in Nigeria,” Pinnick told ARISE News.

“What’s the big deal, look at the Lagos state boat terminal, it’s one of the best in the world I have seen, so why don’t we use all those things if we have them.

“So it’s just a projection and it does not mean we have agreed on it. We might either go by road if our security report, we have the intelligence, we are also working with the Lagos state government to explore to see what is best suited for that.

“And once we say we are going by the creeks to Cotonou, of course, we will provide every requisite, we will provide the enabling environment for them to go in terms of security.”

Mr. Pinnick also said the coronavirus had halted progress in the country’s football but assured that the federation is ensuring at getting more sponsors to add to the existing sponsors.

“We are still between 60 to 70 per cent (of being self-sustaining) as contained in our last audited report which was published in most newspapers, it’s also on the FIFA website,” Pinnick said.

“Last year, the Covid pandemic affected a lot that we did and this year we are coming back, at least some of our sponsors are coming back and we have some new sponsors.


“So we are looking at within the next two years before the end of my tenure we would have gotten to that promised land of a 100 per cent self-sustaining, and of course with the coming of Motsepe, (Patrice Motsepe is a South African billionaire who wants the top job in African soccer) one of his goals is to make sure that every member nation achieves 100 per cent self-sustaining in terms of funding and that is what we are looking at.

Northern food dealers agree to lift ban on food supply to Southern Nigeria

 
The leadership of Cattle and Foodstuff dealers under the aegis of the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuff and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria (AUFCDN) have agreed to end the blockade of food supplies to the south.

They reached the agreement at an ongoing meeting with some governors in Abuja on Wednesday, March 3.

Abdullahi Tom, a youth leader of the cattle dealers in Lagos, told Daily Trust, that Kogi state governor, Yahaya Bello, is among the leaders who appealed to them to end the industrial action.

The union went on strike over claims of losing their members and properties during the #EndSARS protest and Shasa market chaos. Read here.

 

President Buhari’s prolonged silence is tantamount to an endorsement of Gumi’s dangerous statement - CAN reacts to Islamic cleric's comment about Christian soldiers

The Christian Association of Nigeria has reacted to popular Islamic scholar, Sheik Ahmad Gumi's comment about Christian soldiers.

The Christian group in a statement released on Wednesday March 2, said Gumi's comment about Christian soldiers attacking communities and killing bandits in the country is “unpatriotic and divisive".

The statement read;

“If anyone said it was the Christian soldiers who are attacking armed bandits, that person does not wish this country well and he doesn’t want the war against terrorism and banditry to end in victory.

“Gumi’s so-called audio evidence cannot be taken seriously because audio evidence can be deliberately arranged to make a point. Secondly, how can we ascertain the credibility of the person alleging that it was the Christian soldiers that were attacking communities and bandits?

“This unreasonable outburst is not only demoralizing and a plot to divide the Nigerian military into two along religious lines, it equally derogatively portrays the non-Christian soldiers as being not committed to fighting criminality.”

“President Muhammadu Buhari’s prolonged silence is tantamount to an endorsement of Gumi’s dangerous statement. If what Gumi reportedly said was attributed to a Christian leader, the security operatives would have invited him or declared him wanted and the Presidency would have publicly condemned that Christian leader.

“We recalled how Apostle Johnson Suleiman, Dr Obadiah Mailafia, Prophet Isa El-Buba and of recent, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Dr Matthew Hassan Kukah’s statements were handled by security operatives and equally reacted to by the government. Do we truly have sacred cows in the country now?"

The word militants given to Niger Delta warriors was to justify what they were doing, bandits shouldn’t be branded as criminals too - Sheik Gumi

Popular Islamic cleric, Sheik Gumi, has once again condemned the tagging of bandits as criminals.

In an interview with Tribune, Sheik Gumi said during the tenure of late President Musa Yar'Adua, a peace treaty was held between the government and Niger Delta warriors and the warriors were tagged as militants and not criminals.

He said to him, they were branded as militants to justify what they were doing. He went on to say that bandits shouldn't be tagged as criminals as such derogatory words used to describe them will not help in the peace process.

Reacting to his recent comment on Arise TV where he said journalists are also criminals for describing bandits as criminals, Sheik Gumi said

''I was trying to emphasise that bandits are criminals. They are committing criminality. Kidnap is criminality. Rape is criminality. But I said don’t refer to them as criminals. Why? If you recall, there was a peace treaty between the late President Umaru Musa and the Niger Delta warriors. Were they called criminals? No! They were called militants.

To me, the word, militants given to them was rather to justify what they were doing. So, bandits shouldn’t be branded as criminals too. Don’t call the bandits terrorists or label them with derogatory adjectives because we want them to come to negotiating table. If you keep calling them criminals, you are not encouraging the peace process. If you as a journalist, you are putting oil in the fire.

The nation is in flames and you are putting sentiments and fire to combust it. Is that not criminality? That’s criminality.

So, a journalist can be criminal too if, for instance, there was a clash between a Muslim and a Christian in Kaduna and hundreds of people died and the journalist, instead of mellowing down his report, decided to add oil to the fire.

Journalists, in times of conflict, should mellow down their reports so as not to incite the public. Journalists can trigger war. So, any journalist who does that, that is criminality. I’m not referring to all journalists but a particular case; that journalist that is putting oil in the fire. Am I not a friend of journalists? I have nothing to hide. And all these places I’m going, I moved with journalists. When I was going to Sokoto, I travelled with Arise TV, TVC and NTA.''

NDLEA recovers 27 rifles from two criminals in Niger state (photos)

 
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Niger State Command have recovered 27 new rifles from two suspects during a routine stop and search operation in Kontagora area of the state.

The suspects identified as Danjuma Auta, 35, and Daniel Danrangi, 25, both male and from Dirin Daji, Sakaba Local Government Area of Kebbi State, were arrested along Kontagora – Zuru road, Niger state on Monday night, March 1.

 According to the Niger state Commander of the Agency, Mr. Aloye Isaac Oludare, the duo were arrested with 12 locally fabricated AK 47 rifles and 15 locally fabricated pistols. The rifles were concealed in a white sack while on a motorcycle to an unknown place when they were arrested.

“Kontagora where the weapons were seized is about 107 kilometers from Kagara, a town in Niger State where there have been mass abductions of women, children and secondary school students in the last one month.
 
“Preliminary investigation shows that the fabricator of the weapons resides in Kamfaninwaya, not far away from Kontagora, while one of the pistols is fully loaded. The suspects and the weapons will be transferred to the Nigerian Police Headquarters, Minna for further investigation and prosecution of the suspects” Oludare said