Kidnapping, Cattle Rustling In Katsina Now Attract Death; Rape Gets Life Imprisonment

May 24, 2019

Katsina Stage governor, Alhai Aminu Bello Masari, has signed an amended Act of the Penal Code law prescribing the death penalty for the offences of kidnapping and cattle rustling. This was even as rape attracts life imprisonment, besides paying relevant fines and compensation to the victim.

Speaking today, Friday at the signing ceremony at the Katsina Government House, Governor Masari said that government took the decision to review the laws to serve as deterrent to persons who might have the intention of committing the heinous crimes.

“As you are all aware, Katsina State is currently facing certain security challenges. The two laws: the penal code especially sections dealing with kidnapping, cattle rustling, rape and other related offences. Cattle rustling and kidnapping are now capital offences which attract the death penalty. The offence of rape carries a penalty of life sentence apart from fines and compensation to the victim.”

Katsina State recently joined Zamfara and Kaduna states in acquiring the inglorious tag of notoriety in kidnapping and cattle rustling as bandits continue to unleash terror on a number of communities in the area, killing residents without restriction and burning down entire villages.

From Batsari to Faskari and Dan-Musa and Kankara local government areas, the bandits strike and retreat into the Rugu forest, while surviving residents flee, sometimes to nowhere and in most cases the security agencies arrive several hours after the attacks.

The latest massacre of 18 farmers at a Batsari community last Tuesday might as well be a reflection of the situation in villages and semi-urban centres in the eight local government areas which bandits have since turned to killing fields.

Apparently worried by the development, the Federal government yesterday, Thursday, dispatched senior military and police officers to Katsina for an assessment of the security situation.

The resurgence in the wanton killings by bandits in Katsina State comes several weeks after the launch of a special security task force tagged: “Operation Puff Adder,” specifically designed to fight banditry in the area.

The membership of the squad is drawn from the Police Mobile Force (PMF), Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU), IGP Special Tactical Squad (STS), Explosive Ordinance Department (EOD), Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and the IGP Intelligence Response Team (IRT).

According to the Katsina State Commissioner of Police, Salisu Buba, personnel from the squad would be camped in three strategic locations which cover all the eight frontline local government areas. As the police boss stated then, “the squad has the mandate to tackle crimes in all parts of the state, in addition to flushing out bandits and other criminals from the frontline local government areas.”

Parts of Batsari, Jibia, Safana, Dan-Musa, Faskari, Sabuwa, Dandume, Kankara and parts of Kafur local government areas of Katsina State share boundaries with the Rugu which reportedly stretches from the neighbouring Niger Republic covering parts of Katsina, Zamfara and Kaduna states.

I’m Not A Thief, I have Never Stolen Money, Patience Jonathan Complains In Court

Editorial staff

May 24, 2019

Wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, has complained that the seizure of her $5.7 million and N2.4 billion by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was against her fundamental human rights since she did not steal the money and had never stolen money.

She insisted that the seized monies were cash gifts which she received when her husband was in office and therefore begged the Federal High Court in Lagos to order the release of such monies to her.

Speaking through her lawyer, Chief Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN), Patience Jonathan asked Justice Mojisola Olatoregun to dismiss the application by the EFCC, praying that the money be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government.

She argued that it was wrong for the EFCC to tag the money as proceeds of crime, when she had committed no crime and when nobody complained that their money was missing.

The lawyer contended that Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud, which EFCC relied upon to seize Patience’s funds, was only applicable to fraudsters.

“It is not the law that if the EFCC finds money in an account and it doesn’t like the owner’s face, it comes to court and says ‘forfeit it’.

“The government is at liberty to apply for forfeiture but the offence must be stated.

“The first respondent is a wife to a former deputy governor, governor, Vice President, and President.

“Even the current occupier of the office of the First Lady wants to build a university.

“In this country, First Ladies enjoy a lot of goodwill. She (Patience) stated that governors gave her money. Nobody wrote that she stole their money.”

The lawyer stressed that there was no justification for the money to be forfeited to the Federal Government, as the EFCC had not proved that Patience stole money from the government or any individual.

Tinubu Acknowledges Gov Fayemi’s Competence, Integrity, Fine Leadership Ability

Editorial staff

May 24, 2019

All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has acknowledged Governor Kayode Fayemi’s impeccable credentials, competence, integrity and fine leadership ability.

Tinubu, in a letter congratulating the Ekiti State Governor over his election as the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), expressed confidence in Fayemi to deliver on the new assignment, adding that his election is a mark of respect for him by his colleagues and confidence in his ability to lead them meritoriously for the next two years.
In the letter today, Friday, signed by his media office, the APC leader advised Governor Fayemi to properly reposition the NGF towards contributing positively to national development, advance the frontiers of important issues such as fiscal federalism and support President Muhammadu Buhari in the task of taking the country to the Next Level.

“Having known and related with you over the years, I’m certain that you will perform creditably well given your impeccable credentials, competence, integrity and fine leadership ability.
“Your experience as Governor of Ekiti State in the first term, Minister of Mines in Abuja and your remarkable comeback as Governor for a second term have all enriched you for this assignment.

“I hope and pray that you will build a team that will properly position the NGF to contribute positively to national development, advance the frontiers of important issues such as fiscal federalism and support President Muhammadu Buhari in the task of taking the country to the Next Level”

Why We Want To Establish Entrepreneurship Bank, Osinbajo Explains

Editorial staff

May 24, 2019

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that the need to scale up the various social intervention of the government of Muhammadu Buhari has informed the urgent need for the establishment of Entrepreneurship Bank in Nigeria.

“The Federal government has in the past four years sought to prioritize initiatives designed to improve the capacity of entrepreneurs and small businesses. These include: Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme; Growth and Employment Project; the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme and many more spearheaded by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Bank of Industry and the Federal Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment.
“The truth is that a lot of these initiatives are not on scale. We have several initiatives and several thousands have benefitted but to make the kind of impact that we want to make we simply have to do something that can deal with hundreds of thousands of people as opposed to a few thousands. And that is the reason why in the next four years it is our intention to take a more active look at how to scale up the interventions of the Federal Government. This is why we are setting up an Entrepreneurship Bank which is one of the key ways by which we can directly finance entrepreneurship.

Professor Osinbajo, who spoke at the National Youth Entrepreneurship Empowerment Summit in Abuja, said that at the moment, a lot of entrepreneurship activities are built around the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) or the Bank Of Industry (BOI) and several other banks, “but we think that we need to devote a whole financial institution to look at how to develop entrepreneurship and how to encourage small and medium size enterprises.
“In the past three days, you have been taught by some of the best in various businesses, most of them with very compelling stories. The subtext of every one of the testimonies you have heard is that it doesn’t matter what challenges you face, with steadfastness, courage and innovation your business will succeed.”

Other Western, European Nations Isolate America In Its Move To Ban Huawei

Editorial staff

May 24, 2019

Leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands have isolated the United States of America in its move to ban Huawei Technologies Company Limited and its affiliates to its “Entity List.”

The US recently decided to ban Huawei from buying parts and components from its companies without government-approved licenses.

French President, Emmanuel Macron said that it is not the aim of France to block Huawei, nor to launch any form of technological war even as German Chancellor, Angela Merkel said that the companies could participate in expanding Germany’s 5G network if they met established safety criteria.

In an interview with CNBC Africa on Wednesday, Huawei Vice President of Corporate Communications, Glenn Schloss said: “the devices in people’s hands are completely unaffected by what’s happening in the US. For owners of Huawei handsets it will be business as usual.

“We remain positive, but we are preparing for various eventualities. We are stockpiling components and have been working with our supply-chain partners for some time.”

Meanwhile, Huawei Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ren Zhengfei expressed confidence in the company’s business and capacity, saying the company had been preparing in anticipation of situations as of now, and it is well- prepared.

“We will certainly be able to continue serving our customers. Our production capacity is huge, and adding Huawei to the Entity List won’t have a huge impact on us. We are making progress in bidding worldwide.” Ren said.

According to him, the preparation includes the company’s huge R&D investment and contingency plan. According to the 2018 EU R&D Investment Scoreboard, Huawei ranks fifth,with steady growth in its R&D investment.

Huawei has a consistent Business Continuity Management System which has been certified by dozens of neutral third parties in Europe. The company has also been vigorously integrating BCMS into it global suppliers’ obligation.

Ren conceded that he expected Huawei’s growth to slow down, but expressed confidence in the company’s future prospects.

“In the first quarter of this year, our revenue grew 39% over the same period last year. This rate decreased to 25% in April, and may continue decreasing towards the end of this year. But the US ban will not lead to negative growth or harm the development of our industry.”

British Prime Minister, Theresa Resigns, Says She’s Failed

Greenbarge Reporters

May 24, 2019

British Prime Minister, Theresa May, has announced she will step down after three hellish years that saw her fail to deliver Brexit.

Mrs May announced on Friday that she would quit as leader of the Conservative Party on June 7.

“Ever since I first stepped through the door behind me as prime minister I have striven to make the United Kingdom a country that works not just for the privileged few but for everyone and to honour the result of the referendum,” May said.

She added that she was disappointed after failing to deliver on her flagship policy.

May arrived at 10 Downing Street via the back entrance Friday morning. Conservative Party chairman, Brandon Lewis, was also seen at Downing Street.

Conservatives will now begin the search for her replacement.

Pastor Cries Out For Justice Over Killing Of His Son Allegedly By Abuja Society Woman

Greenbarge Reporters

May 24, 2019

Pastor Simon Anyaoha, father of 35 year old engineer, Chimezie Anyaoha, who was allegedly ordered to be shot by an Abuja-based society lady Monica Ota Uche is still crying for justice over three months after the incidence at Umuchiakuma in Arochukwu Local Government Area of Abia State.

Pastor Simon Anyaoha, who is of the Watchman Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement in Arochukwu, insisted that Monica Ota Uche ordered the police to kill his son in cold blood and in the glare of other youths in the community.

He said that the trouble started on January 4, 2019 when youths of the community blocked Monica Uche from using her police escorts to abduct a patient at the Mercy Catholic Hospital, adding that the patient was earlier shot by the police at the community primary school playground on the orders of Monica Uche for allegedly destroying one of the canopies she used for rentage in the village.

According to Pastor Anyaoha, his deceased son had rushed to the hospital when he heard that a boy had been shot in the leg by some policemen brought into the village by Monica Uche for allegedly destroying a canopy that belonged to her.

“My son had come to the village for the wedding of the youngest sister of his mother which was to take place on January 4, 2018. Around 9 Am on that day. He prepared and went to the primary school where the wedding was to take place. On getting there, he discovered that a boy that used to work with him was shot by mobile policemen brought into the village by Monica Ota,

“The youths of the community rushed the boy to Mercy Hospital. My son then joined others to visit the hospital to see how the boy was faring. But on getting there, the story was that this woman took mobile policemen to the hospital to forcefully whisk my son away,

“But the youths of the community who have heard what happened and that Monica was planning to take the boy away to an unknown destination, mobilized themselves to prevent the policemen from taking the boy out of the village. They blocked road leading out of the village. My son also joined them.

“This woman ordered the police to open fire on the boys again. Even when the boys started running away, police started shooting, pursuing them. The police pursued my son into the bush where he tried to hide behind a house and shot him dead. The bullet fired at him came in from one side of his stomach and came out through the other side. He was dead before they got him to the hospital.”

Pastor Simon Anyaoha said that the death of his son reported to the Arochukwu Police Station where they took his statement and a police officer was asked to confirm the death at the hospital.

Since the incidence happened, nothing has been done again by the law agencies even as the parents of the deceased are still in shocks of seeing the corpse of their eldest child riddled with bullets on a day they were supposed to celebrate.

“My wife now suffers from high blood pressure and we are always in and out of hospital while all family responsibilities have fallen on me because the boy that used to take care of us has been killed. I am retired and do only pastoral work now,” said Pastor Anyaoha.

“All we are asking is that justice be done. This is a country with a government and laws. We want those who killed our son to be brought to justice.”

Information reaching us showed that the Arochukwu police had reported the matter to the Abia State Command in Umuahia and that three officials of the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) later went to Umuchiakuma village for further investigations.

The father of the deceased was also asked to accompany them back to the state command to make further statements even as the officers of the CID went back to the village a second time to speak with eyewitnesses, including the traditional ruler of the village, Eze Henry O. Umachi, all of who confirmed how the deceased was shot by the police escort of Monica. Uche.

It was gathered that just as the family of the deceased were expecting the police to file homicide charges in court against Monica Uche and the policemen who did her bidding, information got to them that Monica Uche had taken the case file to Abuja.

She was believed to have used her connections in high places to kill the case against her even as she also used police to ‘arrest’ about nine youths and whisked them to Abuja.

It was gathered that in Abuja, Monica allegedly used her influence to turn the case against the deceased and other youths in the village who had protested her criminality and that the youths were charged with terrorism.

Some residents in the village confirmed that Monica Uche claimed that the youths were shot because they were members of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), a claim disputed by residents of Umuchiakuma.

A youth leader in the village, Kalu Agwu, denied as false claims that those shot were members of IPOB, adding: “I was working at a building site when some youths in the village ran to me saying Engineer Chimezie had been shot by four policemen attached to Monica Ota Uche.”

According to him, the youths were so enraged that they went and burnt down her house in the village.

Another eyewitness who spoke to our reporter, Peter Kalu, said that Monica Uche ordered her police escort to shoot the youths who tried to block her from taking away a patient from the village hospital, stressing any story about IPOB is diversionary.

“Everyone knew what happened in our village, how policemen were ordered to shoot by Monica Uche, and they shot him dead for nothing. The story about IPOB is all lies.”

When contacted, the spokesman of Abia State Police Command, Ogbonna Geoffrey, said the case file had been transferred to Abuja and the Command would not make any comment.

“That case is no longer with us; it has been taken to Abuja so I cannot say anything on it.”

Also, the Force Public Relations Officer in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, Frank Mba, claimed ignorance of the case, saying: “the case happened before my appointment, so I don’t have any information to give you. But if I can get the details of the IPO and may be able to get the information you want.”

However, Mba subsequently refused to pick phone calls or respond to text messages after the details of the case and the IPO have been made known to him.

Universities Union Leader Angry With Education Minister For Telling Lie

Editorial staff

May 24, 2019

The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Biodun Ogunyemi is obviously angry with the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, for telling a lie that the sum of N25 billion has been approved by the Federal Government for university lecturers as Earned Academic Allowance (EAA).

Reacting to Adamu who said during his valedictory press briefing on Tuesday announced the approval of the sum of N25 billion as Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) for the lecturers, Professor Ogunyemi said that the Minister was not sincere about the alleged approval of the fund, adding that the Union has been seeking the said amount since February but has been tossed from one office to another without result.

He warned that for failing to abide by the agreement it reached with the Union before the strike was suspended in February, the Federal Government should be blamed for any further disruption of the Nigerian university system.

Professor Ogunyemi emphasized the N25 billion supposedly approved as part-payment for the outstanding arrears of the Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) was supposed to have been done within the context of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOA) signed between the federal government of Nigeria and ASUU on 7th February 2019.

“Following the signing of the MOA, the union expected, as agreed, that the N25 billion EAA part-payment would be paid between 25th February 2019 and 28th February 2019.

“As we speak today, there is no evidence that mainstreaming of EAA into the annual budget, beginning from this year, has been done. Indeed what has been going on is the tossing around of the agreement document between the offices of the Minister of Education and Finance.

“All our efforts to track the said N25 billion at the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation have proved abortive. This is not only unacceptable to us but disheartening and frustrating to our members across the country.

“It is frustrating because we have visited the Ministry of education at least three times and written letters to the Ministry since we signed the MOA in February 2019, all to no avail. This is a complete breach of trust on the part of the government.”

Professor Ogunyemi said that the union expects nothing less than the immediate release of the N25 billion to their members who are entitled to such claims and the mainstreaming of EAA into the annual budget as agreed in the MOA.

Deadly Malaria: WHO Gives Algeria, Argentina Clean Bill Of Health

Editorial staff

May 23, 2019

The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially declared Algeria free of malaria where it was first discovered. Algeria therefore becomes the third African country to eliminate one of the world’s leading killer diseases.

Information available to us hinted that with no recorded cases of malaria in three consecutive years, Argentina was also declared malaria-free – the second country in the Americas after Paraguay in 45 years to wipe out the disease, which kills more than 400,000 people a year.

WHO’s regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, confirmed that Algeria “is where the malaria parasite was first discovered in humans almost a century and a half ago, and that was a significant milestone in responding to the disease.”

“Now, Algeria has shown the rest of Africa that malaria can be beaten through country leadership, bold action, sound investment and science. The rest of the continent can learn from this experience.”

Although WHO has declared 38 countries malaria-free since 1955, the fight against malaria has stalled as malaria-carrying mosquitoes have become resistant to drugs and insecticides in bednets that protect people from being bitten while sleeping.

Algeria is the third African nation to become malaria free, after Mauritius in 1973 and Morocco in 2010, which brings economic benefits, said Abdourahmane Diallo, head of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership to End Malaria.

“Malaria-free status provides external economic benefits … enabling them to free up resources to address other health and development priorities and improve worker productivity and school attendance,” he said.

Crisis-hit Venezuela is one of the countries that has seen a sharp rise in malaria cases as its health system collapses amid hyperinflation and recession.

In 2017, there were 406,000 cases of malaria in Venezuela, up roughly 69 percent from a year before, the largest increase worldwide, according to the WHO.

Source: Reuters

Buhari In Handshake With Confirmed Police Boss

Greenbarge Reporters

May 23, 2019

President Muhammadu Buhari in a handshake with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammad Adamu whose acting appointment was confirmed by the Police Council, presided over by the President. It took place today, Thursday, May 23 at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Photo by Sunday Aghaeze.

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