Kaduna Govt speaks on recent police actions, urges calm on petrol supply

The Kaduna State Government has not started enforcing the prohibition of begging and hawking. A government statement explained that the prohibition of begging law will not take effect until after 60 days. The statement added that it is the police that is currently undertaking arrests within Kaduna as part of security operations directed by the Inspector General of Police.

According to Samuel Aruwan who is the Special Assistant to the Governor Media and Publicity: “The Kaduna State Government has not directed the police to enforce the begging law, which is not due to come into force yet. Malam Nasir El-Rufai has repeatedly stated that rehabilitation opportunities would be offered for the disabled. The State Executive Council has just approved a Disability Policy, which is a necessary precursor to the drafting of any bill or other measures to promote the rights of the disabled.

How gunmen kill 20 persons, 83 cows in Nasarawa

Gunmen at the weekend killed 83 cows at Adayi in Nasarawa Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.

The traditional ruler of the community, Alhaji Abubakar Ahmed Sabo, claimed that about 20 people had been killed by gunmen in the last few weeks.

The killings were suspected to be reprisals by gunmen who crossed over from Benue State.

President Jonathan, Nigeria's number one enemy - APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described President Goodluck Jonathan as Nigeria's number one enemy because of his propensity to perpetrate impunity, abuse federal institutions and tolerate corruption, all in a dangerous clamour to win re-election at all costs.

In a statement issued in Osogbo on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said under President Jonathan's watch, Nigeria has been thrown into unprecedented crisis that is manifesting in the opposition strongholds of Rivers, Edo, Adamawa and Nasarawa States and elsewhere across the country.

The President has also abused national institutions perhaps more than any other President in Nigeria's history, deploying the police and the army to intimidate and harass ordinary citizens in general and opposition supporters in particular, as he did recently in Ekiti and he is allegedly planning to do in Osun state; shutting airports at will just to punish the opposition and muscling the electoral commission, INEC, to prevent incorruptible RECs from conducting elections, it said.

Confab delegates reject fuel subsidy removal

There was uproar on Tuesday at the ongoing national conference in Abuja as delegates finally rejected the recommendation of the Confab Committee on Public Finance and Revenue for the total removal of the fuel subsidy by the Federal Government.

The Committee chaired by a former Governor of Nasarawa State, Adamu Aliero, had recommended a total removal of subsidy on petroleum products, arguing that this has been a major financial burden on the nation.

The recommendation had generated heated debate at the plenary and created sharp division among the delegates who accused one another of vested interests.

Abuja kidnap rumour: Stolen school bus recovered – Official

Two men found in the bus were also arrested by security operatives.

Security agencies have recovered a school bus stolen in Nyanya, Abuja, on Tuesday morning, an official has said.

Nosike Ogbuenyi, the Special Assistant to the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, said the bus that was snatched from a Vines International Academy driver has been recovered.

Mr. Ogbuenyi, in a statement, said the vehicle with registration number: XG 246 GWA was recovered Tuesday afternoon in Lafia, Nasarawa State capital.

He also said that two men found in the bus were arrested by security operatives.

The Nigerian Police had earlier said that no pupil was taken away in the Nyanya school bus incident.

The Police, on their Facebook page, said the driver reported the incident at the Nyanya police station at about 7.48 a.m.

The driver told the police that while cleaning the bus at the gate of the school, after he had dropped off the pupils, three armed men accosted and ordered him to surrender the keys to the bus.

He complied.

The police also said that details of the vehicle were immediately relayed to all police units for recovery and arrest of suspects.

They also confirmed an earlier PREMIUM TIMES report that nobody was kidnapped or injured during the incident.

There was panic in communities on the outskirt of Abuja on Tuesday morning amidst reports that some students were kidnapped during the bus hijack.

Nyanya is the community where two recent, separate bomb explosions in three weeks killed at least 95 people.

When the rumours of the kidnap spread on Tuesday morning, parents were seen rushing to schools in Nyanya, Kurudu and other adjoining communities to pick their wards.

Premium Times

At least 50 killed as soldiers battle Fulani insurgent in Nasarawa

The Nigeria Army deployed to contain the recent Fulani attacks that has claimed over 200 lives and displaced thousands of the Tiv people of Nasarawa and Benue states, Troop on Thursday killed at least 50 Fulani insurgents in Keana local government area of Nasarawa state in a gun duel. In lafia, Fulani insurgents numbering 10 were brought to the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, DASH, Lafia the state capital by a police pickup van and deposited at the mortuary while about 20 others were deposited at the general hospital Keana as well as several others still in the bush.

Source confirmed in Lafia that the army launched an offensive on the terrorist while acting on a tipoff about their hideouts in Maraba Giza and Tse-Azer where they have taken over the ancestral home of the Tivs in the area. Vanguard reports that the Keana general hospital mortuary could no longer contain the number of dead bodies hence the conveyance of the remaining ones to Lafia. 

Kaduna Mass Killing: ‘Police on the trail of killers’

Kaduna State Commissioner of Police (CP), Umar Shehu, on Wednesday, marked his first month in office parading armed robbery suspects among others.  

But he confessed he had not been able to make any arrest over the attack that killed scores of villagers in Kaura Local Government Area (LGA) of the state, and the banditry that almost on daily basis happens in communities in Birnin Gwari LGA.

Asked whether any arrests had been made over the killings in three villages in Kaura LGA on March 14, the police boss said: “No, we have not made any arrest. Investigation is still going on. And we are on the trail of the killers. But all stakeholders in the areas concerned will be holding a meeting very soon, so we can find an end to this problem”.

Endless Killings: Nasarawa, Benue Adopt Air Surveillance To Fight Terrorism

The governments of Benue and Nasarawa states have resolved to adopt air surveillance strategy to curb the incessant attacks on border communities. Gov. Umaru Al-Makura of Nasarawa State announced the measure on Thursday when he visited Giza town, in the Keana Local Government Area of the state, which was attacked by gunmen on Tuesday.

Al-Makura described the mayhem in the border communities as alarming, adding that the perpetrators were criminals who took advantage of the long boundary stretch between the two states to perpetrate their criminal activities.

Police: 25 killed as Fulani herdsmen, Tiv youths clash in Benue

The Nigerian Police has confirmed that no fewer than 25 persons were feared dead, Monday, in a fresh outbreak of heavy fighting between suspected fulani mercenaries and Tiv youths at Agasha and Yelwata, in Guma local government area of Benue State.

Benue state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Superintendent, SP,  Daniel Ezeala confirmed the attack but said the command was yet to confirm the number of casualties adding that security personnel had been drafted to the affected communities.