TERRORISM !! Gunmen ‘kill 35’ in Kaduna, demand ‘N100m ransom’ for 58 victims

About 35 people have been reportedly killed and another 58 abducted after suspected bandits invaded 10 communities in Chikun and Birnin Gwari local government areas of Kaduna state.

The gunmen were said to have invaded the villages and carried out the attacks on January 6, and subsequently demanded the payment of N100 million ransom for the release of their victims.

The attacks had caused some residents to panic and flee their homes, taking refuge in government schools and other communities.

Speaking when Jonathan Asake, president of Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), visited victims of the attack on Monday at aschool, one Habila Sarkin Noma, a clergyman,  said the bandits had call  to say “we must  produce N100m as ransom if we want to have them alive”.

He alleged that the suspects were herdsmen who have been attacking the villages persistently, and “would grace on our crops and threatened to kill us if we protest”.

“Sometimes when they  attack and take captives, we will manage and pay ransom. Even after paying, sometimes they  kill the victims,” Habila said.

“But the attacks that took place on the 6th January, 2020, was the worst, they killed a about a total of 35 people and kidnapped a total of 58 people in 10 villages.”

He listed the affected villages to include Badna, Zankoro, Hayin Damisa, Unguwan Badole, Badimi, Kuderi and Unguwan Doma in Chukun LGA while others include Rumana Gbagyi, Rumana Hausa and Malomo in
 Birnin Gwari LGA.

According to him, the invaders came in hundreds and were well armed.

Addressing journalists during the visit, Asake asked the government and international community to come to the aid of the victims.

“As you can see from the way these people are, they are seriously traumatized and needed immediate assistance to be able to fold on,” he said.

“We have been told that the suspected bandits destroyed all their farm products and also destroyed their houses leaving them with nothing to call their own.

“Here at Ungwar Beji, there are about 200 of them with no food, beds or clothes while we are also been told that about 8,000 of them have converged at Buruku with nothing with them.

“Worst of all, most of the children are sick. This calls for concern on all people of good will to come to their aid in any kind in order to give them hope of survival before steps could be taken on the area of their education.”

TheCable could not independently verify details of the attack and casualties as calls placed to Yakubu Sabo, spokesman of the Kaduna state police command, were not answered.

- THECABLE

How Church accountant in CBN bagged 18 years jail term

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Gombe Zonal Office on Monday, secured the conviction of one Ibrahim Aku before Justice Nathan Musa of the Adamawa State High Court.

Aku, an accountant at EYN Church of Christ (Ekilisiyar Yen Uwa Nigeria), EYN, Church of Brethren in Nigeria (CBN) in the state, faced a six-count charge, bordering on forgery and obtaining money by false pretence.

He was investigated and prosecuted following a petition by the church through Rev. (Dr). Daniel Mbaya an Secretary-General of the Church alleging that Aku defrauded the church of N15.5million between 2016 and 2018.

Investigations by the EFCC, revealed that the money was generated by the church members by offerings, donations and tithe.

The convict was entrusted by the church to deposit the church’s revenue into the church’s account with First Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc, but he ended up diverting same, and forged bank tellers to balance the financial books of the church.

Aku was assisted to commit the crime by his friend, one Benefit Ishaku currently at large to whom he gave N500,000. His accomplice assisted him in forging the stamps of the banks, which were also used to perpetrate the fraud.

He was prosecuted using the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.

He pleaded “guilty” to the charges.

Prosecuting counsel, S.E. Okemini, thereafter, urged the court to convict him as charged.

Justice Musa, thus, pronounced him guilty and sentenced him to 18 years in prison – three years on each of the counts, to run concurrently. He was not given an option of fine.

The trial judge, further ordered that he refund the stolen fund to the church, and that proceeds of the crime recovered from him should be sold and the proceeds remitted to the Church.

- DAILY POST

PHOTOS: Fela’s statue pulled down from Allen roundabout two years after inauguration by Ambode

On this day, October 15, which would have been Fela’s 79th birthday, the government and people of Lagos state celebrate Fela with the unveiling of this liberation statue. It has been 20 years since he passed on but the memories he left us with remain evergreen. Today, we celebrate a man who voluntarily turned his back on a life of comfort and privilege, and took up his saxophone as a weapon to fight for the liberation of our people from neo-colonialism and bad governance.



Those were the exact words of Akinwunmi Ambode, former governor of Lagos state, when he unveiled a statue  in honour of the late Afrobeat icon at Allen roundabout in Ikeja, capital of the state, in 2017.

Yeni Kuti, Fela’s eldest daughter, was among those who witnessed the event but two years on, the statue is giving way because it is located at one of the four roundabouts the administration of Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the incumbent governor, identified as a major cause of gridlock in the state.

The other roundabouts are at Ikotun, Lekki-Epe expressway and Maryland.

Gboyega Akosile, spokesman of the governor, told TheCable on Monday that the artwork will be relocated to an area where it won’t cause traffic.

Below are pictures of what the place where Fela’s statue was looks like at the moment:

- THECABLE

NEXT LEVEL BENEFIT !! Twitter on hot rolls as Buhari increases VAT to 7.5%

Sequel to the passage of the 2020 Finance Bill by the National Assembly, President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday signed the bill into law but this act has infuriated a lot of Nigerians.

A number of Nigerian citizens took to their Twitter accounts to lament about the increase of the VAT rate from the previous rate of five percent to the now signed and approved 7.5 percent.

According to the press release by the Special Adviser to the President, Femi Adeshina, the increased rate is to foster ‘more revenue to finance key governmental projects especially in the areas of health, education, and critical infrastructure’.

The 2020 Finance Bill has so far garnered over 3,900 tweets. Here are some of the comments on Twitter.


3 THINGS D@ MUST HAPPEN WITH D NEW 7.5 VAT.

1, Politicians will've more money to loot. 

2, Companies will increase d prices of commodities & services 2 recoup d new VAT. 

3,There'll be more suffering 4 d governed.

FACT: Taxes are meant 4 d rich but it's d poor, who pay it.

— chinanu Ndumele CN (@CN4real) January 14, 2020

"7.5% VAT"

Dear fellow Nigerians,

If you think life has been tough in the last 5 years or that your beloved Naira has become almost useless, please brace yourselves.

5 taxes are coming into effect as Papa Hanan (a.k.a Buhari) has signed a bill that will punish entrepreneurship

— The Revolutionary Seeker (WAEC) (@The_Seeker76) January 14, 2020

7.5% VAT is not on food, medicines (drug) and education items, etc.

The 7.5% VAT is not for the poor or vulnerable but the middle class and the rich. They should pay more and we pay less. 

Twitter use to be for educating but is gradually turning IG n FBK#OsinbajoInKano pic.twitter.com/d7xv9yXzAT

— EKITIKAN (@EkitiKetekan) January 14, 2020

Dear Nigerians, 7.5% VAT is ready for you. Baba Buhari has done it. The consumers will carry the load. pic.twitter.com/Teq3kCTpv3

— Obinna Nwosu (@obi_Nwosu) January 14, 202

So 7.5% VAT is now official? 

Can we just put Nigeria up on Jumia and share the money? 🤔

— Abuja President 🇳🇬 (@SirSmithM) January 14, 2020

- PM NEWS

Mourinho reveals two clubs that have better squads than Tottenham

Tottenham Hotspur manager, Jose Mourinho, has insisted he is not jealous of the Manchester City or Liverpool squads.

Injuries to key players at Spurs has left Mourinho short of options.

Mourinho, speaking with Sky Sports, says he accepts the situation and knows the club has a different profile.

“Come on, it is what it is. We cannot have a squad like some other teams. It’s not us.

“Yesterday, I was watching Man City and I looked to the bench – (Raheem) Sterling, Bernardo Silva, (Ilkay) Gundogan, (Nicolas) Otamendi. You know?

“Liverpool, you see the team, you see the bench. And they have injured (Joel) Matip, (Dejan) Lovren, (Naby) Keita, Fabinho.

“I’m not jealous, I have an amazing job, but they are different jobs. This is a different club,” he said.

- DAILY POST

Man arrested for using SIM card earlier used by Buhari’s daughter, Hanan, sues DSS, MTN

Anthony Okolie, the man arrested and detained by the Department of State Services (DSS) for 10 weeks for purchasing and using a sim card earlier used by Hanan, President Buhari’s daughter has sued the agency and MTN Nigeria over the violation of his fundamental human rights.

MTN had recycled the telephone number earlier used by Hanan and sold it to Okolie after it became dormant.

The lawsuit filed at the Federal High Court, Asaba, Delta State, with suit number: FHC/ASB/CS/3/2020 is seeking among other things an order of court to compel the respondents to pay the sum of N500m damages for the unlawful detention of the applicant and make a public apology for violating the applicant’s fundamental human rights.

National President of Revolutionary Lawyer’s Forum, Mr Tope Akinyode, who instituted the case on behalf of the applicant, stated that the lawsuit was filed to serve as exemplary caution against flagrant abuse of power by law enforcement agencies and to sound a note of warning on public officers to ensure their relations do not abuse power arbitrarily.

He said, “We find it worrisome that all through the unlawful detention of our client, Hanan Buhari who ordered his arrest arrogantly declined to show up at the DSS facility to substantiate her allegations against him.

“Instead, she claimed she was facing her studies in the United Kingdom at the expense of a citizens’ liberty

“In addition, as soon as our client’s case became public knowledge, he has been receiving threats by SMS and phone calls from unknown persons.

“The notoriety of the SSS is becoming too unbearable and the idea that a Nigerian can arbitrarily arrest another Nigerian just because she’s the President’s child is among the lawlessness that we’re challenging through this lawsuit.”

- DAILY POST

Fat church rats sting Pastor Oyedepo

Presiding Bishop of the Winners Chapel, Dr. David Oyedepo, is in the news after his shock revelation that some top officials of his church had looted the church’s treasury.

He made the revelation at the empowerment summit organised for ordained workers of the church on Saturday, with the story going viral since then.

Oyedepo said the officials, the fat church rats, mainly accountants have been sacked. He did not however say whether the church would seek retributive justice in the court of the land.

“Can you imagine accountants perpetrating fraud in the house of God?”, the angry bishop said.

“We had no choice but to dismiss them. You can imagine top church officials engaging in doubling figures and other dubious practices.

“Even after we dismissed them, we discovered more fraud.

“Those who should discover the fraud were the ones involved in it. One of them refused to confess until the last minute.”

He admonished the church members against employing the dismissed officials. He said he had to tell everyone present because he knew the dismissed officials “will come to you for employment.”

“Don’t employ them and don’t sympathise with them. Whoever sympathises with the wicked is wicked himself.”

Dead silence fell on the gathering as the Bishop reiterated: “Don’t sympathise with any perpetrator of fraud, otherwise you are a partaker of the evil act.”

Oyedepo did not disclose the volume of money stolen by the church rats, but newspaper reports assumed it must be in millions to provoke his anger.

However, his critic, Daddy Freeze, is not shedding any tear for him. In an Instagram post, Freeze refers Oyedepo to the scriptures, asking if the missing money came from the sweat of Oyedepo or whether it is a donation.

“This to me, is nothing more than a daunting cocktail of scriptural misinterpretation, misplaced priorities and misdirected resources, making this seem like it’s an odd in between compromise amidst a church and a business enterprise.

“For starters, the church building is NOT the house of God (the scriptures in acts 17:24 clearly tell us so)!

“Is money they stole money you worked for from your personal business enterprises? If yes they should face the wrath of the law.

“However, If it came from donations, let Acts 4:32 guide you. According to the aforementioned verse, the disciples shared everything equally, so there was no lack. Could it be that you haven’t been giving them their share and they now took it by force?🙄

“Remember, the offertory the early church received was shared equally among ALL believers, maybe if you practice that, you won’t fret over accountants pilfering.

Acts 17:24 New Living Translation:“He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples,

Acts 7:48 New Living Translation: However, the Most High doesn’t live in temples made by human hands. As the prophet says,

2 Corinthians 5:1 New International Version: For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

- PM NEWS

Soyinka says Amotekun a special New Year gift

Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has described the formation of the Western Nigeria Security Network, with the code name of ‘Amotekun’ as a pleasant New Year Gift.

He declared support for the supplementary security outfit launched in Ibadan last week, saying its emergence signified that the yearnings of Nigerians prevailed.

Soyinka spoke in Lagos today at an event held at the Muson Centre in Lagos.

The event tagged ‘Never Again’, was organised to discuss the way forward, 50 years after the Nigerian civil war. In attendance at the event were some eminent Nigerians such as Professor Anya Anya, Professor Banji Akintoye, Professor Pat Utomi, Major General Obi Umahi (rtd), and the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, among others.

Each of the six states in the South West donated 20 patrol vans each and also motorbikes to start the security outfit, with headquarters in Gbongan, Osun State

- PM NEWS

Atiku’s failure to pay his workers’ salaries shows he can’t be Nigerian president – BMO

Former Vice President and the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 elections, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has been challenged to show integrity, honour and discipline in his contractual relationships, either with individuals, groups or corporate entities.

Giving this advice in a statement, the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) said recent exposure of Atiku by the staff of his communication company and consultants hired from foreign media companies does not portray Atiku as a man of integrity.

In the statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, BMO said that it was responding to the multitude of petitions by former staff of Atiku Abubakar who alleged that the former Vice President had engaged them for media jobs, flown some of them into the country, but refused to honour his agreement to pay them, owing them months of salaries and allowances, and leaving many of them in serious debt.

BMO said that Atiku’s breach of the agreement with the media agents whom he had engaged through his firm GOTEL, was dishonourable, adding that this is least expected of a man who sought to be Nigeria’s President.

Part of the statement read;

“Atiku’s failure to honour his agreement and pay these media contractors is just one straw in hay of his bad characters. It is also not the first time that he is in the news for failing to honour agreements with his staff, and not paying their salaries and allowances.

“This particular matter reflects on his lack of good principles and his lack of integrity. Atiku has by this established that he does not keep his words. Thankfully, the wisdom of a majority of Nigerians prevailed, the enormity of an Atiku presidency that would have brought this kind of character to governance has been jettisoned.”

The Buhari Media Organization went further to state that the former Vice President was seeking to be President to use the government’s resources to pay for his numerous debts and failed obligations.

“One of the reasons Atiku sought to be President was to open the treasury to fund his growing debts, and also enrich his friends who had provided him liquidation during his political sojourn. He, in fact, had promised to sell the country’s NNPC to his friends.”

The group commended Nigerians for standing with President Buhari and voting him en-masse in the 2019 elections, stating that President Buhari was a man of his words who would not fail to honour his covenant with the Nigerian people.

“President Buhari has shown, time without number, that he is a man of his words. He is a man of honour. We can assure Nigerians that the President does not just mean well for the people, he is bent on delivering on his promises, which he is already doing”.

- DAILY POST

Your day of reckoning is near, El-Zakzaky’s followers threaten Buhari, El-Rufai

Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) have told President Muhammadu Buhari and Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, to watch their backs as the day of reckoning was very nearer than they ever thought.

The group, also condemned recent comments that their leader, Sheikh Ibrahim el-Zakzaky is being tried for crimes committed in Zaria in the past.

IMN, also known as Shiites, in a statement signed by President of its Media Forum Ibraheem Musa on Tuesday morning said that contrary to recent reports attributed to Governor Nasir el-Rufai that their leader and his followers perpetrated terror in the Zaria clashes of December 2015 between IMN and the army, they were the victims of the terror orchestrated by the state

“With increasing pressure on the Buhari regime from home and abroad occasioned by the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague to investigate the crimes against humanity committed by this regime during the Zaria Massacre of 2015, there have been increased efforts at belittling the matter and trivializing the issues.

“This reached a peak when the Kaduna state Governor, Nasiru el-Rufai insinuated that so long as he remains Kaduna Governor, Sheikh Zakzaky would remain in detention. According to the governor, Sheikh Zakzaky is being tried for crimes he and his followers committed in the last 30 years in Zaria.

“On the contrary, the Sheikh and his supporters were the victims of state terror and crimes and not the perpetrators. After the criminal invasion of the Sheikh’s residence in December of 2015 and the subsequent killing of hundreds of his supporters including his sons and relatives by officers and men of the Nigerian Army, the Sheikh and his wife were shot at and arrested.

“The Department of State Security (DSS) illegally detained them without charges until May 2018, when the pressure on the government to release them became so intense and unbearable. It was at that point that the government thought of charging them of inciting his followers to commit alleged offences.”

He said before then, the government had struggled to find explanations for their continued detention, forcing it to claim that the Sheikh was being kept in protective custody, while his wife Zeenat, was keeping her husband, company.

“The government arrested hundreds of members of the Sheikh Zakzaky-led Islamic Movement and put them on trial for allegedly being responsible for the death of one of the soldiers, who was accidentally shot by his colleagues. The Kaduna High Court has cleared all of them of these framed up charges and subsequently discharged and acquitted them all. So what crimes is el-Rufai referring to?

“Governor el-Rufai’s fraudulent claims that only court can free Sheikh Zakzaky pales in the face of the obvious. Firstly, the fabricated charges of inciting, aiding and abetting brought against him (as a ploy to perpetually keep him in detention) have been squashed in the High and Appeal courts. Secondly, the Federal High court had declared his detention as unconstitutional and therefore ordered his release.

“Thirdly, even when the Kaduna high court granted the Sheikh medical leave, el-Rufai never conceded. He took measures to thwart the medical bail, putting stringent terms and conditions independent of the courts. Clearly, el-Rufai, like General Buhari, has no respect for the rule of law. Justice will be served. We will intensify our peaceful campaigns until justice is done to the victims of Zaria genocide of December, 2015 and Sheikh Zakzaky and all those still being held regain their freedom,” Ibraheem added.

- DAILY POST

Never again should Nigeria lose another 2.5 million people to war – Soyinka

Prof. Wole Soyinka, Nigeria’s only Nobel Laureate has warned that the nation cannot afford to lose another 2.5 million people to war as it did 50 years ago to the Nigerian Civil War.

He spoke when he delivered a lecture, titled: “Never Again.” to commemorate the 50th year of the Nigerian Civil War in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

According to him, “Any time that leadership, on whichever side, is about to repeat yet again the ultimate folly of sacrificing two and a half million lives on the altar of Absolutes, any absolute, we should borrow that credo, paint them on prayer scrolls, flood the skies in their millions with kites and balloons on which those words are inscribed: ‘African Lives Matter!”

He added that “For example, ask ourselves questions such as: What price ‘territorial integrity’ where any slab of real estate, plus the humanity that work it, can be signed away as a deal between two leaders – as did happen between Nigeria and the Cameroon. You seek an answer to the claims of territorial integrity? Ask the fluctuating refugees on Bakassi Islands just what is the meaning, for them, of ‘territorial integrity’?

“Again, I feel obliged to emphasize that this has nothing to do with whether or not one side was in the wrong or right, nothing to do with accusations of a lack of vision, of pandering to, or resisting the wiles and calculations of erstwhile colonial rulers, or indeed, taking sides in a Cold War that turned Africans into surrogate players and the continent into prostrate testing ground for new weaponry.

“No, we merely place before ourselves an exercise in hindsight – with no intention however of denying credit to those who did exercise foresight – we propose that the loss of two million and a half people, the maiming and traumatization of innumerable others and devastation on a hitherto unimaginable scale, by a nation turned against itself even as it teetered on the edge of modernity, provokes sober reflection. That’s all. Sober reflection.

“A re-thinking that is unafraid, especially as such scenarios, considered in some cases even worse, more brutish, have since followed. Need one recall Rwanda’s own entry into that contest in morbid pathology, one that surpasses the Biafran carnage when comparatively assessed in duration and population parameters? All remain active reminders to haunt Africa’s collective conscience –  the existence of which, I know, is an optimistic presumption – and appears to elude the ministrations of politicians and/or ideologues, or indeed theologians.”

He said there was need to borrow a leaf from brothers and sisters in the Diaspora, saying that he had no qualms in reminding this or any other Nigerian audience that, such was the ingrained slave mentality of the contemporary progeny of those who sold those exiles into slavery in the first place, that some in this nation actually considered it a duty, even honour, to take up cudgels on behalf of the denigrators of their own kind, of their own race.

“Thus, they proceed to insult those who respond in their own personal manner to such racists, however powerfully positioned and no matter where on this globe – but let that pass for now. My intention is to jog your memories regarding that spate of serial elimination of our kind – the African-Americans – by white police in the United States at that very time, an epidemic that merely actualized the racist rantings of the current incumbent of the White House as he powered his way to the coveted seat in the last United States elections. The African-Americans, tired of being arbitrary sacrificial lambs,the victims of hate rhetoric, went on nation-wide protest marches, carrying placards that read:

“Adopting that simple exhortation enables us to include the millions of victims of failed or indifferent leadership on this continent who are more concerned with power and its accruements, who see the nation, not as expressions of a people’s will, need, belonging, and industry, but as ponds in which they, the bullfrogs of our time, can exercise power for its own sake. It is they who militate against ‘nation’, not – I shall end on this selective note – not the products of migration from purely nominal nation enclaves who perish daily along the Sahara desert routes, who drown in droves in the Mediterranean.

“They are the ones who confronted the question with, alas, a fatalist determinism. They asked themselves the question: When is a Nation?  And the answer of those desperate migrants is clearly read as not when we left where we called home! As long as our humanity opts for unmarked graves in the Sahara desert, or in the guts of the fishes of the Mediterranean, their answer remains to haunt us all. Yes, indeed, let us internalize that Africa-American declaration as statement of a living faith, an expression of our humanity that may compel leadership to pause at critical moments of decision, thereby earn ourselves some space where we can re-think those bequeathed absolutes that we so proudly spout, gospels of sacrosanctity, pre-packaged imperatives or questionable, often poisoned“truths” that incite us to advance so conceitedly towards the dehumanization, and decimation of our kind,” he stated.

- PM NEWS