Partial closure of Third Mainland Bridge begins

At about midnight on Friday, concrete barriers went up at the mouth of the 11.8km Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos.

The barriers signalled the beginning of repairs of the 30 year-old bridge and its partial closure for the next six months.

First to be blocked was the outbound multi-lane at Adeniji Adele, which carries traffic from the Lagos island to the Lagos mainland at Oworonsoki.

The barriers will be in place till noon Saturday, when it will be opened for traffic.

Simultaneously, some other set of concrete barriers will block traffic from Oworonsoki end, going to Lagos.

The blockade will also be in place till midnight, when it will be opened for traffic coming into Lagos

The alternating open and close is a rhythm Lagosians plying the bridge must master in the next six months as the almost 30 year-old bridge goes into repair mode.

The Federal Controller of Works, Olukayode Popoola, explained the rhythm to Channels TV:

“In the morning when you are going to resume your work, right from Oworonshoki, you use the same line that you normally use to go and work.

“By 12 in the afternoon, we close this lane so you can now divert. We have created diversion as you can see it,” he said.

Workss Minister, Raji Fashola explained that the maintenance of the busiest bridge in the country was aimed at replacing damaged components for a better motoring experience.

The maintenance is to be carried out on a length of 3.5 kilometres out of the 11.8 kilometres of the bridge.

- PM NEWS

Almajiris will stir revolution in Nigeria not BBNaija-loving youth

If Nigeria’s young are timid, tractable and apathetic to economic and political issues affecting their country, blame the anvil on which they are forged.

The government, the formative schools, the universities and the predatory politics – all are the forgers of today’s youth. A system which lobotomises the young from nascency has already denied them not only the ability to emote, think, act, but also the power to speak up for themselves, fight for their rights and defend themselves.

There was a time in Nigeria when the youth held the forte. They were unbending to the caprices of the military and to the stimuli of fear and avarice.

I will cite two epochs for emphasis – the dawn of Segun Okeowo, the provocateur of the Ali Must Go uprising of 1978, and the dusk of Omoyele Sowore – the trenchant voice of the June 12 struggle.

In April 1978, the ministry of education led by Ahmadu Ali announced an increment of N1 (from 50 kobo to N1:50) to the cost of the daily meal of students.

But the National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS) led by Okeowo will not have it down its throat without some justification. The union asked the ministry to revert to the status quo, but it balked shifting responsibility to the Supreme Military Ruling Council. A head-to-head was inevitable.

Students poured into the streets to press home their demands but received police bullets as rejoinders. Eight students were reportedly killed. But this did not stop the righteous movement which engulfed the entire country. The youth held their ground. They made their statement and their power was felt by the military government. I call this epoch the dawn of youth activism in Nigeria.

Only N1 increase in the cost of daily meals for students actuated a nationwide revolt. But today, what has changed? I will explain. Our formative schools and universities are no longer centres of critical learning. They are now robot factories where anyone who goes in as human comes out as a machine with flesh – beaten, broken, pliable and malleable. The mould from which the like of Wole Soyinka was shaped at the University of Ibadan which made him assertive and daring has long been smashed to smithereens.

University administrations in cahoots with scourges in the highest realm of government have over the years sterilised student unionism. Student leaders no longer represent their constituencies but the school leadership which most times select them. Students are stampeded out of reason and seized of the power of independent thought and critical thinking. They are instructed to parrot whatever the lecturer and the school say. In fact, the methods of some universities today are not distant from concentration camps – only that there are no gas chambers.

Another reason why we have a soluble youth population is our predatory politics. I believe student unionism was corrupted from 1999. Youth activism as we know it ended with the epoch of Sowore and the June 12 struggle. It is the reason I regard it as the dusk of student unionism.

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) is now a club of men battling middle-age crisis. The association is, in fact, a chapter of any ruling party of the day. It is utterly porous of ideas and intellectual grit. There is no shade of difference between today’s NANS and the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) – led by MC Oluomo. NANS only thrives for its sheer industry of violence and capacity for noise.

Members of NANS leadership live like the quotidian Nigerian politician in unearned luxury, coursing through cities and towns in convoys labelled with vanity plates. The end of student unionism ensued with the meddling of the political class. Agitators became one with the oppressors.

Fundamentally, if there was to be a revolution in Nigeria; it would not come from the BBNaija-loving Nigerian youth on social media. They are already seized of the mental alacrity for action. I believe the biggest uprising in the country will come from hard-pressed young Nigerians insulated from the disempowering academic system and its corollaries. It will come from boys on the streets like we witnessed in Katsina when some protesters burnt the billboard of President Muhammadu Buhari.

I hate to say it, but Nigeria’s revolution (protests for change) lies in the hands of the Almajiris – even though they themselves are exploited for political gains. But they are the outliers of the system. It is the reason I see no point haranguing young people taken over by the reality show — BBNaija. They are victims of the situation themselves.

And why am I mulling protests for change in Nigeria? With the shocking revelations from the NDDC probe and the mindboggling disclosure of sleaze across all sectors of the economy, I believe we cannot make any progress as a country this way. Something must give.

It will happen. That change that Nigerians seek will come by the hands of the forgotten.

*Fredrick Nwabufo is a writer and journalist. Twitter: @FredrickNwabufo

Family demands justice as man ‘detained illegally’ dies in police custody

Kehinde Omotosho, a trader at Gbagi market in Ibadan, Oyo state capital, has died after being “detained illegally” at the state criminal investigation department, Iyaganku, Ibadan, Oyo state, for five days.

According to a complaint lodged in Flag’IT, a crime-reporting app launched by the Akin Fadeyi Foundation, Omotosho was arrested in lieu of Jelili, his nephew who was allegedly involved in a fight.

After his arrest, the police reportedly nabbed Jelili but still refused to released Omotosho, who was said to have fallen ill on the fourth day after he was cramped into a small cell which had between 136 and 140 persons inside it.

“Mr Omotosho was kept in Police detention under very inhuman conditions. He and Jelili Rasak Olaotan were detained in a 16 x 16 cell said to be filled already with between 136 and 140 suspects, under very asphyxiating and abhorrent condition,” Akin Fadeyi Foundation said in a statement.

“Between these days, Mr. Kehinde had no access to any of his relatives and could not feed. He and his fellow detained relative, Jelili depended on begging for miserly portions of bread from fellow inmates.

“He could not sleep because they were all standing all night days after days upon days inside this dingy cell. By Monday night, 4 days after a very horrendous experience, Mr. Omotosho had developed so much discomfort that he became ill at ease and very ill.
“Rather than have him access medical treatment, the Police Authorities at Iyaganku had him tightly tied up with ropes like a lunatic and made him lie face down all through Monday night.

“By 5am, Tuesday, Tuesday, 21st day of July 2020 morning, Mr. Omotosho gave up in the cell of the State Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku. Immediately after this, Jelili who was also illegally detained alongside Mr. Omotosho started screaming for attention for his Uncle. He was prevented for long until other Detainees under the Leadership of a Cell Leader called “State” lent their voices before the Police came to ferry Mr. Omotosho to their Police Clinic. Mr. Omotosho of course was dead. Even after this, the Police prevented Jelili from calling the relatives till much later at 12 noon to inform them of such tragic development.”

The foundation said after the death of Omotosho, the police got an extended family member of the deceased to sign an affidavit that there would be no case against the police over the incident.

“To cover up its tracks and absolve itself from responsibility, on Friday, 24th of July 2020, the Nigerian Police, State CID, Iyaganku got an extended family member of the late Kehinde Omotosho, who had no authority on behalf of the family to swear to among other things an affidavit of ‘No case’,” the statement read.

“The affidavit also stated that the family would not be interested in the autopsy of the late Omotosho who was unlawfully arrested and illegally incarcerated. It was curious that the Nigerian Police with all its exposure to professional capacity strengthening and best global practices, would even conjecture cajoling an uneducated family into picking up the corpse of an illegally detained man without autopsy. Why is a supposedly innocent police department also demanding for the signing of a “no case” affidavit?”

But Khadijat, the eldest child of Omotosho, reportedly told the foundation that the family is not in support of the affidavit sworn to by an extended relative.

“This extended relative did not have the authority of the biological children of the late Omotosho, and they insist on demanding for investigation, as to why the Nigerian Police would unlawfully arrest their breadwinner and keep him till he died in their custody,” the foundation said in a statement.

“We have a hand written letter of Khadijat sent to our organization. Needless to say that Khadijat, her siblings and other members of the family have remained inconsolable, traumatized, horrified and in a state of shock.”

Gbenga Fadeyi, police public relations officer in Oyo, neither responded to calls or text messages at the time this report was filed.

- THECABLE

AREWA REPUBLIC !! ‘Take them to govt house or Aso Rock’ – Borno residents reject ‘reformed’ Boko Haram fighters

Some residents in Borno state are kicking against the reintegration of repentant Boko Haram members into the communities.

The military had in 2016 launched Operation Safe Corridor, an initiative for the deradicalisation and rehabilitation of ex-Boko Haram members.

The aim of the operation, the military had also said, is to reintegrate repentant Boko Haram members  into society.

In July, 602 ex-Boko Haram members were said to have completed a de-radicalisation, rehabilitation and reintegration (DRR) programme. 

But residents who spoke with TheCable said the idea would be a difficult one to accept. 

“From day one, Maiduguri people have never liked the idea of reintegrating the terrorists back to the community,” one of the residents said. 

“The reason is simple. It means they are likely to come in contact with people who slaughtered members of their family and friends in their presence and they are expected not to think about it?

“They are expected to agree for these people to be with them in society? How do you expect us to live with the killers of our parents? Those who attacked us and burnt down our houses?” 

Shettima Mustapha, another resident who took to Facebook, said one of the ex-Boko Haram members was brought into a community where one of the recently killed humanitarian workers came from. 

Five humanitarian workers abducted in Borno state were recently executed by the suspected insurgents.

“Today, we woke up to the news that one notorious Boko Haram member,  popularly known as Mallam Yawu, came back to Shehuri South community. Reportedly, he came back with some papers believed to be government clearance papers, possibly, from those responsible for reintegration of repentant Boko Haram members,” Mustapha wrote. 

 “The reaction of the people of that community was as expected — a total rejection and condemnation of the authorities who released him back to the community. 

“From what we are learning, he is either taken away by security operatives or CJTF, perhaps, looking at the pulse of the general public about his sudden reappearance.

“And don’t forget, only yesterday, a video of the gruesome murder of the humanitarian aid workers was released by the BHT. One of those killed, Abdurahman Bulama, was from the same Shehuri South community where this terrorist is being planned to be reintegrated. The same sad story is true of almost every community in Borno State.” 

Usman Alibe, another resident, also narrated how a similar scenario played out in his area in Bama some months back “when a female member of the dreaded group returned home with a full security backing”.

According to him, the insistence of the government on this matter “will not augur well for our fragile peace in the towns and city centre”.

“It is fine if the authorities are so magnanimous to forgive their heinous crime and it is also fine for the victims who they wreak a monumental havoc to not forgive them. Therefore, the government should integrate them into government houses and the villa but not our society,” he said.

TheCable gathered that residents have not been properly briefed and advised on how to accept the reintegration of the repentant insurgents. 

“It should be a two-way thing; while these people are being deradicalised, what is being done to the members of the societies who have been the victims? As you are working on the terrorists, you also work on those affected,” Jack Vince, a journalist resident in Maiduguri, told TheCable. 

He added that going forward, a bigger problem might be brewing if the people are not properly sensitised on the matter.  

In February, TheCable had reported how some soldiers at the war front expressed disappointment over the release of repentant Boko Haram suspects. 

Meanwhile, Sagir Musa, army spokesperson, is yet to respond to a message seeking reaction over the development.

- THECABLE

Anthony Joshua reveals what will happen if he fights Mike Tyson

Anthony Joshua has said Mike Tyson would take him the distance if they fight now.

Tyson, 54, is set for a return to the ring after 15 years and will face former four-weight champion, Roy Jones Jr in an eight-round exhibition.

WBC champion, Tyson Fury, claims he was offered £10 million to fight his namesake, but turned down the offer.

However, Fury’s rival, Joshua, 30, was asked how he would fare if he took on the former heavyweight champion.

He told Sky Sports: “I don’t want to say anything because I love Mike Tyson, he would land a few left hooks and body shots but we would go the distance.

“His age would show but we would be pushing and shoving. He is in my top three.”

- DAILY POST

Arsenal winger, Bukayo Saka speaks on decision to play for Nigeria, England

Arsenal winger, Bukayo Saka, has revealed that he would make a decision to choose between Nigeria or England when the time comes.

The 18-year-old also admitted that it would be a ‘tough’ decision for him to make because he has represented England at the youth team and his parents are Nigerians.

However, Saka is yet to feature for the English senior team, which makes him still eligible for the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

Speaking on the development, Saka told Sky Sports News: “It’s a tough choice.

“I’m happy to have represented England at youth level, but I’m also proud of my Nigerian heritage from my parents.

“We haven’t been picked by any team, so it’s about staying humble, and when the time comes, we’ll make the decision.”

Saka scored four goals and provided 11 assists in 38 games during his breakthrough season at the Emirates Stadium.

- DAILY POST

Barcelona legend Xavi contracts coronavirus

Former Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez has confirmed that he tested positive for coronavirus and will be in self-isolation.

Xavi, who now manages Qatar Stars League football club ”Al Sadd” will miss his side’s return to competitive action against Al Khor tonight.

In a post on Instagram, Xavi wrote: “A few days ago, following the @qsl protocol, I tested positive in the last COVID19 test.

“Fortunately, I’m feeling ok, but I will be isolated until I am given the all-clear. When the health services allow it, I will be very eager to return to my daily routine and to work.”

The coach of the Al Sadd subsidiary team, David Prats, will take over as the club’s head coach. Once the health authorities give permission, Xavi will get back to his daily routine.

- PM NEWS