Terrorists entering South West through Oke Ogun – Makinde raises alarm

 Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has declared that terrorists are entering the South West geo-political zone of the country through Oke Ogun.

Makinde said terrorists and bandits from Mali and other countries in the West African region are entering through a border in Saki, one of the towns in the State.

The Governor, who spoke when he visited Saki, noted that the issue of banditry was one of the challenges his government was battling with.

He added that the inauguration of Amotekun Corps was yielding positive results.

Makinde noted that Amotekun Corps had been able to flush out some bandits terrorising residents of the State.

He said, “So, it was really tasking. Of course, in our locality here, the issue of banditry is also another issue.

“For instance, Saki shares an international border and it is more of an international issue because we have bandits all the way from Mali that are trying to cross.

“Once they gain entrance into anywhere they can operate, they will stay there.

“When we inaugurated Amotekun, you gave us your support. When some bandits went to the bush at Kishi, we were able to flush them out with all the efforts of all of us here. So, we want to use this opportunity to say thank you to you all.”

- DAILY POST

Attackers of Bishop Kukah agents of evil : Catholic Church

 The National Directorate of Social Communications of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria in Abuja, has stoutly defended the state of the nation message delivered on Christmas Day by Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, Bishop Catholic Diocese of Sokoto.

In the statement titled, A call in Support of Truth’, the church said athe attacks that the truthful message has attracted is ‘the stock in trade of evil people”.

“As expected, the agents of evil have gathered to attack the person of the Bishop and to discredit the simple obvious truth of the message…However, they often succeed when good people, Christians, choose to do nothing”.

Bishop Kukah poked the Buhari supporters when he delivered a damning verdict on the administration, saying the nation is almost rudderless under Buhari’s watch.

Kukah spoke about the worsening insecurity in the country, the parlous economic situation, Buhari’s nepotism and drive for northern hegemony.

And he said the ethnic colouration and bias of the government has not yielded good dividends for Northern Nigeria as it is the worst affected by insecurity.

He said that the prospects of a failed state stares Nigeria in the face, with “endless bloodletting, a collapsing economy, social anomie, domestic and community violence, kidnappings, armed robberies”.

He then delivered a most critical judgment on the regime, saying that every honest Nigerian knows that “there is no way any non-Northern Muslim President could have done a fraction of what President Buhari has done by his nepotism and gotten away with it.

“There would have been a military coup a long time ago or we would have been at war. The President may have concluded that Christians will do nothing and will live with these actions.”

A day after Kukah delivered his speech, Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed launched the first counter-salvo, accusing Kukah of calling for a coup”, a comment that was not grounded in what Kukah actually said.

The APC similarly attacked Kukah, saying Nigeria is no where near what can be called a failed state.

On Monday, Professor Ishaq Akintola, who runs an NGO, styled Muslims Rights Concern poured some vitriol on Kukah, accusing him of painting Islam as a religion of violence and always standing up against a muslim leader.

“Kukah’s statement is reckless, inflammatory and unguarded. It is the most egregious, luciferous, serpentine and diabolical statement of the year 2020. Hasan Mathew Kukah is ululating from the wrong side of the pulpit.

“Kukah is in the habit of demonizing and demarketing any president who happens to be a Muslim. In particular, we are most disappointed that such a heavily prejudiced and explosive statement is coming from the secretary of Nigeria’s Peace Committee. His behaviour is consistently inconsistent with his status,” he said.

Kukah’s church has now risen in his support and also urging lovers of truth and justice to rise in defence of Bishop Kukah against the attack on his person and the attempt to discredit the simple obvious truth in his message.

In the statement the Church said the situation in Nigeria no longer allows anyone to sit on the fence or show indifference.

“We are quite aware of the 2020 Christmas Message by our revered Bishop Hassan Kukah and the enormous space it has enjoyed on social media and in public sphere.

“As expected, the agents of evil have gathered to attack the person of the Bishop and to discredit the simple obvious truth of the message. This is the stock in trade of evil people. However, they often succeed when good people, Christians, choose to do nothing.

“I am therefore calling our attention to this new development so that we can all rise in unison and stand for truth”.

The Church said that everyone must choose and stand up for what he or she believed in.

Quoting a popular verse by St. Augustine, the Church said that “evil is absence of good”, adding that people should add a voice in support of goodness, in order to forestall the reign of evil.

“The truth about our nation is also that there are only two parties now existing: the good and the evil, the oppressed and the oppressor, the suffering people and the benefiting government officers and their families.

“Please stop allowing anyone fool you with these cards: religion and tribe,” the church added.

- PM NEWS

ICYMI: WhatsApp to stop working on millions of phones from Jan 1

 

WhatsApp, a US-run messaging service, says its app will stop working on millions of phones as from January 1, 2021 due to an update aimed at phasing out older devices. 

According to the Independent UK, older Android and iPhone devices will no longer support the latest version of the app.

The update is said to be focused around the operating systems iOS9 for iPhones and Android 4.0.3 respectively.

With the new initiative, iPhone devices not running iOS9 as well as any phone that does not run at least Android 4.0.3, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, will no longer be able to open or operate the app.

The development means owners of affected mobile devices will have to update their mobile operating system or buy a new smartphone.

Some Android phones that would be affected by the new initiative include the Samsung Galaxy S2, HTC Desire and LG Optimus Black.

Android users can ascertain the software obtainable on their devices by checking their setting sections. On the other hand, iPhone users can determine this by clicking on settings, general and then software update.

Below are phones set to lose WhatsApp support on 1 January 2021:

Apple iPhone 1-4

Samsung Galaxy S2

HTC Desire

LG Optimus Black

Motorola Droid Razr

Any Android released before 2010

Below are phones that will need to update to at least iOS 9 or Android OS 4.0.3:

Apple iPhone 4S

iPhone 5

iPhone 5S

iPhone 6

iPhone 6S

Samsung Galaxy S3 and newer

Samsung Galaxy Note

HTC Sensation

HTC Thunderbolt

LG Lucid

Motorola Droid 4

Sony Xperia Pro and newer

The development comes as WhatsApp also announced that it would be updating its terms of service as from next year which would demand users agreeing to its privacy rules to keep using the app.

- THECABLE

Gunmen abduct newlyweds in Katsina

 

Gambo Isah, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, on Monday confirmed the incident.

Isah, however, stated that he was making efforts to contact the Divisional Police Officer in the local government for more details.

According to a resident of Runka, the community was attacked by the armed men in the early hours of Monday.

The victim, according to the resident, was simply identified as Sama’ila Super, an uncle to the lawmaker representing Safana Constituency in the Katsina State House of Assembly.

Super, who was reported to have been killed after he resisted attempts by the bandits to kidnap him, was buried hours after the incident.

The resident decried that a similar attack was carried out on Sunday where some scores of villagers were abducted at Babban Duhu Community.

He noted that many locals were wounded during the incident and were taken to a hospital for medical treatment.

- PM NEWS

Leave Bishop Kukah, fight bandits – Shehu Sani to Northern youths

 

Shehu Sani, former Kaduna Central Senator, has called on youths in the North to fight bandits and leave Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Mathew Kukah alone.

In his Christmas message, Kukah had accused President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration of nepotism.

He claimed that Buhari had sacrificed the dreams of Nigerians on the alter of nepotism and Northern hegemony.

But, the Coalition of Northern Groups, CNG, accused the clergyman of attempting to destroy the quest for national integration by instigating violence.

CNG said Kukah was using religion to cause disharmony and facilitate the further emasculation of Northern Nigerian Muslims.

However, Sani, in a tweet wrote: “My Dear Northern Youths; leave the Kukah in Sokoto and fight the Bandits in your shokoto.”

- DAILY POST

Nigeria’s COVID-19 deaths double in one month

 

As Nigeria is recording a spike in confirmed COVID-19 cases, so also is the country reporting more deaths from the virus.

In the last one month, the number of Nigerians who have died from coronavirus has almost tripled, according to checks by TheCable.

After analysing data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), TheCable found that the total number of deaths in December has risen to more than two times what was recorded in November.

HOW NIGERIA JUMPED FROM 32 TO 83 COVID-19 DEATHS WITHIN ONE MONTH

After recording a daily average of ten COVID-19 deaths from May 28 to June 27 when 299 fatalities were reported, the number of monthly deaths in Nigeria started to drop.

From 295 within the next month, the deaths were on a steady decline until October when 24 people died from the virus, that is from September 28 to October 27.

Then the curve started to rise again — from 32 within the next month (an average of one daily) to 83 fatalities recorded between November 28 and December 27 (a daily average of 2.6).

A SECOND WAVE OF DEATHS: INCREASED TESTING OR INFECTIONS?

On December 18, the presidential task force (PTF) on COVID-19 announced that Nigeria may have entered the second wave of the pandemic.

Boss Mustapha, chairman of the PTF, had said: “In Nigeria, the indication is that we have entered the second wave of infections, and we stand the risk of not just losing the gains from the hard work of the last nine months, but also losing the precious lives of our citizens.”

Although a second wave does not mean all doom and gloom, such spike in infections usually results in increased deaths as a result of more people reporting symptoms and getting hospitalised.

In Nigeria, where less than one million people have been tested for the coronavirus, NCDC data show the testing capacity has slightly improved in recent weeks.

From 31,000 tested in the last week of November, the number of tests has continued to grow to 36,000, 40,000 and 46,000 in the first three weeks of December, respectively.

However, there is little or no evidence that the resurgence of cases is as a result of increased testing.

In fact, experts have said that during a second wave, the actual number of people getting sick with the coronavirus is increasing mostly as a result of human behaviour.

Meanwhile, the PTF has maintained that pending the availability of vaccine doses in the country, there is a need to prioritise non-pharmaceutical interventions such as wearing of face masks and maintaining physical distance to prevent spread of the virus.

- THECABLE

Catholic Bishop Chikwe, chauffeur kidnapped in Owerri

 

Most Rev. Moses Chikwe, the auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri, Imo State, in Eastern Nigeria, has been kidnapped.

The 53 year-old priest was kidnapped along with his chauffeur near his residence on Sunday night, 27 December.

The Owerri archbishop, Most Rev. John Victor Obinna, called for prayers “for Chikwe’s safety and quick release.” \

“According to eyewitnesses, the Auxiliary Bishop was kidnapped in the night of Sunday 27th December 2020.

“An anonymous source said that the Bishop and his driver were kidnapped close to his house, while his car and official regalia were abandoned at the premises of the Assumpta Cathedral.

“As at the time of this report, there had been no official reports of any correspondence with the kidnappers.

“This is the second time this month that a Catholic cleric is being kidnapped in the Eastern part of Nigeria.

” Rev. Fr. Valentine Oluchukwu Ezeagu of the Sons of Mary Mother of Mercy (SMMM), Umuahia, Nigeria, was kidnapped December 15, 2020 by unidentified gunmen.

He was on his way to bury his late father.

“Fr. Valentine was later released unconditionally.

“Please let us keep the Auxiliary Bishop of Owerri Archdiocese in our fervent prayers”the Archbishop stated.

Chikwe was born 3 April 1967.

He is the last of the ten children of late Mr. Moses Nwamadi Chikwe and Mrs. Anthonia Nwaobiara Chikwe of Umuehihie, Uzoagba in Ikeduru L.G.A Imo state.

His parents were very devout Catholics.

- PM NEWS