News Highlights for February

Leah Sharibu’s Grim Anniversary: Four Years in Captivity
2023: Obasanjo Advocates Younger President To Stem National Insecurity
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has lent his voice to the call for a younger Nigerian president come 2023 to marshall a comprehensive and cohesive onslaught on insecurity in the country. President Obasanjo said the older generation should concern itself with providing guidance and knowledge to younger national leaders than be in a competitive race with them to make Nigeria better. He emphasized that old age comes with a wealth of experience and a reservoir of knowledge that can be tapped into by the younger energetic leaders. Obasanjo said this at the 2022 Murtala Mohammed Foundation annual lecture, which took place at the Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua Centre, Abuja………….… READ MORE 

No fewer than twenty-two people have been abducted in a fresh attack in Idon town in the Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State by gunmen suspected to be bandits. Naija News learnt that the assailants invaded the town on Wednesday morning at about 12:30 a.m. A resident of the community, Mr. Aboki Danjuma who confirmed the incident to newsmen explained that the gunmen stormed the village shooting sporadically. He added that they broke doors and windows while they injured at least four persons during the raid……..…READ MORE

DSS bars lawyers from visiting Nnamdi Kanu

Ortom accuses Buhari’s govt of working with Boko Haram insurgents, bandits
The Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, on Wednesday slammed the Federal Government over the worsening insecurity in Nigeria. The governor had launched several attacks on President Muhammadu Buhari’s government over insecurity, economy, and other major national issues since last year. Ortom, who addressed a delegation of the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) led by the Director-General of the agency, Mrs. Cecilia Gayya, at Government House in Makurdi, asked Nigerians to hold the federal government liable for the killings by Boko Haram insurgents, bandits, and herdsmen in the country. He accused the government of working with the insurgents…………… READ MORE 

No fewer than 138 persons, including security personnel, were killed, while 101 others were abducted in violent attacks across the country in the last one week, Nigeria Security Tracker, published by former United States Ambassador, Mr. John Campbell, has said. The update said the violent attacks were largely perpetrated by terrorist groups, bandits, and other criminal groups, in addition to a few cases of extrajudicial killings. The latest update, which covered January 29 to February 4, showed an increase in the number of violent attacks, compared to the previous week. While 20 violent attacks were reported in the previous week, 29 attacks occurred in the week under review, an indication that the security situation had worsened……………READ MORE

An arrested terrorist in Sokoto, 33-year-old Musa Mohammed Kamarawa made a shocking revelation last week when he disclosed how he bought a gun truck worth N28.5 million for one of the terrorist leaders in Sokoto state. Kamarawa, a childhood friend of the notorious bandit kingpin, Bello Turji, who was one of the 37 arrested bandits confessed during interrogation how he had brought sophisticated weapons into Nigeria on many occasions. The question that bothers Nigerians therefore, is how terrorists are able to sneak in arms into the country without being detected by the customs and immigration officials. Information at Saturday Vanguard’s disposal revealed that most of these bandits sneak into the country between 12 midnight and 3 am, when it is certain that Immigration and Customs officers manning the land and sea borders are relaxing at their respective posts at the 84 regular and officially recognized routes into Nigeria.  …….…READ MORE

Epoch Times Reporter Released on Bail From Nigerian Prison
Luka Binniyat, whose reporting of massacres in Kaduna State provoked the ire of authorities, has been released on bail after enduring nearly three months in a Nigerian prison. Binniyat told The Epoch Times he will face prosecutors on Feb. 28 on the charge of cyberstalking, which legal experts have called controversial. “The conditions in the prison have deteriorated since I was held there in 2017. The prisoners are malnourished and I would say conditions are life-threatening,” Binniyat said. The journalist’s release was hailed by press freedom advocates and human rights watchers in Nigeria and the United States…………… READ MORE 

About 400 ethnic nationalities in Nigeria on Thursday called on the Federal Government to be more proactive in dealing with the growing spate of insecurity in the country. According to them, Nigeria youths cannot continue to witness such mindless killing of Nigerians in their numbers on a daily basis. The nationalities under the aegis of Nigeria Ethnic Nationalities Youth Leaders Council said they have taken notice of the level of insecurity in the country which had now reached a very alarming level. ………..…READ MORE

“We ran. That was how I survived and got to this place,” says Tijani Umara, a 65-year-old who fled the Islamic insurgent group Boko Haram seven years ago. A nearby village had been attacked and “burnt into ashes”, he says. “They were coming towards us. When they approached my village we heard the gunshots, I asked my children to follow me, and we walked through the bush and hid until we found it was calm, then we sneaked and entered here.” Umara’s wife is dead and his eight children are unemployed, except for odd jobs such as cutting grass. He pays 1,500 naira (€3.17) a month for a single room, which four of them squeeze into. They sold what remained of their animals to buy food……..…READ MORE