News Highlights for November

Jos Prison Update: 11 Killed, 252 Inmates Escape
Eleven people were killed and 252 inmates escaped from the Jos custodial centre in Nigeria’s Plateau state when a group of unidentified gunmen attacked the facility Sunday. One of the gunmen was among the people killed. Francis Enobore, a spokesman for the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), said in a statement that one of the guards at the facility and nine inmates died during the attack. Enobore said another member of the staff was shot in the hand and six inmates were also injured in the attack. According to the spokesperson, some attackers and 262 inmates escaped in the melee before reinforcement could come from sister services, noting that 10 inmates have so far been recaptured, leaving 252 at large...… READ MORE


Plateau: Attacks Taking Place Behind Nigerian Army 3 Div is an Embarrassment
Reactions have continued to trail the killing of about 10 people, mostly the aged and children, burning of over 30 houses as well as food barns in the early hours of Friday at Te’egbe village, Miango District, Irigwe Chiefdom, Bassa local government area of Plateau State. The State Chapter, All Progressives Congress, APC and the Senator representing Plateau North Senatorial zone, Istifanus Gyang have frowned at the renewed killing in the area, saying it is embarrassing that Bassa which hosts the headquarters of the 3 Division, Nigerian Army is being tormented in their manner….… READ MORE


Yuletide: Surge in Kidnap, Robbery Cases Imminent
Two security experts, Chief Executive Officer, Background Check International (BCI), Kola Olugbodi, and National Security Policy Analyst, Christopher Orji, have warned of an imminent increase in the rate of Kidnap and robbery as Christmas and New Year celebrations draw near. The experts, who spoke at the weekly e-Discourse organised by leading Pan-Africa forum, Platforms Africa, also expressed concerns over the recent surge in ritual killings in hotels, as they offer personal security tips to lodgers and travelers during the Yuletide and beyond….…READ MORE


A Shocking Reversal: The US Officially Turns a Blind Eye to Nigeria’s Endangered Christians
After decades of disturbing eyewitness reports, today’s international religious freedom observers have become deeply concerned about Nigeria’s imperiled Christian communities. On Friday, November 19, just hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken launched his first diplomatic outreach to Africa, we learned that the United States has inexplicably removed Nigeria from its State Department list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC). To some, that may sound like innocuous paperwork or an ambassadorial feel-good gesture. But, in fact, this de-listing of Nigeria’s CPC designation is an outrageous betrayal of an already brutalized Christian community. And it forebodes multiplied death squads, torched villages and farmlands, and devastated homeless refugees….…READ MORE

Rights Activists Petition Blinken to Help Free Epoch Times Reporter in Nigeria
On Nov. 15, the 40th anniversary of the Day of the Imprisoned Writer, a petition to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is calling for his help to free a Nigerian contributor to The Epoch Times. The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission also will hold an event to call attention to the arrest of journalists. Luka Binniyat was arrested on Nov. 4 in Kaduna, Nigeria, and charged with “cyberstalking” under a statute denounced by critics as intended to silence opposition journalists. Binniyat, 52, was charged on Nov. 9 in a Kaduna magistrate’s court with cyberstalking the Nigerian commissioner of internal state security, Samuel Aruwan, for a report published by The Epoch Times that revealed that no arrests or prosecutions had ensued a month after a massacre of unarmed Christians in a village in southern Kaduna state on Sept. 26..… READ MORE


ISWAP Regrouping Around Lake Chad
Barely three days after some soldiers, including a General, were killed in a deadly attack, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South), has raised the alarm that members of Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) are regrouping around the Lake Chad Basin in Borno State. Ndume also condemned Saturday’s killing of Brig-Gen. Dzarma Zirkusu by ISWAP terrorists around Chibok area of the state. According to him, the death of the soldiers is a big blow to the insurgency war, saying that it was an ambush laid by the terrorists….… READ MORE


Bandits Demand N40m Ransom for 13 Kidnapped LGA Workers
Bandits that abducted 13 Zaria local government workers weekend demanded 40 million naira ransom to release them. The captives were abducted  Monday on their way to condole with their colleague whose father died at Idasu village in Giwa local government area. A report had it that the captives included 9 married women and 4 men. However, as at the time of filing this report, details of negotiation with the bandits were unknown……READ MORE


Dogara: Nigerians Have Accepted Mass Killings as New Normal
A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has said Nigerians seem to have accepted mass killings in the country as the new normal. Dogara, in a keynote address titled, “Peace and Development in Nigeria: The Pragmatic Approach,” delivered at a summit organised by the Sultan Maccido Institute for Peace and Development Studies, University of Abuja, lamented that such killings no longer made headlines, adding that the situation had created a feeling that “nothing matters anymore.”……READ MORE
 

NIGERIA OWES CHINA UP TO $3 BILLION – WORLD BANK
According to a document from World Bank, the total borrowing from China of USD3.121 billion as of March 31, 2020, are concessional loans with interest rates of 2.50 percent per annum with a  tenor of 20 years and a grace period (moratorium) of seven years. Although these loans are project-tied, Nigerians still rejected a request by President Muhammadu Buhari for a  fresh loan, prompting the Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed to assure the nation that the country’s debt is still sustainable. Similarly, in terms of external sources of funds, loans from China accounted for 11.28 percent of the External Debt Stock of USD27.67 billion as of the same date...… READ MORE


Assembly Crisis: IGP Deploys New Police Commissioner To Plateau
The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, has deployed a new Commissioner of Police, Bartholomew Nnamdi Onyeka, to Plateau State. The Force spokesman, Frank Mba, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday, adding that the new CP hails from Nkume, in Njaba Local Government Area of Imo State. He equally noted that the IGP redeployed the erstwhile police commissioner, Edward Egbuka to the Force headquarters for other national engagements. The deployment followed the recent crisis that rocked the State House of Assembly where the Speaker of the House, Nuhu Abok Ayuba, was impeached and replaced by Yakubu Sanda by eight lawmakers…… READ MORE


162 Nigerians Return from Libya
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Wednesday said it had received 162 Nigerian returnees from Libya through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. The Acting Coordinator of the Lagos Territorial Office of NEMA, Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos. Farinloye said the returnees who were stranded in Libya, departed Mitiga International Airport, Tripoli, aboard a chartered Buraq Aircraft at 10.00 p.m. local time and arrived at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, on Wednesday, at 2:10 a.m. Nigerian time. “The returnees were brought back to the country by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) through voluntary repatriation programme for the distressed persons………READ MORE