Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he was ready for talks with US counterpart Donald Trump on Ukraine, praising him as a “smart” leader who might have prevented the conflict from starting in 2022.

Kyiv reacted quickly, warning against being excluded from negotiations.

The Russian leader did not say when talks would take place, and the Kremlin said earlier it was still waiting for “signals” from Washington, despite Trump announcing Thursday he was willing to meet Putin “immediately”.

“We have always said, and I want to emphasise this once again, that we are ready for these negotiations on Ukrainian issues,” Putin told a reporter from Russian state TV.

Praising Trump as a “smart” and “pragmatic” man, Putin also repeated the Republican’s unfounded claim that he won the US presidential election against Joe Biden in 2020.

“I cannot but agree with him that if he had been president — if his victory hadn’t been stolen in 2020 — then maybe there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that emerged in 2022,” Putin said.

– Pressure from Trump –

The nearly three-year Ukraine conflict has plunged relations between the two nuclear powers to their lowest levels since the Cold War.

Trump, who was inaugurated on Monday, has called the conflict “ridiculous” and threatened Russia with tougher economic sanctions if it does not agree to stop its offensive.

“If they don’t settle this war soon, like almost immediately, I’m going to put massive tariffs on Russia, and massive taxes, and also big sanctions,” the Republican said during a Fox News interview on Thursday.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on the same day, Trump said he would ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to lower oil prices, claiming: “If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately.”

Putin pushed back at Trump’s claim that lower oil prices might expedite the end of the conflict.

“I have a hard time imagining there will be decisions taken that are detrimental to the American economy,” Putin said Friday.

– ‘Come back to reality’ –

Neither side has shown signs of de-escalating hostilities since Trump’s inauguration, despite the President claiming he would end the conflict in “24 hours” once in power.

Kyiv on Friday warned against being excluded from any talks.

“He (Putin) wants to negotiate the fate of Europe — without Europe. And he wants to talk about Ukraine without Ukraine,” the head of Ukraine’s presidential office Andriy Yermak said.

“This is not going to happen. Putin needs to come back to reality himself, or he will be brought back. This is not how it works in the modern world.”

Russian aerial attacks near Kyiv killed three people and wounded several others, Ukrainian officials said Friday, while Ukraine fired 120 drones at least 12 Russian regions, including the capital Moscow.

The Kremlin has launched drone or missile attacks at Kyiv almost every day since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, ostensibly targeting military and energy facilities.

“Three people were killed in an enemy attack in the Kyiv region,” the emergency services said in a statement on social media.

Fragments of a drone had struck a 10-story residential building after the head of the region said a private home had also been hit, it added.

Black smoke billowed from a residential building damaged in the strike as rescue workers hauled out the bodies of the victims, official images from the scene showed.

In Russia, the Ukrainian military said it launched an overnight drone attack striking an oil refinery, power station facilities, and an electronics plant.

State media reported that a microelectronics factory had halted work after six Ukrainian drones damaged production and storage facilities in the Bryansk region.

The Nigeria Police Force, Niger State Command, in collaboration with some vigilante members, have intercepted and recovered 520 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition.

According to the Niger State Police Command in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer, SP Wasiu Abiodun, the incident occurred on January 23rd, 2025, at approximately 12:30 am.

The statement explained that during a routine stop-and-search operation along the Bida-Nku-Patigi road, which connects Niger State to Kwara State, the police stopped a motorcycle carrying two individuals, but upon interrogation, the suspects fled.

The PRO disclosed that the fleeing suspects abandoned a sack.

“A search of the sack revealed the live ammunition, which is currently under investigation.”

DAILY POST also gathered that the two fleeing suspects were traveling from Niger State to Patigi in Kwara State when they were intercepted by the police and upon being questioned, the suspects became visibly agitated and fidgety.

It was gathered this aroused suspicion among the police officers and in a bid to escape arrest, the suspects abruptly fled the scene, abandoning a bag containing 520 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition.

However, Abiodun stated that the exhibit is under investigation and efforts are being intensified to arrest the fleeing suspects.

A Kenyan man who is a member of a notorious crime cabal that defrauded a Nigerian national of N150m, has been arrested.
 
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations, DCI, in a statement on Friday, January 21, 2025, said Stephen Mugambi Colbe and his co-conspirators had approached the victim, pretending that they were in a position to hire a private jet to transport unspecified investment funds from Kenya to Nigeria.
 
“Hawkshaws drawn from DCI Headquarters have arrested Stephen Mugambi Colbert who earlier this month and with others who are yet to be arrested conspired to defraud a Nigerian national a sum of 150 million Naira,” the statement read.
 
"While presenting themselves as genuine business men, Mugambi and his cabal of malefactors approached the victim pretending that they were in a position to hire a private jet to transport unspecified investments funds from Kenya to Nigeria, a fact they knew to be false.
 
"Unbeknownst of the foul play, the victim made the payment amounting to 150 million naira only to realize later that he had been played when he could no longer reach Stephen or his cabal of friends in crime.
 
"Having burnt his fingers, the foreign national approached the DCI seeking for help where a manhunt for the snake oil merchants was launched leading to the arrest of Mugambi.
 
"Whereas his accomplices narrowly escaped the sherlocks’ dragnet, it is just a matter of time before they are smoked out of their hideout and brought to book.
 
"The DCI strongly warns that no efforts will be spared in dealing with such fraudsters. Further, we caution members of the public to do their due diligence in establishing the credibility of such businesses to avoid losing their hard earned money.
 
“Additionally, the public is also cautioned of an emerging trend where fraudsters have been found to be using crypto currency as a means of exchange outside the formal financial system in a bid to evade detection.”

A 30-year-old woman, Deveca Rose has been handed a 10-year jail term after her four sons died in a house fire after she locked them inside to go shopping at Sainsbury’s.

Rose left her two sets of twins alone in the unsafe terraced house in Sutton, south-west London when the huge blaze broke out on the evening of December 16, 2021.

Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and four-year-olds Kyson and Bryson Hoath screamed out for help, and a neighbour desperately tried to break down the front door.

Rose, who had split up with her partner and suffered from mental health problems, was found guilty of four counts of manslaughter.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC said: "There are no words to describe this case other than a deeply tragic one."

The children’s father, Dalton Hoath, said losing his four sons was "the worst day of my life".

Mr Hoath, who had split up with the defendant, added that he was "devastated" and his world had been turned "upside down" by the loss of his "young, boisterous lads".

In a statement read by a relative on his behalf, he said: "Their lives had just begun but were cut so short. It was every parent’s worst nightmare.

"I’m not a great talker but even if I was I could not put it in words. I simply want to join them.

"I will never recover from losing my funny, beautiful boys. I have to fight for all of us left behind and live with this massive pain in my heart before I meet them again."

Great-grandmother Sally Johnson wept in court and she told of the "horror" and "pain" of her loss.

She said: "The thought of them crying and screaming out will haunt me forever. My only comfort is they are now together forever and need never be alone again. I’m afraid I will never be able to forgive."

The judge noted Rose had already been to Sainsbury’s earlier that day and her return trip at the time of the fire was not to purchase any items that were essential or vital.

He told Rose: "You were not there and the children were too young to know what to do. As a result of what you did, they were all k!lled."

The Old Bailey heard Rose and the children had been living in squalor, surrounded by rubbish and human excrement before the boy’s de@ths.

There were no working toilets in the house, and buckets throughout the property were used instead.

The children had not attended school for three weeks before their de@ths.

Prosecutor Kate Lumsdon KC had told the court: "There was rubbish thickly spread throughout the house. The toilet and the bath were full of rubbish and could not be used. Buckets and pots were used as toilets instead."

When she arrived back at the property to the scene of the fire, she told firefighters she left her children in the care of a friend named Jade.

This prompted firefighters to go back into the house to search for her.

But police concluded she either did not exist or had not been at the house that day.

The Senate has alleged that some retired military generals might be responsible for illegal mining activities across Nigeria, which continue to undermine the country’s efforts to diversify its economy.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, made this allegation during the budget presentation by Senator Sampson Ekong, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals Development, to the Senate Committee on Appropriation.

Oshiomhole expressed frustration over the Federal Government’s inaction, urging President Bola Tinubu’s administration to address the illegal mining crisis decisively.

He compared the situation to the government’s robust measures against illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta and called for similar enforcement in the mining sector.

According to him, “the ongoing illegal mining across the country is being carried out by retired generals, and we know them. They use helicopters to cart away gold, making billions of dollars, while the country suffers”.

He further revealed that during his tenure as National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), he had written to former President Muhammadu Buhari about the situation, detailing how illegal miners arm local groups and use sophisticated equipment to exploit resources.

He added, “This issue has been left unchecked for too long. We have the data and surveys showing where these activities are happening. It’s time for the government to deploy Joint Task Forces, just as it has done in tackling oil theft.”

Meanwhile, Senator Ekong presented his committee’s recommendation for the 2025 budget of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development. The committee proposed an increase from the N9 billion capital vote initially allocated by the executive to N539 billion, emphasizing the sector’s potential.

Operatives of the Lagos State Police Command, on Friday, arrested two more suspects allegedly involved in the kidnapping of Mrs Folasade Odumosu, the wife of a former Assistant Inspector-General of Police, AIG Hakeem Odumosu.

The suspects are 27-year-old Agbojule Smart, and 30-year-old Keleke Michael.

They were arrested by operatives of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police Special Squad, the Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, confirmed in a statement issued at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.

According to the statement posted on the X handle of the Nigeria Police Force, two locally fabricated rifles, 11 live cartridges and N2.25 million were recovered from the suspects.

“In response to the directive of the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun, Ph.D., NPM., to go after the fleeing suspects in connection to the kidnap of the wife of retired Assistant-Inspector General, AIG Hakeem Odumosu, Mrs Odumosu, the operatives of the Lagos State CP Special Squad have apprehended 2 suspects identified as Agbojule Smart ‘m’, 27 years and Keleke Michael ‘m’, 30 years.

“The suspects were arrested in the early hours of today, Friday, January 24, 2025, while on their way out of Lagos State. Upon interrogation, they confessed to their crime; belonging to a gang of four, two of whom have been neutralised previously.

“Recovered from the suspects upon their arrest was the sum of Two Million, Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N2,250,000), which was part of the requested ransom, 2 locally fabricated rifles, and 11 live cartridges,” the statement partly read.

The statement added that the Inspector-General, Kayode Egbetokun, commended the operatives “for their gallantry in apprehending these suspects and encourages them to maintain this high standard of competence in the fight against crime in all its manifestations.”

Adejobi further stressed the police commitment to improving public security, as it remains steadfast in its commitment to “reducing crime to an absolute minimum and fostering the establishment of peace across the nation.”

The retired AIG’s wife, Folashade Odumosu was abducted last Thursday at the entrance of her residence in the Arepo, Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State.

The abductors took the former AIG’s wife through a swampy area to an unknown destination after dragging her out of her Lexus Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV).

Channels Television on Thursday reported that Mrs Odumosu was rescued by operatives of the Nigeria Police Force. She regained her freedom on Wednesday.

It was gathered that the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Lanre Ogunlowo, led the operation that saw to the rescue of the retired AIG’s wife. Some of the kidnappers were said to have been neutralised during the operation.

The Chief Of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa on Friday debunked claims that the military was involved in forceful abortions of babies fathered by Boko Haram insurgents in Northern Nigeria.

A Reuters report in February 2022 stated that the military ran a secret abortion programme in its fight against armed groups in the northeast, adding that the military abortion programme involved terminating at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls.

However, General Musa, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, slammed the allegations, indicating that they were machinations of NGOs who don’t wish Nigeria well

”I wish you could call them now and ask that question.  I was the theatre commander when they brought this accusation, and I felt very bad because I noticed most of these organisations don’t mean well for us,” the CDS said.

”Whenever we are making progress and succeeding, they throw this at us to look bad and demoralise our troops and the question is, what is the intent? Are they not happy we are succeeding?

”When that incident came in, I met the then Chief of Staff( Lucky Irabor). These guys have been doing this and we are quiet. Let us investigate because I am dead sure that nothing like this happened”

According to the CDS, the special panel instituted by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) found no evidence of any wrongdoing by the military. adding that a public apology was necessary.

”The Human Rights Commission set up an independent committee, and I was the first to testify in January 2023, It took them one and a half years to thoroughly investigate and we gave them unfettered access to anywhere they wanted to go to on their own they finished and brought out their report.”

”We have gone ahead and appealed to the Attorney General to take this to court since they maligned us falsely. Let them come and publicly apologise and say they were wrong about it,” he said.

”The unintended cause is that if you accuse us of doing that, we have been working with international organisations. local NGOs, the UN, are you saying we have been doing this for 10 years and yet they did not report? are you also indicting them? They refused to appear when the report was released.

He also claimed that there were certain NGOs involved in safe abortions for over 10,000 Nigerians, which could have been a likeable source for the report put out by the news outlet.