Officials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) have begun profiling areas worst hit by kidnappers.

The Director of the Department of Development Control of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Mukhtar Galadima, who led the team, said the exercise was to ascertain the causes of kidnapping and the solutions.

 

At the commencement of the profiling at Sagwari Layout Estate, Dutse in Bwari Area Council, where kidnappers abducted some residents recently, Galadima said the officials, with the support of security personnel, will identify buildings without approval and other illegal activities in the area.

According to him, the area was surrounded by structures built without the consent of development control which are aiding criminals to operate.

 

 

Galadima, who was represented by the deputy director of monitoring and enforcement, Hassan Ogbole, blamed the poor planning on the local chief and his men.

He said after profiling, the department would recommend necessary measures that would curb the activities of criminals.

[DailyTrust]

 

Former President Donald Trump has been projected to win Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary just a few minutes after the final polls closed, defeating Nikki Haley – his final remaining major rival for the Republican Party nomination.

Trump is the first non-incumbent GOP candidate in the modern era to win both Iowa and New Hampshire.

At the time of filing this report, with the result tallied so far, Trump secured 146,577 representing 54.2%, while Haley polled 118,027 standing for 43.7%.

 

“I’m very honored by the result,” Trump told Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman in a statement.

Trump’s rival, Haley, a former two-term South Carolina governor served as U.N. ambassador in his administration.

She congratulated Trump on his victory in her speech to supporters in Concord, New Hampshire, after the race was called, but added the “race is far from over,” as she prepares for a primary in her home state of South Carolina next month.

“I want to congratulate Donald Trump on his victory tonight. He earned it and I want to acknowledge that.

“This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go. And next one is my sweet state of South Carolina,” she emphasized.

Meanwhile, as the votes continued to be tabulated, Trump’s margin over Haley remained in the single digits.

Trump made history last year as the first former or current president to be indicted for a crime.

However, his four indictments have only fueled his support among Republican voters.

[DailyPost]

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has said while America is committed to lasting peace and security in Africa, such support would depend on the region’s dependable efforts at ensuring the safety of civilian populations.

Blinken said this on Tuesday in Abuja after meeting with President Bola Tinubu during his visit to Nigeria as part of his tour of African nations.

Blinken said it was important from the U.S. perspective and the perspective of the U.S. Congress to focus on making sure that civilians were protected.

“That humanitarian considerations be taken into concern. As all of these efforts are underway, and that’s part of our dialogue and conversation too, with our partners in Nigeria, and elsewhere in the region,” he said.

“Having said that, it’s important that we work to support our partners who are trying to find effective ways of providing security, and we are working to support Nigeria, to support our Lake Chad region partners.

“To strengthen the capacity of their security forces in a whole variety of ways to deal with insecurity. And yes, that does go to equipment and technology for weapons and we’re working on that.

“But it also goes to many other things including information sharing, intelligence, technical support, advice, and it goes to having a comprehensive approach that genuinely focuses on citizen security.

“Working with local communities, in partnership, demonstrating the security forces that are there, first and foremost, to protect them and to support their needs,” he said.

He said the U.S. was concerned about the security challenges faced by Africa in securing the region from extreme terrorism, violence and other criminal activities that affected the people.

He decried insecurity and resort to undemocratic means of changing democratically elected leaders like the situation in Niger Republic.

Blinken said the collaboration between African countries and America must be based on critical regional strategies to address these situations.

“So when you look at what we are doing, we’re providing assistance through a variety of methods through our diplomacy.

“Engaging with other countries through our security systems, through police and military justice programmes, reforms, which are vital through dialogue efforts through development programmes; all of these things work hand in hand,” said Blinken.

He said the U.S. would continue to collaborate with regional and global partners to ensure that various strategies were employed to solve the worsening security situation on the continent. (NAN)

The Department of State Services (DSS) has officially denied reports claiming the detention of the president of the Fulani socio-cultural organization, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Bello Bodejo.

This clarification was provided by the DSS spokesperson, Peter Afunanya, in a statement issued to TheCable on Tuesday evening.

Responding to an inquiry about the rumoured arrest of Bodejo, Afunanya stated unequivocally, “He’s not with the DSS.”

This statement comes amidst widespread speculations that Bodejo was apprehended by the secret police on Tuesday at the Miyetti Allah’s office located in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.

The supposed arrest was linked to the recent unveiling of a vigilante group by the organization.

Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, a prominent Fulani socio-cultural group, had last week introduced a vigilante group in Nasarawa.

According to Bodejo, the “Nomad vigilante group” is intended to aid security agencies in combating criminal activities in the north-central state.

He mentioned that the group comprises 1,144 Fulani youths, selected from various communities across the 13 local government areas of Nasarawa State.

Furthermore, Bodejo had revealed ongoing efforts to profile individuals interested in joining the vigilante group, with an objective to recruit up to 4,000 youths.

Bodejo said, “Every ethnic group has criminal elements among them, so if a Fulani man or woman commits a crime, he or she should be treated as a criminal just like others and not a Fulani criminal.”

President Bola Tinubu has assured traditional rulers in the South-South geopolitical zone that his administration is committed to addressing their concerns over development and environmental degradation.   

The President gave the assurance on Tuesday at the State House during a meeting with the South-South Monarchs Forum, led by His Royal Majesty, Major-General Felix Mujakperuo (Rtd), Chairman of the Delta State Council of Traditional Rulers, and Vice-Chairman of the South-South Monarchs Forum.

The President told the Royal Fathers that his administration is diligently working, both domestically and internationally, to strengthen Nigeria's durability and approach to climate change, environmental restoration, infrastructure development, all while ensuring security and stability in the region.

Commending the monarchs for their understanding approach to his administration's ongoing economic reforms, particularly the removal of the fuel subsidy, President Tinubu promised that Nigerians would soon enjoy the benefits of these tough, yet necessary decisions.

''We are working to revive the economy from the damage of several years. We seek your support, prayers, and understanding, and I am glad that the Vice-Chairman of the Forum served in an organization where we need intelligence to operate.

''You (the traditional institution) will be the source of the intelligence we need for the holistic development of our country, and anytime you need to tell us something, do not hesitate to reach out to this office. I will take on all of your concerns, and I will address each of them one by one.

''We cannot underestimate your contributions to the peace and stability of this country. Continue to uphold us in your prayers and in talking to our youths to keep faith with the country because light is already visible at the end of the tunnel," the President said. 

In his remarks, His Royal Majesty, Major-General Mujakperuo appealed to President Tinubu to follow up on all developmental efforts in the region to be sure that progress is tangible to the people.

"Mr. President, you know the problems of our region as an expert with experience in the energy industry. We see you working hard to solve our problems, and we are comforted that you have pledged to take on our concerns and bring a final solution to them," the South-South Monarchs Forum Vice-Chairman said.

Chief Ajuri Ngelale

Special Adviser to the President 

(Media & Publicity) 

 

The Niger State Government has filed lawsuits against North-South Power Company Limited and Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited at the Federal High Court in Minna for nonpayment of ground rents and land charges spanning from 2017 to 2022.

The lawsuits also involve the Federal Ministry of Power and the Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company.

 

The State Internal Revenue Service, acting as the plaintiff, is seeking approximately ₦140bn owed by the power-generating companies to the state during the specified period.

In two separate cases, the State Internal Revenue Service has asked the court to declare its authority to demand all outstanding ground rents and land charges related to the landed property and facilities utilised by the defendants in the state.

Counsel to the plaintiff, Mohammed Ndayako, SAN, and Aliyu Lemu, SAN, are seeking a court order directing the defendants to pay the accrued charges.

Additionally, they request the court to instruct the defendants to pay ten percent interest per annum on the judgement sum until fully settled and cover the litigation costs.

 

In the first case, involving North-South Power Company Limited, the defendant was absent from court, while in the second case, involving Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited, its counsel was present.

Justice Abdullahi Mohammed Dan-Ige has adjourned the case to February 19, 2024, to allow for the service of court processes to the absent defendants.

[Leadership]

The remains of the late Mama Rose Osovbakhia Braimah (nee Abebe) will be committed to Mother Earth on Monday, January 29, 2024.

ThisNigeria reports that Mama Braimah, the mother of PR expert, marketing strategist, and Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Naija Times, Mr. Ehi Braimah, passed away on November 4, 2023, at the age of 86 years.

The final rites of passage for Mama Braimah will commence on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, with a Service of Songs at her residence.

The funeral service and interment will be held at the same venue on Wednesday.

The Officiating Ministers at the funeral service will be Apostle Promise Okafor, Apostle Emmanuel Ibeji, and Pastor Gabriel Ekhator from the Christ Chosen Church of God International, Benin City, where Mama Braimah was a Deaconess.

The remains of the late Mama Rose Osovbakhia Braimah (nee Abebe) will be committed to Mother Earth on Monday, January 29, 2024.

The final rites of passage for Mama Braimah will commence on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, with a Service of Songs at her residence.

The deceased is survived by five other children, a brother, and two sisters.

Signed

Ehi Braimah

Last modified on Tuesday, 23 January 2024 18:41

A former presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, has revealed why the late Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari, had issues with him till death.

Adesina disclosed that he endured a strained relationship with Kyari from the onset of his appointment.

He noted that the late Chief of Staff refused to grant him unhindered access to the President, despite Buhari’s directive to that effect.

 

In his book, ‘Working with Buhari: Reflections of a Special Adviser, Media and Publicity (2015-2023)’, Adesina claimed that Kyari deliberately prevented Buhari from funding the operations of the presidential media office for five years.

Adesina said in the book, “In June 2015, I had done a memo to the President, recommending some people to be taken on as staff in the Media Department. They had gone through the campaign and struggles with us and pedestaled themselves as dyed-in-the-wool Buharists. They were from different parts of the country.

“I explained that much to Mr. President the day I took the memo to him. He thanked me and said he would pass it to the SGF (Secretary to Government of the Federation) when he appointed one, so it would be on record. Fair enough.

“When a COS (Chief of Staff) and SGF were appointed, the President directed the memo to the COS. Also in order. But Malam Kyari just sat on it for the next one year. He did not say anything on it.

“Eventually, my colleague, Garba Shehu, went to see him. And he confessed to Shehu that he shunned the memo because I had taken it directly to the President. But the June date on it was clear. He had not even been appointed then.

“The second had to do with funding of the Media Department. There was no budget line, and funds were usually provided by the Office of the NSA, as needs arose. I had consulted with two of my predecessors, Dr. Reuben Abati, and Ima Niboro, who had briefed me.

“Media and publicity is not cheap, not anywhere in the world, but it would amaze you that we operated for five years without a dime. After the NSA was appointed, I went to meet and brief him about how publicity was usually funded from his office. It was a Friday, and he promised that anything that would make me and the man we had come to serve succeed, he would do.

“Exactly a week later, after the Jumat service, the NSA walked into my office, with his two hands in the air. I asked what the matter was. He told me he had received a memo from the President, directing that nothing, absolutely nothing, must be funded from his office, except security. In the light of that, the promise he had made me was no longer tenable.

“I thanked him and said I would meet the President. And I did. That very night, in the house. I remember that it was only myself and General Dambazau that were waiting to see him. He is a senior friend, and I told him the purpose of my visit.

“He was quite surprised that over three months media and publicity was not being funded yet.

“He asked how we were doing it, and I said myself and Shehu were using goodwill.

“When I met the President and told him of my encounter with the NSA, he confirmed that he gave the directive, and explained why.”

He quoted Buhari as saying, “A lot was done through the Office of the NSA, and there were no records. I do not want that. We will institute a probe into the activities of the office (it was eventually done), and you will see what happened there. I don’t want the media funded from there again.

“Meet the Chief of Staff and let him design how we would be funding media.”

Adesina narrates further: “The next day, I went to see the COS in the office. I had just started talking, when he impatiently started to say: ‘No, no, no. Media is not funded from here. Media is not funded from here.’ He would not even give me a chance to talk. And lest I appear as someone just after funding, for what I would gain, I left his office and never went back to the President. For the first five years, the media did not receive one naira, till the SGF, Boss Mustapha, heard about it and designed a budget line from his office.

“It was not up to what was required, but it was better than nothing.

“Third encounter. A retired General, someone well respected in the country, had wanted to see the President.

“Many times, he applied through the office of COS, which is the proper channel. He never got feedback. So he phoned and asked me to intervene since the issue he wanted to discuss was quite serious. I went to the President, and mentioned the General, and why he needed to come see him.

“The President just said: ‘Tell SCOP to schedule him for 8:00 pm tomorrow in the house.’ I passed on the word and left for my office. I had not been seated for five minutes when my intercom rang. It was the COS who wanted me to come to his office.

“He started screaming as I entered: ‘Why did you get an appointment for Gen..? Why did you? You always go behind me to relate with the President. You have to stop it.’

“Remember the President’s instructions to me the day I resumed work: ‘Do not let anybody stop you from seeing me. Anytime you need to see me, just come.’ I never abused that rain check but went to see the President only when it was totally necessary, throughout the eight years. And he was always gracious to me.

“But apparently, it became an issue with Malam Abba, so we were not quite chummy, but we were also not enemies.”

[DailyPost]

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a couple for an alleged self-kidnapping scheme aimed at obtaining a N5 million ransom.

The Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Police Force, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday, as he warned citizens to desist from self-kidnapping.

Adejobi added that one Albarka Sukuya in Plateau State was arrested for staging his kidnap on several occasions, and one Nnamdi Agu, also faked his kidnap in Abuja in an attempt to defraud his family.

The statement read, “In Lagos, a couple was arrested for alleged self-kidnapping scheme aimed at obtaining a N5 million ransom recently.

“The husband, Doubara David Yabrifa, a 53-year-old technician, and the wife Regina Yabrifa, a 48-year-old body massager and bone setter, were apprehended after a family member reported the purported kidnapping.

“The couple confessed to planning the self-kidnap to raise N3 million to purchase a property in Badagry, Lagos. The husband justified the act, citing financial difficulties and lack of support from relatives. Both were arrested and subsequently charged to court.

“Also, one Albarka Sukuya of Jenta Apata, Jos, has been notorious for staging his kidnap on several occasions and received ransoms from unsuspecting members of the community in Plateau State.

“Similarly, on 20th January, 2024, a young man, Nnamdi Agu, faked his kidnap in Abuja in an attempt to defraud one of his family members who resides around River Park Estate, Abuja, to make money to pay for his personal pleasures. The Police, in a swift response, foiled the staged kidnapping, and arrested the suspect.

“It is obvious that the suspect and many others leverage on the prevailing instances of kidnapping and plan to engage in such criminal and deceptive acts of staged or self-kidnapping to make money.”

The FPRO warned against the trends of self-kidnapping, stating that it is a punishable offence under the law.

He added, “The Force hereby cautions members of the public to be wary of this trend while those with intent to venture into these criminal acts should desist as the police will leave no stone unturned to cause such suspects to face the full wrath of the law.

“Equally, we vehemently encourage the media and social media influencers, bloggers, etc., to constantly verify news before broadcasting such, not to create panic and jeopardize our security arrangements.”

The PUNCH reports that the scourge of abductions which has strangulated social and economic activities in the North-West has spread nationwide as bandits and other criminal elements have moved their operations into the major cities across the country.

[Punch]

Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been enmeshed in a corruption scandal.

Gbajabiamila was allegedly fingered as one of the beneficiaries of the largesse of corruption uncovered under the Chief Executive Officer of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Ahmed Kuru, and the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.

A source in the presidency told SaharaReporters that the report of the CBN Special Investigator, Jim Obazee, exposed how Gbajabiamila allegedly benefitted from Kuru’s “largesse of Ikoyi properties from his days as Speaker of the House of Representatives”.

The source claimed that Gbajabiamila, in return, had ensured Kuru remained as AMCON’s Chief Executive after about nine years.

“President Bola Tinubu is under pressure from some political associates, whom Kuru has soiled their white robes, including the Hon Femi Gbajabiamila (President’s Chief of Staff), who has benefitted from Ahmed Kuru’s largesse of Ikoyi properties from his days as Speaker of the House of Representatives,” the source said.

The source noted that “Gbajabiamila had persistently blocked Kuru’s removal as AMCON’s Chief Executive after about nine years in office, over two terms of a democratically elected President.”

Recall that the Special Investigator’s report on the probe of Emefiele uncovered the alarming sums of public funds which went into the fraudulent acquisition of Polaris, Keystone and Union banks under Emefiele and AMCON under Kuru’s leadership.

Following the report, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) dissolved the board and management of Titan Trust Bank, Union Bank, Polaris Bank and Keystone Bank.

This followed a report submitted to President Bola Tinubu by the Special Investigator on the Central Bank of Nigeria and Related Entities, Jim Obazee.

It was reported that the decision to dissolve the boards was taken after a meeting between the CBN Governor, Yemi Cardoso, Obazee and the boards of the four banks, including Titan Trust Bank’s investors, who had earlier avoided meeting with the Special Investigator.

The platform reported in December 2023 that the office of the Special Investigator had insisted that the Chairman of Titan Trust Bank (TTB), Tunde Lemo, Cornelius Vink and Rahul Savara, must appear before it over the acquisition of the Union Bank of Nigeria.

Independent financial investigations revealed that Ahmed Kuru threw all others under the bus to save his neck by blackmailing all government officials who had benefitted from his generosity through the sharing of Ikoyi and Abuja properties.

 

A forensic observer noted that the special investigator’s report that did not indict Kuru raised concerns over whether it was deliberate as a result of a bargain.

[NaijaNews]