Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president, says he will “keep contesting” for the Nigerian presidency as long as he is hale and hearty. 

He said this during an interview on the Hausa service of the Voice of America in Abuja.

Abubakar, who is 77-years-old, was the standard-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election.

The politician will be 81 by the time the next presidential election comes around in 2027.

“Of course, I will keep contesting again and again as long as I am alive and healthy,” Abubakar said.

Abubakar has run for the number one office six times but has been on the ballot as a presidential candidate on three occasions — 2007, 2019, and 2023.

Abubakar said he is consoled by the fact that former United States President Abraham Lincoln did not win the presidential vote on the first time of asking.

He also spoke about the crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), saying the party needs to be united and forge alliances with other political groups to win the presidential election in 2027.

“Even the former US President Abraham Lincoln contested seven times before finally winning,” he said.

“However, given the current state of the PDP, it is clear that a single-handed effort will not suffice to win the election. Strong support and collaboration with other parties are required.”

Last week, Abubakar said he was engaging Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, on the possibility of a merger.

“This is to anybody that thinks there is going to be a misunderstanding between me and Obi, let me assure you that not even a small issue is going to happen between us,” Abubakar said.

“Also, we are going to be behind anybody that will be chosen to represent us in the forthcoming elections.

“I have made it clear in my previous speeches that if our parties are going to merge to agree on a candidate from the south-east, as long as he is qualified, we will allow it.”

[TheCable]

Last Sunday, for the fourth time in a row, Manchester City Football Club won the English premiership title. And because of that, ‘enemies of progress’ have not allowed some of us to rest. Even more annoying is that many of the noisemakers actually supported teams of little consequence in the title race. But in Nigeria, there are lessons we can all learn. Not only about the season that just ended but also about football generally and the way we run our country. But I will get to that later. Especially considering the issue of ‘colonial mentality’ that is often peddled by those who do not understand why many of us are obsessed with foreign leagues.

Thanks to my brother, Femi Edun, I was last Thursday inducted as the 80^th member of an exclusive WhatsApp group of ‘Gooners’ comprising accomplished male professionals (SANs, renowned medical practitioners, oil and gas executives, company owners, academics etc.) who support Arsenal football Club of London. The youngest is a 29-year-old techie and the oldest a professor of 89. Put together by Sola Adepetun, a respected lawyer who specializes in oil and gas, most members are in their late 50s and 60s and many trace their fan history to their schooling in the United Kingdom. The fact that discussions on the forum are restricted to sports with “posts on politics, economy, religion, advertising, birthday greetings and other wishes” no-go-areas, particularly appeals to me. And it’s been fun since I joined.

In the days preceding last Sunday’s final set of matches, there were optimistic posts by members who were predicting their wish. For me, expecting Manchester City to lose their final match at home to West Ham bordered on the delusional but not a few were on that train. Some of the posts give validity to what one ‘bad belle’ guy wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) handle: “I think Arsenal is a social experiment created by government to see how long people can support a team before going mad.” That guy deserves a prison term! But it is also interesting that now that the premiership has been lost and won, motivational speakers have taken over on most Arsenal platforms.

We are being reminded that Liverpool waited 30 years between championships and that Manchester United has also been waiting for the past 12 years. “Arsenal is indeed in its 20th year. But we are closer to winning than any of you except perhaps Liverpool that has done its period of purgatory,” one football philosopher argued before this clincher: “So, don’t laugh – unless you are a Man City fan – and with 115 charges against them, even their future success is uncertain. Notice I didn’t even bother with Spurs. They built their beautiful stadium for Beyoncé concerts not for winning titles!”

As I have previously written, football evokes emotions and passions that are difficult to understand by those who do not follow the game. Shortly before the commencement of the 17th FIFA World Cup held in South Korea and Japan in 2002, respected British sportswriter, Simon Kuper wrote that football arouses “collective passions that are matched by nothing short of war.” In the piece, ‘The World Game is not Just a Game’, published in New York Times on 26th May 2002, Kuper argued that unlike almost any cultural phenomenon, football is distinguished by its political malleability. “It is used by dictators and revolutionaries, a symbol of oligarchy and anarchy. It gets presidents elected or thrown out, and it defines the way people think, for good or ill, about their countries…”

Kuper is right on the power of football. With one sublime twist or turn, footballers can make us forget our hunger, thirst, and sometimes even our financial predicament. I once referenced the example of Hernan Crespo, one of the best football strikers in modern times who narrated how the late Diego Maradona’s genius transformed his family. He said their father never talked or betrayed any emotions, so everyone learnt to keep to themselves in the house. But everything changed on 22nd June 1998, during the quarter final match between Argentina and England at the 13th FIFA World Cup in Mexico. According to Crespo, who was eight years old at the time, the moment Maradona scored his incredible solo goal against England, his father broke into tears and started hugging everyone. Crespo said he had never seen his father like that before and it was on that day he decided he would play football and strive for excellence if only to make his father happy.

The treatment meted to former England Skipper David Beckham after the 1998 FIFA World Cup provides another example of what football can do to people. In the group stage match against Columbia at that tournament held in France, it was Beckham’s free kick that earned England the qualification for the first knockout round. But in the match against Argentina, then Argentine fiery midfielder, Diego Simeone, (current manager of La Liga Club, Atletico Madrid) committed a cynical foul against Beckham. In anger, Beckham kicked Simeone who went down as if he was hit by a truck. And the trick worked. Beckham was sent off by the referee. England went on to lose a match they had controlled up to that moment against a bitter rival. The next day, the banner headline in The Mirror newspaper was: ‘Ten Heroic Lions and One Stupid Boy’. A church even put a banner outside its premises which read: ‘God forgives even David Beckham.’ 

Now to the main issue. Following the conclusion of the 2023/24 English premiership season won by Manchester City, Ike Imo, a legal practitioner and writer, sums it up this way: “The real winners are the creators and managers of the English Premier League. These are the men and women who have branded a common product (football) and successfully sold it all over the world in such a way that people from New Delhi to Kinshasa (not forgetting Chicago and Riyadh), identify themselves and their daily aspirations and success, with it. It’s brilliant marketing to make a young lad in Enugu forget to eat his dinner because his favourite team (Chelsea) lost a match at Stamford Bridge. I’m almost certain that the English Premier League probably ranks as one of the biggest exports that Britain still has left to offer to the world.”

This then brings me to the question often asked: Why is it that those of us who love the game cannot recreate the same situation in Nigeria? I interrogated this question on 24 August 2006 in a column titled, ‘Killing the Beautiful Game’. Before I conclude, let me share what I wrote 18 years ago.

================================================

On the last day of the football season anywhere in the world, there is usually some high drama. But here in Nigeria, you also witness the bizarre and the unexpected. That was exactly what happened last week Wednesday (16 August 2006) in Oron, Akwa Ibom State when the curtains fell on the 2005/2006 football season. The match was between promotion-seeking Akwa United, a professional Division One team and Calabar Rovers. In practical terms, for Akwa United to gain promotion into the Premiership, winning their match would not just do; their competitor, Bussdor United of Port Harcourt, also had to lose or at least play a draw. Because of the wide goal difference, any other result would consign Akwa United to Division One for another season. Except of course they could score 13 goals within 90 minutes!

Expecting a team that had not succeeded in putting 12 goals into the net all season to now score 13 goals in one match would be expecting a miracle which rarely happens in modern competitive football games. But in Oron, the unexpected indeed happened. Within a few minutes of a most scandalous match where the referee and the 22 players on the field were acting out a macabre drama, the ‘Diego Maradonas’ in Akwa United scored 13 unreplied goals!

Available reports indicate that the match was bought and sold in Akwa Ibom State Government House. If what happened was, however, just a one off, one would not be worried, but it is not. Our football is being run by a bunch of unscrupulous men who have conspired to kill the domestic league by fixing results in boardrooms and effecting such decisions on the field of play. Since Nigerians are no fools, it is equally no surprise that nobody watches football matches here anymore. We are now all hooked to SuperSport for Spanish La Liga, English Premiership, and Italian Serie A. No matter how much we all love what Pele has appropriately dubbed the ‘beautiful game’, no sensible person will waste his time watching a match whose result had already been predetermined.

For those who may not be interested in football and, there are some strange people like that, the real message here is not about sports but rather the culture of dishonesty and lack of any sense of shame that permeates the entire system. What played out on the field in Oron was a parody of what is fast becoming the norm in our land where the ethics of hard work and integrity are being jettisoned for quick-fix deals. No nation can develop with such a culture that tends to promote, indeed celebrate, fraud and mediocrity.

Two years ago, also on the last day of the league, Kano Pillars and Bendel Insurance were jostling for the third position in the League that would earn the winner a WAFU Cup qualification. Bendel Insurance were playing Lobi Stars of Makurdi in Benin while Kano Pillars were playing Gombe United. The two matches ordinarily ought to be played simultaneously. Indeed, the two matches started at the same time but ended almost two hours apart because in Benin, a 90-minute match was allowed to drag for four hours and at the end, the objective was achieved. First, the match was abandoned at half-time and about an hour after the one in Kano ended with the result already known, the Benin match resumed. By a simple arithmetic, Bendel Insurance needed five goals to displace Kano Pillars from the number three slot and by the time the match, which commenced at 4p.m. finally ended at 8pm, the five goals were conjured without a single reply from their opponents!

To understand the gradual decline of Nigeria despite abundant human and material resources, one needs only to study our football that at some point in the past held so much prospect with abundant talents. Not too long ago, most of us that now describe ourselves as ‘Gunners for life’ or ‘Red Devils’ or those who are ever afraid to ‘Walk Alone’ used to have local teams which we were passionate about. There were Leventis United, Bendel Insurance, Abiola Babes, Iwuanyanwu Nationale, Rangers International, IICC Shooting Stars, Stationery Stores, Raccah Rovers, Ranchers Bees and several others. But all teams bright and beautiful, the NFA killed them all!

That things are upside down in Nigeria football is all too evident but what worries me is that we are all behaving like ostriches, burying our heads in the sand. Yet this is the only aspect of our national life where all 11 national players on the field for Nigeria could come from the same Arochukwu village and we would all see them as representing our country. It is the most unifying factor in Nigeria today but also the most mismanaged. The culture of corruption is so pervasive that even with our abundant talents, those who run our football do not believe matches can be won on the field of play. It is only in Nigeria that a referee would be whispering to players to “fall inside the box” so he could award dubious penalty kicks; it is only here that the International Transfer Certificates of players are traded like GSM recharge cards while officials openly auction results of matches not yet played…

ENDNOTE:

Although the foregoing was written 18 years ago, nothing much has changed in recent years. On 14 July 2022, for instance, the Mail of London carried a report on how the Ogun State football Cup final for that year was concluded with a bizarre penalty shoot-out after the match ended goalless. “For one of Ijebu United’s spot kicks, the Remo Stars goalkeeper stands on his line and remains perfectly still” the newspaper reported. “He then appears to allow his opponent to direct a fairly tame penalty into the bottom corner. Things got even more bizarre when a Remo Stars player stepped up to take a penalty and then blasted his effort sideways, with the ball flying off the side of the pitch. He then held his hands on his head in an apparent effort to make the miss appear genuine.”  

Although the newspaper also reported that the Nigerian podcast host, Ibukun Aluko, who broke the story later claimed that the Remo Stars squad had deliberately missed their penalties to protest officiating in the match, that in only confirms the rot. “Remo Stars would eventually go on to lose the penalty shootout 3-0, with Ijebu United lifting the cup. Whatever the reason for the misses, you’re unlikely to ever see a more bizarre penalty shootout,” the Mail wrote. 

Where do we go from here? I believe there are a few things we need to do. One, we must bring private sector participation into the management of our football. The challenge is whether that would happen under the current structure that is sorely lacking in both professionalism and integrity. But that is also why the government must come in. We need a wholesale reform like it was done by China in 2015 with a plan that targets the schools as foundation for the game. As a part of the Reform Plan, the set-up of domestic football management in China was also changed. That must also happen in Nigeria.

I am not an expert on football but Nigeria has an abundance of such people. The current Minister of Sports, John Enoh, has shown a willingness to make a difference. I hope he reaches out to such stakeholders. There is so much to gain from reforming football in Nigeria. Meanwhile, to all the Arsenal fans in Nigeria, please ignore all the naysayers and noisemaker: Next season is for us!

Still on the Mariga Wedding

Following my column of last week on ‘The Betrothal of Mariga Orphans’, I received messages from several respected people saying whatever may have been the merit of my arguments, they were based on the wrong premise. The Niger State House of Assembly Speaker, Abdulmalik Sarkindaji, who proposed to sponsor the mass wedding of 100 orphaned girls, I was told, intervened out of altruism. I have been availed videos of the interviews granted by the Speaker on the issue where he explained that the whole idea came from religious and traditional leaders in Mariga local government area, the constituency he represents and had twice served as chairman.

According to Sarkindaji, a number of girls who lost their parents to banditry wanted to marry but lacked the needed resources. By tradition, the bride is required to take items like furniture, kitchen utensils, boxes, clothes and other things to the groom’s house. “They initially submitted the names of 210 girls to me and I told them there was no means for such. So, we cut it down to 100 names. They told me that I would bless the marriage and I told them I cannot attend every marriage, so they should do it in a day, and I would grace the occasion,” Sarkindaji said. “That is the reason for the event. I had wanted to grace the occasion, but I won’t do that again since helping my people has become a crime.”

Certain issues have come to light. One, the girls do not fall within the bracket of the Child Rights Act because they are adults and of marriageable age. Two, there is also no problem about consent. Three, I understand that the rigorous process adopted to prune the list eliminated those with doubtful claims. While I still do not believe that marriage offers any enduring solution to socio-economic problems, the girls have made their choice. And we must respect their decision.

...also met with the NLC/TUC Political Arm.*

The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi's visit to Labour Party headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday was a reconciliatory move not to endorse any group interest in the party.

Obi had repeatedly maintained that his interest was to carry everybody along into one strong family and not to endorse anyone's interest.

The visit was part of the consultations Obi has been embarking on in search of peace in the party.

In line with this, he also met with the political arm of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC Trade Union Congress, and TUC, on Wednesday in continuation of his search for peace in the party.

At his meeting with the workers' union, the leadership of the NLC/TUC political commission led by comrade Titus Amba and comrade Chris Uyot was also disposed to peace in the party.

At the meeting, he clearly made the point that the party needed to reconcile all various positions in a peaceful atmosphere to have a united house that should be all-inclusive.

He thanked the leadership of the political commission for their understanding and expressed the hope for a good working relationship very shortly.

The LP standards bearer also plans to meet with other critical stakeholders like the Obidient to have an all-inclusive political family with a common dream of rescuing Nigeria.

Signed
Dr Yunusa Tanko 
POMR SPOKESMAN

Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) have received a whooping inflow of $306 million in the last 24 hours as positive news about the possible approval of spot Ethereum ETF continues to filter in.

The deadline for the review of the spot Ethereum ETF application by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission is Thursday, and the stance of the regulatory body appears favorable thus far.

According to Decrypt, the already existing Bitcoin ETFs saw over $306 million worth of funds deposited, marking the largest single-day influx in this fund category since earlier this month.

The inflows among the different Bitcoin ETFs were unevenly distributed, with some receiving more than others.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) took in $290 million, while the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) saw $26 million worth of inflows. That was offset by the Bitcoin ETF (BITB) and VanEck Bitcoin Trust (HODL) seeing $4 million and $6 million worth of withdrawals, respectively.

Meanwhile one of the existing Bitcoin ETFs known as Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which has previously witnessed $72.5 million worth of net inflows between May 15 and May 20, was flat on Tuesday,

However, the Bitcoin ETFs are shrinking from the original level it used to be. GBTC and IBIT has now shrunk to $736 million. That’s approximately half what it was less than a month ago.

To tackle this Grayscale appointed a new CEO, Peter Mintzberg and it remains to be seen whether his input will turn around the fortunes of the firm’s flagship bitcoin fund.

Analysts from Standard Chartered are predicting that a spot Ethereum ETF approval will do wonders for the prices of both Bitcoin and Ethereum and the massive inflow of funds in Bitcoin ETFs recently proves that they may be right.

The massive inflow of funds for Bitcoin ETFs is driven by positive sentiments surrounding Ethereum a rival crypto asset. This proves that the success of both coins is intertwined.

The global market cap of cryptos got close to matching an all-time high in mid-March, when the Bitcoin price was on a tear and set its current all-time high of $73,737.94.

As for Ethereum, marching an all-time high price means chasing $4,878 price tag which it last witnessed on November 10, 2021. That’s around the time that prices were booming and the global crypto market capitalization inched past $3 trillion for the first time ever.

Plenty of traders are investing in crypto assets anticipating a bullish trend that will lead to Bitcoin and Ethereum hitting an all-time high following the proposed approval of spot Ethereum ETF.

What To Know 

• The Bullish trend which is currently driving up the prices of Bitcoin and Ether and causing massive inflow of funds into Bitcoin ETFs is a result of hopes of an ether (ETH) spot ETF getting approved for trading in the U.S., and a positive outlook for cryptocurrencies from Donald Trump ongoing presidential campaign.
• The Price of Bitcoin is currently $70,000 while that of Ethereum has surged to $3,700.

[Nairametrics]

At 8 p.m. tonight, May 22, the German Bundesliga giants, Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta will clash at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland for the Europa League title.

While Atalanta are in the 5th spot of the Italian Serie A table, Bayer Leverkusen finished their league season as champions without losing a game for the first time in the history of the Bundesliga.

In the league alone, Atalanta have recorded 10 defeats so far this season, while Bayer Leverkusen are unbeaten in all competitions. Hence, it is a bit of an imbalance in terms of the form of the respective teams.

However, the fact that Atalanta defeated Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool on their way to the Europa League final will be a huge motivation for the Serie A side.

Ademola Lookman believes that his team can stop the unbeaten run of Bayer Leverkusen tonight and grab the European title.

“A big occasion for us as a club, as players, as a team, so I’m looking forward to it. We need to be at the top of our game. We know that coming into the tie against a top team, we play top football,” Ademola Lookman told the club’s official website.

“Like we’ve shown this season we play our football to the best of our abilities and we do the necessary.”

[NaijaNews]

The federal government’s wage bill will almost double at the very least if the organised labour doubles down on the push for a 20-fold increase in the minimum wage.

With the proposed minimum wage of N615,000, the government’s personnel costs for 1.5 million workers will rise from about N7 trillion which it currently stands to N11 trillion.

Ben Akabueze, the director general of the budget office of the federation, had said the government’s personnel cost was over N5 trillion, with 1.5 million workers under the federal government’s payroll.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) are demanding that the country’s minimum wage be increased by 1,950 percent from N30,000 to N615,000.

The Union says it arrived at the minimum wage recommendation after painstakingly computing the monthly cost of living of Nigerian workers, with food, transportation taking a chunk of the expenses.

According to a “cost of living estimate” released by the NLC, it will cost a Nigerian worker N9,000 to feed for 30 days, amounting to N270,000.

Each worker is also projected to spend at least N110,000 on transportation in a month.

Meanwhile, the federal government has proposed N48,000, leading to a battle royale between the organised labour and the government.

It is not however clear if the government is prepared to shift grounds, as the labour unions have continued to insist on N615,000 minimum wage, giving states who are yet to implement the N30,000 wage two weeks ultimatum.

Many analysts as well as other stakeholders have noted that while the pay increment is necessary given the high cost of food, accommodation, energy and other basic needs, the proposed wage by NLC/TUC may not be feasible.

As it stands, the federal government may need to raise a supplementary budget to accommodate any wage review, a recent report by the International Monetary Fund shows.

The IMF noted in its latest country staff report for Nigeria that the negotiated amount may surpass the budgeted amount in the original 2024 budget.

Olu Fasan, an author and social commentator in a column published by BusinessDay, argued that in many countries, the focus has shifted from the minimum wage to the living wage.

He maintained that minimum wage impoverishes workers and entrench a phenomenon known as in-work poverty, where people are in paid jobs but still can’t make ends meet. He advocated for a living wage as it is the only “antidote” to poverty.

On the proposal of the organised labour, Fasan noted that the demand is not feasible but proposed N100-120,000 as a decent minimum wage.

“Of course, the N615,000 per month that the labour unions demand is unreasonable. However, given that the government provides no basic amenities for the people and considering the limited coverage of any living wage, it’s hard to disagree with something within the range of N100,000–N120,000 per month,” he said.

Nigeria’s minimum wage lowest among selected countries

Nigerian workers are paid a pittance relative to what their peers in Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey get as their minimum wage.

At the end of every 26 working days, a low income earner in Turkey earns $578, 25 times more than what a Nigerian receives. Workers in Mexico and Indonesia earn $369.5 and $316 respectively.

Turkey is able to pay such an amount because its government revenue to GDP ratio outstrips that of Nigeria, which means the Turkish government is richer than Nigeria.

According to data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Turkey’s revenue as a percentage of GDP stood at 26.41 percent in 2022, Mexico’s was 24.2 percent but Nigeria’s pales at 8.79 percent, which explains the low wages in Africa’s most populous nation.

In Africa, Nigeria’s minimum wage still cannot match what a South African worker earns nor what a low income earner gets in Egypt.

The lowest a worker can earn in South Africa is $242, over 10 times higher that what is earned in Nigeria. The country’s government gets 27.75 percent as a share of its GDP compared to the low revenue generated in Nigeria.

Adeola Adenikinju, the president of Nigerian Economic Society, said getting a wage review requires that both the government and labour unions map out certain objective criteria.

The professor of Economics said that in arriving at a minimum wage, one of the criteria to look out for is the cost of living and the level of inflation in the country.

Additionally, he said the level of productivity of the nation is another factor that must be considered in a wage review.

He maintained that another factor in arriving at a new minimum wage is affordability. Adenikinju argued that even with the rise to N30,000 in 2018, some state governments still cannot afford to pay.

“There should be some metrics used in arriving at a new minimum wage. You need some objective criteria that must be summed up to 100%. By how much has inflation, productivity and government budget risen to make up a new minimum wage,” NES president said.

[BusinessDay]

The minister of information and national orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, has said that President Bola Tinubu’s first year anniversary in office would be low-key in line with his policy of prudent management of resources.

Idris stated this on Wednesday in Abuja during a ministerial press briefing heralding the one year anniversary of President Tinubu administration slated for May 29, 2024.

He noted that the move was in line with Tinubu’s desire to serve the country and efficiently use resources for the good of all Nigerians.

He said, “The first anniversary will be low-key, there will be no celebration, it will be a sectoral presentation by ministries.

“This is in line with Tinubu’s administration to ensure efficient and judicious use of resources to deliver dividends of democracy to citizens.

“The president has directed that useful information should be provided in an honest, timely, and consistent manner.

“Members of the media are expected to report honestly, responsibly, and with a deep sense of patriotism. The essence of the media is to inform the people and hold government accountable.

“Thus, over time, the ministry of Information and National Orientation finds it worthy to always brief the media and people on what the federal government is doing.”

The minister also charged media practitioners to do their job with deep sense of responsibility and patriotism.

He reiterated that, as part of the ministerial briefing, ministers of various ministries would begin present their ministerial scorecards on Thursday, May 23, as part of the first anniversary of the administration.

[Leadership]

Nine of the about 20 people abducted from Dawaki community in the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory FCT are still missing, families of the victims told the Daily Trust Tuesday.

But the FCT Police Command said the claims were not true, insisting that only eight people were abducted and all of them have been rescued.

Relatives and neighbours of the victims told Daily Trust during a follow up visit, that nine of the abducted victims were still missing.

This newspaper had on Tuesday reported that 20 people were abducted from around the Fulani junction in Dawaki community during a siege on Sunday.

Dawaki, located opposite the Gwarinpa District, along the Abuja-Kubwa Express Way, is home to thousands of middle- class workers, among other residents.  

A resident, who craved anonymity, said when they were fleeing with their victims, they stopped at a nearby herders’ helmet on the outskirts and abducted two people.

Another resident, Hosea Christopher, said five people were able to escape while being taken out of the community, with additional five others escaping around the Usuma Dam area along the Bwari way, when the gunmen had a fierce confrontation with the operatives of the DSS.

He added that the remaining victims obeyed the gunmen by following them to their hideouts deep into the bush.

‘Some of our loved ones still in the bush’

A resident, Usman Uthman, told one of our reporters that two people abducted from their home were among the rescued persons.

“They were brought back to the community on Monday afternoon by the soldiers,” he said.

He, however, said one other person abducted from the house, a female, was still missing.

Murna Lawan, another resident, said one-person from her home, too, named Peter, was yet to return.

She said that a lady named Blessing and one Francis, who were also abducted, were yet to return.

A resident, Nura Muhammad, who escaped when being led to the bush, said there was confusion about the whereabouts of one of the abducted women.

He said, ‘’It was learnt that she was rescued, however her family have visited various security agencies with no information about her whereabouts.’’

It’s not true – CP

When contacted last night, the FCT Commissioner of Police, Benneth Igweh, said it was not true that some of the abducted people were still at the kidnappers’ den.

When our reporter told him that it was families of the victims that confirmed that some of their loved ones have not yet returned, he simply said, “hold on…” and ended the call.

Our correspondents waited up till 10.15 pm waiting for an update on the development before sending this part of the story.

Earlier in the day, the police commissioner had reassured that the nation’s capital was safe and secured against kidnapping and banditry.

The CP said this during a visit to Media Trust Group Headquarters in Abuja, where he said he had taken the fight to the bandits’ camp in the bushes and mountains from where they operate.

The CP was reacting to the newspaper’s story that bandits abducted 20 in the Dawaki community in the FCT.

He said, “Abuja is now very safe, and it will continue to be safe. We have done everything possible to ensure the safety of Abuja because we know the terrains very well. We know the terrains of the bandits, and we know their modus operandi. That is why we have succeeded in making Abuja safe. We don’t care how the arm robbers and the bandits feel, but we are telling them that we are dominating everywhere including the bushes where they move. I have taken over the mountains. So that is why anywhere they enter, we must conquer them.”

Also speaking about the porous nature of the FCT neighbourhood, the CP said, “You know we have neighbors that are crime prone, from Kaduna to Niger to Nasarawa to Kogi. We are aware of our boundaries, but we are doing all it takes is to ensure the safety of everybody in Abuja, and I want to assure and inform every resident that we are on top of every situation. You can see the safety now, everything is working. I want to appreciate the effort of the IGP and the Minister of FCT. We are getting it right in Abuja, and we will continue to get it right.”

While appreciating the citizens for cooperating with them, he said, “We have been telling people, when you see something, say something. It is when you say something that we will do something. I want to thank the residence and indigenes of FCT. They have been giving us useful information and it has been useful for our successes. They’ve have started trusting the security agencies, especially the police.”

He added that, “People were complaining of one chance, they don’t ask about that any more. People were complaining about kidnappers, they don’t ask about kidnappers any more. People were complaining about bandits, but how many bandits have invaded Abuja since we took over? This is due the pro-active measures we brought in place that are bringing the safety we are seeing.”

The CP also applauded the IGP for working to bring more man power to the system, and as well as trying to bring some sophisticated gadgets for the police, which he said will help them in maintaining the tempo.

 [DailyTrust]

The Champions League final in 2026 will be played in Budapest, Hungary.

UEFA confirmed this on Wednesday.

The European football governing body also delayed giving the 2027 final to Milan amid uncertainty over the future of San Siro.

The Puskás Arena and San Siro were the venues for the two finals scheduled to be awarded.

This year’s final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund will be played on June 1 at Wembley Stadium in London.

Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena will host next year’s showpiece event.

[DailyPost]

The embattled speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Elvert Ayambem, has stated that he remains the Assembly’s speaker, despite being impeached by seventeen members who had already signed a notice of his impeachment.

The motion for his removal was moved on the floor of the House by the member representing Calabar South 1, Effiong Ekarika, and seconded by Charles Omang.

However, he described the process as unlawful in a statement released on Wednesday by his chief press secretary, Matthew Okache.

Okache said that Akarika, the person who proposed Ayambem’s impeachment, had disturbed the meeting by “inviting hoodlums to enter the chamber.”

The statement read: “The Cross River State House of Assembly has been alerted to false news reports that the Speaker, Elvert Ayambem, has been impeached.

“To be clear, the speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly is, without a doubt, Elvert Ayambem. He is in the current position. What happened earlier today (Wednesday) during the plenary, when Effiong Akarika, a member representing Calabar South 1, disrupted the session by inviting hoodlums to enter the chamber, is a ridiculous charade with no constitutional basis.

“The House of Assembly is not aware of any impeachment notices being served to anyone before the frivolous act as witnessed at the chambers. The alleged impeachment and replacement are speculative, and the general public is urged to disregard fake news and dismiss any notion of a crisis. The status quo is that Elvert Ayambem is the Speaker of the House of Assembly.”

[TheNation]