Author: Naija Daily News

By Deborah Nnamdi The Rivers State Police Command has arrested five suspects in connection with the attack on its operatives at Tonninno Filling Station in Elioparanwo, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, where rifles were stolen early last month. The command’s spokesperson, SP Grace Iringe-Koko, confirmed the arrests in a statement issued on Tuesday in Port Harcourt. She said the breakthrough followed a directive from the Commissioner of Police, Olugbenga Adepoju, who ordered the Anti-Kidnapping Unit to take over the case and track down the perpetrators. According to her, operatives deployed intelligence-led policing and technical support to apprehend four suspects directly linked…

Governor Alex Otti’s spokesman has slapped down claims that the governor’s convoy came under fire on the way to Sam Mbakwe Airport, calling the reports wildly misleading. Chief Press Secretary Ukoha Njoku said the governor was never in harm’s way. Instead, an advance team of three officials from the Abia Government House was ambushed in the early hours of December 2 by gunmen between Umuowa and Ihitte junction in Imo State. The attack happened just before the Sam Mbakwe Airport Junction as the team headed to prepare for Otti’s arrival. Njoku said no one was killed and urged the public…

Photo: Mohammad Badaru Abubakar, former Minister of Defence By Didimoko A. Didimoko In a country where political officeholders hardly succumb to pressure, no matter how bad they perform, the resignation of Minister of Defence, Mohammad Badaru Abubakar, a key ally of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, at a moment when the country is in the grip of worsening insecurity, is triggering questions within the security establishment about what may have forced his abrupt exit. Although the presidency said Badaru resigned on health grounds, senior officials, security analysts and political observers point to a mix of pressures that may have contributed to…

By Deborah Nnamdi Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke has resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) barely 24 hours before the party’s governorship primary, escalating the crisis currently unsettling the party’s state chapter. A resignation letter dated November 4 and addressed to the chairman of Sagba Ward 2 in Ede surfaced on Monday evening, confirming the governor’s abrupt exit. In the letter, Adeleke attributed his decision to what he called the “current crisis of the national leadership” of the PDP. “Due to the current crisis of the national leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), I hereby resign my membership…

Police operatives from the Trans-Ekulu Division of the Enugu State Command have arrested a 26-year-old man, Chibuike Ugwuja, for allegedly staging his own abduction and demanding N35 million from his family. The Command’s spokesperson, SP Daniel Ndukwe, disclosed the development in a statement issued on Monday in Enugu. According to Ndukwe, Ugwuja was declared missing by his father on November 24 after he failed to return home from work two days earlier. During the period he was missing, the suspect reportedly sent a Facebook message to a female neighbour, claiming he had been kidnapped by unknown persons who were demanding…

Forty-four members of the House of Representatives have called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to exercise his constitutional authority to secure the release of detained IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, as part of a broader political strategy to restore peace in the South-East. The lawmakers—drawn from diverse political parties, regions, and religious backgrounds—warned that Kanu’s prolonged detention had become “a major stumbling block” to ongoing peace-building efforts in the region. In a two-page letter to the President, the legislators, under the banner Concerned Federal Lawmakers for National Unity and Stability, urged Tinubu to direct the Attorney-General of the Federation to…

National Security Adviser (NSA) to the President, Nuhu Ribadu, has reassured anxious parents and authorities of St. Mary’s Private Catholic Primary and Secondary School, Papiri, in Agwara Local Government Area of Niger State, that the pupils abducted by armed bandits “are doing fine and will return soon.” Ribadu delivered the message on Monday during a visit to the Catholic Bishop of Kontagora Diocese and proprietor of the school, Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, as well as families of the abducted children at St. Michael’s Catholic Cathedral, Kontagora. Conveying President Bola Tinubu’s message of hope, Ribadu said progress was being made in ongoing…

By Deborah Nnamdi Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, has paid a visit to the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, at a prison facility in Sokoto State. Otti was accompanied by Kanu’s younger brother, Emmanuel Kanu; the Abia State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ikechukwu Uwanna (SAN); and his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ferdinand Ekeoma. Officials of the Sokoto State Government were also present during the visit. According to a statement from Otti’s media office, the governor encouraged Kanu to remain calm and resilient, assuring him that efforts to secure his release—initiated…

By Deborah Nnamdi A man, his wife, and their three children were burnt to death in the early hours of Monday after a fire consumed their home in the Kofar Sauri community of Katsina metropolis. The tragic incident also destroyed most household items in the building, many of which were burnt beyond recognition. A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the fire began shortly after electricity was restored to the area. He claimed there was an unusual power surge at the time, which he suspected may have triggered the inferno. He alleged that the local power company often…

Africa has begun administering a revolutionary HIV-prevention injection that offers 99.9 percent protection, in what experts describe as one of the most significant advances in the global HIV response in decades. South Africa, Zambia, and Eswatini on Monday launched the first public rollout of lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injectable drug that functions much like a powerful vaccine and is expected to transform HIV prevention across the continent, which bears the world’s highest HIV burden. Lenacapavir, developed by Gilead Sciences, has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV transmission by more than 99.9 percent. In South Africa—where roughly one in five…