NO fewer than 61 people were reportedly abducted by suspected bandits who attacked the Buda community in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The state and police authorities are yet to confirm the attack, but a resident of the area told this newspaper on Tuesday that the bandits invaded the village on Monday night at about 11:45 pm, where they kidnapped 61 people. According to a resident, Dauda Kajuru, the kidnappers stormed the community in large numbers and started shooting indiscriminately. “What happened yesterday was terrifying. The bandits came intending to abduct scores of people that’ll outnumber that of…
Author: Bala Muhammad
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VICE President Kashim Shettima has met with the leaders of the Kuriga community in Kaduna State and the representatives of families of students abducted in the state. Close to 300 students of LEA Primary School and Government Secondary School in Kuriga, Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State were abducted earlier in the week. But at the meeting on Saturday at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim Government House in Kaduna, Shettima assured of the government’s resolve to ensure the students are rescued. Governor @ubasanius, Malam Balarabe Abbas, the Minister of Environment, the Rt Hon. Speaker of Kaduna State House of Assembly,…
AT LEAST two worshippers were killed during Friday prayers at Anguwar Makera under Kwasakwasa Community in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The incident happened around 2 pm on Friday, according to locals in the area. A community leader, Hudu Kwasakwasa, who confirmed the incident, said the bandits opened fire on the worshipers. “The two worshipers killed were among other Muslims attacked at the Juma’at Mosque in Angwar Makera when the bandits opened fire on them and abducted others today (Friday). The victims have been buried at Old Kuyello cemetery,” he said. He said the people were in the…
AT LEAST 312 students and a principal, Abubakar Isah were abducted in broad day light on Thursday when bandits invaded the LEA Primary and Junior Secondary School, Kuriga in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State. Officials of the school and community leaders told Governor Uba Sani, alongside key government officials, who visited the school on Thursday, that 187 students were abducted from the secondary school section and 125 from the primary school section. One of the teachers, Sani Abdullahi who escaped the abduction along others, said 25 of the pupils from the primary section had returned. This, he said,…
TWO pilots of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) suffered mishap while returning from a routine training flight, on Thursday. According to Air Vice Marshal Edward Gabkwet, NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, the accident occurred at about 3.5 nautical miles from Kaduna Military Airfield. He said the Super Mushshak trainer aircraft was involved in a minor mishap at about 2.35 pm on Thursday. “A Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Super Mushshak trainer aircraft was involved in a minor mishap earlier today, 7 March 2024, at about 2.35 pm,” he said. “The accident, which occurred at about 3.5 nautical miles from…
THE Minister of Defence, Muhammad Badaru, has said that no fewer than seven top terrorists commanders were killed by security forces in the last few months. The Minister who disclosed this on Tuesday during a tour of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College in Jaji, Kaduna State, said there is improvement in the fight against insurgency and banditry, adding that the nature of banditry in the North West zone now happens occasionally than before. He also disclosed that the military is deploying technology for surveillance and tracing to find the terrorists and deal with them decisively, noting that bandits…
FOUR persons have died in Kaduna following the outbreak of acute viral Heamophatric Fever otherwise known as Lassa Fever at the 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital in the state capital. The disease was recorded in the Accident and Emergency unit of the 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital (NARHK), Kaduna. The disease had resulted in the death of three medical staff serving in the hospital and a patient, with some in critical condition. Confirming the incident in a statement on Thursday, the Army Headquarters said the three medical staff of the hospital that had direct contact with the suspected index case…
THE Federal Government says it has uncovered 32 routes through which food items are smuggled out of Nigeria. Vice President Kashim Shettima disclosed this on Tuesday while addressing a conference on Public Wealth Management held in Abuja, the nation’s capital. He said on the midnight of Sunday, 45 trucks loaded with maize were intercepted while making their way to neighbouring countries. The Vice President said, “Just three nights ago, 45 trucks of maize were caught being transported to neighbouring countries. Just in that Ilela axis, there are 32 illegal smuggling routes. And the moment those food stuff were intercepted, the…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has arrived back in Abuja from the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Tinubu, who departed Addis Ababa in the morning on Monday, arrived Abuja around 3:40pm in the afternoon. While in Ethiopia, the Nigerian leader actively participated in the 44th Ordinary Session of the Executive council, held bilateral meetings and attended other events on the sidelines on the AU summit. Tinubu joined other African leaders in high-level meetings on institutional reforms of the African Union; peace and security; specific thematic issues such as climate change, as well as modalities of participation and priorities of the…
THE Kaduna State governor, Uba Sani, has said the menace of insecurity plaguing a large portion of the North can be put to an end only by implementing state policing, Governor Sani’s statement comes hours after bandits stormed the Gindin Dutse Makyali village of Kufana district in the Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State. ”In the last six months or thereabout, I have been insisting that we can only address the issue of insecurity if we establish state policing,” Governor Sani said in a one-on-one chat on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics monitored by News Point Nigeria. ”I am happy…
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has arrived in Kaduna State where he will be participating as the special guest of honour for the 6oth anniversary of the Nigerian Defence Academy. The president landed at the Kaduna International Airport at exactly 11:30am, and was received by the state governor, Senator Uba Sani, along with the Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas, Senior Kaduna State Government officials and top senior military officers. The president is expected to deliver a speech at the diamond celebration of the NDA holding at Afaka in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State. From the airport the President moved to…
THIRTEEN children who were abducted by suspected bandits in the Katari area of Kaduna on January 6, 2024, have spent 23 days in captivity. The bandits reportedly killed a 53-year-old baker, Mr Tijani Amedu, and abducted his 13 relatives, who are mainly children and were travelling alongside him, in the Katari area of the state. The incident happened while the victims were returning to Kaduna after visiting Warri, Delta State. The Edo State-born businessman’s brother, AbdurRasaq, in a chat on Sunday, when asked about the children, told our correspondent, “They are still with the kidnappers.” When asked what the police…
A POLICE Divisional Officer has rejected one million naira bribe offered to him by a suspected notorious bandit after his arrest in a hotel in Kaduna Community. The arrested bandit reportedly offered the bribe out of the ransom recovered from him by the police at a hotel in Tafa community. According to the Police Command Public Relations Officer, ASP Mansir Hassan, on Thursday, the arrest was made on the 19th of January, 2024. According to him, the divisional headquarters received credible information regarding the presence of the suspected person st Easyway hotel in Tafa town. He explained that their Operatives…
THE Nigerian Air Force says air strikes undertaken by the air component of Operation WHIRL PUNCH, on Thursday, neutralized a well-known terrorist and kidnap kingpin popularly known as Janari and several members of his syndicate. Janari and his cohorts have been responsible for several attacks and abductions within Kaduna State as well as along the Abuja-Kaduna highway, a statement by the Director of Public Relations and Information of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Vice Marshal Edward Gabkwet on Sunday said. Gabkwet said that the strikes were authourized after Janari and his gang were sighted at a location near Gadar Katako…
THERE was tension in Kidandan Village of Giwa Local Government Area of Kaduna State as 10 children sustained fatal injury in an explosion. The incident happened Saturday afternoon when the children were said to be playing with an object found in the nearby bush. Sources said the object, believed to be a bomb, exploded suddenly. Pictures of the victims obtained by this newspaper showed them in blood as they were being attended to by some residents. They were later rushed to Shika Hospital in Zaria for treatment. The Village Head, Alhaji Abubakar Umar Ruka, also confirmed the incident, saying he…
A 400-LEVEL student of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi has been arrested for alleged possession of illegal firearms. The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Ahmed Wakil. in a statement on Wednesday said the suspect was arrested on Saturday following a tip-off by a vigilante group, saying the student illegally acquired one locally-made gun, one locally-made pistol, and 9mm live ammunition. The suspect had already admitted to the offence and claimed that the weapons belonged to another person previously arrested for possession of a locally made pistol in 2021. Wakil said that a 28-year-old business café operator had…
THE Inspector-General of Police Olukayode Egbetokun, has launched the Special Intervention Squad in the Federal Capital Territory to curb activities of kidnappers and bandits, especially in border towns within the territory. Our correspondent gathered that the squad would be in charge of patroling and securing the communities within the various borders of the FCT, and intervening to curb and mitigate violent attacks in the nation’s capital The Nigeria Police Force had in late 2023 revealed that deployment of 40,000 operatives of the Special Intervention Squad who were undergoing training would begin with Katsina and nine other states including the FCT.…
VICE-PRESIDENT Kashim Shettima has departed Abuja to represent Nigeria at the 2024 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum scheduled to hold in Davos, Switzerland. Stanley Nkwocha, the Vice-President’s spokesman, who announced this in a statement on Sunday, said Nigeria’s number two man would join other political and business leaders across the world at the annual Forum to discuss global socio-economic and development issues. “Top on Vice President Shettima’s agenda, apart from the plenary session, is the launch of the Private Sector Action Plan for African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) at a special session to be co-chaired by him.”…
MRS Saratu Yakubu, the mother of a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has died at the age of 103. Dogara, who announced her death on Friday evening, in a statement said, “It is with utmost gratitude and total submission to the will of God Almighty that we announce the transition to glory of our mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, Mama Saratu Yakubu Tukur, which occurred today, Friday, December 22, 2023 at the age of 103 years.” Dogara said he was comforted by the fact that she led a life of total commitment, dedication and service to God and…
THE Executive Chairman of Kaduna State Pilgrims Welfare Agency, Malam Salihu S. Abubakar, has called on all Muslims who intend to perform the next Hajj, and those with capability to undertake the 2024 pilgrimage, to register on or before December 31st, 2023. Malam Salihu who made the call during a media briefing at the agency’s headquarters in Kaduna on Wednesday, said the final closure of registration is on December 31st, 2023. The Executive Chairman noted that reminder becomes necessary because the deadline is a few days away. He reiterated that all intending pilgrims are required to deposit N4.5 million…