Author: Gloria Lamar Johnson

A SECONDARY school building has collapsed in Plateau States killing at least 12 persons and leaving dozens of others injured. Activities at Saints Academy and its immediate environment in Busa Buji, Jos North, were disrupted on Friday morning when the school’s two-story building caved in on students and their teachers. The collapse trapped more than 70 pupils, witnesses said, transforming a peaceful educational environment into a scene of chaos. Panicked and desperate residents quickly descended on the scene to provide help as screams for help rent the air. They were joined by emergency workers to battle the rubble to rescue…

A TOTAL of 1,702 murders, 2,149 kidnappings, and 320 robbery cases were recorded by the Nigeria Police Force across the country in 2023. According to a report released on Friday, July 5, 2024, by Statisense, a data collection organisation, the North Central region had the highest number of reported murder cases, totalling 436 for the year. During the year under review, the North-West recorded 417 murder cases, the North-East had 345, and the South-West recorded 174, ranking them second to fourth, respectively. In the South-East and South-South regions, 169 and 161 murder cases were recorded, respectively. A further breakdown of…

JUSTICE Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja has declared invalid the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary election that produced Asue Ighodalo as its governorship candidate. The primary election conducted on February 22, 2024, was voided on the ground that 378 delegates who were supposed to vote at the primary election were unlawfully excluded by PDP. Justice Ekwo nullified the primary election while delivering judgment in a suit instituted by the aggrieved delegates. The suit was instituted by one Kelvin Mohammed in a representative capacity. Justice Ekwo held that both the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 and…

AMINA Adamu, one of the three housewives abducted along Takum-Katsina-Ala road in Takum local government area of Taraba state four weeks ago, has escaped from the kidnappers’ den. According to a relation of her husband, Mallam Maiwada, Amina escaped while the kidnappers were asleep. He said however two other housewives and daughter of General T.Y.Danjuma’s brother were still in the hands of the kidnappers. It was further gathered that two persons that took ransom for the release of the three housewives were held by the kidnappers. The brother of General T.Y Danjuma, Mr Benjamin, was abducted alongside his wife and…

A TRADITIONAL title holder in Nasarawa State, the Madaki of Shabu, Musa Shuaibu, has been abducted by gunmen. The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Ramhan Nansel, confirmed the abduction to Channels Television. According to him, Shuaibu was abducted on Thursday evening after observing prayers in a Mosque opposite his house in Shabu, a suburb of Lafia, the state capital. He added that efforts are ongoing to rescue the victim and also apprehend the culprits and bring them to justice.

ONE person was allegedly killed with some others injured as over 10 vehicles and a microfinance bank building were burnt at the Bukuru market in the Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State on Monday by hoodlums who confronted Jos Metropolitan Development Board Officials carrying out the enforcement of an Executive Order. The incident occurred when enforcement officers stormed the market to supervise the demolition of illegal structures erected by the roadside, especially within the market vicinity. However, the officers met resistance from hoodlums who emerged from the neighbourhood within the market and confronted the implementation officers, pelting them…

GUNMEN have abducted passengers travelling to Abuja from Enugu State, after attacking the 18-seater bus conveying them in Nasarawa state. The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Ramhan Nansel, disclosed this to Channels Television. Nansel who disclosed that on Friday night, said the police received information that an 18-seater bus conveying passengers from Enugu State to Abuja, was attacked at Doruwa village, Nasarawa-Keffi road and an unspecified number of people abducted. He added that three of the victims were later rescued after the police and other agencies launched an operation in the area. “Police operatives, in collaboration with other security agencies,…

THE Military Taskforce in charge of maintaining peace in Plateau State has declared eleven persons wanted. The Deputy Commander of Operation Safe Haven, Tezungwe Iyua disclosed this during a press conference in Jos on Friday According to him, the persons declared wanted were all males. They include Muhammadu MP, Muhammed MOPOL, Rabiu Ibrahim, Buba Sobe, Senfos Gaine, Nahaska Boderi, Dudi Mohammadu, Habu Mohammadu, Ja’afaru Matakala, Hassan Waje and Sanusi Dafor. Iyua said the suspects were declared wanted in connection with various attacks that left several persons dead and properties destroyed in various parts of the state. The Deputy Commander said,…

A BENUE State High Court has restrained the Benue State Government from probing the administration of the former Governor of the state, Chief Samuel Ortom. This newspaper recalls that the Benue State Government recently set up a commission of inquiry into the funds (income and expenditure) of Benue State Government from May 29, 2015, to May 28, 2023, to probe the immediate past administration of former Governor Ortom in the state. The order stopped the panel from sitting, pending the hearing and determination of a motion on notice filed by former Governor Samuel Ortom. Justice T. T. Asua gave the…

TWO female students of the Joseph Sarwuan University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State have been kidnapped by gunmen. The students were said to have been kidnapped late hours of Saturday. The spokesperson for the state command, Catherine Anene, who confirmed the kidnap of two female students to journalists on Wednesday, noted that the female students were kidnapped at about 11 pm on Saturday. She said, “The report we heard was that the incident happened along North Bank/Uniagric Road, Saturday night at about 11 pm. Anene further explained that the suspected kidnappers blocked the road, attacked and took the victims before…

THE Benue State House of Assembly on Monday repealed the law for lifetime maintenance of former elected governors and their deputies in the state. Our correspondent reports that the the 9th Assembly had in May 2023, few days to their exit, passed the controversial pension bill to extend benefits to ex-elected governors and their deputies from 1999. But, the present 10th Assembly during plenary on Monday repealed the bill passed into law by their predecessors on account that it was not done in good faith. The lawmakers said the law was anti-people and they were unanimous in support of the…

THE police command in Kogi on Sunday confirmed the killing of two of the abducted students of Confluence University of Science and Technology (CUSTECH), Osara. The State Police Commissioner, Mr Bethrand Onuoha, said this when he spoke with newsmen in Lokoja. Onuoha described the killing by their abductors as very unfortunate. The CP did not, however, give the details of the killing, and said that the security operatives were on the trail of the abductors to bring them to book. Abductors invaded the school around 9.00 pm on May 9 while the students were studying in their classes ahead of…

AN OFFICER with the Nigeria Police Force has been confirmed dead with five other persons injured in a melee that ensued during a clearance operation of street traders at the Jos terminus market in Plateau State, on Wednesday. Reports suggest that the joint task force comprising of personnel from the Police, Department of State Services, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Immigration and Operation Rainbow which is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring sanity in the market, met with stiff resistance from a mob. In the course of carrying out the enforcement of clearance operation an officer from one…

OVER 40 persons have been killed by bandits in Zurak Kompani and Bandalala communities, Bashar District of Wase Local Government Area of Plateau State.  Some Wase residents who spoke to News Point Nigeria on the phone said the attacks on the villages occurred on Monday night when residents were retiring from the day’s work. The bandits, according to the residents, attacked the villages simultaneously. They set houses on fire, leading to pandemonium in which some of the residents were killed and others sustaining injuries. Over thirty persons were reportedly killed in Kompani Zurak while another ten were killed in Bandalala…

BANDITS on Thursday night invaded the Confluence University of Science and Technology (CUSTEC), Osara, Okene in Kogi, and abducted some students. An eye witness said the bandits swooped on the university around 9.00 p.m. while the students were reading for their upcoming exams. The source said that the bandits came in through the bush, went into three lecture halls and began to shoot into the air. “They trapped the students inside the halls and started taking them; the school was thrown into total confusion as fear-stricken students in other halls scurried to safety, scampering in various directions. “By the time…

IN a bizarre incident, a police officer is under investigation for cutting off the hand of his wife over an argument about money. What usually transpired when a misunderstanding occurs and subsequently settled turned into violence in the home of Ibrahim Shagari, a police officer with Plateau State Police Command. The wife, Hauwa Shagari, who is a mother of three and heavily pregnant said the occurred following an argument between her and her husband. She narrated her experience at the hospital where she is receiving treatment and recuperating. “I don’t have issues of violence with him, except insults when he…

THE Kogi State House of Assembly has asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to vacate the ‘wanted’ tag that it placed on the name and person of the immediate past Governor of the state, Yahaya Bello. This formed part of the resolutions of the House during plenary on Tuesday. This was after a member representing Ajaokuta State Constituency in the House, Jibrin Abu, presented a matter of urgent public importance on the floor of the House. In his motion, titled, ‘A call to end all false, frivolous, fictitious, and far from the truth smear campaign against the former…

THE Kogi State Governor Usman Ododo has called on the Federal Government to assist the state in tackling the menace of insecurity and incessant flooding in some parts of the state. Governor Ododo’s Special Adviser on Media Ismaila Isah revealed in a statement and quoted his principal to have made the comment when he received a delegation of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) at the Government House, Lokoja on Thursday. The Governor noted that as a transit state that borders 10 other states, Kogi is in dire need of improved financial intervention from the Federal Government to…

THE Plateau State University, Bokkos, has suspended all academic activities in the institution for 10 days. The decision to close down the institution followed the attack and killing of a 200-level Computer Science student of the institution on Friday during a night attack around the university’s environment. The Registrar of the institution, Yakubu Ayuba, in a statement on Saturday, said, “Following the sad incident that occurred in Plateau State University, Bokkos, and the surrounding communities on Friday, 19th April, 2024; and in view of the psychological effect of the unfortunate incident on students and staff of the university, the management…

A STATE High Court sitting in Lokoja on Wednesday restrained the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from arresting, detaining and prosecuting ex-governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello. Justice I.A Jamil of High Court IV gave the order in a two hour judgement delivered in suit no HCL/68/M/2020 in Lokoja on Wednesday. The judge said that infringing on the fundamental human rights of the former Kogi is null and void except as authorised by the Court. “By this order, the EFCC is hereby restrained from arresting, detaining and prosecuting the applicant except as authorised by the Court. “This is a…