Author: Sani Nura

EIGHT suspects have been arrested in Katsina State after burning a vehicle belonging to the police in the state. It was gathered that the suspects were protesting as officers tried to arrest a traffic offender on Tuesday at Kofar Guga, one of the busiest roads in the Katsina metropolis. Some eyewitnesses attributed the suspects’ actions to the incessant extortion of motorists by police operatives. The Police Public Relations Officer, Abubakar Aliyu, confirmed the incident in a statement sent to News Point Nigeria on Wednesday. According to the police spokesman, the protesters aided the traffic offender’s escape before they set the…

BANDITS have killed a legal practitioner identified as Barrister Ahmad Muhammad Abubakar in his home at Kotorkoshi Town, Bungudu Local Government Area of Zamfara State. Until his death, Barrister Muhammad was the welfare Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, Gusau Branch. He was also the candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) for the Bungudu West constituency of Zamfara State House of Assembly in this year’s general elections. Although the Zamfara State Police Command is yet to be briefed on the incident, a close associate of the lawyer confirmed the killing to News Point Nigeria. Identifying himself as Aminu…

GUNMEN invaded the palace of the Emir of Minna, Alhaji Umar Farouk Bahago, on Tuesday evening, shooting two guards. This newspaper gathered that one of the staff of the palace who was sent to the bank to get some cash was trailed by the gunmen who drove in a private car. Our correspondent gathered that the Emir was in the palace while gunmen shot sporadically to scare people away before they made away with undisclosed amount of cash belonging to the Minna Emirate. Two of the injured palace guards were reportedly taken to Minna General Hospital for medical attention. An…

THE Federal Government is set to reduce the importation of drugs in the country from 60% to 40% to promote the local manufacturing of drugs. The Special Adviser to the President on Health, Salma Anas-Ibrahim made this disclosure at a workshop organised to strengthen the World Health Organisation Nigeria country cooperation strategy in Abuja. According to Anas-Ibrahim, this is part of President Bola Tinubu’s priority agenda to bridge the gap in country’s health sector. Other priority areas include increase and improve access to equal health care services, national health insurance for at least 40% of Nigeria’s population to ensure all…

GOMBE State Governor,  Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, CON has attributed the achievements so far recorded by his administration to sound financial management system that functions within the realm of an effective accounting environment. Governor Inuwa Yahaya stated this when he granted audience to leadership of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria ANAN led by its President and Chairman of Council, Dr. James Neminebo at the Government House. The Governor noted that without a prudent and deligent application of financial and human resources, organisations and government institutions alike may derail from the basic norms of effective management which can eventually lead…

A SEVEN-MONTH-OLD baby boy named Habibu has been found sleeping on his mother’s back 30 hours after she was shot dead by bandits on the Pandogari-Allawa road in Shiroro LGA of Niger State. This newspaper gathered that bandits blocked the Pandogari-Allawa road a day to Sallah and shot six passengers, including an SS 2 student of the Maryam Babangida Girls’ Science College, Minna, Hauwa Aliyu, and the mother of the baby to death. The President of Lakpma Youth Assembly, Jibril Allawa, told this newspaper that, “Miraculously, the baby was one of the survivors of the attack in which six people…

TARABA State Governor, Agbu Kefas has imposed a 24-hour curfew on Karim town, the headquarters of Karim Lamido Local Government Area (LGA) and its environs effective July 2, 2023. The curfew was necessitated by renewed communal conflicts in some parts of the local government area after the killing of over thirty lives. In a statement, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Yusuf Sanda said security agencies have been mandated to ensure strict compliance and any person or group of persons found violating the order should be dealt with in accordance with the law. “All ward heads, village heads, traditional…

AT least six people, including women, were killed and many sustained injuries when insurgents fired a mortar bomb also known as heavy artillery into Damboa town in Damboa Local Government Area of Borno state. It was learnt that the outlawed group came at exactly 8:30 pm to Waluri bridge in Damboa town and attacked a civilian JTF location. According to a security source, after they could not gain access into the town, the attackers fired a mortar bomb into the town. “There was an attack by ISWAP last night in Damboa town, we lost six people including women and more…

VICE-PRESIDENT Kashim Shettima on Thursday asked the northern leaders to support the efforts of the Bola Tinubu administration in tackling Nigeria’s security challenges. Shettima made the call in Sokoto when he paid Sallah homage to the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Saád Abubakar III in his palace. “I urge our political leaders to unite to confront the common challenges of insecurity, poverty and underdevelopment in the region,” Shettima was quoted as saying in a statement by his media aide, Olusola Abiola. “President Tinubu is aware of the challenges facing our people – the insecurity that has pervaded the northwest region and…

THE Academic Staff Union of Universities has rejected the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards prepared by the National Universities Commission. The union said it was nightmarish, a threat to quality university education, and an erosion of powers of the university Senate in Nigerian universities. A statement signed by the national president of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, on Friday, explained that it was inexplicable that NUC pre-packaged 70 per cent CCMAS contents were being imposed on the Nigerian University System, adding that university Senates, who are statutorily responsible for academic programme development, were left to work on only 30 per cent.…

TROOPS of Operation Hadarin Daji deployed to Shinkafi Local Government Area of Zamfara State have rescued 20 kidnap victims while on their routine patrol in the general area. The victims comprised two females including a housewife who was abducted a week after her wedding, three children and 15 males, who were kidnapped from different parts of Zamfara and Sokoto states. During preliminary investigation, the victims revealed that they have spent 21 to 53 days respectively in the hands of their captors while other victims revealed that they were released from the camp of a notorious bandits’ kingpin, Bello Turji due…

GOMBE State Governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, CON yesterday joined the Emir of Gombe,  Alhaji Dr Abubakar Shehu Abubakar III, CFR and other Muslim Ummah in the state to observe the  2- Raka’at Eid prayer to mark the commencement of Eid-el-Kabir Sallah Celebration in Gombe. The Eid prayer, which took place at the main Eid ground in Gombe was led by the Deputy Chief Imam of Gombe, Ustaz Aliyu Hammari and was also attended by top government functionaries, including the Speaker and members of Gombe State House of Assembly,  Secretary to the State Government,  Acting Head of Civil Service,  Permanent Secretaries…

THE Zamfara State Government on Tuesday said there were no plans to dialogue or negotiate with terrorists or any other criminal group but would wage war against them and death awaits them until they are eliminated from the state. The Secretary to the State Government, Abubakar Nakwada stated this while addressing journalists about the activities of the present administration of Governor Dauda Lawal and that of his immediate predecessor, Bello Matawalle. Matawalle’s government had initiated a peace dialogue with the bandits which was later stopped in September 2021 due to persistent bandit attacks on rural communities in the state. Nakwada…

SEVERAL of Boko Haram/ ISWAP terrorists have been reportedly killed in airstrikes by troops of Air Component operation Hadin Kai, in Sambisa Forest axis of Bama Local Government Area. Sources said the terrorists were eliminated in air strikes carried out in the midnight of June 21, 2023 in Amchille in Gaizuwa. Counter-insurgency expert in the Lake Chad region, Zagazola Makama confirmed the strikes noting that the air component carried out the strikes following credible intelligence of terrorists planning to launch attack. “The jets successfully struck the camps, killing dozens of the terrorists while a few escaped. He disclosed that the…

GOMBE State Governor, Muhammdu Inuwa Yahaya, CON, (Dan Majen Gombe) has approved the extension of tenure of the Management of the  Gombe State University of Science and Technology, Kumo for six months with effect from 1st July,  2023. According to a statement by the Director-General, Press Affairs, Ismaila Uba Misilli, the Secretary to the State Government, Professor Ibrahim Abubakar Njodi, who conveyed the Governor’s approval, said the decision followed the expiration of their tenure at the end of this June, and the need to facilitate smooth take over of the institution by the Lincoln University College Malaysia. Recall that Gombe State…

THE Governor of Borno State, Prof. Babagana Zulum, has raised the alarm over renewed attacks by suspected Boko Haram terrorists on farmers in communities within the state. Zulum, in a condolence visit Friday to five communities in Jere and Mafa local government areas (LGAs) where eight farmers and scavengers were brutally murdered, alleged sabotage of efforts to restore security to the troubled state. Before the murder of eight scavengers and farmers on Thursday in Shuwari, Kaleri, Tamsu Ngamdua, Baram Karamwa, and Muna communities, there had been similar attacks on farmers in Borno communities in recent weeks. A top military source…

A MAN suffering from epilepsy, Amos Christopher, has been apprehended by the Adamawa State Police Command for allegedly beating his ​​four-year-old brother, Thyson, to death. Amos, a 24-year-old who lives in Dobi village in Ga’anda District, Gombi Local Government Area, allegedly committed the act in one of the apartments in their home on June 19, 2023. A statement by the Adamawa State Police Spokesperson, SP Suleiman Nguroje, added that Amos strangled his younger brother before beheading him and dismembering his body with a hoe. The accused, said to be suffering from epilepsy by family members, murdered his brother when his…

A FEDERAL High Court (FHC), Abuja, on Wednesday, gave an order restoring Mr Mahdi Gusau as the deputy governor of Zamfara following his impeachment by the state’s House of Assembly on Feb. 23, 2022, inspite of a subsisting court order. Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a judgement, also set aside all the steps and actions taken by the House of Assembly, former Gov. Bello Matawalle and the state’s chief judge in the purported impeachment of Gusau during the pendency of the suit in court. Justice Ekwo, who held that the act of the then assembly’s speaker, ex-governor, chief judge and indeed…

THE Governor of Sokoto State, Ahmad Aliyu, on Monday, paid an unscheduled visit to the Sokoto Specialist Hospital to ascertain the quality of services provided by the outfit. Malam Abubakar Bawa, the Press Secretary to the governor, disclosed this in a statement on Monday in Sokoto. Bawa said that the governor’s decision to visit the health facility unannounced followed the series of concerns raised by citizens of the state over the poor health service delivery at the hospital. The press secretary added that other concerns that spurred the governor to visit the hospital were the need to have a first-hand…

GOVERNOR Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya has flagged off the sales and distribution of fertilizers for the 2023 farming season. Performing the ceremony at Lawanti Farm Service Centre in Akko Local Government Area, the Governor said the commodity will be sold at the rate of N19,000 per bag, against the market price of about N26,000 to alleviate the financial burden on the farmers. He said that the timely distribution of the subsidised fertilizers for this year’s cropping season is aimed at boosting agriculture and ensuring food security in the state and beyond while creating wealth and providing employment opportunities for the teeming…