Author: Lawal AbdulSalam Olawale

 

Flowerbudnews

Former Commandant of the Navy War College, Rear Admiral Murtala Bashir (rtd.), says the Nigerian Navy’s onslaught against oil thieves saved the nation 91,725.26 barrels of crude in 2023.

 

Bashir made the disclosure in a paper he presented at the inauguration of the Naval Warfare Course 8 in Calabar on Monday.

 

He spoke on the topic, “Operational Level Warfare: Imperatives for Training and Command in the Nigerian Navy”.

He said that this was against 889,890 barrels that were saved from thieves between January and December 2022.

 

According to Bashir, the economic saboteurs were also denied of 513,350 litres of Kerosene in 2023 alone.

 

He further said that 351 illegal refining sites, 630 storage tanks and 315 wooden boats were deactivated within the same period.

He said that 78 suspects, 35 vessels and 13 trucks were arrested between January and December 2023.

 

While commending the Navy for the feat, he said that more action was needed to reduce the activities of oil thieves to the barest level.

 

“The aforementioned achievements and others were possible because most operational level commanders displayed sterling personal qualities, such as diligence, commitment, courage, knowledge, foresight, ability to take risks, ability to delegate authority and respect for subordinates, among others,” he said.

 

Bashir also commended the Navy for delisting the country from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) list of High Risk Countries.

 

“For so many years, Nigeria’s Maritime area was plagued by piracy with the area regarded as a High Risk Area, alongside the gulf of Aden and other notorious areas by the IMO.

 

“It is noteworthy to say that the Flag Officer Commanding of the operational commands doubled his efforts by being proactive.

 

“They invested more in intelligence and collaborating with other stakeholders, which led to the coordinated and sustained operations in their individual area of responsibilities with occasional overlaps.

 

“Many of the pirates were arrested ashore, either while planning their operations or when they returned after operations,” he said.

 

Bashir called for the optimisation of the operational level of Naval Warfare Training for the service to produce professional officers that would adequately translate strategic directives into precise tactical actions.

 

“The officers will also be apolitical and more responsive to national security priorities.

 

“They will be more efficient in the alignment and use of resources, uphold the law and respect human rights, thereby earning public trust, respect and confidence,” Bashir said.

The Federal Government said members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) are no longer posted to states deemed unsafe in the wake of worsening security conditions in the country.

 

Several corps members have been abducted in some parts of the country during their one-year mandatory national service, raising fears about the sustainability of the scheme.

 

But the Minister of Youth Jamila Ibrahim says the scheme has taken steps to secure NYSC members including posting them only to safe states.

 

 

“As an immediate intervention of the government and the NYSC as an agency, we have actually stopped posting corps members to the very unsafe states,” Jamila said on Channels Television’s current affairs show Sunday Politics.

 

We have been doing it. We have been doing it in the past. There are states we have not been posting corps members to to ensure their safety,” she added.

 

According to her, the security of corps members requires collaboration with other agencies of government.

 

“When it comes to security matters, it is a multi-sectoral approach. So, it is not the NYSC alone and the ministry that is involved. We are working with security outlets to ensure corps members are safe,” the minister maintained.

 

“We are also working on group transportation strategies for them to ensure that they are transported to and from camps safely and to their destinations.”

 

The minister said the Federal Government is working on reforming the NYSC scheme to reflect the present realities of the nation, particularly in the area of their allowance.

 

“When it comes to remuneration, we are looking at the holistic funding of the NYSC. You are all aware that we have announced a reform of the NYSC scheme itself. We want the scheme to go beyond being a social programme of the government,” she added.

 

“The reforms will actually transform the NYSC into a revenue-generating agency and prepare corps members for the job market.

 

The Minister of Youth Development, Jamila Bio-Ibrahim, says it is not certain that the Federal Government will increase the monthly allowance of serving members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC

 

Bio-Ibrahim, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme, said the government would find innovative ways of ensuring that corps members’ welfare are well-taken of.

 

In January 2020, the government raised allowance for corps members from N19,000 to N33,000, about a year after then President Muhammadu Buhari signed the new minimum wage bill into law in April 2019.

 

With food inflation and increasing cost of living over the years, there have been calls by youths serving in the NYSC scheme that the government raise their monthly allowance colloquially called, Alawee, even as the President Bola Tinubu administration inaugurated a minimum wage committee last Tuesday.

 

Asked whether or not there are immediate plans to increase the monthly allowance of corps members on Sunday, the minister said, “We can’t say for sure, we all understand that resources are dwindling, even oil revenues are not as they used to be but we will find innovative ways of ensuring that corps members’ welfare are well-taken of. ”

 

Bio-Ibrahim further said, “When it comes to remuneration and looking totally at the holistic funding of the NYSC, we have announced a reform of the NYSC scheme itself. So, we want the scheme to go beyond that social programme of government to be that revenue-generating scheme and agency.

 

“The reforms which transform the NYSC into a revenue-generating agency and prepare the corps members for the job market and to be decently and gainfully employed or to be employers of labour through entrepreneurship and of course, perfect matching into primary assignment and all the support they need in that career path.”

 

The minister also said as an immediate measure, the NYSC has stopped posting corps members to unsafe states. She said the matter was a multi-sectoral approach and the NYSC has been working with security agencies for the safety of corps members in the country.

The residents of Minna, the Niger State capital, have flooded the streets to protest the rising cost of food and living in the state.

 

The protesters, in large numbers, blocked the Minna-Bida Road at the popular Kpakungu roundabout as early as 7 am on Monday.

 

Efforts by the police to control the crowd almost resulted in violence as protesters asked police to leave, forcing the police to fire several shots in the air to disperse them.

 

Details later

…

 

There was pandemonium on Wednesday, January 31, after a fight broke out among some cult groups said to be students of Community Senior Grammar School and Ikotun High School at Ikotun in the Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State.

 

PUNCH Metro learnt that the incident happened as a result of a long-time rivalry between two groups in the schools.

 

The fight which started during the closing hour was said to have caused some policemen nearby to intervene to restore calm.

 

On sighting the officers, the troublemakers started to hurl dangerous objects at them.

 

The situation however degenerated when the officers called for reinforcement and after that shot teargas canisters into the premises of the school to disperse the groups.

 

It was gathered that the incident led to a stampede as some of the students sustained varying degrees of injuries, while those said to be asthmatic reportedly slumped in the process.

 

Speaking to our correspondent, a parent who identified herself simply as Bimbo said about 10 students were hospitalised.

 

She said, “The quarrel between some of the students of both schools started immediately when the school closed. One of the boys took a bottle and broke it and the police officers close to the school saw that they quickly wanted to address the issue but the Community Senior Grammar School students started throwing stones and planks at them.

 

“The police then retreated towards the main road. On getting there, they met another patrol van coming, alerted them and went back into the school. But the mistake they made was throwing teargas inside the school compound because they had to force their way into the compound with the patrol van.

 

“The moment they shot the teargas and started shooting into the air, the students started running and that caused a stampede, and you know some of the students have health challenges. The teargas affected them and some of them started to collapse while some got injured during the stampede. One of them is asthmatic.”

 

She added that the affected students were rushed to a nearby health centre before being transferred to Igando General Hospital.

 

In a video sighted by our correspondent, one of the students was lying on the bare floor while she was placed on oxygen.

 

Another eyewitness who craved not to be named said some students were arrested and locked up at the Ikotun Police Station.

 

“So many innocent students were picked and locked up until the following day when we had to go and protest at the police station because we know some innocent students who were picked while the troublemakers escaped because they are smart,” the eyewitness said.

 

While noting that some of the students have been discharged,

 

Israel Olusegun, who has two children in the school, said he had withdrawn them due to the incident.

 

He also urged the government to relocate one of the schools instead of leaving them on the same premises.

 

He said, “The students of Community Grammar School are very tough. There was a time when the parents were contemplating that (relocation) for peace to reign.

 

“This is not the first time this is happening. Sometimes, they quarrel with students of the Technical School close to them and sometimes when they start, the teachers and even the principal would run away. We have been hearing about cultism in the school. This incident is one of the unfortunate things that have been happening in the school,” he added.

 

Our correspondent gathered that some of the injured victims had been discharged while the arrested ones were released the following day.

 

The state Commissioner for Information, Gbenga Omotoso, said an investigation was ongoing to unravel the cause of the incident.

 

The Commissioner for Education has visited the school. Investigation is going on into the matter.”

The Alara of Ara in the Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Oba Adebayo Fatoba, has recounted his escape from a recent attack by gunmen that resulted in the tragic deaths of two of his colleagues last Monday.

 

On January 29, Fatoba escaped after gunmen killed two monarchs: the Onimojo of Imojo, Oba Olatunde Olusola, and the Elesun of Esun Ekiti, Oba Babatunde Ogunsakin, while returning from a security meeting.

 

The killing of the Ekiti monarchs raised eyebrows over the increasing insecurity in the country, with a spate of kidnappings across the country.

 

Awikonko TV Live in a video on Sunday, Oba Adebayo Fatoba recounted the harrowing experience, stating that the community had sought permission from the state police to address the persistent attacks by herders on the communities.

 

His words: “We have a security committee in the local government. There are 25 communities in the Ikole Local Government Area. When Fulani people started coming in to graze and do all sorts of things, we got permission from the police to assist them. This was about three or four years ago. I was made the chairman of the committee. One of my counterparts who was killed (Onimojo of Imojo) was the deputy, and we used to go everywhere. We volunteered to do it for Yoruba land.

 

“So it happened that they came to check some people’s houses between Aiyebode and Aiyedun communities. They killed someone there. Then my deputy called to tell me that these people were back. It was on a Sunday, so I told him that I would come on Monday.”

 

“I was reading something on my phone when I suddenly felt that the driver slammed the brakes. As we looked up, we saw guns pointed at us. If they were kidnappers, they would ask us to get down, raise our hands, and so on.

 

“I wish I could show you my body; you would have seen the cuts.”

 

Narrating his escape, Fatoba stated that the situation was a “war zone” and dismissed claims that he ‘disappeared’.

 

He said, “I noticed that they didn’t understand English. They had a big machete, and they had other ones too. I saw an AK-47, a pump-action gun, and a locally made one. One of the assailants tried to hit my head with a weapon, but I used the door to protect myself, so it was the door that was hit.

It was a war zone. People who said that I disappeared—I want them to know that it is a lie. I ran to the security guards we put in that area because it had been a hotspot. I wanted to get to them.”

 

According to him, upon reaching one of the security guards, he instructed the guard to fire into the air, but the firearm jammed. He added that the security guards were gripped by fear and were unable to approach them for a rescue operation.

 

Speaking further, he added that his driver also escaped because the gunmen did not concentrate on him and only collected the car key.

 

He said, “They didn’t concentrate on the driver. He wore a shirt and had a small stature. They only collected the car key. They killed the others; we didn’t escape with the aid of spiritual power.”

 

He continued, “What happened was that they first came to me. Two came out from my right side and one from the left side. They came aggressively. The moment they collected the car key from my driver, they left him. He prostrated on the floor with his hands on the ground.

 

As for me, I fought my way out, and they shot. I heard the gunshots. God didn’t allow the shots to hit me. By the time I looked back, my colleagues were on the ground. I don’t know how that happened. Some cars that were behind us had to reverse.

 

“I was reading something on my phone at the time, so the attack came as a surprise. I lost my phone, but the security guard had the phone number of the monarch, whose community was close by. It was the monarch who mobilised more security guards to meet us there.”

 

On Sunday, the Ekiti state police command paraded one Alhaji Baboga for his alleged involvement in the killing of the two traditional rulers.

The former governor of Yobe State, Bukar Abba Ibrahim, died at the age of 73.

 

 

 

He died in Saudi Arabia after a protracted illness, a source who preferred anonymity claimed.

Another source close to the family posted on his Facebook page, “Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajiun.

 

Sen. Bukar Abba Ibrahim has passed away just now in Makkah. May Allah grant him peaceful repose and Jannatul Firdaus as his final abode Amin Thumma Amin.”