Daybreak, Politics, Entertainment, Sport

Author: Day Break

NCDC registers 14 deaths, 1,340 new Infections in one day
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has registered 1,340 new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19), bringing the total number of infected people in the country to 136,030.
The NCDC disclosed this on its official Twitter handle on Thursday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the country has so far tested 1,302,410 people since the COVID-19 index case was recorded on Feb. 27, 2020.
The NCDC also confirmed additional 14 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of those who had succumbed to the disease to 1,632.
The agency said the new infections were recorded in 21 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The NCDC said that FCT topped the list with 320 infections, followed by Lagos 275, Rivers 117 and Oyo 100 cases.
Other states where the new infections took place were Akwa Ibom-57, Ogun-51, Ebonyi-48, Benue-44, Adamawa-42, Imo-38, Kwara-35, Gombe-32, Kaduna-31, Edo-29, Osun-29, Kano-24, Ekiti-15, Katsina-14, Delta-13, Nasarawa-13, Jigawa-10 and Sokoto-3.
The NCDC put the number of recoveries at 110,449, with additional 1,792 people discharged across the country in the last 24 hours.
It added that those discharged on Thursday included 824 community recoveries in Lagos State, 448 in FCT and 142 in Plateau, all managed in line with prescribed guidelines.
The agency said that a multi-sectoral national Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) activated at Level 3, is coordinating response activities nationwide
February 5, 2021
Buhari extends IGP tenure for three months- PDP disagree
PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has extended the tenure of Mohammed Adamu as the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) for three months.
Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammad Dingyadi, made the announcement during a briefing of State House correspondents on Thursday. He said the extension was necessary to give room for the proper selection of a successor.
The announcement was, however, greeted with condemnation from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Lagos-based lawyer and activist, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa and a constitutional lawyer, Mike Ozekhome.
While announcing the tenure extension, the minister said: “Mr President has decided that the present IGP, Mohammed Adamu, will continue to serve as the IG for the next three months, to allow for a robust and efficient process of appointing a new IG.
This is not unconnected to the desire of the president to not only have a smooth handover, but to also ensure that the right officer is appointed into that position.
“The president is extending by three months to allow him get into the process of allowing a new one.”
When asked to explain the lacuna as the announcement came days after Adamu was due to retire, the minister remarked: “There’s no lacuna. Mr President can decide to extend his tenure for three months.”
February 5, 2021
Today’s Major Nigerian Newspaper’s Cover Stories 05- February -2021

February 5, 2021
NDLEA Arrests Businessman, 1 Other With 3.027kg Cocaine At Airport
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a businessman at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja and another man at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, ‘with over three kilogramms of cocaine.’
The spokesman of the agency, Mr. Jonah Achema, said on Thursday in Abuja that while “Adeleke Kazeem Biola was arrested at the Lagos airport with 1.5 kilograms of Cocaine on Wednesday, 3 February 2021 during the outward clearance of passengers on Emirate airline to Dubai, a Lagos based businessman, Onu Oluchukwu Friday, was caught with 1.527 kilogramms of the illicit drug at the Abuja airport.”
He quoted the Commander, MMIA Command of the NDLEA, Mr. Ahmadu Garba, as saying that the suspect, Adeleke “was intercepted at the departure hall of the Lagos airport with the hard drug neatly concealed in a false bottom of his travel bag.”
Garba acknowledged that the series of arrests in the past three weeks follows the offensive action approach deployed by his command in line with the directive by the new Chairman/Chief Executive of the agency, Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (retd).
While explaining how a plumbing materials dealer, Onu Oluchukwu Friday was arrested at the departure lounge of the Abuja airport on Thursday, January 28, 2021, the Commander, NAIA Command of the NDLEA, Mr. Kabir Sani Tsakuwa, said “During outward clearance of Ethiopian Airline ET 910 en route Abuja-Addis Ababa -New Delhi, India, the 39 years old suspect, a native of Umuaku-Isuochi village in Abia State was intercepted at the boarding gate screening and referred for scanning.
“The passenger proved positive for ingestion. He excreted 83 wraps of substances, which proved positive for cocaine and weighed 1.527kg. The suspect who claimed he is into plumbing material business in Lagos came into Abuja for the purpose of trafficking drugs said he was to be paid N1.5m on delivery to one Chibuzo Nmadu, a Nigerian based in India.”
Tsakwa said his command remains committed to the mission of the new leadership of the agency to disrupt the supply chain and reduce the demand for illicit drugs in Nigeria.
On his part, the Chairman of the agency, Gen. Marwa (retd), commended the commanders of the Lagos and Abuja airports commands and their teams for their vigilance, while urging them to intensify efforts so that the mission to rid the country of the scourge of illicit drugs can be collectively achieved.
February 4, 2021
Our Major Informants Are Officials Of Zamfara, Sokoto Governments–Bandits
Bandits operating along Shinkafi/Sokoto Road, Zamfara State have claimed that officials of Zamfara and Sokoto State governments provide them with information with which they strike and evade arrest by military.
The bandits disclosed this during a peace meeting with popular Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, on Tuesday at Makkai forest.
The meeting was in continuation of the peace moves by Gumi.
It was not the first time the Islamic cleric would be meeting with suspected bandits to broker a peace deal.
About three weeks ago, over 500 bandits reportedly agreed to lay down their weapons in Kaduna after he struck a peace deal with them.
A source at the Tuesday meeting told SaharaReporters that the gunmen claimed officials of both state governments provide information on movements of troops and other operational activities discussed during security meetings to them.
The gunmen also accused the Nigerian government of not being sincere in ending instances of banditry and kidnappings.
“They said they have informants in Zamfara and Sokoto State governments giving them information and that the military can’t arrest them,” the source said.
States in the North-West region have in the last 10 years faced devastating attacks from armed bandits.
Almost 70,000 people have fled the region since April 2019.
According to the International Crisis Group, 11,000 people have died since 2011. Many deaths, particularly in Fulani communities however go unreported.
Several army operations have been launched by the Nigerian government, but most have been largely ineffective.
Some state governments in the region have resorted to signing controversial and secret peace agreements with the gunmen to stop the killings. But despite the accords, communities in such states are still being attacked and residents kidnapped and/or killed.
February 4, 2021
Buhari should consider Igbo IGP –Dele Momodu
Popular journalist, Dele Momodu, has urged the President Muhammadu Buhari to appoint an Inspector General of Police of South-Eastern extraction.
According to Momodu, the President must be responsive to the dissatisfaction being voiced out by the Igbo people who claimed they were being marginalised regarding certain national appointments.
The calls by interest groups for an Igbo IGP heightened this week with the expiration of the tenure of Abubakar Adamu as the IGP having reached the mandatory retirement age.
There were also similar demands last week when the President appointed four new service chiefs –Major-General Leo Irabor, Chief of Defence Staff (Delta State); Major-General Ibrahim Attahiru, Chief of Army Staff (Kaduna State); Rear Admiral A.Z Gambo, Chief of Naval Staff (Kano State); and Air-Vice Marshal I.O Amao, Chief of Air Staff (Osun State).
The Presidency had also said the appointment of service chiefs was not by ethnicity but by their ability to secure lives and property in the country.
However, speaking on Thursday, Momodu said the Buhari regime must tap into the brilliance of the Igbo people in the fight against insecurity in the country.
February 4, 2021
Nigerian Government plans To Revoke Sowore’s Bail, Convert To Jail- #RevolutionNow
The Nigerian government is perfecting its plan to revoke the bail of human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, and jail him on trumped-up charges at a court sitting in Abuja for leading the #RevolutionNow agitation.
“#RevolutionNow. We are in the Federal High Court now after our lawyers applied for adjournment in writing. Surprisingly the court sat and the Federal Government rushed to ask the judge to revoke my bail; they are desperate to jail me the other way round, since they can’t prove their original case,” Sowore said on Thursday afternoon.
A prosecution witness, an operative of the Department of State Services, Rasheed Olawale, who was brought to court at the last adjournment date to testify against Sowore had, however, claimed that he was in secondary school when he heard that President Muhammadu Buhari overthrew a democratically elected government of late Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1983 – the only revolution he knew about.
He also told the court that there was no record of a revolution in any part of the country on August 5, 2019, something the Sowore was accused of instigating and subsequently arrested for.
He had disclosed these during a cross-examination by the defence counsel, Femi Falana, at the resumed hearing of the case.
The DSS witness and also an operative had noted that there was no record of any revolution in any part of the country on the said date.
Olawale had told the court that he was part of the team which arrested Sowore on August 3, in Lagos State for allegedly planning a revolution protest to overthrow President Buhari.
He also told the court that intelligence reports at their disposal revealed that Sowore was planning a revolution protest on August 5, 2019, but there was no violence or revolution on the said date.
Falana had also asked the witness if he was aware that President Buhari led a coup to overthrow a democratically elected government of Shehu Shagari in 1983. The witness said he heard about it as a teenager during his secondary school days.
He had also asked if he was aware that President Buhari had in 2011 called for a revolution but the witness said he could not recall and he was not aware.
When asked if he was aware that those who participated in the protest in Lagos, Ogun, Ondo and Cross Rivers states were charged for unlawful assembly at a Federal High Court in Lagos and had since been discharged and acquitted, Olawale again denied the knowledge.
At the end of the cross-examination of the first prosecution witness, the court had admitted his statement as evidence and marked as Exhibit 1.
Meanwhile, ruling on the application filed by the prosecution counsel, Bagudu Sani, seeking protection of the witnesses, the trial judge, Ijeoma Ojukwu, had held that only the defendants, legal representatives and accredited journalists be allowed inside the court room in the subsequent proceedings.
The judge had noted that the number of people in the court would not exceed 20 in line with the COVID-19 protocols and to ensure adequate social distancing.
The matter had been adjourned to January 25, February 4 and 5, 2021 by 1pm.
February 4, 2021
Herdsmen ordered to leave Edo community within 14 days
Youth leaders in Edo State have issued a 14-day ultimatum to Fulani herdsmen to vacate their communities, owing to the killings and violence perpetrated by suspected killer herders.
The youth leaders, at the conference through the Speaker of the Parliament, Kola Edokpayi, warned that any act of aggression against the indigenes would not be tolerated.
The youths said their order followed the killing of three persons, including two vigilantes by suspected Fulani herdsmen on Monday in Ugo N’iyekorhionmwon, Orhionmwon Local Government Area of the state.
Same Wednesday, some aggrieved women in Uromi had protested the rising cases of attacks, rituals and kidnappings by suspected Fulani herdsmen.
The women had blocked some major roads in the community, alleging that they were constantly being harassed and intimidated by the herdsmen.
They lamented that they had lost fortunes as a result of the destructive activities of cows belonging to the herdsmen, noting that they were no longer safe.
According to them, the solution to the problem is for Fulani herdsmen to leave the area.
Speaking for the Edo youths, the Talakawa Parliament, Edokpayi said they also gave 72 hours to the state Commissioner of Police, Phillip Agbadi, to arrest and prosecute the alleged killers, otherwise the youths would stage a mass protest.
The Speaker said, “We have given the killer herdsmen a 14-day ultimatum to quit farmlands and forests in Edo State. We have not given them notice to leave Edo State so that our mothers and fathers can go to farm.
“We are using this medium to call on the CP to arrest within 72 hours these criminal elements that are responsible for the killing of our people in Ugo N’iyekorhionmwon, Orhionmwon LGA or face a mass protest.
“Our people can no longer travel. We believe in peaceful coexistence. However, nobody should take Edo people for a ride.”
The herdsmen’s menace had recently gained attention in southern Nigeria due to their alleged atrocities in Ondo, Oyo, and Ogun states, and now Edo State.
They have been accused of kidnapping, raping, destroying farms and even murdering in many villages and communities.
The South-West governors two weeks ago banned open grazing, underage grazing and grazing on forest reserves, although it is not yet clear if these laws are being strictly adhered to.
February 4, 2021
Police Nonchalant Because Of EndSARS Impact- Speaker Abia State
As the country battles to stamp out insecurity across board, Speaker Abia State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Chinedum Orji has said the nonchalant attitude of the police and other security agencies in dealing with the issues is a result of the negative impact the #EndSARS protest had on them last year.
The Speaker who spoke while presiding over plenary on the floor of the Assembly on Tuesday night against the backdrop of attacks in Isialangwa South where a police post was burnt down and security personnel beheaded in cold blood, and Isuikwuato urged the police to rise above their challenges and tackle insecurity with the needed energy.
According to the Speaker, the recent heightened security challenges in parts of the country that were hitherto peaceful won’t be far from the hijacked #EndSARS protest.
He said the original intention of the conveners of the #EndSARS protest was thwarted by hoodlums who started destroying people’s properties, businesses, and houses, burning down police stations, and carting away firearms in the process.
“What we are witnessing here today is the total nonchalant attitude of the police and other security agencies because of the hijacked #EndSARS protest which hugely affected them negatively. But that should change.
“Also the Laws made by us here and the many resolutions passed by the elected representatives of the people are not being implemented as expected. We have passed the Anti-Grazing Law and I’m made to understand the Governor has given his assent to it. if anybody wants to do Cattle business in the State, the person can do ranching where you buy a piece of land, fence it, and put in the cows there and do your business. In such a way, you don’t cross paths with the locals.
“The issue of kidnappings having some colouration of collaboration with some security agencies should also be looked into because it is abominable,” he said.
He vowed that the Assembly will make use of the instrumentality of its power to make inquiries from relevant security agencies on what needs to be done to secure the people of Abia.
“As an arm of Government, we have the constitutional powers to invite anybody here to give us some answers to questions we want so we can pass same to our Constituents because we will be failing in our duties if we don’t do anything concerning this matter as our people are being kidnapped and shot. If we don’t do anything now and the people take laws into their hands, it will only lead to an escalation of an already bad situation” the Speaker said in an emotion-laden voice.
“We need to look deeply into these reoccurring security breaches that have been happening in Isuikwuato and other parts of the state especially the one that just happened in Isiala Ngwa South before it escalates, which might lead to a total break down of law and order”, the Speaker said.
February 4, 2021
19-year-old Girl Wants Surname Changed After Being Raped By Her
A 19-year-old secondary school girl simply identified as Linda has insisted that her surname be changed after she was allegedly raped by her father.
Linda, while narrating the harrowing experience she allegedly suffered in the hands of her father who she identified as Akanni, said he raped her in 2019, threatening that she would die if she exposed it to anyone.
She spoke in an interview with newsmen at the Lagos State Police Command.
She said, “Words cannot narrate the trauma and pains I suffered.”
Following the rape incidents, Linda is appealing to her mother to change her surname, failure of which she might commit suicide.
She said, “Sometime in 2019, I went to stay with my aunty (paternal) in Ilogbo Ifo, Ogun. My father came to see his sister. There was a day he called me into the room and immediately I got inside he shut the door. He used his hands to cover my mouth and told me not to shout. Even if I had shouted, nobody would have heard me.
“He raped me and told me not to tell anyone or I would die. I kept the rape to myself, but I couldn’t bear it any more. So I spoke up and my mother got to know.
“So I want government to punish him for what he did to me, but he should be made to pay for my university education.”
The girl’s mother, Ayinde Rasheedat, said she brought the matter to the attention of her estranged husband but that he denied it.
“Something terrible happened on 28th December 2019. When Mr Akanni Nurudeen, her father, forcefully raped her and threatened her to keep the secret or die miserably. I got to know this when my daughter asked me to allow her change her surname. She narrated the rape to my sister, Mrs Lateefat, and my sister told me about it.”
When contacted, Mr Akanni denied the allegation, saying, “I never raped my daughter. This is the handiwork of my estranged wife. As I am speaking with you, I am paralysed. I was involved in an accident in November, 2019. That accident paralysed me. The allegation is false and I am hearing it from you for the first time.”
February 4, 2021