The son of DIG Mamman Tsafe(Rtd), Commissioner for Security and Home Affairs in Zamfara, has been shot dead by Bandits
He was killed alongside 3 others when bandits invaded Tsafe town, headquarters of Tsafe local government area of the state, on Sunday night.
The bandits in military uniforms stormed Shiyar Namada area close to the commissioner’s residence and opened fire on people.
Eyewitness reports reveal that some residents spotted the criminals and mistook them for security operatives, so they didn’t bother to raise alarm.
“The commissioner’s son, alongside some other people were seated at the frontage of DIG Ibrahim Mamman Tsafe’s residence during iftar when suddenly the armed men showed up and started firing at every one on sight.”
“During the attack most people observing Tarawih prayer in several mosques around the area and residents had to flee to safety. The armed men later withdrew into the forest. As I’m talking to you I’m at the Waziri’s residence where preparations for their funeral are underway,” a resident revealed.
Popular Nigerian singer, Ayodeji Balogun, professionally known as Wizkid lost a Grammy Award to Angelique Kidjo in the Best World Music Album category.
The Beninese singer on Sunday night won the Best World Music Album for ‘Mother Nature’, at the 64th Grammy Awards.
Kidjo while receiving the award on Sunday thanked Nigerian artistes who featured in the album, Burna Boy, Yemi Alade and Mr. Eazi.
Angélique‘s fifth Grammy award album ‘Mother Nature’ was worked on by several Producers such as Kel P of (Burna Boy), James Poyser of The Roots, Vtek, Rexxie, Synematik, Blue Lab Beats, -M-, Brad Thomas Ackley, David Donatien and Dany Synthé.
Femi Kuti and Mide Kuti were also nominated in the category but they lost the opportunity to clinch the award.
The winner of the Best World Music Album has performed with several international orchestras and symphonies, including the Bruckner Orchestra, The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Philharmonie de Paris.
The presidency has said the Peoples Democratic Party has no moral right to criticise it saying under the opposition party, Nigeria had an army whose soldiers’ pay ended up in the pockets of politicians.
The Presidency was reacting to the criticisms by the governors of the PDP which accused the All Progressives Congress of bad leadership.
The PDP governors had met in Abia a fortnight ago where it condemned the APC describing it as a party that was unfit to participate in the 2023 general election.
The PDP governors had also called the APC a failed party that had become a menace to Nigerians.
Reacting on Sunday, Mr Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, said in a statement that the PDP governors were attempting to cover up the “serial failure” of the opposition party’s period in office.
He said the Buhari administration and APC “have strived these past seven years to repair” the damage done by the PDP.
“We cannot forget under PDP, the nation had an army full of phantom soldiers whose pay went to PDP politicians’ pockets while our under-resourced real soldiers died in the fight against terrorist insurgents and our international allies refused to supply Nigeria kit and military aid,” the statement reads.
“Today with the APC, the army is resourced, we have fighter jets from our partners, Boko Haram is being driven from every inch of Nigerian territory, and ISWAP’s leader eliminated in a Nigerian airstrike.
“We cannot ignore how PDP politicians sought – and continue to seek – to inflame ethnic and religious tensions by refusing to even proffer a solution to the herder-farmer clashes which became most prevalent under their misrule.
“Today with APC in government, there are ranches on Federal land and in state land where there is the willingness to establish them. Clashes are reduced. Lives are saved, and livelihoods are enriched.”
Garba also said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation under the PDP government was mismanaged.
He said under the APC, funds from NNPC are directly and transparently used to fund social and health programmes – such as the COVID-19 response and the construction of public infrastructure.
“The Governors reeled out numbers on the economy, pretending as if the once-in-a-life COVID-19 pandemic, with its huge and devastating effect, disrupting global supply chains, uniformly battering the world economy never happened,” the statement further reads.
“COVID-19 brought suffering and hardship to the doorstep of the entire global community-less maybe, of the affluent and pretentious PDP Governors-and to the credit of this administration, Nigeria’s economy recovered faster and stronger than the entire world ever imagined.”
Nigerian singer and actor, Folarin Falana [Falz] has disclosed why he decided to opt-out of Funke Akindele’s soap opera, Jenifa’s Diary.
It will be recalled that Nollywood actress, Funke Akindele started her epic series of Jenifa’s Diary on April 15, 2015.
Akindele had featured both veterans and newbies in the series to create unimaginable scenes that have captured the heart of her lovers and fans.
Falz who took the role of Sege happens to be one of the major characters of the series.
However, as years go by, the singer has acknowledged that he can no longer appear on the movie set for Jenifa’s Diary due to his schedule.
The singer who spoke at an interview with Inkblot’s Meet & Greet said the schedule and timing of shooting are no longer in agreement with his personal schedule.
He said, “If I could be on the show every single episode, I would but it’s just schedule, timing, shooting, ah!
“People genuinely root for them (Jenifa and Sege). And there was a time that she had a bit of confusion in her life as per which guy she should pick and everybody was like Sege!
“Funke can build herself around characters that she’s working with and I have to say she’s one of the most, if not the most hardworking person I have come across in this entertainment industry. This woman, as we’re on set, she’s writing the next episode, she’s directing”, Falz said.
The singer further revealed his love for filmmaking, expressing that he plans to make more films.
“I love filmmaking, that’s what I’ve come to realize. I really love the process of taking an idea and bringing it to life in the form of film. I really love that. So I think I’m definitely going to do a lot more. I don’t know the specifics. I can’t say for sure that I will go into directing.
“I’m already a filmmaker with House 21. We’re creating films, we’re creating different other types of content. Now writing I think I probably would get into it. That’s for sure. Ideas come to me already and with music, I already write music and it’s not the same, but having that kind of background, I think I’ll be able to write. But directing, you never know,” Falz added.
The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has denied backing Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.
Recall that RCCG, Nigeria’s biggest pentecostal Church, had come under fire for setting up a directorate of politics, in what many see as a plan to back the unconfirmed presidential ambition of Osinbajo.
Speaking on Sunday, Pastor Adeboye said that he does not support any presidential aspirant ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Daddy GO, as he is fondly called by his congregation, said he needed to make clarification amid the criticisms against the church’s creation of a Politics Directorate and the instruction to members to be politically involved in the 2023 elections.
He added that politics is not his calling and he will never be a politician.
On the 2023 elections, Pastor Adeboye said he does not know if the 2023 general election will hold as scheduled.
He stated that God is yet to speak to him about the 2023 elections as He did in 2019.
The 80-year-old cleric quickly added that God might still speak to him about the 2023 general elections.
Adeboye stated that his focus is on the Kaduna killings, oil theft, Nigeria’s depressing debt profile and other current national challenges.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said that its ongoing warning strike may be extended for 16 weeks due to failure of the Federal Government to meet the union’s demands.
ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, told THE WHISTLER in a phone interview at the weekend that if at the end of its two months strike the government has not made any concrete steps to address their demands, the Union would meet and decide if they should commence a 16-week roll-over strike.
The ongoing strike which began on February 14 is now in its seventh week.
Osodeke said, “At the end of these two months, we will meet, evaluate the situation and if the government has not done anything, my congress will also advise that we should roll over the strike again. Maybe for 16 weeks.”
Emmanuel Osodeke, ASUU President
According to him, the government does not care about the plight of the Nigerian students or their parents because people in the government don’t send their children to schools in the country.
“This is what we’ve been saying since the beginning. These people don’t have any feelings for the Nigerian students or their parents, and they have no feelings for the system just because their children are not here.
“If their children were students here, they would’ve taken action long ago, solved the problem, and then schools resume. They have just made it clear now that they don’t care about these children,” he explained.
The ASUU President stressed that the Federal Government has made no attempt to meet with them to negotiate terms on how to end the ongoing strike.
“There has been no meeting to resolve the issue between ASUU and the FG. They’ve not reached out, we are still waiting for them.
He added, “The government is not really interested in education. If they were interested, they wouldn’t allow the strike to last more than 1 week but this is the 7th week and they’ve not made any comment.”
Asked what he thinks about the protests by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) over the strike, Osodeke said the students have a right to protest seeing as the system is not working for them.
“As Nigerians, they have a right to protest if the system is not working because we have given our own reason why we are on strike.
“It is in the interest of the students and the whole community so as students they have the right to protest,” he said.
ASUU had commenced a warning strike on February 14, 2022, to intensify its demands which include the renegotiation of its 2009 agreement with the government and deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) to replace the Federal Government’s Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
On March 14th, the Union extended the strike by two months, until May 14th, indicating that the strike is not a fresh one but rather a continuation of the 10-month strike which began in March 2020 and was suspended on December 23, 2020.
Other demands by ASUU include payment of earned academic allowances, funds for the revitalization of public universities, promotion arrears, and poor funding of state universities.
ASUU has also insisted on the release of the reports of the government’s visitation panels to federal universities and regular payment of salary to lecturers.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested Nigerian socialite Cubana Chief Priest on charges of money laundering and tax fraud.
The socialite, whose real names are Pascal Okechukwu was arrested at the Murtala Mohammed airport on Thursday, but anti-graft officials kept quiet about it due to pressure from his friends and family, who warned that the incident could complicate conditions for others suspected of being involved in the alleged racket.
Okechukwu’s detention has made it impossible for him to respond to birthday greetings from his over four million Instagram followers.
Only his wife is allowed to see him in custody.
It was unclear when he would be released on bail or how much information officials had gotten from him as of Saturday night. An anonymous source claimed that “the matter is still under investigation.”
The Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello on Saturday officially declared his intention to contest for the 2023 presidential election.
Bello made the declaration in Abuja to lay to rest speculations about his presidential ambition.
The likes of Senator Jonathan Zwingina, Femi Fani-Kayode and several others were in attendance.
Zwingina while speaking at the event described Bello as a detribalized Nigerian, who ruled his state with appointees from other states.
He said, “governor uprooted insecurity from Kogi, the state would have been a breeding ground for kidnapping and banditry, but his leadership skills.”
Yahaya Bello will be hoping to clinch the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress ahead of the 2023 race.
The likes of the National Leader of the party, Bola Tinubu, former Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, the Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu have declared their intention to run on the platform of the ruling party.
However, there are speculations that the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi might be contesting in the 2023 race and also has the backing of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai has unveiled the identities of those responsible for Monday’s dastardly attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train in which many were killed, some injured and many others kidnapped.
The daring attack which sent shockwaves down the spines of Nigerians was jointly executed by Boko Haram members and bandit terrorists, the Governor disclosed.
He made the disclosure on Friday while speaking with newsmen shortly after briefing President Muhammadu Buhari on the security situation in Kaduna State as well as the recent attacks in the state, Naija News reports.
Governor El-Rufai also confirmed that the terrorists have started contacting some of the family members of those they kidnapped but ruled out the possibility of his government paying ransom to secure their release.
He said, “They have contacted some of the families but they have not made specific demands yet.
“They are not the ordinary kidnappers, it’s Boko Haram members that connived with bandits to launch the attack and so our thought is, they may demand the government to pay the ransom.”
He remained optimistic that security forces will locate the bandits in their hideout and rescue the victims safely.
It will be recalled that former Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani also recently identified the major bandits operating in the north as Bello Turji, Dogo Gide, Manjagara, and Balleri, wondering why they still roam freely, grant interviews on radio and the security agencies have not arrested them.
He accused the security agencies and agents of only carrying out ‘eye-service’ operations.
