More than 24 hours after suspected bandits attacked off-campus residences of the Federal University of Technology students, Minna, the management of the institution is yet to issue a statement on the incident while lectures have continued.
The university’s campus radio also aired nothing on the attack that claimed one life and led to the abduction of two others.
Some students of the institution confirmed to THE WHISTLER that lectures continued as scheduled amid the apprehension and panic caused by the attack.
The attack which occurred at about 11:30 PM on Wednesday, led to the death of a barber and the abduction of two sales boys of a popular store in the off-campus area.
One of the students who spoke to THE WHISTLER on the condition of anonymity condemned the decision of the institution to continue academic activities without considering the mental effect of the attack on students.
“It is really bad that the school decided that lectures should continue as if nothing happened, the incident happened few blocks away from my lodge. I was surprised that lectures were held yesterday (Thursday) and today (Friday). I couldn’t even pay attention in class this morning,” said the student.
The institution’s students’ union president declined to comment on the issue while a highly placed source at the university told our correspondent that the management’s decision to keep mum over the issue was premised on advice by security agents.
Meanwhile, the bandits are yet to reach out to the family of the abducted persons.
“We have not heard from them, we are still waiting,” a family source told THE WHISTLER on Friday.
The source, however, added that security agents were conducting search and rescue operations already.
Oyewale, in a statement on Thursday in Lagos, describes the Lagos Speaker as a legislator with courage, forthrightness and diligence in providing exemplary and broadminded leadership for the Lagos Assembly.
He noted that the speaker’s leadership in the Assembly has steadily provided cohesive ambience for the executive to implement peoples oriented policies which have turned Lagos into a mega city.
In particular, Oyewale saluted the nationalistic inclinations of the Lagos Assembly Speaker who is always lending supports to NAOSRE in its national security objectives as well as his genuine concerns for Nigeria’s security situation.
Comrade Femi Oyewale
“Obasa’s greatest strength lies in his ability to look beyond religious, ethnic and political stereotyping, embracing the reality of Nigeria as one entity,” Oyewale said.
Meanwhile, aides of the Speaker had also visited an orphanage, a foundation and a school which take care of indigent children and those with special needs.
The visit, which was also part of activities to mark the Speaker’s 49th birthday, had the aides distributing various gifts, including rice, cartons of noodles, clothes and other materials.
At the Compassionate Orphanage Homes in Igando, Prince Sunday Ladipo, Chief of Staff to the Speaker, said the aides decided to celebrate with the children because of Obasa’s love for youngsters, especially those in need.
“Speaker Obasa has a large heart towards people that are disadvantaged,” he said, adding that the aides would take back the requests of the home to the right quarters.
“This visit will be in our memories. Places like this are special to our principal,” Ladipo added, according to a statement by Eromosele Ebhomele, Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker.
Head of the Compassionate Orphanage Homes, Dr. Gabriel Oyediji, while thanking the group for their visit, urged the government to provide grants and assistance to homes because of the financial challenge they face taking care of children.
He said the home had raised over 200 children and given out some for adoption through the assistance of the government.
The home, he said, had also produced some graduates, some of whom are currently serving the nation.
He added that some of the grown children also enrolled into vocational institutions.
“Last year, we had our first wedding here and the family of the man was here from Osun.
“On behalf of the pupils and students, we send our love to him. We pray that his tenure would be the best,” Oyediji said as he prayed for the Speaker.
The aides also visited the Inclusive Unit For Children With Special Needs (inside the Dairy Farm Primary School), Agege and the Tunji Adebayo Foundation.
Lawrence Ajojo, the lead suspect in the illegal raid of the Abuja home of the Supreme Court Judge, Justice Mary Odili, has disclosed that he has a connection with the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
Naija News earlier reported that fourteen suspects said to have been responsible for the raid on the Abuja home of Justice Mary Odili have been arrested by the Nigeria Police.
This was disclosed on Thursday by the Force Public Relations Officer, CP Frank Mba while parading them at the Force Headquarters Annex, Garki, Abuja.
He said seven others are still at large and security operatives are in pursuit, adding that one of the arrested persons include Ajojo who reportedly led the team.
But speaking with reporters on Thursday when he was paraded, Ajojo said he is not an officer of the Nigerian Police but a consultant for Malami.
He, however, revealed that the Justice minister did not authorise the illegal invasion of Justice Odili’s Abuja home.
“I am not an officer of the Nigeria Police but a consultant for the AGF; he did not send us to raid Mrs Odili’s house,” he said.
Abdulrasheed Maina, former chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), may have been sentenced to eight years in prison for over N2billion pension fraud, but he is currently “living like a king” and has never been in a prison cell, FIJ can report.
On Monday, Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Maitama, Abuja, sentenced Maina to eight years in Kuje Medium Security Prison, where he has been held, convicting him and his company, Common Input Property and Investment Ltd., on all the 12 counts filed against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
MAINA’S FULL PUNISHMENT
Maina was sentenced to various concurrent jail terms ranging from three to eight years. He was jailed three years for Count 1, five years for Count 2, eight years for Count 3, eight years for Count 4, two years for Count 5, five years for Count 6.
He was jailed for eight years for Count 7, three years for Count 8, five years for Count 9, eight years for Count 10, three years for Count 11 and three years for Count 12.
Justice Abang ordered that the terms of imprisonment shall run concurrently beginning from October 25, 2019, the date he was arraigned, meaning he will serve only the lenghtiest of all the terms: eight years. However, FIJ can confirm that in those two years since October 2019, Maina has never slept in a prison cell.
‘LIVING LIKE A KING’
The fully air-conditioned building where Maina is housed, almost living like a free man.
“Which Maina? Maina that since he was admitted to Kuje correctional facility, he has never seen a cell,” one prison source, who asked not to be named for fear of official vicitmisation, told FIJ.
“He has been living in the hospital inside the facility; it is more or less like a living room. He lives inside one of the rooms in the hospital building — not in the hospital ward itself.”
A second prison source, who also asked not to be named, told FIJ Maina was “living like a king” in prison, even though some other high-profile prisoners, such as Jolly Nyame, former Governor of Taraba State, and Farouk Lawan, former House of Representatives member, are indeed in cells.
Nyame is serving a 12-year jail term for misappropriation of funds while he was governor of Taraba State from 1999 to 2007, while Lawan is serving a seven-year jail term for demanding a $3million bribe and receiving $500,000 in two tranches from businessman Femi Otedola.
Maina’s abode is just two rooms to the left of this visible air-conditioned room
“Maina is a northerner treated like a king. He is living large inside a well-furnished room in the hospital,” the second source said. “Even Farouk Lawan is inside his cell in Custody 4; Jolly Nyame is in Custody 3 downstairs.”
FIJ understands Maina’s room is just two rooms to the left of the air-conditioned room in the picture above.
FIJ contacted DSC Awiza, who was the Chief Warder of Kuje Prison until just a few days ago, but calls and a text message to his line were both unanswered.
Abubakar Malami, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, has hit back at state governors after they criticized his office over plans to deduct $418 million from their monies to settle a debt owed to consultants by the 36 states and local governments in the country.
The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) and the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) were said to have engaged legal services of the consultants in 2013 to help them recover funds that were over-deducted by the federal government from their monthly federal allocations to service loans taken from the Paris Club.
The state governors had few days ago faulted Malami on the planned deductions and stated that his alleged backing of the consultants to get paid, “raises questions of propriety and the spirit of justice”.
The governors had noted that a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had recently stopped the Federal Government from deducting the said $418 million and alleged that the “undue haste” by Malami to effect the payment “suggests that there is a special relationship between the AGF and the consultants over and above Nigerian citizens.”
But responding in an Arise TV interview monitored by THE WHISTLER on Thursday, Malami noted that the Paris Club Refund issue, particularly the contract entered into between the states and the consultants, predates the current administration.
According to the AGF, the contractors had delivered on their job and were “fundamentally not paid the fees for the services they claimed to have rendered”.
He noted that the NGF and ALGON’s alleged refusal to continue with payment of the legal fees prompted the consultants to institute a suit against the state and local governments for “the determination of their rights and indeed enforcement of their fees” and had made the Federal Government a party to the suit.
Malami said a consent judgment entered into and submitted to a court by the NGF, ALGON and consultants in 2013 resulted in “the liability in contention today”.
The AGF said after the states failed to pay their legal fees, the consultants approached the Federal Government between 2016 and 2019 to intervene in the matter.
“The Federal Government approached the governors’ forum and ALGON and they collectively wrote to the Federal Government and conceded to the provision that the consultants have indeed provided the services and they were ready and willing to effect the payment of their fees,” said Malami.
According to him, the governors and ALGON had agreed that the “payment should be deducted from their monies and should be effected to the consultants”.
He said, “So, in 2017, these deductions were carried out at the instance of the governors’ forum and the instance of ALGON. Now that was the situation on the ground.
“But when eventually theses claims were made (by the consultants), the Federal Government under the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation felt that the amounts the ALGON and NGF had agreed to be paid to these consultants was in fact a very huge amount of money and the Federal Government became suspicious of what the NGF and ALGON were up to, taking into consideration that what was in contention were the services.
“So, the Federal Government wrote to the EFCC and DSS seeking for the verification of the veracity and authenticity of the claims on one hand and the judgement that gave rise to the claim.”
The AGF said the EFCC and DSS wrote back to him, confirming the liability of the state governments in the contract.
Malami said the implication of making the Federal Government a party in the suit filed by the consultants is that “the Federal Government could as well be liable and that execution could be levied against the interests of the Federal Government. So, on that note, the Federal Government took steps to approach the NGF and ALGON for the purpose of having their take as per this liability is concerned.
“I am happy to report that the governors, as at 2017, individually wrote in confirmation of admission of liability and the same thing ALGON.”
Malami wondered why the state governors did not object to the deductions when they commenced in 2016, saying “Now, nothing untoward happened thereafter until perhaps of recent when the NGF wrote, seeking to avoid liability”
The AGF said the implication of the governors planned avoidance of liability in the contract, “taking into consideration that the Federal Government was indeed sued as a party, was that at the end of the day, the liability will be placed exclusively at the doorsteps of the Federal Government when in fact this a liability that was incurred and admitted by the NGF and ALGON.”
He said, “it is indeed amazing that the governors are now belatedly, after having serviced the same claims over a period of five years, turned around to raise objections in respect of the payment even when they had consented on their own to a judgment which was entered in 2013 before this government came in place.
“Two, they had been effecting periodic payments in respect of the same [and] they had provided individual indemnity commitment that these payments should be effected over time.”
Malami said that the responsibility of his office is to “provide the necessary protection to the Federal Government,” stressing “I cannot be sitting here as the Attorney-General and allow the Federal Government to be exposed to a third-party liability incurred by the NGF and ALGON.”
The AGF stated emphatically that he won’t sit idly and watch the NGF and ALGON “turn around to create a situation that would expose the Federal Government to a liability even when it was indeed their liability that by their own showing, admission, and commitment, they have been servicing and they have conceded to.”
The Paris Club is group of public lenders who help debtor countries secure debt relief either by postponement or reduction in debt service obligations, amongst others.
There is palpable tension at the main campus of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, as suspected bandits attacked the institution on Wednesday night.
Several students of the institution confirmed to THE WHISTLER that they heard gunshots in front of the school gate at about 11:30 PM on Wednesday.
Students who attempted to return to their lodges from the campus were turned back by the university’s security operatives
Several other sources claimed that one of the trading stalls in front of the school was also robbed and at least one person kidnapped, a claim THE WHISTLER could not independently verify as at the time of filing this report.
The institution’s Student Union President, Shuaib Isiaka Yahaya, confirmed the incident.
“There is a security challenge at the FUT Minna Gidan Kwano campus, we urge all our students to be in their respective lodges and stay calm,” he said in a voice note obtained by our correspondent.
The attack came after suspected bandits attacked and abducted six persons at the senior staff quarters of the University of Abuja on November 2, 2021.
They were later rescued on the 5th of November through a joint operation coordinated by the FCT Command of the Nigeria Police Force
Pastor Chris Simon Amadi of Shalom Mercy Ministry in Aluu, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State has been arrested by the police for allegedly strangling his wife to death.
It was gathered that the ugly incident happened in their home at Mbodo Community after a disagreement over school fees payment in his wife’s school.
Speaking with IGBERE TV correspondent, a relative to the wife who craved anonymity said trouble started when the deceased confronted her husband for chasing some of her pupils away from school for failing to pay on time, without first checking with her.
“When the wife confronted him, the pastor strangled her to death and wrapped her with clothes so that nobody will know”.
“It was when we started calling her number but she wasn’t picking that we decided to go to the house to know if everything is fine.”
“When we got there, her phone kept ringing inside her room but we didn’t see her. We asked her husband the wife’s whereabouts, he said she went out.”
“We were shocked when we saw my sister wrapped inside clothes. The husband has been beating the wife from time to time but we didn’t it will get to the extent of him killing her”.
It was gathered that the pastor has been married to the deceased since 2012 and the marriage is blessed with four children, two boys and two girls.
The Senate on Wednesday approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s External Borrowing (Rolling) plan for the Federal Government to the tune of $16,230,077,718, €1,020,000,000.
The Senate also approved a grant component of $125,000,000.00 under the 2018-2020 External Borrowing (Rolling) plan for the Federal Government.
The approval was sequel to the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts.
The report was presented by the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Clifford Ordia, PDP, Edo Central during the plenary.
The recommendation of the Committee reads, “That the Senate does approve the underlisted ongoing negotiation of external borrowing in the sum of $16,230,077,718, €1,020,000,000.00 and a grant component of $125,000,000.00 under the 2018-2020 External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan.”
The recommendation was approved by Senators when it was put to a voice vote by Senate President Ahmad Lawan at plenary.
President Buhari and the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed had at various times been criticize on the country’s rising debt levels which the Debt Management Office said is N87.2trn or $33.1bn as of March 2021.
In the N16.39trn 2022 budget appropriation presented by the President, the deficit was put at N6.26trn and it’s to be financed through borrowing of N5.01 trn.
Nigeria’s debt service to GDP ratio had hit 73 per cent based on figures released by the Finance Minister earlier last month.
Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Wednesday protested the refusal of the Department of State Services, DSS, to allow some lawyers access into the Abuja Federal High Court.
DSS brought Kanu into the court at about 9:52 am.
The secret police had barred lawyers, journalists, and traditional rulers from entering the court building as his trial resumed.
The Oniraniken of Iranike (Elewu Oku), Oba Adewale Adeniji invaded a community in Simawa area of Ogun state today with the dreaded ‘1 Million Boys’ led by popular land grabber, Sir K Oluwo to forcefully take over a 4,000 acres of land that doesn’t legally belongs to him.
This allegation was laid against the traditional ruler by eyewitnesses who ran for their lives upon seeing the land grabbers with heavy ammunitions terrorizing residents of the community. At the moment, some of the residents are yet to return to their homes over fear for their lives and properties.
Investigations revealed that Oba Adewale Adeniji has been parading himself as the owner of the 4,000 acres of land whereas, the court declared only 1,325 Acres as his own according to plan no AAT/OG/03/94 dated 23rd March 1994 made by Surveyor Tunji Adewole. The act of grabbing land from rightful owners by the king is said to have been happening for many years. It was reported that he had at a time gone to Emzor, Nestle to claim ownership of their landed properties with gun wielding hoodlums. Some of the communities he has gone to forcefully claim ownership of landed properties include Okerala Odofin, Okelara Apena Seriki village, Okerala Tarogun village, Ipa Village, Ososa Village, Simawa.
Due to his many atrocities in the land, his family members disowned him and described him as a thief who uses his office as a traditional ruler to take over properties of innocent populace illegally. Also, there are claims that a high ranking security operatives are supporting the actions of Oba Adewale Adeniji Oniraniken for personal gains
Earlier this year in January, the Ogun state house of assembly invited Oba Adewale Adeniji to appear before the house in order to present a proof that he owns the 4,000 acres of land but unfortunately couldn’t provide any.
Furthermore, The National deputy chairman of the Police Community Relation Committee (PCRC), Alh Ibrahim Olaniyan written to the ministry of local government and chieftaincy affairs to immediately suspend Oba Adewale Adeniji from his position, while presenting a five-point solution to the menace of the traditional ruler.
‘’This is a Clarion call to you and your ministry to without delay suspend the chief land grabber (Oba Adewale Adeniji ONIRANIKEN of IRANIKE) in Simawa and environment.
Secondly, set up a committee of enquiry to investigate the activities of this Oba.
Thirdly, it may interest you to know that the social media is agog with the dangerous events happening in Simawa and environment right now.
Fourthly, the governor himself at various times acknowledge the vital roles in security of lives and properties played by PCRC in the state, even recently when the Inspector General of Police visited Ogun State.
Fifthly, a stitch in time saves nine says that popular adage. Relevant agencies and institutions are been contacted and informed to stem the crisis brewing in Simawa before the community turn to war zone.’’
Also, members of the residents have called on President Muhammadu Buhari, The inspector general of police, Alkali Baba, the governor of Ogun state, Dapo Abiodun to wade into the crisis as it continues to threaten the security of lives and properties in the state.
![Drama As Nnamdi Kanu Confronts DSS Officials For Denying Lawyers Access Into Abuja Court [Video]](https://www.societygazetteng.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/images-5-3.jpeg)
