Daily News Roundup

A four-storey building under construction has collapsed at Iman street by Nse Ntip, off Aka road, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital. The building, which was meant to be a six-storey hotel building, collapsed while at the fourth floor of its construction. Some persons are reportedly trapped in the building.

-. The Nigerian Air Force bombed a hideout of bandit warlord, Bello Turji, in Zamfara State on Saturday, targeting some of his loyalists. The bandits’ leader, who was said to be in one of his enclaves at Fakai forest in Shinkafi Local Government Area of Zamfara during the attack, reportedly fled.

-. A Chinese man has allegedly stabbed his lover, a 23-year-old woman, to death at Janbulo quarters, Gwale Local Government Area of Kano. The incident reportedly happened around 10pm on Friday after the suspect came to visit the deceased, identified as Ummakulsum Sani Buhari, at her parents’ house, located adjacent to the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) office.

-. As political parties and candidates prepare for the commencement of campaigns, the police have warned politicians and their supporters against engaging in hate speech and cyberbullying. The police threatened to prosecute violators in accordance with relevant laws.

-. The North-East Governors’ Forum says the mass exodus of bandits from the North-West region has made the relative peace in the region vulnerable. Governors of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno Gombe, and Yobe States were present, except their Taraba State counterpart, Darius Ishaku, who was represented at its seventh meeting held in Gombe.

-. Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State on Saturday disclosed that he never ordered the disruption of a solidarity rally by supporters of Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi. Umahi, who made the clarification via a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media and Strategy, Chooks Oko, said Obi’s supporters refused to pay for a venue for their rally.

-. The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has replied to Federal Government over the allegation that it killed an Igbo Muslim cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim Iyiorji, in Ebonyi State. IPOB, in a statement by its spokesperson, Emma Powerful said it does not kill its known enemies, let alone an Igbo man who was not in any way a threat to it.

-. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State on Saturday disagreed with Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on his call for the removal of Sen. Iyorchia Ayu as the party’s National Chairman. In a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Hakeem Amode, on Saturday, the Lagos State Chapter of PDP said that it distanced itself from the call.

- The father of Adewunmi Kofoworola Babajide, the lawmaker representing Ede North State Constituency in Osun State House of Assembly, Pa Muftau Lawal has narrated how he was almost used for ritual by his abductors.

Pa Lawal, who was abducted in front of his house at Ede over a month ago, recounted his ordeal in the hands of his kidnappers.

The octogenarian, whose son is also the Minority Leader in the Osun Assembly in an interview on Saturday in Ede, revealed that he was caught unawares when some individuals came to his house on motorcycles and started threatening to kill him.

According to him, “I was in front of my house in the evening when I saw these people in their numbers. They alighted from motorcycles and some children who were playing beside where I sat, ran away. Some of them said they should burn me alive while some said they should gun me down and I was already scared when one of them said they should pour petrol on me and set me alight.


“Not long after they left, another set of people came and immediately they alighted from the motorcycle, ordered me to climb the motorcycle. I asked them where are you taking me to? One of them responded, ‘we are taking to you to meet your son, Akogun’. Because of my age, my sight is already blurry, I couldn’t see clearly as we were going. But after a while, I noticed we were on Ilesha route, because that’s my route when I was young.

“I asked again, where are you taking me to and the one behind me said ‘if you ask any question again, we will kill you here’. I stopped asking them questions. We were going on a high speed. Then, it was already dark, so I can’t see anything again.

“Later, we got to a place, there is a house there and I was asked to go inside. I met an old man with a boy, the man is a herbalist and he welcomed me. Those who carried me to the place left. I saw the herbalist as he consulted his oracle; after many incantations, the herbalist asked me if we have any deity in our family and I told him no, that we don’t have any deity but my wife family has one they do worship which is “Sango”– God of lightening. The herbalist now said, ‘I can see’ as he shook his head. Later, I noticed that he was calling those who brought me to him to come and carry me that I can’t be used.


“Those who brought me didn’t answer and I was there for weeks before they came back six days ago around 3am to carry me. As we were going in the middle of the night, I noticed that a car was coming behind us and not quite long, the motorcycle that they used to carry me stopped and I was asked to enter the car. It was the car that carried me to Lokoja in the morning.

“The car, which carried me, after getting to Lokoja, asked about any Police station to present myself to them and explain how I got there, which I did. It was there in the station they contacted some people in Osun to get my son’s phone number. They called him to inform him that I came to explain how I got to Lokoja. It was my son who arranged how I got back to Osun.”

Asked if he was attended to by the police in Osun State, Lawal said he met with the Commissioner of Police, Olawale Olokode who asked him questions and later asked one of his men to take his statement before he was asked to be taken to Ede.
The octogenarian, who lamented that all he had been burnt down, noted that the cloth he had on was the only one left.

He added that it was a police officer in Lokoja that gave him a sandal that he wore to Osun.
He also urged the Nigeria Police to unravel those behind the crisis in Ede and bring to justice those who kidnapped him.

from daily post