In the early morning hours of Thursday, officers from the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) went to the home of Marlian music artists Mohbad and Zinolesky to arrest them for drug crimes.
People who read Naija News say that NDLEA officers broke into a house in the Lekki area of Lagos State early on Thursday morning.
Eyewitnesses say that the officials made the arrests without having search warrants, and that they abused the artists who were signed to Marlian Music.
In videos that are getting a lot of attention, the NDLEA operatives can be seen beating the musician with clubs and shooting into the air to make them get into waiting vans.
Two people who are linked to Azeez Fashola (Naira Marley), who is being charged with fraud by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, are Oniyide Azeez and Ilerioluwa Oladimeji (EFCC).
Two retired police officers and a senator on Wednesday rejected calls from some quarters to scrap the Nigeria Police Trust Fund, which was established in 2020 to address the Nigeria Police Force’s funding gap.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Abuja, while delivering judgment in a suit filed by the Rivers State Government challenging the deductions from the Federation Account, held that the Federal Government had violated Sections 161 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution by making direct allocations to the NPTF from the Federation Account.
In separate interviews yesterday, Austin Iwar, a retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police, and Lawrence Alobi, a former Commissioner of Police in the Federal Capital Territory, criticized “some people’s plans to scuttle the laudable initiative.”
“I was one of those who fronted for the Police Trust Fund to be established,” Alobi said. During the public hearing at the National Assembly, I was one of those who presented letters.
“The Trust Fund was intended to be a police intervention fund because funding has been a challenge; however, it has been hijacked by politicians, rendering it ineffective, and thus the purpose for which it was established cannot be realized.”
“However, what is the alternative for those calling for its abolition? When you say change a system, you have to think about what the alternative is; this isn’t a solution, and scrapping it isn’t an option.
“For the time being, the Fund is necessary because the police have received inadequate funding over the years, which has had a negative impact on the economy of the police force in terms of equipment, training, welfare, and infrastructure development, among other things.”
“If the trust fund is eliminated, a small percentage of private businesses will contribute a portion of their profits to help the police and fund the police.”
In response to the argument that the fund’s revenue should not come from the Federation Account, Alobi pointed out that the Force is responsible for all 36 states and 774 local government areas in the country.
Iwar, for one, believes it would be foolish to dismantle what Nigeria spent many years building before becoming independent.
“How can you say you want to scrap a strategic plan established by law to assist in the development of the police force and the provision of facilities?” Anyone who says that despises the police! He stated, “They are doing a lot for the cops.”
Senator Gershom Bassey (Cross River) stated that the NPTF should not be abolished, but rather strengthened through contributions from all Nigerians in order to better equip officers “who are frequently outgunned by bandits and terrorists due to a lack of sophisticated weapons.”
According to a statement from the NPTF’s Press and Public Affairs, the agency purchased 200 operational vehicles, 1,300 ballistic helmets, and bulletproof vests from the Defense Industry Corporation of Nigeria, in accordance with a presidential executive order to patronize locally-made products.
“This year, the focus will be primarily on infrastructure, with new barracks, police stations, and training institutions being built, as well as dilapidated structures being refurbished,” the report stated.
The House of Representatives Committee on Constitutional Reviews has recommended that the Senate president, speaker, and heads of the judiciary be granted immunity.
This is contained in Ahmed Wase, the chairman of the Constitution Review Committeereport ,’s on the constitution amendment bill, which was presented to the House on Wednesday in Abuja.
The committee recommended immunity for presiding officers of the legislature and judiciary in the reports presented by Mr Wase.
While briefing journalists, Benjamin Kalu, the house’s spokesperson, alluded to this, saying that since the executive has immunity, the legislature should as well.
He went on to say that the legislature should be included in the security council’s decision-making process.
The bill was sponsored by Segun Odebunmi (APC-Oyo) and was titled “An Act to Amend Section 308 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 to extend immunity to cover presiding officers of legislative institutions.”
During a meeting between the committee and consultants, the committee had previously lowered the bill. During the meeting, several members of the committee spoke out against the bill.
One of the committee’s consultants, Abdulhamid Mohammed (SAN), was against the bill’s immunity clause.
“Immunity for judicial officers and presiding officers is extremely unusual all over the world.” From a moral standpoint, this is self-serving,” he argued.
“You will now apply before judicial officers because these are courts of competent jurisdiction,” he added.
The Kaduna State Government said it had identified 10,901 tuberculosis patients in the state as of December last year and placed them on treatment.
The Programme Manager of the state Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Buruli Ulcer Control Programme, Dr Abubakar Sadiq, stated this in a chat with reporters yesterday in Kaduna.
He said this indicated an increase of about 86 per cent when compared with the 5,878 cases detected in 2020.
He acknowledged the immense support received from the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme, the state government and various partners.
“The state government has procured five mobile diagnostic trucks equipped with digital X-ray machines and 10 colour gene Xpert machines for the integrated diagnosis of tuberculosis, COVID-19 and various other diseases in remote communities across the state.
“With the procurement of this equipment, the detection of tuberculosis cases will be facilitated, hence the increase in a number of patients,” he said.
Sadiq said the state government intended intensifying efforts at detection of cases through increased access to services, out-patients door screening and tuberculosis patient contact investigation, among others.
He called on residents to support the state to enable the identification of all tuberculosis cases in communities, with a view to eliminating the disease.
“Remember, any cough that lasts two weeks or more could be tuberculosis; diagnosis and treatment are free and are widely available across the state.
“Again, tuberculosis is treatable and curable,” he said.
Borno state governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, Tuesday, met with the Egyptian Ambassador to Nigeria on a follow-up visit to his initial visit to Egypt on education partnership.
The follow-up visit by the governor was to strengthen his initial visit to Egypt early November, 2020, during which he sought partnership for the training of academics in Borno’s tertiary institutions and preachers at Al-Azhar University Cairo, Egypt.
Zulum informed the Ambassador, Ihab Awad, that Borno state government has in place schools and all the facilities for all the professionals that would be coming for them to work.
The governor also appreciated the ambassador for all his efforts towards ensuring the partnership between Borno state and his country in making it a reality.
The federal government says it would meet with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) again on February 28 after both parties failed to reach an agreement to end the ongoing strike.
ASUU has been in a tussle with the federal government over unmet demands. On February 14, the union declared one-month warning strike to press home its demands.
The union’s executives and Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, met on Tuesday to discuss how to end the strike.
NAN reports that Ngige briefed journalists on Wednesday at the end of the marathon meeting held in Abuja.
According to Ngige, the ongoing warning strike is illegal because the demands of the union were already being addressed since last year.
The minister said the strike was a clear breach of the law, adding that the union did not go through the normal process before embarking on the industrial action.
“ASUU did not give the Federal Government the minimum 14 days strike notice prescribed by the law, prior to the strike. I saw their letter in my office on Feb. 18, which is last Friday and as you know, they started their action on Monday, Feb.14. So, it is a clear breach of labour laws. There are violations,” he said.
“If you must notify us of an intending strike action, you give us a minimum of 14 days notice. I pointed it out to them that we are a country guided by laws. Nobody is above the law. They should obey it.”
The minister also said the meeting touched on all the five-point demands of the union and sorted out four of them with timelines for action.
Ngige advised ASUU not to intimidate the education ministry or its committee into coming up with things that were not in tandem with the normal rate, then the document would not fly.
He said the meeting agreed that the ministry of education should resuscitate the committee within two weeks to look at the proposal it had with ASUU “so that they could come up with something for the PSC to have a look and then send it to the FEC.”
Ngige urged ASUU to brief their members appropriately and call off the strike before the expiration of the one month duration.
“By Monday, we would have dealt with some of the issues they are talking about and return to them for further discussion. We will meet again with them and the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) and we take it from there,” he added.
ASUU had earlier insisted that it would not call off the strike if its demands are not.
Sen. Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment said if not because of President Muhammadu Buhari’s leadership style, Nigeria would have been in severe crises.
Ngige therefore described leadership as very critical to the survival of any human society.
Ngige said this after his induction as a Distinguished Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Corporate Governance (INSLEC) on Wednesday in Abuja.
INSLEC is a leading global professional body of both present and aspiring leaders, entrepreneurs and people in corporate governance.
Ngige said Nigeria is passing through hard times not because of the current government, but as a result of poor planning over the years.
According to him, a good leader must be visionary, see things others are not seeing and things that can be projected futuristically and bring them out for implementation.
“A good leader must be an implementation man; he should be knowledgeable, because after the vision, he will dissect and crystallise them; he should be a jack of all trades and master of all.
“He may not score distinction in all but should be able to score distinction in many.
“He must also be courageous to implement hard decisions. If you don’t implement courageously, some of the visions will die or will not be implemented for the good of all.
“He must also be compassionate, knowing when to tamper justice with mercy, to show the human part of him.
“He should exude milk of human kindness. I know that our country is passing through a very rough time now because we have not planned well. It is not this administration.
”We know we were all dependent on oil. So, when oil prices came crashing and when security issues arose, disrupting production, we were caught napping.
“Because of that we went into recession. Later on COVID-19 forced us to go into a second recession. We are not yet out of the woods.
“We thank God. I am part of this government. I know that if we don’t have the kind of leader that we have, who is strong like President Muhammadu Bihari, the experience of Nigeria would have been like that of Venezuela,” he said.
Ngige said that the citizens of Nigeria would have spilled into the Cameroons, Niger and other places as refugees. We were looking forward to it. But he forced us all to go into agriculture.
”We made agriculture the first signature programme of the administration and provided food security so that we can eat whatever we grow here,” he said.
He noted that Nigeria had stopped the importation of rice, sorghum, millet, tomatoes and other things hitherto imported, all of which were dependent on the scarce foreign exchange.
According to him, the country’s GDP grew by 5.01 per cent in fourth quarter 2021, the highest in the last seven years, marking three consecutive quarters of growth, following the negative growths recorded in the second and third quarters of 2020.
“Services provided the lead, followed by agriculture, even though it had a deep and then, followed by Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
“So, we have to be grateful to the government and our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, for standing firm that we will not import food anymore here.
”Even if he didn’t stand firm, we didn’t have the money anymore to start importing potatoes, tooth pick, chocolate and others,” he said.
Ngige, however, dedicated the fellowship to the ordinary Nigerians, saying that he believed in the have-nots and would continue to fight for them wherever he found himself.
He commended the institute and chairman of the governing board for the fellowship and pledged to be a good member, not only in terms of participation, but also loyalty and obedience to the institute.
Earlier, Prof. Gabriel Emecheta, President/Chairman of the council said the decision to elect Ngige as a Distinguished Honorary Fellow of the INSLEC spoke volumes about his pristine and differentiated worth as a leader, mentor and bridge builder.
Prof. Ayandiji Aina, the Chairman, Planning and Resource Committee extolled Ngige’s creativity, confidence, decisiveness, humility and trustworthiness, describing him as a conflict manager of great distinction.
The Chairman, Business and Development Committee of INSLEC, Chief O’tega Emerhor, while expressing gratitude to Ngige for accepting to be a member, praised him for imbibing wholeheartedly the spirit of the institute.
“We have been following your antecedents and what you are doing in the ministry and what you did as Governor in Anambra State.
”We appreciate your joining the institute and admit that with your brand name, the institute will make tremendous progress,” he said.
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has detailed what it would do to the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB and its agitation for a sovereign state of Biafra.
Speaking in Imo state on Wednesday, Chairman of the party, Sen. Iyorchia Ayu disclosed that the PDP will adopt the strategies that late former President, Umar Musa Yara’dua used in handling the militants of the Niger-Delta.
He added that the IPOB struggle was largely caused by the ‘Marginalization’ of the Igbos/South-east region.
In his words; “Our party PDP will be taking over government in 2023. We will bring development across the nation and as well solve the ongoing agitations in south-east by the Indigenous People of Biafra over marginalisation by the current ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)”.
He expressed confidence that the IPOB issue will be sorted out peacefully.
Television Nigerian earlier reported that IPOB, a pro-secessionist group has been agitating for the South-East to break-away from Nigeria. Its leader, Nnamdi Kanu is currently in the custody of the Department of State Security Service, DSS after was captured in Kenya in 2021.
He is facing currently facing charges of Terrorism and Treasonable Felony.
The Super Falcons of Nigeria qualified for the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in style on Wednesday, defeating the Lady Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire 1-0 at the Stade Robert Champroux in Abidjan in the return leg of their qualifier.
Esther Okoronkwo, in only her second cap for Nigeria, scored the game-winner with a minute to go, ensuring a 3-0 aggregate victory for the Super Falcons.
The victory and qualification for Morocco 2022 was sweet retribution for the Lady Elephants, who had beaten the Super Falcons on their way to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The Super Falcons, who have won the trophy nine times, won the first leg 2-0 on Friday at the M.K.O Abiola National Stadium in Abuja, with both goals coming from US-based forward Ifeoma Onumonu.
As a result, the Super Falcons won 3-0 on aggregate and will join hosts Morocco and Uganda in the 12-team finals, which will be held in Morocco from July 2 to 23, 2022.
The Ivorians gave it their all in the second leg, but were met by a tenacious Nigerian defense and an inspired goalkeeper in Chiamaka Nnadozie, who refused to give an inch.
For large swaths of the first half, the game was back and forth. Coach Randy Waldrum made two changes from the first leg’s starting lineup, bringing in midfielder Regina Otu and forward Francisca Ordega.
Halfway through the first period, the vivacious Ordega thought she had given Nigeria the lead, but the Nigerien referee ruled it out.
After determining that Ashleigh Plumptre had tripped an Ivorian striker in the Nigerian area, Nigerien referee Zouwaira Souley awarded a penalty to the hosts in the 34th minute. The shot was saved by goalkeeper Nnadozie, but contact from the same player on the rebound went into the side-netting.
Morocco 2022 will also serve as a qualifier for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, which will be held in Australia and New Zealand, and the Super Falcons have competed in every FIFA Women’s World Cup since 1991.
The Super Falcons have thus avenged their defeat to the Ivorians in the qualifying race for the 2020 Olympics Women’s Football tournament with the victory and qualification.
Senator Muhammad Hassan Nasiha has been confirmed as the new deputy governor of Zamfara State by the Zamfara State House of Assembly.
Following a screening by lawmakers on Wednesday, he was confirmed. At the resumed plenary, House Speaker Nasiru Mua’zu read a letter from Governor Bello Matawalle nominating Senator Muhammad as his deputy.
Hassan was nominated just hours after Mahdi Gusau was impeached. Senator Hassan represents the Central Senatorial District of Zamfara.
Gusau was impeached after the House received the report of a committee chaired by Justice Kulu Aliyu, the state’s Chief Judge. The committee was formed to look into the allegations made against him.
Retired Justice Halidu Soba led the seven-member panel, which had submitted its report to the State House of Assembly complex in Gusau, the state capital.
According to Oladipo Okpeseyi, a member of the panel, the committee completed its task with integrity. The panel had started meeting on Monday and finished the following day. However, the embattled Gusau, the respondent, was not present.
A breach of the Constitution, gross misconduct, financial fraud, and abuse of office were among the charges leveled against him.
![BREAKING: NDLEA Operatives Storm, Arrest Marlian Music Zinolesky, Mohbad [Video]](https://tvn.ng/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Arrest-Marlian-Music-Zinolesky-Mohbad-768x432.jpg "BREAKING: NDLEA Operatives Storm, Arrest Marlian Music Zinolesky, Mohbad [Video]")
![[JUST IN] Biafra: What we will do to IPOB when we take-over in 2023 – PDP](https://tvn.ng/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Biafra-768x432.jpg "[JUST IN] Biafra: What we will do to IPOB when we take-over in 2023 – PDP")
