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NAF inducts new aircrafts, telemedicine

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The Nigerian Air Force (NAF), has concluded plans to induct the newly procured JF-17 thunder aircrafts into its inventory as part of activities to mark its 57th-anniversary celebration, at the Nigerian Air Force Base, Makurdi, Benue State.

The Service also announced its plan to launch the first ever military telemedicine facility in Abuja. The facility  is expected to enhance provision of excellent medicare to personnel and their dependants, as well as civilian beneficiaries at the lowest possible cost.

The Chairman, Organizing Committee for the Nigerian Air Force at 57th Anniversary celebration, Air Vice Marshal Hassan Abubakar said this in a press briefing to mark the commencement of the Nigerian Air Force at 57 in Abuja.

He also disclosed that the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), had procured and inducted 25 new platform in the past five years.

Insecurity: Army recalls soldiers from study leave

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Following intensified insurgency attacks across the country, particularly in the North, the Nigerian Army has recalled a large number of its personnel studying in civil institutions (universities and polytechnics) across the country, according to a leaked memo by the Nigerian Army Headquarters, Department of Army Training, Abuja.

In the memo dated May 11, the Nigerian Army also suspended the sponsorship of personnel in civil institutions with the exemption of students in the final year. Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, two top military sources, who are brigadier generals, said the development was a result of the insufficient number of army personnel fighting insurgency across the country.

The sources, who declared that the country was already at war, said personnel could not be studying in schools while a war was going on. “We are in a war situation, but it seems Nigerians are taking things lightly.

This is a war situation, and we have less than 200,000 soldiers in a country of around 200 million population. So we are lacking personnel, and as a matter of fact, we have started recruiting,” one of the military sources said.

Nigerian farmers raise alarm as insecurity threatens food availability

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Some stakeholders in the agriculture sector have appealed to the Federal Government to intensify efforts in curbing banditry, kidnapping and terrorism, as these can threaten food security.

The stakeholders made the appeal in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja. They noted that the recent increase in kidnapping and banditry had made a lot of farmers run from their farmlands in search of safe hideouts.

Mr Paul Ikonne, Executive Secretary, National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) said there was need to urgently address the insecurity challenges in the country in order to overcome challenge of food shortages.

Gombe Emir urges farmers, herders to eschew violence

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The Emir of Gombe, Alhaji Abubakar Shehu III, has urged farmers and herdsmen to eschew violence. Shehu made this known in Gombe when the state Gov. Alhaji Inuwa Yahaya paid him homage after the Eid prayer.

”Farmers and pastoralists must live in peace because they play an important role in the economic development of the country,” he said.

He also urged the people to pray for the peace in the country and for God’s intervention to bring to an end the security challenges bedeviling the country. He also emphasised on the need for Muslim faithfuls to put the lessons of Ramadan preached by various clerics and scholars into practice. He further called on the people to cooperate with the government for the attainment of more dividends of democracy.

The emir prayed God for bumper harvest in the 2021 farming season.

Senator Dickson predicted on people behind the heinous actions to halt the barbarous attacks on innocent

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Senator Dickson predicted on people behind the heinous actions to halt the barbarous attacks on innocent policemen and other security officers set to perform their constitutional duty of securing the nation. He condemned”the dastardly acts of corruption and corruption visited authorities formations, killing of police officers and guys and vandalising of police properties and other government facilities”.He said:

“This is an extremely trying period in the life of our nation and particularly for the authorities and that I thought I must be here as the policeman which I will be to show support To demonstrate concern and to join in condemning these acts of aggression seen law-abiding people doing their best to shield citizens of our nation.

“I want to also use this chance to call for a cessation of such attacks on police formations, officers and guys which are going on in some sections of our country and to inform everyone that the police are not the problem, the police are not your enemies”

Read also: Buhari Assures Chadian Leader Nigeria’s Support to Stabilize

The senator stated:

“police officers and men are your brothers and sisters from all sections of the country. I was also one of these so I consider it as a tool which could have happened to me also.”He called for more funding to the police to place the force from the position to procure equipment and organise regular training for the men for optimum performance.

Dickson stated the authorities remained the most crucial frontline law enforcement and security agency using the widest spread throughout the nation in the effort against crime and should be given the deserved attention in the area of funding.

According to him, “any state where the police are undermined and failed, where the authorities aren’t financed, in which the police officers are not trained correctly, where the police officers have no equipment to work together in which the police officers have reduced morale, cannot have safety” Dickson, who praised the IGP and his team for doing a superb job even at this trying period promised them that the nation was with them at the goal of securing the nation.

Read also: Bandits demanding 100M after 60M paid as ransom, parents of Kaduna varsity students lament

“Once again, I love the IG, his officers and men to try their best at these very challenging circumstances and I use this opportunity to remind our nation and all of us who are in the direction that the earlier we go back to financing of the authorities as it had been in those days, the better for everyone.”This is due to the fact that the police is the sole institution that has a presence in our communities and their vehicles cannot run, they don’t have vehicles. Where they’ve vehicles, they cannot fuel or keep them and they have poor morale. You can’t have security in a country like that,” he said.

Police warn native doctors against providing criminals with charms

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The Police Command in Ebonyi has warned native doctors against providing criminals with charms to perpetrate criminal activities in the state.

The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Loveth Odah, gave the warning in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abakaliki. Odah, who said the command was committed to the protection of lives and property, urged native doctors in the state and country at large to steer clear of unlawful businesses.

NAN reports that the police had on April 30 discovered the decomposed bodies of two young men in a shallow grave inside Uduku-Igbudu forest in Agubia, Ikwo Local Government Area of Ebonyi.

The victims were said to have been abducted and buried alive inside the forest by their abductors, including two native doctors, who have been arrested by the police.

Bandits demanding 100M after 60M paid as ransom, parents of Kaduna varsity students lament

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Aggrieved parents of the remaining 20 abducted students of Greenfield University in Kaduna State have appealed to the Federal Government to urgently assist them in rescuing their children in the captivity of bandits.

The parents who met on Friday for a prayer session in Kaduna decried the continued stay of their children in the custody of the bandits since they were abducted from the school on April 20.

Chairman of the aggrieved parents, Marcus Zarmai, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to use his office to secure the release of the students before something sinister happens to them.

According to him, the kidnappers are demanding the sum of N100 million even after the parents have collectively paid them over N60 million ransom for the release of their children without any success.

Three killed as customs repel attempt to abduct officer

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The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, on Thursday revealed that three persons were killed as the unit repelled an attempt to abduct its officer on duty.

The Acting Controller of the Unit, DC Usman Yahaya, disclosed this in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer, DSC Theophilus Duniya, on Friday in Lagos.

Yahaya said that at 3.00 p.m. on May 13, some dare devil smugglers accompanied by thugs attacked a patrol team serving with the unit at Iseyin, Oyo State. “The officers, who were on routine patrol, intercepted two Nissan Pathfinder SUV vehicles fully loaded with smuggled foreign parboiled rice at Iseyin.

“Sequel to the interception, the officers were attacked by a mob who were mobilised by the smugglers. “The mob attacked the officers with dangerous weapons, inflicting serious injuries on two officers and attempted to abduct the officer, who was brutally attacked.

 

Iniubong Umoren: Suspect narrates how he killed job seeler

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In a blood chilling narration of the murder of job-seeker Iniubong Umoren, the prime suspect in the killing, Uduak Akpan, yesterday told of how he hit her in the head with a stabilizer after raping her.

And he said he was not afraid to die for his action if that was the only way justice would be served. Akpan was paraded along with his father, Frank Akpan, in Uyo by the Akwa Ibom Police Commissioner Andrew Amiengheme, following a social media report that the suspect had committed suicide in custody to shield other suspects.

Iniubong, 26, was laid to rest yesterday in her hometown of Nung Ita Ikot Essien, Oruk Anam Local Government Area of the state amid tears as Niger Delta Affairs Minister Godswill Akpabio and independent investigative journalist, David Hundeyin, launched into a war of words over allegations that Akpabio was using a hotel allegedly owned by the minister’s wife for illegal activities.

Anyone who opposes Southern Governors’ ban on open grazing has an ulterior motive – Ortom

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The Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, said on Thursday that any Nigerian who is against the resolution made by the Southern governors to disallow open grazing of cattle in the south has an ulterior motive.

Recall that on Tuesday, governors of the South-south and South-East region held a meeting in Asaba, Delta State, during which they made certain decisions to address herders/farmers clashes and insensible killings and kidnapping of citizens of southern extraction.

The Delta State chapter of the association of local government of Nigeria are strongly
behind the governors on the action taken.

Speaking at the occasion of the Media Week and Communications Day 2021, which was organized by the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, Ortom said his colleagues from the South had taken the right step by addressing the insecurity in Nigeria. He mentioned that open grazing is no longer feasible in the country due to development and population growth, thus open grazing should be banned.

“Nigeria is a great country with great potential and should, ordinarily, have no business with poverty if only there is guaranteed security for lives and property and the people are allowed to remain stable in their localities to explore opportunities in farming and other ventures,” Ortom said.

He went further to show appreciation to the Christians and Muslims in his state for supporting his government. The governor, who revealed that his administration’s plans to start teaching vernacular in schools in the next academic session, said children must be trained to support the society.

The Catholic Bishop of Makurdi Diocese, Most Reverend Wilfred Anagbe, said social communication was designed to uplift humanity and the society.

Anagbe, who proposed the teaching of history and vernacular in primary and secondary schools in Benue, said “Language defines a man and so should not be allowed to go extinct”