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Afenifere chieftain arrested for obstructing Osinbajo’s motorcade in Lagos

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Afenifere chieftain arrested for obstructing Osinbajo’s motorcade in Lagos

Kole Omololu, the National Organising Secretary of Afenifere, was arrested and detained at a police station on Friday after he allegedly obstructed the convoy of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

In a message sent he shortly after his arrest, which was circulated on social media, Omololu stated that the incident happened in the Ikoyi area of Lagos, adding that he was arrested by a police officer in the Vice President’s entourage.

“I have just been arrested by ACP Oludotun Odubona on the entourage of the VP Osinbajo, claiming (that) I did not park well for the convoy, in front of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Ikoyi.

“Currently, I am in detention at Onikan Police Station, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos,” the message read.

Omololu later on Friday night confirmed that he had been released by the police.

He described the arrest as “an act of overzealousness”, adding that the police officer nearly slapped him.

“It is just an act of overzealousness. I have been released. No condition was attached to my release. Senior aides of the vice president, including the ADC and Chief Security Officer, have called me.

“He accused me of struggling with the convoy, which was not the case. I was only trying to move away. He came to meet me where I parked, raining curses on me.

“He nearly slapped me. Despite all my explanations that I am an elderly man, he insisted that I was arrested and taken to the police station. I told him that I respect the VP and I won’t obstruct his convoy. He only embarrassed his boss. I know his boss will never do that,” Omololu told the Punch.

Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, confirmed the occurrence in a post on Twitter.

He, however, stated that the Afenifere leader had been released from the police station.

“A traffic incident occurred few hours ago when the VP’S convoy in Ikoyi, Lagos encountered a vehicle driving too close to VP’s convoy. After several cautions and the driver did not yield, the police officials on duty had to stop the car and interviewed the driver to ascertain his intentions.

“The driver has since been released by the Police,” Akande tweeted.

Lampard: James contract is great for Chelsea

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Lampard: James contract is great for Chelsea

Frank Lampard had the chance to react to Reece James committing his future to Chelsea until at least the summer of 2025 when the boss spoke to the media at Cobham on Friday afternoon.

The evening before, the 20-year-old right-back put pen to paper on a new five-and-a-half-year contract, just four months after Lampard had handed him his Chelsea debut. James has played another 17 games since then and has recently been the first choice in his position.

‘I rate him very highly,’ praised Lampard. ‘I knew him as a youth player in the Academy here. I saw him on loan last year when he did fantastically well at Wigan. I tried to get him to Derby [on loan] but he could not come in the mid-season, but I admired him a lot. Then to work with him I feel the same and even more so.

‘He has got his foot into the first team here and I think there is a lot more to come from Reece James,’ added the head coach.

‘He is a really talented player and he wants to learn, he wants to improve, he wants to train and do the right things and he has that talent. So it is great for the club that he has signed for so long.’

James himself, in an interview he gave to The 5th Stand app after signing his contract, spoke about returning to Chelsea in the summer with Lampard installed as the man in charge.

‘I think everyone was thinking that it couldn’t be much better,’ said the young player. ‘Frank Lampard is a Chelsea legend and if everyone wanted someone to be manager they would pick him.

‘Working under him, he helps all of us and everyone looks up to him.’

 

Outrage as Eminem calls for gun control in a surprise album

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Outrage as Eminem calls for gun control in a surprise album

Rapper Eminem once again dropped a surprise album, releasing of “Music to Be Murdered By” on Friday.

The follow-up to 2018’s “Kamikaze” — also released without warning — was announced on Twitter just after midnight.

The Detroit rapper also released a new music video for one of the 20 tracks on the album, “Darkness,” which depicts a shooting at a concert. The lyrics and storyline of the video specifically allude to the 2017 mass shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead, making it the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. It closes with audio and video footage of news broadcasts from other recent mass shooting around the U.S. and an appeal to register to vote.

“When will this end? When enough people care,” reads the text at the end of the video. “Register to vote at vote.gov. Make your voice heard and help change gun laws in America.”

A link to the music video on Eminem’s website encourages viewers to contact or visit several gun violence prevention organizations, including Everytown for Gun Safety and Sandy Hook Promise.

The cover art features blood spatter and a bearded Eminem holding both a hatchet and a gun to his head, the latter in apparent homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 album of the same name, Pitchfork noted. “Music to Be Murdered By” is Eminem’s 11th studio album, according to his website.

Among many collaborators, the album features Ed Sheeran, Skylar Grey, Anderson .Paak and Juice WRLD, the 21-year-old rapper who died in December.

Just In: Three storey building collapses in Lagos

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Just In: Three storey building collapses in Lagos
By Bukola Olasanmi

An uncompleted three-storey building, on Friday, collapsed around the Ago Palace way in Lagos State.

The Director-General, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Dr Oluwafemi Oke-Osanyintolu, who confirmed the incident said a yet-to-be identify man had been trapped under the rubble, adding that a rescue operation was ongoing.

Buhari departs Abuja on Friday for UK investment summit

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Buhari departs Abuja on Friday for UK investment summit

By Bukola Olasanmi 

President Muhammadu Buhari will depart Abuja Friday for London to participate in the inaugural UK-Africa Investment Summit holding on Monday, January 20, 2020.

Hosted by the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, the event, according to the organisers, is expected to bring together African leaders, international business chief executives and heads of international organisations “to create new partnerships that will deliver more investments and jobs” to the benefit of people and businesses in African countries and the United Kingdom.

Apart from highlighting new perspectives on UK-Africa Partnership for Prosperity, issues of Sustainable Finance and Infrastructure; Trade and Investment; Future African Growth Sectors and Clean Energy and Climate, are expected to dominate presentations and discussions during the Summit.

With the expected take-off of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in mid-2020, the London investment summit will provide Nigeria with the opportunity to project itself as a leading investment destination for new industries.

In addition, the summit will deepen Nigeria-United Kingdom investment ties post-Brexit given that Africa currently represents just two per cent of British trade activity, with Nigeria accounting for only 10 per cent of that total.

The Nigerian delegation to the investment meeting will further showcase what the Federal Government has done through policies and legislations to improve the investment and business climate in the country.

While in the United Kingdom, President Buhari will hold a meeting with the Head of the Commonwealth, Prince Charles in Glasgow, Scotland.

The President and his delegation will also have bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Johnson as well as heads of multilateral organisations.
President Buhari will be accompanied to the Summit by Governors Yahaya Bello, Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya and Okezie Ikpeazu of Kogi, Gombe and Abia States respectively.

Also on the presidential entourage are the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo; the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj-Gen. Babagana Monguno (retd); and the Director General, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ambassador Ahmed Rufai Abubakar .
President Buhari is expected back in Abuja next Thursday.

 

Counter Terrorism: Nigeria, Egypt strengthen military ties

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Counter Terrorism: Nigeria, Egypt strengthen military ties

Nations around Africa’s Sahel region have been called upon to synergize and build military cooperation in other to defeat the emerging threats of terrorism and extremism in the region.

This was the call when the Egypt’s Ambassador to Nigeria Assem Hanafi Elseify paid a courtesy call on the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai at the Army Headquarters in Abuja.

Ambassador Elseify said the need for a robust military cooperation and assistance between Nigeria and Egypt has become more critical than ever before.

“We need to strengthen relations between our countries’ military in other to render our own assistance in the spirit of partnership… we need to agree on diverse areas of cooperation in the fight against terrorism and extremism” he said.

In his remarks, the Chief of Army staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai noted  that Nigeria and Egypt have a long standing diplomatic and military relations while enjoying reciprocal training and as well as educational partnership.

Buratai acknowledged that the two African powers have a lot to learn mutually as nations combatting extremist ideologies and terrorism.

Egypt alongside Nigeria are both members of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD).

Zarif: Europeans sold out remnants of Iran deal to appease Trump

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Zarif: Europeans sold out remnants of Iran deal to appease Trump

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the European signatories to a 2015 nuclear deal — France, Britain and Germany — chose to bow to American bullying and sell out the “remnants” of the multilateral agreement only to appease the US and avoid its sanctions.

Zarif made the remarks in a tweet on Thursday after The Washington Post reported that the administration of US President Donald Trump had threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on European automobile imports if the trio — known as EU3 or E3 — refused to formally accuse Iran of violating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The report was published shortly after the European trio said in a joint statement on Tuesday that they had triggered the JCPOA’s dispute mechanism, which amounts to a formal accusation that Tehran had broken the terms of the deal.

The European measure could lead to the restoration of anti-Iran UN sanctions, which had been lifted by the JCPOA.

The top Iranian diplomat attached to his tweet a screen shot of the Washington Post report’s title, saying the report confirmed the E3’s “appeasement” to Trump.

“E3 sold out remnants of #JCPOA to avoid new Trump tariffs. It won’t work my friends. You only whet his appetite, Remember your high school bully?” Zarif said. “If you want to sell your integrity, go ahead. But DO NOT assume high moral/legal ground. YOU DON’T HAVE IT.”

Zarif had likewise criticized the European parties to the JCPOA for surrendering to the US bullying on Wednesday, saying, “It’s sad that biggest economy has allowed itself to be bullied into violating own obligations. JCPOA’s future depends on E3, not Iran.”

Also addressing Raisina Dialogue 2020 in the Indian capital, New Delhi, Zarif emphasized that it was Iran that first triggered the JCPOA’s dispute mechanism on May 10, 2018, two days after the US withdrawal from the accord.

The JCPOA was signed between Iran and six world states — namely the US, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China — in 2015. It was also ratified in the form of a UN Security Council resolution.

However, Washington’s exit and subsequent re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran left the future of the historic deal in limbo.

Tehran remained fully compliant with the JCPOA for an entire year, waiting for the co-signatories to fulfill their end of the bargain by offsetting the impacts of Washington’s bans on the Iranian economy.

As the European parties failed to do so, Tehran moved in May 2019 to suspend its JCPOA commitments in 60-day stages under Articles 26 and 36 of the deal covering Tehran’s legal rights.

Iran took its fifth and final commitment reduction step earlier this month.

Amotekun: Southwest may lose 2023 presidency – Miyetti Allah 

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Amotekun: Southwest may lose 2023 presidency – Miyetti Allah 

The Fulani socio-cultural group Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore has said that the Amotekun security initiative may cost the South West the 2023 presidency.

This was disclosed by the national secretary, Alhassan Saleh.

The Nation reports that Saleh said that Southwest governors must withdraw support for the security outfit.

He said this is will enable the region stand a chance of taking a shot at the presidency come 2023. Going further, he expressed disappointment in the Southwest intelligentsia for supporting the outfit.

“This Amotekun scheme is political and is not the solution to the problem of insecurity. What the South-West governors should have done is to continue to push for state police.

“Where did they expect to get the funding from at a time some of them are struggling to pay salaries? “It is best they give up on this idea because it may affect the chances of the South-West to produce the president in 2023.

Meanwhile, the federal government is reportedly considering a stand against the project.

One of the considerations being made is how to ensure that the outfit commences operation and run smooth operations without a clash of interest with other security agencies in the country.

Part of the resolutions, according to one of the sources, has to do with establishing a legal framework upon which the Amotekun was formed as well as its importance at what the southwest believe is a critical period.

The legal backing, one of the sources said, is for Amotekun to be transformed into a community policing policy of the federal government which the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is making efforts to implement.

Thousands rally in The Gambia for ex-leader Yahya Jammeh’s return

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Thousands rally in The Gambia for ex-leader Yahya Jammeh’s return

Protest follows self-exiled leader’s insistence in recent audio recording that The Gambia guarantee his right to return.

Thousands of supporters of The Gambia’s former leader Yahya Jammeh have demonstrated on the outskirts of the capital Banjul, demanding his return from self-exile.

The protest on Thursday came days after Jammeh was heard in an audio recording insisting that the West African state guarantee his right to return.

Jammeh ruled The Gambia with an iron fist for 22 years but fled in January 2017 after losing a presidential election to a relatively unknown Adama Barrow.

Calls for his return from Equatorial Guinea have grown recently as tensions heighten over Barrow’s decision to stay in office for five years – reversing a previous pledge to step down after three.

On Thursday, thousands of supporters of Jammeh’s Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) party gathered in Sukuta, a town 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Banjul.

“We need him 100 percent. We are ready to die for him,” Ismaila Colleyk, a 26-year-old protester, told AFP news agency, referring to Jammeh.

“Before Jammeh left here for exile, there was an agreement for him to come back into the country after three years.”

Thousands of Gambians protested last month, demanding Barrow step down, and similar protests are planned for January 19 or 20.

Barrow supporters have also held counterdemonstrations.

Right to return

The former president’s supporters argue that he has a right to return under a joint statement from the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations, published at the time of his exile.

The organisations committed to working with the government to ensure Jammeh’s security and rights, in particular, his right to return.

Maimuna Jaju, a 23-year-old businesswoman, told AFP news agency that people were “experiencing hardship” under Barrow.

“This is why we want former president Jammeh to come back and take over the mantle of leadership,” she added.

In the audio recording issued by Jammeh’s political party last week, the former leader said he supported Thursday’s protest.

“The fact of the matter is to meet the authorities and make it very clear to them that the agreement must be implemented,” Jammeh said in the recording.

Barrow’s cabinet has said Jammeh can return as a citizen, but cannot run for president again.

Jammeh is accused of numerous human rights abuses.

Since January 2019, about 190 witnesses have appeared before a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission set up to investigate abuses under his rule.

 

Sudan reopens airspace after armed mutiny by pro al-Bashir group

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Sudan reopens airspace after armed mutiny by pro al-Bashir group

Sudan said it reopened its airspace Wednesday after an armed revolt from within its security forces shut down the capital’s airport for hours and left at least two people dead.

In a press conference, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the country’s ruling transitional council, announced that “life has returned to normal,” following a tense stand-off between the armed forces and rogue intelligence officers. The officers had fired shots in the air to demand better severance benefits.

Sudan’s petroleum minister declared the resumption of oil production at two fields that had been seized by rebellious officers.

The airport authority in neighboring Egypt said it was resuming all flights to Sudan, following a two-day suspension over security concerns.

The burst of unrest had paralyzed street life in several parts of the capital, Khartoum, along with another western city. Videos circulated on social media showing vast deployment of security forces and heavy exchanges of gunfire.

The armed forces will “not allow any coup to occur,” said Burhan, adding that it was a “shame that weapons were raised in the faces of the people.”

The army quickly quelled the short-lived mutiny with “minimal losses,” said General Mohamed Othman al-Hussein, its chief of staff on Wednesday. The clashes killed two people and injured four others, including two officers, he added.

The doctors’ union reported that a father and his two children were killed when an errant artillery shell struck their home in a Khartoum suburb. The father was killed instantly, it said, and his 19-year-old daughter and 25-year-old son died on the way to the hospital. The different death tolls could not immediately be reconciled.

After trying to persuade the renegade officers to turn over their arms, the military stormed and retook the headquarters of an intelligence agency “using the least amount of force possible,” al-Hussein said.

The mutiny was the latest twist in Sudan’s fragile democratic transition after three decades of authoritarian rule under former President Omar al-Bashir. A sweeping protest movement ousted al-Bashir in April and led to the creation of a joint military-civilian government last summer.

During the transitional period, Sudan is devising ways to reorganize its armed forces. The program, al-Hussein said, requires dismantling an intelligence agency branch and merging it with a paramilitary unit known as the Rapid Support Forces, notorious for their brutal suppression of insurgencies in Sudan’s restive provinces.

Unrest ensued as angry intelligence officers, who were dismissed without receiving what they considered fair compensation, took to the streets.

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok described the mutiny as “discord” aimed at “cutting off the nation’s transition to building a solid democracy.”

The disturbance, revealing simmering tensions within Sudan’s security apparatus, poses a tough test for the newly formed government’s democratic and economic goals.

“Sudan needs to figure out how to dismantle the deep state’s security forces and deal with their members,” said Cairo-based political analyst Saeed Sadek. “They are powerful, capable of creating civil war and subverting the transition.”

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