NAIJAFEED

Monday, February 22, 2021

Nigerian air force passenger plane crash kills seven people

A small Nigerian air force passenger plane crashed just outside Abuja airport after reporting engine failure on Sunday, killing all seven people on board, the air force said.

The plane, a Beechcraft King Air 350i, was on its way to the city of Minna, 110 kilometers (68 miles) northwest of the capital, air force spokesman Ibikunle Daramole said in a statement.

The aircraft "crashed while returning to the Abuja Airport after reporting engine failure," said Daramole. "First responders are at the scene. Sadly, all seven personnel on board died in the crash."

The chief of the air force has ordered an investigation into the accident, Daramole said.

President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement sent his condolences to the air force and families of the victims, saying he was "deeply saddened by the fatal crash."

In scrubland just outside the airport perimeter, dozens of military and airport officials picked through the charred remnants of the fuselage as fire engines and ambulances stood by.

The smell of burning chemicals lingered in the air but no fire or smoke were visible. Onlookers watched the rescue efforts from behind a cordon.

"As he (the plane's pilot) was going down, he struggled to go back to the airport, at the end he just crashed," said Alaba Lawal, who said she witnessed the accident.

"I just saw the whole thing explode, fire and smoke together ... When I got there I saw dead bodies on the ground."

The air force did not provide the identities of those killed in the crash.

The Beechcraft King Air 350i is a twin-propeller aircraft made by Textron Aviation, a unit of the U.S.-based Textron Inc conglomerate. The model was first released around 2009.

The company said in a statement that it had been notified of the accident, which it said is being investigated by Nigeria's Aircraft Investigation Bureau and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

"As a party to the investigation, the company is prohibited by NTSB regulation from divulging any information about the accident or investigation," the company said.

CTV News

Kidnappers free 53 people seized on bus

Kidnappers released 53 people, including women and children, seized on a bus in Nigeria while dozens of others taken from a school in a separate attack are still missing.

Criminal gangs in northwestern and central Nigeria have scaled up attacks in recent years, kidnapping, raping and pillaging.

A gang last week seized 53 people, including 20 women and nine children, who were travelling on a state-owned bus in Kundu village in Niger State.

“I was delighted to receive the 53 … bus passengers who were abducted by armed bandits a week ago,” the governor of Niger State, Abubakar Sani Bello, said in a tweet late on Sunday.

It is unknown if a ransom was paid but state representatives have previously said they would not pay any.

“We went through one week of dialogue, consultations, hard work and sleepless nights because we had to secure their release within the shortest possible time,” the governor’s spokeswoman, Mary Noel-Berje, said in a statement.

The freed bus passengers received medical check-ups before being reunited with their families, she added.

In a separate incident, 42 people, including 27 schoolboys, were abducted from a school last week and are still missing.

“The Students of the Government Science College Kagara are still in the hands of their captives but everything is being done to ensure their release,” Noel-Berje said.

Attacks on a ‘daily basis’

Gunmen last week killed 10 people and abducted at least 23 others in two separate attacks in the state.

“We are witnessing these attacks now, almost, on daily basis and it is worrisome,” Noel-Berje said at the time.

The attackers are known to hide in camps in the Rugu forest, which straddles Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states. Despite the deployment of troops, deadly attacks persist.

The gangs are largely driven by financial motives and have no known ideological leanings.

But there is growing concern they are being infiltrated by armed groups from the northeast that are waging a decade-old rebellion to establish a so-called “Islamic state”.

The latest mass abduction came just two months after 300 students were kidnapped from a school in Kankara in nearby Katsina, President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state, while the president was visiting the region.

The boys were later released after negotiations with government officials, but the incident triggered outrage and memories of the kidnappings of Nigerian schoolgirls by armed fighters in Dapchi and Chibok that shocked the world.

Out of some 276 girls who were kidnapped by the Boko Haram group from Chibok, at least 100 are still unaccounted for.

Al Jazeera

Friday, February 19, 2021

Video - Why are school children increasingly being kidnapped in Nigeria?

Schools stormed and children held captive. For months now, that's become common in Northern Nigeria. Gunmen kidnapped dozens and possibly hundreds of schoolchildren in the latest assault on Wednesday. One student was killed in the attack on in the town of Kagara. The government has released the names of some who were abducted and a rescue operation is ongoing. Many of the previous attacks have been blamed on so-called bandits who ask for ransom. But the armed groups are not the only security challenge facing Nigerian forces. They've been fighting Boko Haram, that carries out similar attacks in the northeast.

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Gunmen kill one student and kidnap dozens more in Nigeria school raid

At least 42 people, including students, were kidnapped in an armed raid at a state-run school in Niger state, in Nigeria's Middle Belt region Wednesday.

The group includes 27 students, three teachers and nine family members, the state government said in a statement which names them all.

A student who died during the attack was named as Benjamin Habila.

This latest incident has raised questions about the safety of schools in parts of northern Nigeria as it comes two months after after more than 300 students were kidnapped in a similar invasion at Government Science Secondary School Kankara, in Katsina, President Buhari's home state. They were later released soon after their abduction.

Niger state's Governor Abubakar Sani Bello has closed all boarding schools in the area and dispatched the military to rescue those kidnapped from the school, according to his chief press secretary Mary Noel Barje.

President Buhari has condemned the abduction of the school children.

"The President has directed the Armed Forces and Police, to ensure immediate and safe return of all the captives," Buhari's spokesperson, Garba Shehu, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Students pack their bags to leave the school after the abduction.

"The President has also dispatched to Minna, Niger State a team of security chiefs to coordinate the rescue operation and meet with state officials, community leaders, as well as parents and staff of the college."

A former Nigerian senator, Shehu Sani, told CNN that the school has no perimeter fence and would have afforded easy access to militants.

Sani, who was also a student at the school, told CNN: "The town is at the epicenter of the insurgency in Niger State. Fulani bandits operate within the axis and there are thousands of people displaced in this area. The bandits of the northwest of Nigeria are becoming more lethal and destructive than Boko Haram."

Buhari recently retired all the heads of Nigeria's security forces and appointed new ones, amid rising insecurity and kidnappings in the country.

"The security situation in Nigeria is "overwhelming and threatens the peace of the country," Sani told CNN. "It is unfortunate the service chiefs were allowed to stay for so long," he added.

By Stephanie Busari and Isaac Abrak

CNN

Boko Haram claims responsibility for kidnapping hundreds of boys in Nigeria

Nigeria pays $11 million as ransom to kidnappers in four years

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Kidnapping in Nigeria on the rise

Two police officers arrested for the kidnapping of Okonjo-Iweala's Mother

Monday, February 15, 2021

Video - "Namaste Wahala" movie celebrates cross-cultural love

Actors from Bollywood in India and Nollywood in Nigeria have been collaborating on a film to celebrate cross-cultural love. The movie, Namaste Wahala will debut on Netflix on Valentine's Day. CGTN's Joy Kiruki Juma with the details.