Video - Customs in Nigeria seize haul of rare pangolin scales, ivory

The Nigeria Customs Service has seized a huge haul of rare pangolin scales and ivory that were to be smuggled out of the country. The seizure was made in the Nigerian commercial capital of Lagos last month but the Customs Service has only just revealed it.

Kidnapped Nigeria Chibok girl free after seven years

One of the Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants more than seven years ago is free and has been reunited with her family, a state governor's office said on Saturday.

Nearly 300 schoolgirls, most aged between 12 and 17, were abducted by Boko Haram in April 2014 from Chibok in northeast Nigeria, sparking an international outcry and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign for their release.

Over the years, many of the girls were released or found by the military, but more than 100 are still missing, Amnesty International said in April to mark the seven year anniversary of the abduction.

Borno State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum said in a statement that Ruth Ngladar Pogu surrendered to the military last month along with a person she said she had married.

"I am extremely excited both as Borno's Governor and father of all sons and daughters of the state, and also as a father to daughters," the statement said.

"I know the feeling of families of those still under captivity but we have to remain hopeful especially with today's development."

The governor's office said she had surrendered to the military on July 28. But officials had not announced the development earlier to give them time to contact her parents and other Chibok families.

Nigeria's armed forces are still fighting to end the 12-year jihadist insurgency in the country's northeast, a conflict that has left 40,000 people dead and displaced more than two million others.

Mass kidnappings in Nigeria have again made international headlines this year as heavily armed criminal gangs have targeted schools and colleges to abduct students for ransom.

Nearly 1,000 pupils have been snatched in mass abductions since December, mostly in the country's northwestern and central states.

Most have been released but some are still being held after months in captivity.

Africa News

Related stories: Kidnapped Nigeria school girls forced to join Boko Haram

Global media's Nigeria abductions coverage 'wrong'

Home-brewers thrive in northern Nigeria despite trouble with religious police

In Nigeria's northern Kano state, Janet Peter stirs a thick and frothy brown liquid inside a large cast iron pot, worrying all the while that religious police will come and chase her from the restaurant where she operates.

Peter is among many local people carrying on the tradition of brewing "burukutu", a popular homemade beer with a vinegar-like flavour made with sorghum.

Brewers like her are a target for the Hisbah, the religious police who enforce Islamic sharia law that is in place in 12 northern states.

But Peter, and those who consume burukutu, say it is healthy, natural and part of local tradition. Thick and heavy, burukutu is widely consumed as food in rural parts of the north.

"I grew up watching my mother and members of my family do the formulation back in my village," Peter told Reuters in the Hausa language. "I moved to town and could not find a job and I decided to start making this."

A four-litre bucket costs 500 naira ($1.22) - far cheaper than commercially brewed beer - and the 48-year-old mother of two sells between 40 to 80 litres a day.

Brewing - from sorting the sorghum to washing, fermenting, blending and cooking - takes five days. Burukutu typically has an alcohol content of 3% to 6%.

"We are pleading to the government to leave us to continue with this business," Peter said. "People love it and enjoy it."

Religious police chased her from her last brewing site and she now works from a restaurant that provides cover from the Hisbah, for now.

Sulaiman Ali, a security guard, said burukutu is filling and free of the chemicals he said are found in bottled beer and ogogoro, a local gin.

"This one is a natural thing, cooked and it is okay," he said as he sipped from a wooden bowl.

$1 = 411 Naira 

Writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Editing by Libby George and Angus MacSwan

Reuters

U.S. Arrest Warrant Exposes Police Scandal in Nigeria

The charismatic head of the Intelligence Response team of the Nigeria Police Service, Abba Kyari, has been suspended pending the investigation of allegations by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that he was in cahoots with Ramon Abbas, better known as “Hushpuppi“ a Nigerian “Yahoo boy,” a popular Nigerian term for cyber criminals, involved in money laundering and fraud.

Abbas was arrested in Dubai last year, and after being expelled from the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—not extradited—he arrived in the United States to face trial. After pleading guilty as part of a plea bargain, Abbas was sentenced by a Los Angeles court to a maximum of twenty years in prison for “conspiracy to engage in money laundering.” Abbas allegedly paid Kyari N8 million (about $20,000) to arrest and jail a rogue member of Abbas’ criminal group; those allegations are currently being investigated by the Nigerian police. A U.S. district court issued a warrant for Kyari’s arrest, but American authorities have not requested his extradition, though much of the Nigerian media expects that they will do so.

Like many of his U.S. mafia forerunners, Abbas advertised a flamboyant lifestyle, featuring photographs of him lounging about a fleet of Rolls Royce cars and a private plane. He became something of a folk hero among the poor, with some 2.5 million Instagram followers. Operating over the internet, his victims—he is known to have targeted a U.S. law firm, a foreign bank, an English Premier League soccer club, and a Qatari school—would appear to have been mostly non-Nigerian.

Perhaps because of Hushpuppi’s flamboyance and Abba Kyari’s charisma and reputation for rectitude, the episode has become a media sensation and is seen as further damaging Nigeria’s international reputation. Some commentators, however, see a silver lining: a senior police official is being investigated and has been suspended, rather than the usual official cover-up.

Whatever Nigeria’s reputation, that of the police is poor, both at home and abroad. Among Nigerians, the police are a byword for corruption—grand and petty—and harassment, especially of the poor. Anti-police sentiment boiled over late last year in protests against the notoriously brutal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS)—for which Kyari formerly served as the officer-in-charge—collectively known as #EndSARS. The Buhari administration has promised police reform, of which there has been little evidence. However, the investigation of Abba Kyari could be a hopeful sign.

It should be noted that Abba Kyari of the National Police is not to be confused with Abba Kyari, chief of staff to President Buhari until his death last year from COVID-19.

CFR

Related stories: Nigeria suspends 'Hushpuppi-linked' police officer Abba Kyari

The Hushpuppis And Nigeria’s Image 

UAE to resume flight from Nigeria, five other countries Aug. 5

The United Arab Emirates will on Thursday lift a ban on transit flights including from Nigeria, Uganda and India India, the National Emergency and Crisis Management Authority (NCEMA) said on Tuesday.

The transit ban had also included Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

NCEMA said on Twitter that passengers travelling from countries where flights had been banned would be able to transit through its airports from August 5 as long as they present a negative PCR coronavirus test taken 72 hours prior to departure.

However, the tests must be taken in approved laboratories and carry a QR code. Countries will also be required to allocate special lounges at the airport for transit passengers while taking all precautionary and preventive measures,” the statement said.

Dubai state carrier Emirates welcomed the government’s decision to allow travel to resume from the affected countries.

There was no immediate comment from other UAE airlines on the announcement, which also eased an entry ban on residents returning from countries where flights had been suspended.

NCEMA said a ban on entry to the UAE for passengers from these countries would also be lifted for those with valid residencies and who are certified by Emirati authorities as fully vaccinated.

However, they would need to apply for online entry permits prior to travelling and would need to present a negative PCR test taken 48 hours prior to departure.

Those working in the medical, educational or government sectors in the Gulf Arab states as well as those studying or completing medical treatment in the UAE would be exempted from the vaccination requirement as would humanitarian cases.

Flights between Nigeria and the UAE remain suspended since March 17 over dispute relating to Covid-19 testing.

While the UAE imposed antigens rapid test on travellers from 58 countries; the Nigerian government insisted there was no basis for the test as it was devoid of any scientific backing.

ICIR