NAIJAFEED

Thursday, August 11, 2022

Seven more Nigeria train attack passengers released on Wednesday

Seven more passengers kidnapped during a March 28 train attack in Kaduna, Nigeria, have been freed after 135 days in captivity, local media outlets report.

The latest release comes a week after five others were freed from custody, and with no communication from, their captors explaining the move.

The newly released people were part of an unknown number of passengers aboard an Abuja-Kaduna train that came under fire on March 28 as it approached the capital of Kaduna State.

With the latest releases over the last week, the number of the original captives freed has now hit 49.

Some two weeks ago, an unverifiable video emerged online reportedly showing bandits beating up some of the passengers to push the Nigerian government to act on their demands.

Passengers often opt to use the Abuja-Kaduna railway line as the highway linking the two states is considered to be one of the deadliest in the West African country.

By Jerry Omondi

CGTN

Video - Rail staff killed in ‘unprecedented’ attack on train in Nigeria

Nigeria resettles some 12,000 displaced people in instable northwest

Children happy to be home again. Nigeria has brought back around 12,000 of its citizens who fled raids by criminal gangs in the northwest of the country earlier this year.

The authorities in Shimfida village located in Katsina state near the Nigerien border said improved security prompted the voluntary returns since Sunday.

Returnees like Audu Musa, pray for safety: "We are praying to God that all our predicaments come to an end and may we see an end to such predicaments and may God shield us with all his shields of protection."

Outside a makeshift camp at a public school in the Nigerian town of Jibia, thousands boarded buses to go home on Monday. Jibia's political administrator said he expected many more to arrive.

"There are those who are taking refuge in Jibia and those who are in Niger Republic, Bashir Sabi'u starts. Approximately 6,000 refuges are estimated to be in the Niger republic, in Jibia maybe even more, from about 6000 and those people in Niger Republic are on their way back, we are expecting their arrival to send them onto Shimfida."

Despite military operations, reports that criminal gangs known locally as bandits are still active in the wider region of northern Nigeria continue to emerge.

Insecurity has disrupted agriculture and food supplies in Katsina state and around, deepening malnutrition. Rural northwest Nigeria has been ravaged by gangs of bandit militias who raid villages, loot cattle and kidnap people.

Over the past two years, violence has displaced almost one million people in northwest and central Nigeria, while an additional 80,000 have fled across the border to Niger.

Africa News

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

The Most Curious Nation About Crypto Is Nigeria, Study Shows

Africa’s most-populous nation showed more interest in cryptocurrencies than any other country since the digital assets began to decline in April, according to a study by price tracker CoinGecko.

Nigeria scored 371 in the study that looked at Google Trends data for six searches such as “buy crypto” or “invest in crypto” that were then combined to give each English-speaking nation a total search ranking. The West African country was followed by the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.

“This study provides interesting insight into which countries remain most interested in cryptocurrency in spite of market pullbacks,” CoinGecko’s co-founder Bobby Ong said in an emailed statement. “The countries at the top of this list appear to be keenest to buy the dip, and highlight their long-term outlook for cryptocurrencies.”

The Nigerian stock exchange said in June it planned to start a blockchain-enabled platform next year to deepen trade and lure young investors to the market. That came after its central bank in early 2021 ordered commercial lenders to stop transactions or operations in cryptocurrencies, citing a threat to the financial system.

Singapore had the most searches on Ethereum, while Georgia sought information on Solana, according to CoinGecko.

By Helen Nyambura

Bloomberg

Jack Dorsey Tweets Support For Nigerian Bitcoin Adoption

Video - Nigerian returns bitcoins worth $80,000

Five suspects arrested in Nigeria Catholic church massacre

Nigeria has arrested five suspects in an Islamist militant attack in a Catholic church that killed 40 people in early June, Chief of Defence Staff General Leo Irabor said on Tuesday.

Nigerian authorities have said they suspect insurgent group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) carried out the massacre of members of a congregation inside the St Francis Catholic Church in Ondo state on June 5.

ISWAP is waging an insurgency in the northeast but claims that it carried out the attack far away from its enclave have raised concern that the group is expanding its footprint in Nigeria.

Irabor said in a statement in Abuja that the attackers were arrested during joint operations involving the armed forces, the Department of Security Services and police. He did not say where and when the arrests were made.

He said he could not parade the suspects due to ongoing investigations.

"I will like to say that in due course, the world will see them and others who are behind other daring attacks in the country," Irabor said.

Arakunrin Akeredolu, the governor for Ondo state, said a person who had provided accommodation to the suspects before the attack was also arrested.

ISWAP has claimed responsibility for a string of low level attacks as well as daring jail break in Abuja in early July that freed more than 400 inmates.

By Camillus Eboh

Reuters

Video - Nigeria church attack: Survivors face grief, trauma

Video - Worshippers gunned down during church service in Nigeria

Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Nigeria loses 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day to theft, says FG

The Federal Government has decried huge crude oil theft resulting in substantial loss in production.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, who disclosed this, yesterday, when he visited the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, at the Government House, Owerri, lamented that hoodlums who perpetrate the act has caused the production level to reduce by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), translating to a drop from 1.8 million to 1.4 million bpd.

Sylva, who was accompanied by a high powered team made up of the Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Opiah; the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor; the Group Chief Executive Officer, the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Alhaji Mele Kyari, said they came as part of industry-wide intervention mission to find a lasting solution to curb crude oil theft in Nigeria, noting that they were also in the state to get the buy-in and support of the state government on how to tackle the problem.

His words: “We’ve come here to engage the state government to get your buy-in and support.” Sylva disclosed that his delegation was in the state to seek the cooperation of the state government, adding that the oil host communities should play a collaborative effort to stop the alarming levels of crude oil theft, which has now become a national emergency.

Speaking, Uzodimma pledged the commitment of government to curb the menace in the state. He said: “We are committed; we are determined. The consequences of oil theft are alarming. Our economy is bleeding.”

Uzodimma regretted that the development has led to a drop in the earnings of government, creating environmental pollution and other health hazards.

He promised that the state government would do its best to support oil-producing companies, as well as collaborate with Federal Government to achieve the goal.

The governor thanked the NNPC Limited for the 200- bed hospital it is building at the Imo State University Teaching Hospital, Orlu.

By Charles Ogugbuaja

The Guardian

Video - Oil theft in Nigeria on the rise

Explosion at Nigerian illegal oil refinery kills more than 100