NAIJAFEED

Monday, March 15, 2021

Nigerian president vows to safeguard school system nationwide

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday issued a stern warning to "terrorists and bandits" targeting schools, saying the country will not allow the destruction of the school system.

The president gave the warning in a statement released by his spokesperson Garba Shehu in Abuja, reacting to the gunmen attack on the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization in the Afaka area of the northwest state of Kaduna on Thursday night.

The president commended the efforts of the Kaduna state government and the early response of the military which led to the rescue of 180 persons, including 172 students and eight staff members.

He urged that the others declared missing be found and returned safely to their families.

The president also commended efforts and contributions of local intelligence in significantly thwarting the kidnappers, saying a country that has an efficient local intelligence network is a safer country.

"Our military may be efficient and well-armed, but it needs good efforts for the nation's defense and the local population must rise to this challenge of the moment," he said.

A series of gunmen attacks has recently happened in the northern part of the most populous African country, including attacks on schools and kidnapping of students.

Attempt to abduct hundreds of schoolboys foiled by security forces in Nigeria

Security forces have foiled an attempt to kidnap hundreds of schoolboys in northwestern Nigeria, a state official said on Sunday, days after dozens of students were seized in the latest mass abduction.

The kidnapping of 39 students on Thursday was the most recent in a string of abductions complicating the security challenges facing President Muhammadu Buhari’s security forces, who are also battling a more than decade-long Islamist insurgency in the northeast.

“Between the late hours of Saturday night and the early hours of today, suspected bandits stormed the Government Science Secondary School, Ikara … in an attempt to kidnap students,” Samuel Aruwan, state home affairs commissioner said of the foiled attack in a statement.

“Fortunately, the students used the security warning system in place, and were thus able to alert security forces in the area”, he said.

He said a joint security force, comprising soldiers, policemen and vigilantes, deployed to the school and “engaged the bandits, forcing them to flee”.

The military managed to rescue 180 students, including eight staff members, after a fierce battle with the gunmen.

Heavily armed gangs in northwest and central Nigeria have stepped up attacks in recent years.

They have recently turned their focus to schools, where they kidnap students or schoolchildren for ransom – Thursday’s abduction was at least the fourth such attack since December.

Aruwan said all 307 students in the school targeted on Saturday had been accounted for after a headcount.

“The attempted kidnap was foiled completely and no student was taken from the school.”

On Saturday, local media published video of some of the 39 students who were kidnapped on Thursday from the outskirts of Kaduna city appealing to the government to rescue them without violence.

The recording was purportedly sent through a Facebook account of one of the hostages.

They appeared to be in a forest, surrounded by gunmen in military uniform. The video could not be independently verified.

Aruwan said the government was committed to freeing the hostages.

“As a government, our focus is on getting back our missing students and preventing further episodes of school abductions,” he said.

AFP

Friday, March 12, 2021

Video - Unknown number of students abducted in Kaduna

Gunmen have taken students from Kaduna college in Nigeria.

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

UK to return $5.8m to Nigeria from politician’s stolen assets

The United Kingdom and Nigeria have signed a deal to return to the latter 4.2 million pounds ($5.84m) recovered from a former state governor who was jailed in London for money laundering.

James Ibori, who was the governor of southern Nigeria’s oil-producing Delta state from 1999 to 2007, pleaded guilty at London’s Southwark Crown Court in 2012 to 10 counts of fraud and money-laundering.

He received a 13-year jail sentence and spent four years behind bars for using public funds to buy luxury homes, top-of-the-range cars and a private jet.

“This is the first time that money recovered from criminals will be returned to Nigeria [from the UK] since an agreement was signed in 2016 to recover and return the proceeds of bribery or corruption in a responsible and transparent way,” the UK’s home and foreign office said in a statement.

Abubakar Malami, Nigeria’s attorney general, said the funds will be used to help complete a number of infrastructure projects, including a road connecting the capital, Abuja, and the northern commercial hub Kano.

“I am confident that both the Nigerian and British governments remain committed to all affirmative actions to combat corruption … [and] illicit financial flows,” Malami said at a ceremony at which officials from the two countries signed an agreement on the return of the funds.

The UK’s Home Office Minister Baroness Williams described the deal as “a significant moment”, saying it sent a clear message “to criminals that we will relentlessly pursue them, their assets and their money”, while Minister for Africa James Duddridge said the two countries “will continue to work together to tackle crime and corruption”.

Ibori was at some point one of Nigeria’s richest and most powerful men.

Anti-corruption campaigners had hailed the case as a milestone for Nigeria, where no one of his stature had been successfully prosecuted, and for its former colonial ruler Britain, long seen as too complacent about the proceeds of Nigerian corruption being laundered in the UK.

Al Jazeera

Monday, March 8, 2021

Video - Nigeria’s basketball team D'Tigers face the dilemma of aging players

The top-ranked men's basketball team in Africa, D'Tigers of Nigeria, qualified unbeaten at the recent AfroBasket qualifiers in Monastir, Tunisia. But while D'Tigers have been the dominant force in Africa, there is one big concern...the squad is aging. CGTN's Deji Badmus finds out whether this could spell an end to their reign.