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Fisticuffs over Lagos airport land

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Simon Ateba/Aviation correspondent

The crisis between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, and AIC Limited, escalated on Tuesday with blows being exchanged and suits being torn.

The crisis worsened on Tuesday morning after some officials of FAAN brought in earth moving equipment and pulled down the wire fence surrounding a piece of land which was concessioned to AIC Limited on 17 February 1998 for the construction of a five-star hotel and a modern shopping centre.

FAAN officials did not pass through the main entrance to the site, instead they pulled down the barbed wire fence to gain access into a land that has been in contention for 15 years.

FAAN claimed it wanted to clear the land of grasses and snakes for safety reasons and use it for massive developmental projects after it secured a favourable court ruling at the Lagos Federal High Court on 19 June 2013.

Harry Akande, businessman and politician who had secured a billion dollar financing promise from local and foreign investors to win the AIC bid in 1998 could not believe what was happening around him.

“You have now witnessed the recklessness of FAAN by yourself,” he told journalists after stones were thrown at him and press men by the Chief Security Officer at FAAN.

Akande and AIC staff came to the site after they learned that FAAN was clearing it. They re-erected the barbed wire fence which was pulled down by FAAN.

Shortly after that FAAN stormed the site and began pulling it down again. After resistance from AIC staff, FAAN brought in thugs and a free for all began.

Blows and slaps were exchanged, especially by FAAN, tearing the suit of Olu Akande, the businessman’s son, assaulting others and threatening to break the Sport Utility Vehicles belonging to Akande.

“Take the pictures where you want,” FAAN Chief security officer told journalists as he threw stones at them and Harry Akande as well as other staff.

Niyi Akande, General Manager Administration and Business Development told journalists at the site that after appealing 19 June ruling status quo should be maintained.

“Even a small boy knows that once there’s an appeal to a ruling the status quo should be maintained,” he said.

He said the company had secured a billion dollars financing promise from local and foreign investors but FAAN had frustrated the project and is planning to award the same project to a Chinese firm.

“This land they want to take away from us, they are giving it to the Chinese for the same project,” Niyi Akande said.

He said AIC had spent 14 million dollars just for the design of the hotel and shopping mall and others to secure the bid in 1998.

Akande said the development of the site began in 2000 but was frustrated by FAAN. The company approached the arbitration court and was awarded 48 million dollars in 2010 by late Justice Kayode Eso.

But FAAN refused to obey the ruling, claiming that it had the right to appeal at the Federal High Court.

The legal fireworks lasted for three years and on 19 June 2013, Justice Ibrahim Buba set aside the award of the arbitration court.

AIC moved to the Appeal Court to challenge the ruling and also filed an injunction against FAAN taking any illegal action while the matter is still in court.

But on Tuesday FAAN moved equipment to site to take over the land and the move was resisted by AIC.

FAAN spokesperson Yakubu Dati, told journalists that AIC thugs invaded the airport with dangerous weapons and were evicted because they constituted a threat to security and safety at the airport.

“The thugs, (who) were armed with dangerous weapons, are constituting a threat to security and safety at the airport because they are occupying a piece of land located very close to the tarmac of the airport,” Dati said.

He added: “The authority has put measures in place to ensure adequate security and safety at the airport to check the nefarious activities of AIC Ltd, which has resorted to self help in the protracted concession disagreement between it and FAAN.”

However, our correspondent who was at the scene saw no dangerous weapons in the possession of AIC staff or Harry Akande.

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN

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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: PM News

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Kano Transfers Over 1,000 Almajiris To Different States Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

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The Kano State Government on Saturday said it has transferred 1,098 ‘almajiris’ to different states of the country.

The commissioner for local government, Murtala Garo, disclosed this while presenting a report before the state’s task force on COVID-19 at the government house, Kano.

Almajiris are children who are supposed to be learning Islamic studies while living with their Islamic teachers. Majority of them, however, end up begging on the streets of Northern Nigeria. They constitute a large number of Nigeria’s over 10 million out-of-school children.

Mr Garo said the Kano government transported 419 almajiris to Katsina, 524 to Jigawa and 155 to Kaduna. He said all of them tested negative for coronavirus before leaving the Kano State.

Despite the coronavirus test done in Kano for the almajiris, the Jigawa government earlier said it would quarantine for two weeks all the almajiris that recently arrived from Kano.

Mr Garo said another 100 almajiris scheduled to be taken to Bauchi State also tested negative to COVID-19.

In a remark, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the COVID-19 situation in Kano was getting worse. He appealed for a collaborative effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.

Mr Ganduje, who commended residents for complying with the lockdown imposed in the state, said the decision was taken to halt the spread of the virus.

Kano State, as of Saturday night, has 77 coronavirus cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

The decision to transfer the Kano almajiris is part of the agreement reached between Northern governors that almajiris in each state be transferred to their states of origin.

However, even before the latest agreement by the governors, the Kano government had been transferring almajiris to other states and neighbouring countries after it banned street begging in the state, most populous in Northern Nigeria.

Despite the transfers, however, no concrete step has been taken to ensure such children do not return to Kano streets as there is freedom of movement across Nigeria although interstate travel was recently banned to check the spread of the coronavirus.

 

Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria

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COVID-19: ‘Bakassi Boys’ Foil Attempt To Smuggle 24 Women Into Abia In Container

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By Ugochukwu Alaribe

Operatives of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’ have arrested 24 market women hidden in a container truck, at Ekwereazu Ngwa, the boundary community between Abia and Akwa Ibom states.

The market women, said to be  from Akwa Ibom State, were on their way to Aba, when they were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the lockdown order by the state government.

Driver of the truck, Moses Asuquo, claimed he was going to Aba to purchase stock fish, but decided to assist the market women, because they were stranded.

A vigilante source told Sunday Vanguard that the vehicle was impounded while the market women were sent back to Akwa Ibom State.

Commissioner for Home Land Security, Prince Dan Okoli, who confirmed the incident, said that  smuggling of people into the state poses great threat to the state government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID- 19.

 

Sourced From: Vanguard News

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Woman Kills Her Maid Over Salary Request

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Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Yaba of the Lagos State police command have arrested one Mrs Nene Steve for allegedly killing her maid, Joy Adole

The maid was allegedly beaten to death by Nene for requesting for her salary at their residence located at 18, Ogundola Street, Bariga area in Lagos.

Narrating the incident, Philips Ejeh, an elder brother to the deceased said that he was sad when they informed him that his sister was beaten to death.

He explained that the deceased was an indigene of Benue State brought to Lagos through an agent and started working with her as a maid  in January 2020.

‘’She reported that her boss refused to pay her and anytime she asked for her salary she will start beating her.

She was making an attempt to leave the place but due to the total lockdown she remained there until Sunday when her boss said she caught her stealing noodles and this led to her serious beating and death,’’ Ejeh said.

He called on Lagos State Government and well- meaning people in the country to help them in getting justice for the victim.

The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, stated that the woman and her husband came to Bariga Police  Station to a report that their house girl had committed suicide.

Detectives were said to have visited the house and suspected foul play with the position of the rope and bruises all over the body which confirmed that the girl had been tortured to death and the boss decided to hang up the girl to make it look like suicide.

He said: “The police moved on with their investigation and found a lot of sign of violence on her body that she has been tortured before a rope was put on her neck.’’

He added that the police removed the corpse and deposited it in the mortuary for autopsy to further ascertain the cause of the death.

Elkana said the matter has been transferred from Bariga police station to Panti for further investigation while the couple have been arrested and will be charged to court.

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Boko Haram Attacks: Buhari Summons Urgent Meeting Of Service Chiefs

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President Buhari and the Service Chiefs in a meeting. (File photo)

Ostensibly alarmed by the latest killings of dozens of soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an urgent meeting of Service Chiefs to find ways to stop the trend. 

He has also dispatched the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, to the neighbouring Republic of Chad for an urgent meeting with President Idris Deby and his defence counterpart. 

Knowledgeable sources said in Abuja on Friday that the president is worried by on the deterioration of security situation on the Nigeria – Chad Border that has led to the recently increased Boko Haram terrorism in the area.

The sources which did not want to be named in Abuja said: “Nigeria has a Chad  problem in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to secure the Lake Chad basin areas and repeal the Boko Haram terrorist attacks against all the countries neighbouring the Lake.”

The sources noted that Chad is believed to be having their own internal security challenges and this has reportedly led to their pulling away their own troops manning their own border around Lake Chad,  saying: “That lacuna is being exploited by the Boko Haram terrorists, who go in and out of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to launch terrorist acts.  This is a clear illustration of the fact that terrorism is beyond national borders.”

When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the Defence Minister is going to Chad but said he is unaware of the purpose. 

Meanwhile, the military authorities are said to be in the process of identifying the families of the latest victims with a view to making contact with them. 

Credible sources revealed that it is the reason the president is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter. 

“The President has called an urgent meeting with the Service Chiefs, as well as the fact that families of the latest victims of the Boko Haram are being identified and contacts made before a government pronouncement on the tragic attacks. This, it is understood, is the reason for the silence of the government over the incident,” the source said. 

 

Sourced From: Tribune

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