Nigeria News
Olaitan Oyerinde: A Memorial, A Tribute To An Ideologue
By Olumuyiwa Jimoh
This time last year, I had the greatest shock of my life – the assassination of my friend, my brother and my inestimable comrade; Olaitan Oyerinde. The news of his assassination reached us in the wee hours of the morning and we all had hoped it was not going to be true eventually despite having called his lines without getting through successfully. It was a harrowing wait and like the nightmare it was, it finally dawned on us that our dear friend had gone in a most gruesome way in the hands of cold blooded murderers.
To some of us who knew him very closely, it has been a year of moaning around still thinking that somehow we would come out of this horrible cocoon. If he had gone some other way, perhaps, we would have been given the chance to have communed with him but not the way his death came. It was indeed a great loss and has continued being a deep loss which has left a yawning gap in our lives.
Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde was not only an active voice in Nigeria’s Civil Society movement but was an impactful member of the nation’s labour movement. Olaitan as one of the foremost ideologues of the student movement and civil society rights community collaborated with other progressive radical left, especially from the Marxist-Leninist tradition like the late Comrade Chima Ubani, Dr. Sylvester Odion Akhaine, Segun Mayegun, the late Comrade Ola Oni, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola the Generalissimo of Action Congress of Nigeria, Prof. Abubakar Momoh, Comrade Segun Sango of Democratic Socialist Movement, DSM, Barrister Femi Falana SAN), Comrade Abiodun Aremu a.k.a. Aremson, Comrade Baba Omojola, Femi Aborisade, Dr.Dipo Fashina of the great Obafemi Awolowo University, Barrister Jiti Ogunye, Barrister Kunle Adegoke also known as Krad, among many others, to chase away the military junta.
He was murdered in the early hours of the 4th day of May, 2013 last year by hired assassins who are yet to be convicted and which investigative and prosecutorial circumstances have been mired in melodrama. It is widely held view amongst the populace that his assassination would not be far from the events surrounding the last gubernatorial election in Edo state won by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole with whom Comrade Oyerinde worked closely with.
His presence and impact in the Adam’s government in Edo state may have propelled the evil minds to seek his elimination. I recall that during one of my visits to him with one of his contemporaries, Segun Mayegun, the late Olaitan said that in the course of my political participating in partisan politics, I am going to encounter criticisms from people, which will be their nature and it will appear that the scholarship and scientific approach to the problems of life is futile and that what is sound and good in theory is not always sound and good in practice.
He told me with all the emphasis at his disposal, that if a theory is sound, it will be good in practice except if the theory is in error or the application of the theory is faulty. We would therefore conclude that the comrade was murdered because of his service to Edo people, the Nigerian people and much more, the Labour movement.
We raise a memorial to this great comrade, an epitaph to a man who changed the lives and circumstances that he encountered throughout his short stay on this mother earth. The students’ union movement would never forget his tenacity and determination that saw him joining hands with others to confront the anti -democratic forces of the military regime. The early days of the Civil Society movement would also not forget his doggedness in the trenches as we battled the forces of oppression that hitherto held Nigerian people down. Most importantly, the workers of Nigeria and her peoples would not forget the vitriolic pen dripping with scorn as he tore apart the philosophies driving the ideas of neo-liberalism neither would it forget his strategic presence in the road actions and the picket lines. We have all missed him this past one year and the civil society movement in Nigeria is yet to find a fitting replacement to fill the vacuum that his cruel murder created. The people of Edo state, the people of Osun State and indeed Nigerians still mourn his passing. I mourn his exit and sometimes still look forward to his strategic pieces of advice as we march through the maze of life.
Those who chose to perpetrate this heinous and wicked crime against Nigerians and the movement also chose the hallowed period in which the movement remembers her fallen and living heroes. They chose this period I am sure to mock and deride perhaps desecrate the month of May but even in death, Oyerinde will cause a change in the way the security agencies handle their operations in Nigeria. Instead of desecrating this month, his death has gone to strengthen the resolve of Nigerians and the Civil Society movement to gird their loins, dig deep and confront all contrary and retrogressive forces in the society. His blood that was spilled has gone to water the three of liberty, adding zest to the resolve of the progressive elements within the country to continue the quest for total emancipation of the nation from the hands of the brutal cabal holding Nigeria captive.
Even as we mark this period and month with Nigerian workers, we chose to remember the fallen hero – Olaitan Oyerinde, a true hero of the labour movement. The martyred Olaitan has become a sacrifice for the liberation of the peoples of this nation. I therefore call upon every progressive element in Nigeria to gather around the principles that he espoused while he was alive so that this sacrifice would not be in vain.
As we remember this one year of his departure, we call on the relevant authorities and agencies of government to rise to the occasion and bring the real culprits behind his assassination to justice. The present confusion between the State Security Service (SSS) and the Nigerian Police which albeit has been resolved brings more pains to our hearts. We want to see a speedy trial of the suspects and further politicising of his murder should stop as this raises serious suspicions in our hearts as to the real powers behind this murderous gang.It is also important that we call upon fellow comrades to remember the family which Olaitan left behind. His children must be our children, while his wife and aged parents must remain our responsibility. This is part of the duty which we all owe this great son of Nigeria who was mowed down by the wicked ones in his prime and who has made tremendous and profound contributions to the development of progressive discourse in Nigeria. His philosophies and ideals including his pursuit of egalitarianism must not be allowed to die. The banner which he had lifted up should not be allowed to be brought down again.
This is the least we can do for him and his family. We should not allow his family to suffer the way others have suffered because we forgot our own who fell in the battle to make Nigeria a better society.
Olaitan my brother! Olaitan my friend! Olaitan my comrade!!! You have gone to be with God but I know that if people can fight from the grave, you will continue fighting oppression and impunity without relenting. This gives some of us hope and the courage to continue pressing forward. We mourn you and we miss you dearly.
The souls of the sponsors of this crime will never rest until they are brought swiftly to justice. Your death will not be in vain. I salute a worthy comrade! I salute a great soldier!! I salute a peoples’ general!!!
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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.
Source: PM News
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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
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
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.
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
Nigeria records 55 new COVID-19 infections, total now 165,110
Military, Police Ring Abuja to Forestall Boko Haram Attack
UFC: Usman gets N584m after beating Masvidal
Insecurity: Lagos bans occupation of abandoned buildings
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