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Sowore Vs Doyin Okupe On Al Jazeera TV

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By Joe Igbokwe

The other day I watched Al Jazeera Television where Omoyele Sowore, of Sahara Reporters, our own Professor Wole Soyinka and Dr Doyin Okupe, Senior Special Assistant on Media to President Goodluck Jonathan spoke on Nigeria’s political crisis and Boko Haram insurgence. The programme was anchored by Femi Oke of Al Jazeera Network International. Each and every one of the discussants gave accounts of themselves on the best way to move Nigeria in these troubled times. All of them agreed that this is not the best of times for Nigeria.

While Omoyele Sowore of Sahara Reporters talked about corruption in almost every strata of government that tends to be a cog in the wheel of progress, Professor Wole Soyinka spoke about International Network of Terrorists that empower their Nigerian counterparts. Dr Doyin Okupe spoke on how government has been coping with the problem facing Nigeria , the amnesty programme and others.

However, in the heat of the debate Doyin Okupe threw mud into what is supposed to be decent international discussion, when he started calling Omoyele Sowore names. He came short of calling Sowore an enemy of Nigeria who collects money from enemies of Nigeria to pull down Nigeria. At a point he asked Sowore to shut up. Doyin Okupe was not disposed to debating the issue of corruption and waste in Nigeria. True to the tag he had been bearing since he was recruited to go after the real and perceived enemies of the Jonathan government, Doyin Okupe behaved like a typical attack dog. I know that Sowore merely respected his age in not giving him back the measure he gave. I give kudos to Sowore for exercising utmost restraint as well as pointedly telling Okupe his rich history of corruption which made Okupe to fly off.

Now, the unrepentant Jonathan government attack dog called Dr Doyin Okupe must be educated a little about this patriot and conscience of Nigeria called Comrade Omoyele Sowore. Omoyele Sowore hails from Ondo State, Nigeria. He is a former student union leader at the University of Lagos from October 1992 to March 1994. Sowore used that platform to fight cultism to a standstill at Unilag. Since he left Unilag, Sowore has been an activist and a patriot who wants the best for Nigeria. This drive for a better Nigeria led to the founding of Sahara Reporters, an online news site. The site has steadily built its reputation and credibility to become Nigeria’s most authoritative news site. It has become a real threat to corrupt and irresponsible leaders who watch in frustration as Nigerians depend on the news site for credible information on the sordid happenings in government. The site has international credibility and Sowore has become a toast to international news agencies who source credible information on Nigeria.

Today Dr Okupe may not know this: Sowore’s Sahara Reporters has done monumental job for Nigeria which all the Ministers, all the Special Advisers and Assistants, all the Senators, all the House of Reps members, all the Permanent Secretaries, and Directors-General, etc could not do in Abuja. Sowore through Sahara Reporters has given a voice to the voiceless, he has given voice to Nigerians in diaspora, he has given voice to the oppressed and the dispossessed. Sowore’s Sahara Reporters has fought Nigeria ’s corrupt elites to a standstill, fought election riggers and dealt a deadly blow to enemies of Nigeria. Former Governor Ohakim of Imo State will never forgive this erudite news platform for the way it gave voice to Imo people to defend their mandate they gave Rochas Okorocha in 2011. Other former governors and serving governors would have been cursing the day Sowore was born. Unconscionable and shameless looters of Nigeria will never forgive Sowore for pricking their consciences. In their offices, bedrooms, toilets, bathrooms, hideouts, drinking joints, hotels etc, Sahara Reporters has been a torn in their flesh, speaking truth to power. The man Sowore does this thankless job without soiling his hands. Corrupt Nigerians have tried to buy him up thinking that he has a price tag on his neck but they have failed woefully. The mandarins in power dread Sowore and Sahara Reporters like cancer and will never rest each day without checking what the site talks about them. They have spent huge sums trying to discredit the site to no avail. Today, they live in frustration as their enablers crack their heads on the best possible ways to meet the challenge of Sahara Reporters.

Once Sowore makes up his mind on anything, only God will stop him. He collects no dime from anybody, he works for nobody, he takes instructions from nobody. He acts according to the dictates of his conscience. He is a special breed of a patriot who works hours on end for Nigeria to be reclaimed from fraudsters. Together with few others in online publications, the task and the big picture is how to make Nigeria a better place and they have done well for themselves and Nigerians. Nigeria will never be the same again.

Dr Doyin Okupe is judging Omoyele Sowore by his own standards. No, it can never be. Doyin Okupe is part of the problem in Nigeria and not part of the solution. We know his antecedents very well and as long as these kinds of people remain in the corridors of power there is little hope for this country. Doyin Okupe is among the wasted genre of Nigerians and he and his masters live in perpetual dread of Sowore and his Sahara Reporters. They know that so long as Sowore and Sahara Reporters live, they will have a horrible time with what they do with governance and we must thank God for that. I am of the sincere opinion that Nigerians owe Sowore and Sahara Reporters a debt of eternal gratitude for we may not fathom what Nigeria would have been without this great site.

•Igbokwe wrote from Lagos.

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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.

Source: PM News

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Nigeria News

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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Nigeria News

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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