Friends bag 10-year jail term over kidnap of businessman

From BAMIGBOLA GBOLAGUNTE, Osogbo
An Osun State High Court yesterday sentenced two friends, Fawole Abimbola and Peter Tominiyi to 10-year imprisonment for kidnapping an Osogbo-based businessman, Alhaji Rauf Olaiya and one Mrs Victoria Babatunde.
Olaiya, a famous businessman in Osogbo, Osun State capital, was kidnapped on March 20, 2011 in Osogbo, while Mrs Babatunde was kidnapped on August 6, 2011 at Inisha in Odo-Otin Local Government Area of the state.
The convicts, who were both friends, were said to have been involved in the kidnap of the two people and they had since 2011 been standing trial over the case, following their arrest and subsequent detention by the police.
The convicts had upon the kidnap of Olaiya received a ransom of N300 million from him, while they received a ransom of $500 from Mrs Babatunde.
Ruling on the case yesterday, Justice Oyejide Falola sentenced the two accused persons to 10 years imprisonment at the Federal Prison, Ilesa.

Bomb explosion kills 2 in Borno border town

From TIMOTHY OLANREWAJU, Maiduguri
A bomb explosion believed to have been carried out by Boko Haram on Friday occurred at Gwoza, a Nigerian border community, killing at least two persons while unspecified number of residents were injured.
The Emir of Gwoza, Alhaji Idrissa Shehu Timta while on a thank-you-visit to Governor Kashim Shettima at the Government House on Friday for his recent elevation as first class emir, said his coming to Maiduguri for the visit was delayed due to a bomb explosion that occurred in his domain, adding that the explosion killed some yet-to-be-ascertained number of residents.
“I would have come here but was asked by the security agents to wait for about an hour to clear the road because of the bomb explosion that occurred. I was strongly advised not to take any risk,” the First Class traditional ruler said.

Anti-public smoking law: Cigarette sellers cry out

The Lagos State House of Assembly recently passed a bill seeking to make smoking in public places illegal in the state, with first offenders having options of paying a fine of N10,000, three months in jail or both. The bill which is awaiting the approval of Gov. Fashola, in order for it to be signed into law, prohibits residents from smoking in places such as libraries, museum, public toilets, schools, hospital, day-care centres, public transportation, restaurants among others.
However, the bill has led to many controversies as there are many sides to this coin. A visit to a cigarette seller and local gin concoction seller popularly known as paraga reveals that the bill will have an adverse effect on her family.

2015 General Polls: APC is indivisible – Tinubu

By OLASUNKANMI AKONI
As the All Progressives Congress, APC, Lagos State chapter, began the process for the 2015 general elections, the  national leader of the party and former Governor of the state, Bola Tinubu, has declared that the party is indivisible, despite all efforts from different quarters to divide the party. He however, assured all members and intending members that the party would follow due process to the letter in the selection of candidates for various offices.
Tinubu, who gave the assurance while addressing members at a stakeholders’ meeting at the weekend, held at the state Secretariat of APC,  in Ikeja, urged all prospective and old members to register in accordance with the party’s constitution, saying that only registered members would get the party’s identity cards and be recognized as such.

2, 700 anti-aircraft bombs intercepted in Rivers

Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Mbu

The vessel identified as MV Iron Trader which was intercepted by the State Security Service on Thursday in Port Harcourt, was carrying 2,700 anti-aircraft and anti-tank bombs, Saturday PUNCH has learnt.

Security sources told our correspondent in Abuja on Friday that the bombs were concealed in a 20-foot container on the ship.

The container is being guarded by a combined team of SSS operatives, soldiers and policemen.

It was learnt that the cargo which originated from Turkey was brought into the country under the guise that they were building rods.

Nigeria’s oil sector was developed with money from the North –Ango Abdullahi

Prof. Ango Abdullahi

In this interview with JOHN ALECHENU, the spokesperson for the Northern Elders Forum, Professor Ango Abdullahi, speaks about the Almajiri phenomenon, Boko Haram insurgency, and the 2015 elections among other issues

The way you talk about the North, some people tend to see you as someone who hates the rest of the country…

This is certainly an unfair assessment. If you look at my pedigree and my background, I come from Zaria; I went to a mixed school. Virtually all my classmates in elementary school and senior primary school came from the southern part of the country. They were non-Hausa, non-Fulani and we remained together, we went to school and finished together and this continued throughout to my secondary education in Barewa College. And you know, Barewa College was a mixture of people from all the Northern provinces and a few from the southern part of the country. I went to the Nigerian College of Arts, Sciences and Technology, Zaria. Nigerian College as the name implies, brings in all Nigerians irrespective of tribe and geographical location. I did not study at the Ahmadu Bello University, I went to the University College, Ibadan. The North in Ibadan was a minority. When I finished, I worked in an institution that was not only national but international, the Ahmadu Bello University, where I worked throughout my academic career. There is no way anyone can look at my background and say I dislike a Nigerian based on his tribe, or based on his religion, or where he comes from.

My present state of mind has to do with what we have suffered coming from where you least expect. If you look at the present position of the Northern Elders Forum, it was given birth to by the attitude of our brothers and sisters who, either within the North or from outside the North, seem to have acquired some virus of either dislike-I don’t want to use the word -hatred for a section of the country or a particular group within a section of the country and this is what is happening to us in this country. Unless we want to be dishonest about it, this is why my recent position is that yes, if you don’t think that Nigerians deserve peace in terms of co-existence and you think that some other way is to be employed, so be it. What about those people who talk in the same tone like I talk? Why are they not being accused of being sectional? All this recent turmoil about North and South was created by the South, not by the North. The position we have taken has nothing to do with it. Some of us have done far more for the unity of Nigeria than many who are professing to be nationalists now.

Gunmen kill family of seven in Kaduna

Kaduna State Governor, Mukhtar Yero

Gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen in a midnight raid on Thursday wiped out a family of seven at Manyi Akuru village, a suburb of Manchok town in Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

Manchok, a town about 200km south of Kaduna, the capital city of Kaduna State, has  witnessed some communal clashes in recent times.

The suspected Fulani herdsmen reportedly stormed Manchok around midnight.

Angry youths of Manchok later mobilised and attacked a Fulani settlement close to the town. But a detachment of army stationed around the area averted a reprisal.