News & Announcements

According to official media, Iran and Russia have finalized a deal for Iran to purchase Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets as their defense cooperation grows.

Sanctioned countries’ air force Iran’s aircraft fleet is aging, and it has had difficulty obtaining spare parts to keep its jets in the air.

After the Iran-Iraq war of 1980–88, Tehran claimed in a declaration to the UN that it approached “countries to buy fighter jets” to restock its fleet.

According to a statement published late Friday by the official IRNA news agency, “Russia stated it was ready to sell them” when UN Resolution 2231’s ban on Iran obtaining conventional weapons expires in October 2020.

“The Sukhoi 35 fighter jets were technically acceptable for Iran,” it added.

In the past year, Tehran and Moscow have developed close military and other cooperation.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of last year, Kiev has accused Tehran of providing Moscow with Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones used in attacks on civilian targets. The Islamic Republic denies this accusation.

The growing military cooperation between Iran and Russia has alarmed the United States. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby warned in December that Russia appeared likely to sell Iran its fighter jets.

According to Kirby, Sukhoi airplanes may be delivered to Tehran within the next year, which would “substantially enhance Iran’s air force relative to its neighboring neighbors” and allow Iranian pilots to train in Russia.

Iran presently possesses largely Soviet-era MiG and Sukhoi fighter jets from Russia as well as some F-7 aircraft from China.

Its fleet also includes American F-4 and F-5 fighter jets manufactured before the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

In 2019, a year after unilaterally exiting the Iran nuclear deal under then-president Donald Trump, the United States started reimposing sanctions on Iran.

In exchange for limitations on its shady nuclear program, Iran received reprieve from international sanctions under the 2015 agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.

Presenter Baba Bintin of the Ibadan-based private radio station Fresh FM Nigeria passed away on Saturday after collapsing on the way to the station for his broadcast.

On Saturday, the station revealed Baba Bintin’s passing during a radio broadcast.

Popular presenter, Mayor Isaac Brown, said on the radio station, “I’m finding it very difficult to believe this story that is breaking here.

“He (Baba Bintin) left his home like we all did this morning to come into this station to do our daily job and contribute our quota to national development; the job like we love to do, and I’m being told that the man just slumped this morning and he died while getting ready to come here.”

Komolafe Olaiya referred to Baba Bintin as “Boda Olu” and “Uncle” and he typically spoke in the Ijesha dialect. Baba Bintin was a comedic presenter on the Oyin Ado program on Saturdays on the Radio Station where he provided information on the markets.

According to information obtained, the radio station’s staff members discussed the presenter’s unusually late arrival in the studio on Saturday, but near the end of the broadcast, presenters announced that Baba Bintin had passed away while walking from Amuloko to Fresh FM in Challenge.

According to the report, he was attempting to locate a Point of Sale, POS agent to obtain some cash.

The driver of the Lagos State Government Staff bus who was blamed for the incident that led to a train colliding with a bus at the PWD/ Shogunle railway line, on the Agege motor road, Lagos  Thursday, has appealed to victims of the accident to forgive him.

While some survivors claimed that the 44-year-old driver, Oluwaseun Osinbajo, was using his earphone while driving and disobeyed the flag officers’ orders at the rail line, he instead assigned blame for the accident to a mechanical issue with the bus.

In addition, the Police stated that as of the time this report was being written, the results of the medical report, which included a blood sample to determine if the driver was using drugs or not, had not been released.

The driver was yesterday handed to the State Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Directorate, SCIID, from the Lagos State Ministry of Transport.

He was telling some of his waiting relatives something, which was overhead by the media.

He said, “ It was not my fault. How could I have ignored warning signs? The bus had a mechanical fault.

“ It is a pity this has happened. I beg everyone affected to please forgive me in the name of God.”

Jonathan Asake, a Labour Party (LP) candidate for governor of Kaduna State, had his campaign convoy ambushed by alleged thugs on Friday in Gidan Waya, Jema’a local government area.

Four youths were injured in the incident, two boys and two girls, who each suffered different wounds.

This was said in a statement that was released to newsmen in Kaduna on Friday and was signed by James Swam, Jonathan Asake’s media assistant.

According to the statement, the incident occurred when the campaign team was touring the local government as the campaign convoy was traveling through Gidan Waya on its route to Godogodo and other towns during Friday prayers.

The statement partly read, “After the first three vehicles in the convoy made their way through the old tyres used to demarcate the road, thugs started throwing stones, big sticks and other harmful objects at the long convoy.

“It took the timely intervention of the security personnel attached to the candidate to forestall a crisis.”

Sani Liti, the state party chairman, Muttaqa Rabe-Darma, and other top officials have all been fired by the Katsina State branch of the New Nigeria Peoples Party.

Nasiru Usman-Kankia, the NNPP’s director of media and publicity, revealed this when he briefed reporters on the party’s decision on Friday in Katsina, he claimed they were fired for anti-party activities, including Thursday’s endorsement of Dr. Dikko Radda for the All Progressives Congress.

“An emergency exco meeting comprising 19 out of 29 members was conveyed to discuss the immediate and remote causes of the illegal meeting.

“Facts have emerged that the illegal meeting was unconstitutionally convened without the consent of the state executive committee.

“It was also discovered that even when invitations were sent for the illegal meeting to state and local government exco members and ward chairmen, they were informed that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss and disburse funds for the settlement of polling unit agents and ward coordinators.

“However, at the illegal meeting, the APC gubernatorial candidate was ushered in and the NNPP state chairman, Liti, the party’s governorship running mate, Rabe-Darma, and other top executives introduced other members present as decampees to the APC.

“Almost immediately, the entire arena turned chaotic with shouts of NNPP slogans and chants of no, no, no, by the party’s loyalists,” Usman-Kankia narrated.

He claims that Dr. Radda, the APC candidate, instantly asserted that the topic of his conversations with the NNPP members was an alliance rather than a defection.

The NNPP spokesperson remembered that the organization had sent a warning to its candidates, leaders, and members on March 5 regarding the dangers of joining forces with other political parties.

“Accordingly, party officers, members and candidates at all levels are not authorised to discuss, negotiate or form any alliance with any political party for the purpose of winning the upcoming governorship and legislative polls.

“Anyone who endorses a candidate of another political party will be sanctioned in line with the NNPP Constitution, ranging from suspension to expulsion.

“Our emergency meeting considered and decided to expel the officials and members involved in the illegal forum, subject to the approval of the party’s national executive committee.

“They are state Chairman, Sani Liti; state Secretary, Umar Jibril; youth leader, Mustapha Basheer; Katsina zonal Chairman, Dauda Kurfi; Funtua Zonal Chairman, Abdulhadi Mai-Dawa; Daura zonal Chairman, Dr Sale Mashi; deputy governorship candidate, Rabe-Darma and Sen. Audu Yandoma,” according to Usman-Kankia.

The Federal Government has ordered the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau to conduct an immediate investigation into what caused the collision of Lagos State Government staff bus, carrying state employees, that was crushed by a train on Thursday in the Ikeja neighborhood of Lagos.

Senator Hadi Sirika, the aviation minister, published the order in a tweet under the name @hadisirika.

The minister sent his sympathies to all touched by the tragedy and prayed for those who were hurt to recover quickly.
Moreover, Sirika requested the general public to assist the NSIB investigating team.

He wrote, “My heart goes out to those who lost their lives in today’s train crash and those who got injured as well as the Government and people of Lagos.

“Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau experts have been directed to move quickly. We solicit public cooperation as the investigation commences.”

It had previously been reported that a moving train collided with a BRT bus at the PWD bus stop in the Ikeja neighborhood of Lagos State on Thursday morning, resulting in six fatalities and numerous injuries.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a former president of Liberia, has deleted a tweet expressing congratulations to Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president-elect.

Her March 6 tweet, in which she charged Tinubu to champion women leaders and protect the rights of women and girls, was taken down on Thursday.

The tweet originally read, “Congratulations to @OfficialABAT (Tinubu’s official Twitter handle) on his victory in #Nigeria, and to the Nigerian people for exercising their democratic right to vote. I encourage the new President to champion #WomenLeaders in his government and to ensure that the rights of women & girls remain a priority.”

The tweet was met with mixed reactions when Sirleaf first put it out, with some Nigerians thanking her for congratulating Tinubu and some faulting her for the move.

Arguably the most unpopular president-elect since 1999, Tinubu has been faulted by opponents and several Nigerians since his victory at the polls.

There is no official statement from Sirleaf’s camp on the deletion.

German police were investigating on Friday a shooting at a Jehovah’s Witnesses centre in Hamburg that killed several people, with the gunman believed to be among the dead.

Police have not given a death toll, but multiple local media outlets reported that the shooting on Thursday evening had left seven dead and eight seriously injured.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the “brutal act of violence” and said his thoughts were with the victims and their loved ones.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses in Germany association said it was “deeply saddened by the horrific attack on its members” after a religious service at the Kingdom Hall in Hamburg.

The first emergency calls were made around 2015 GMT after shots rang out at the building in the city’s northern district of Gross Borstel, a police spokesman at the scene said.

Police tweeted that “several people were seriously injured, some even fatally” in the incident.

“At the moment there is no reliable information on the motive of the crime,” police said, urging people not to speculate.

An alarm for “extreme danger” in the area was sounded using a catastrophe warning app, but Germany’s Federal Office for Civil Protection lifted it shortly after 3:00 am local time.

Hamburg police tweeted early Friday: “The police measures in the surrounding area are gradually being discontinued. Investigations into the background of the crime are continuing.”

The port city’s mayor, Peter Tschentscher, expressed shock at the shooting on Twitter.

Hamburg police are due to hold a press conference at midday.

They have asked witnesses to come forward and upload any pictures or videos they may have to a special website.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said investigators were “working flat-out to determine the background” to the attack.

– Bible study group –

The attack took place at the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall building, a nondescript, three-story building where members had gathered for a religious service.

There are about 175,000 people in Germany, including 3,800 in Hamburg, who are Jehovah’s Witnesses, a US Christian movement set up in the late 19th century that preaches non-violence and is known for door-to-door evangelism.

The first officers at the scene found several lifeless bodies and seriously wounded people, police said.

Hamburger Abendblatt reported that 17 unhurt people, who had been at the event, were being attended to by the fire brigade.

Officers heard a shot in the “upper part of the building” before finding a body in the area where it rang out, police said.

“We have no indications of a perpetrator on the run,” said a police spokesman.

The spokesman added that the person uncovered in the upper part of the building was “possibly” the attacker.

In a tweet early on Friday, Hamburg police also said they assumed the body found belonged to the perpetrator.

– Hit by attacks –

Germany has been rocked by several attacks in recent years, both by jihadists and far-right extremists.

Among the deadliest committed by Islamist extremists was a truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 that killed 12 people.

The Tunisian attacker, a failed asylum seeker, was a supporter of the Islamic State jihadist group.

Europe’s most populous nation remains a target for jihadist groups in particular because of its participation in the anti-Islamic State coalition in Iraq and Syria.

Between 2013 and 2021, the number of Islamists considered dangerous in the country had multiplied by five to 615, according to interior ministry data.

But Germany has also been hit by several far-right assaults in recent years, sparking accusations that the government was not doing enough to stamp out neo-Nazi violence.

In February 2020, a far-right extremist shot dead 10 people and wounded five others in the central German city of Hanau.

And in 2019, two people were killed after a neo-Nazi tried to storm a synagogue in Halle on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, has said that 32 patients have been discharged, following Thursday’s collision of a train and a staff bus in the Ikeja area of the state.

Abayomi, who addressed journalists at a press conference at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) on Friday, said a total of 102 casualties were recorded.

According to him, the number of fatalities still stands at six, while 19 victims have been discharged from LASUTH, five from the State Accident and Emergency Centre at Old Toll Gate, and eight from Orile-Agege General Hospital.

He added that 256 units of voluntary blood were received on Thursday from Lagos State residents, while 40 units of blood had been transferred for the victims today.

“It is important to note that from about 12 o’clock yesterday till now, we have not lost any other passenger from this accident. So, the act of triage was very important in saving lives and reducing the casualty of this ghastly accident.

“At the same time, there are very few hospitals in the world that can cope with a sudden surge of very critically injured patients, so the triage process also identifies some of the injured passengers that can be transferred to other established general hospitals in Lagos,” the commissioner said.

Abayomi said that “25 of the less severely injured were transferred to four of our general hospitals; Gbagada General Hospital, Lagos Island General Hospital, the Toll Gate Accident and Emergency Centre, and the Orile Agege General Hospital.

“I went to visit them after I left LASUTH, and all of them are stable and doing fine. Some of them will indeed be discharged later on today,” he added.

A former Nigerian Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, has told a court in London that he was advised by his doctor against seeking a kidney donor from among his family members.

Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice, are currently facing charges in the United Kingdom after they allegedly lured a young man from Nigeria to harvest his organ for their ailing daughter, Sonia, who is also standing trial.

The lawmaker was last year arrested and had been in the custody of UK authorities after they received complaints from the young man about their alleged plans to harvest his organ.

According to Daily Mail, the young man, a trader from Lagos, was to be rewarded for donating a kidney to Sonia in an £80,000 private procedure at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

The Ekweremadus, however, decided to turn their interest to Turkey in search of the needed organ after the 21-year-old was rejected as unsuitable.

While cross-examining the lawmaker, Prosecutor Hugh Davies KC said, “On the question of whether a family member could, in principle, act as a donor, you decided that was not possible based on a reported conversation between your non-nephrologist brother and Dr Obeta, a non-nephrologist?”

In response, Ekweremadu said, “He would have had basic knowledge. I’m not a doctor, so if he says so, I believe him.”

But Davies said, “All you had to do, rather than rely on a second-hand account from non-nephrologists, was to ask one of the specialists you were consulting whether a family member could donate a kidney.”

Ekweremadu, however, suggested he had “limited intelligence,” a claim that was rejected by the prosecutor, who said, “It is incredible. You do not lack intelligence.”

Davies continued, “The fact is you did not even try to ask Sonia’s cousins, for example, to consider acting as a donor.

“What you are saying is you had no intention of anyone in your family – immediate or extended – stepping up to donate a kidney to Sonia.

“Far better to buy one and let the medical risk go to someone you don’t know.”

Responding, Ekweremadu said it was “not true” that he agreed to get a donor by going through agents for the task.

Davies responded, “The pattern of communication reflects none of the types of human communication and contact you would expect if you and your family had believed that (the proposed donor) was a good Samaritan.”

Ekweremadu repeated, “Not true.”

Davies asserted, “The transplant with (the donor), not having gone ahead, you and your family then immediately sought to recruit further donors for reward, transferring jurisdiction out of the UK to Turkey.

“That failed too because even that donor had not been trained properly to give the false answers when interviewed.”

The defendant dismissed the prosecutor’s claims, saying, “These are not the facts.”

Davies continued, “You did not move away from the Royal Free clinical team because they lacked expertise.

“When another donor was required you immediately sought to transfer the clinical process to Turkey.”

On why the Ekweremadus had been prepared to leave an “internationally recognised centre of excellence” in London for an unknown quantity in Turkey, the lawmaker replied Davies, saying treatment in Turkey was “cheaper”.

Mr Davies responded, “You were looking to cut corners on your daughter’s clinical outcome to save money? You were a wealthy man, senator.”

According to Daily Mail, the defendant, who owns dozens of properties in Nigeria and Dubai, and sent his children to be privately educated, denied being a wealthy man.

Davies said, “That’s not true. Think of the number of properties you own.”

Meanwhile, Ekweremadu remains in custody while the trial of his family and a medical “middleman”, Dr Obinna Obeta, at the Old Bailey continues.