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Five people have been slain in yet another attack by alleged herders on the Gwer West Local Government Area of Benue State.

Mamud Abubakar, a Superintendent of Police, the Naka Divisional Police Officer, and five other people were killed in separate incidents nearby around two weeks ago.

In the most recent attack, which took place on Thursday, the attackers reportedly attacked the Nagi Mbachohon council in the Gwer West at around 5 p.m., leaving five people dead and seven others injured.

An indigene, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “The herders invaded the Nagi community around 5pm yesterday (Thursday).

“They came in their numbers and shot at anything at sight; the attack lasted almost 30 minutes and they ran away. It was after the situation was calm that we saw five lifeless bodies on the ground: two women and three men.

“They also burnt down several houses, including the palace of the traditional ruler of the community.”

It was unsuccessful in trying to reach Catherine Anene, the state police public relations officer, to confirm the attack.

Lt. Col. Paul Hemba (ret. ), the governor’s security adviser, did, however, confirm the attack.

An unidentified student of the University of Cross River State, has been shot dead by gunmen at the Calabar campus of the school.

According to information, the shooters entered the school in a Toyota Sienna and immediately went to the area where the victim and his friends were.

A source said, “The incident took place right in front of me and my friends. We were strolling past the Faculty of Engineering when we saw some students sitting in a group and chatting and from nowhere, a Sienna drove towards them and one of the students stood up and ran. Some young men stepped out of the car and chased him.

“After they shot him from behind and he fell, they went close to confirm if he was dead before firing a final shot on his chest and went ahead to use his shirt to cover his face.”

The source further stated that the thugs stole his backpack, got into their car, and fled.

“We suspect one of those persons he was chatting with was providing the hoodlums information about where to locate him and when they came, he knew he was the person they were looking for, prompting him to take to his heels,” the source added.

The Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr Onen Onen, confirmed the incident, which happened on Thursday.

“A student was shot. The VC will issue a statement about it,” he said and declined further comment.

As of the time this story was filed, SP Irene Ugbo, the state police spokesperson, did not return calls.

The security personnel have been ordered by Zamfara State Governor Bello Matawalle to arrest anyone who refuses to recognize and accept old naira notes as lawful tender in the state.

The makeover of the money, according to Matawalle, was implemented at an inappropriate moment and with the wrong intentions during a ceremony at Government House Gusau on Friday to swear in the new High Court Judges and Special Advisers.

“Anyone who refuses to accept the old currency notes of N200, N500, and N1000 in the state should be arrested,” he consequently directed.

According to him, the old currency notes are still valid until the Supreme Court issues its decision in the lawsuit brought by the three northern governors of Kaduna, Kogi, and Zamfara states against the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Government.

The governor added that he, along with his counterparts in Kogi and Kaduna, is asking the Supreme Court to rule that the old naira notes can continue to be used.

Matawalle said, “As you are all aware, the economy of the country as a whole has been plunged into a serious crisis by the decision of the Central Bank to cease recognition of the old naira notes as legal tender from February 10.

He added, “This decision compounded the already dire situation of our state occasioned by banditry and sundry crimes, which significantly disrupted economic activities in the state and the subregion over the years.

“It was in consideration of the grave consequences of this disruptive policy which was not well thought out, that I took the decision to team up with the sister states of Kaduna and Kogi to seek the intervention of the Supreme Court to ensure that both the new and old naira notes remain as legal tender beyond February 10.

“Gladly, the Supreme Court has given an interim injunction barring the CBN from the enforcement of its plan of phasing out the old notes as legal tender from February 10, pending its final ruling on the matter on February 15.”

The temporary ban on gatherings and processions that the Kwara State Police Command imposed on the residents of the state four days ago has been removed.

The temporary police ban on protests and public processions, according to a press release signed and released by the command’s spokeswoman on Saturday, has contributed to upholding and promoting calm in the state.

“However, the command is fully ready to continue to discharge her constitutionally assigned duty of protecting the lives and property of citizens and residents alike.

“The state Commissioner of Police, CP Paul Odama, wishes to appreciate the good people of Kwara State for their determination to work with security agencies to deepen the peace and harmony the state is known for, regardless of the inconveniences attached to that,” the statement read.

Recall that on Wednesday, police issued a temporary ban on illegal gatherings, processions, and protests in order to analyze the state’s security situation.

It explained that an intelligence report indicated that hoodlums had plotted to hijack rallies and processions in the state to cause mayhem and disturb the current tranquility that the people of the state enjoy necessitated the ruling on the prohibition.

Lekan Adekanbi, the driver of the couple, Kehinde and Bukola Fatinoye, who was gruesomely murdered alongside their son, Oreoluwa Fatinoye, on Friday revealed that he masterminded the killing because the couple denied his request for a salary increment.

The couple and their son were killed in their residence located in Ibara GRA, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital on January 1.

Adekanbi, who is the prime suspect in the murder of the couple and their only surviving son, narrated how he carried out the murder with the help of two others.

He spoke to journalists when he and four others were paraded before journalists at the command’s headquarters in Eleweran, Abeokuta.

Adekanbi disclosed that he had planned to rob the couple after they refused to increase his salary and grant him a loan request but then decided to kill them.

Adekanbi, the couple’s driver since 2010, explained that he invited two others, Ahmed Odetola a.k.a ‘Akamo’, and Waheed Adeniyi a.k.a ‘Koffi’ to join him to rob the couple.

He said: “I took the step because the couple refused to increase my salary, and when I approached them for a loan to buy a motorcycle, they didn’t oblige.”

Explaining how the deadly act was carried out, Adekanbi noted that he and his two accomplices waited for the couple to come back from crossover service since he had access to the house.

They pounced on them immediately after they entered the house.

He added that they had access to the house despite an alsatian dog mounted at the gate because the dog is familiar with him being the person who constantly feeds it.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been asked by the Council of State to print more new Naira notes or recirculate the old notes.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, who briefed newsmen after the meeting on Friday in Abuja, said the decision was taken to ease the troubles Nigerians were going through.

The CBN redesigned the N200, N500, and N1,000 banknotes and gave January 31, 2023, as the deadline for the return of the old notes. But this was later shifted forward to February 10, 2023.

Many Nigerians have been unable to withdraw their funds through the various channels in the past weeks, sparking anger across the country.

To douse the tension, three state governments ran to the Supreme Court to compel the federal government from implementing the deadline.

An interim injunction was granted, and next Wednesday was fixed for the hearing of the case.

Today, President Muhammadu Buhari convened an emergency Council of State meeting in Abuja, which had former presidents and others in attendance.

The meeting started this morning and ended in the afternoon, after which Mr Malami addressed journalists on the outcome of the deliberations, noting that the federal government was advised to obey the Supreme Court order and await its decision next week on the deadline.

On January 29, 2023, the Governor of the CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, disclosed that the bank had mopped up about N1.9 trillion of the old notes and was expecting the return of about N900 billion.

A few days ago, the Governor of Kaduna State, Mr Nasir El-Rufai, who was at today’s meeting in Abuja, claimed that the central bank only printed about N300 billion of the redesigned currency notes, stressing that this was also part of the cash crunch in the country.

New data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has revealed that in January 2023, the total cashless transactions in Nigeria increased on a year-on-year basis by 45.41 per cent to N39.58 trillion.

The significant growth in the use of technology for the payment of goods and services in the country during the period under review may have been influenced by the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to limit the circulation of cash in the financial system.

After the Central Bank disclosed last October that it was redesigning the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes, it said it would reduce the amount of cash in circulation.

It first said individuals would only be allowed to withdraw N100,000 per week, while corporate organisations would be limited to N500,000 per week.

However, after a public outcry, it raised the weekly cash withdrawal limit for individuals to N500,000 and for corporates to N5 million weekly through various channels, over-the-country (OTC), Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and Point of Sale (POS).

In the latest data from the NIBSS, it was stated that POS transactions last month surged by 40.69 per cent to N807.16 billion from the N573.72 billion achieved in January 2022.

These transactions were tracked by the NIBSS through the Nigeria Instant Payment System (NIP) and POS terminals, and it was observed that the usage of electronic channels for transactions jumped by 45.50 per cent in the period under consideration to 638 million times from 438.48 million times.

At least 20,783 people have died from the earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria.

In Turkey, the death toll has risen to at least 17,406 with 70,347 others reported injured while the total number of deaths in Syria has climbed to at least 3,377 with 5,245 injured persons.

The World Health Organisation had predicted that up to 20,000 deaths may be recorded.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has conceded “shortcomings” after criticism of his government’s response to the massive earthquake.

The sprawling scale of the disaster that flattened thousands of buildings, trapping an unknown number of people, has swamped relief operations already hampered by freezing weather.

Survivors have been left to scramble for food and shelter – and in some cases watch helplessly as their relatives called for rescue, and eventually went silent under the debris.

She said, “My nephew, my sister-in-law, and my sister-in-law’s sister are in the ruins.

They are trapped under the ruins and there is no sign of life,” said Semire Coban, a kindergarten teacher, in Turkey’s Hatay.

“We can’t reach them. We are trying to talk to them, but they are not responding… We are waiting for help. It has been 48 hours now.”

Still, searchers kept pulling survivors from the debris three days after the 7.8 magnitude quake that is already one of the deadliest this century, even as the death toll continues to rise.

As criticism mounted online, Erdogan visited one of the hardest-hit spots, quake epicenter Kahramanmaras, and acknowledged problems in the response.

“Of course, there are shortcomings. The conditions are clear to see. It’s not possible to be ready for a disaster like this,” he said.

Twitter was also not working on Turkish mobile networks, according to AFP journalists and the NetBlocks web monitoring group.

The window for rescuers to find survivors is narrowing as the effort nears the 72-hour mark that disaster experts consider the most likely period to save lives.

Yet on Wednesday, rescuers pulled children from under a collapsed building in the hard-hit Turkish province of Hatay, where whole stretches of towns have been levelled.

“All of a sudden we heard voices and thanks to the excavator… immediately we heard the voices of three people at the same time.

“We are expecting more of them… the chances of getting people out of here alive are very high,” he added.

In Brussels, the EU is planning a donor conference in March to mobilize international aid for Syria and Turkey.

“We are now racing against the clock to save lives together. “No one should be left alone when a tragedy like this hits a people,” von der Leyen said
Due to the scale of the damage and the lack of help coming to certain areas, survivors said they felt alone in responding to the disaster.

“Even the buildings that haven’t collapsed were severely damaged. There are now more people under the rubble than those above it,” a resident named Hassan, who did not provide his full name, said in the rebel-held town of Jindayris.

“There are around 400-500 people trapped under each collapsed building, with only 10 people trying to pull them out. And there is no machinery,” he added.

The White Helmets, leading efforts to rescue people buried under rubble in rebel-held areas of Syria, have appealed for international help in their “race against time”.

They have been toiling since the quake to pull survivors out from under the debris of dozens of flattened buildings in northwestern areas of war-torn Syria that remain outside the government’s control.

A leading UN official called for the facilitation of aid access to rebel-held areas in the northwest, warning relief stocks will soon be depleted.

“Put politics aside and let us do our humanitarian work,” the UN’s resident Syria coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih told AFP in an interview.

The Turkey-Syria border is one of the world’s most active earthquake zones.

Monday’s quake was the largest Turkey has seen since 1939 when 33,000 people died in eastern Erzincan province.

In 1999, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake killed more than 17,000.

The Ogun State Police Command says it has arrested all the suspects involved in the gruesome murder of a couple, Kehinde and Bukola Fatinoye, and their only son, Oreoluwa Fatinoye.

The suspects were arrested 40 days after the couple and their son was killed in their residence in Ibara GRA, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, on January 1.

The police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the arrest of the suspects to journalists in Abeokuta today.

The assailants had reportedly trailed the couple from their church where they had gone to observe the crossover service.

After killing them, they set their corpses and the house ablaze.

The attackers also abducted their son, Oreoluwa, and their adopted son and later threw them into a river.

The decomposing corpse of Oreoluwa was discovered floating on the river, while the adopted son escaped with injuries.

A few days after the incident, the police arrested one Lekan Adekanbi, as the prime suspect in connection with the murder.

The adopted son, Felix who escaped had identified Adekanbi as one of the suspected killers when he was brought in by the police to identify the corpse of Oreoluwa by the river bank.

Adekanbi, who is said to be the driver of the couple, later escaped from police custody and was declared wanted by the police.

But, confirming the arrest of the suspects, Oyeyemi disclosed that three persons involved in the killing, including the prime suspect were in custody.

He said the suspects would be paraded before journalists tomorrow at the command’s headquarters in Eleweran, Abeokuta.

Kehinde worked with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), while his wife, Bukola, worked with the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB).

A Yaba College of Technology student who goes by the name Destiny is currently being treated in a hospital after allegedly drinking insecticide.

It was learned that the 18-year-old Marketing Department student was allegedly nabbed on Wednesday during the institution’s current second-semester examination for examination misconduct.

The student apparently fell into sadness, went to her dorm, and drank the insecticide after allegedly just getting her lover abandoned.

It was discovered that one of her hostel roommates ran out and called the police when they noticed her trying to drink the poison.

Because of the delicate nature of the situation, one of the students who wished to remain anonymous claimed, “She went to the exam room and was detained by the school invigilator for examination misconduct.

“She was already nursing heartbreak because of her boyfriend who recently broke up with her, but the invigilator was just doing his work and never knew what happened to her.

“It was as a result that she fell into depression and later went to her hostel where she took the substance. Her condition would have been fatal if not for her friend who called the attention of people who rushed her to the school medical facility.”

A staff member of the institution who craved not to be mentioned as he was not permitted to speak on the matter said the student may have been worried about the disciplinary action to be taken against her for her misconduct.

He said, “None of the teaching staff in her department knew that she had any relationship issues. It was after the incident that we got to know through the staff WhatsApp platform. The fact that she was jilted by her boyfriend and now caught in the examination hall for malpractice seemed too much for her to bear.

“The invigilators here are strict and when some of the students are caught, they try to reach out to other lecturers to intervene on their behalf. Some are lucky and some are not. The penalties for exam malpractices are stated behind their dockets and this may likely cause her to repeat the session. ”

To monitor the transition plan for 2023, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (ret. ), has given his approval for the establishment of a Presidential Transition Council.

Executive Order No. 14 of 2023 on the Facilitation and Management of Presidential Transitions was also signed by Buhari.

According to reports, the establishment of a legal framework that would permit a smooth transfer of power from one presidential administration to another is a fundamental component of the order.

The Secretary General of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, was chosen by the President to serve as the council’s leader, according to a statement released on Thursday by Willie Bassey, the office’s director of information.

The SGF will formally establish the council on February 14, 2023.

The head of the federation’s civil service, the federation’s solicitor general, and permanent secretaries from the interior, defense, finance, budget, and national planning, foreign affairs, information, and culture, federal capital territory administration, special duties, and intergovernmental affairs ministries are among the members of the committee, it has been learned.

Others include the Cabinet Affairs Office, General Services Office, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Economic and Political Affairs Office, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and State House.