Niger Gov Flies Abroad After Abduction Of School Children

Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger State flew out of the country hours after an unspecified number of children were abducted from an Islammiya School in the state.

Daily Trust had reported how bandits abducted the students during the weekend.

The whereabouts of the victims have been unknown as the bandits have not contacted their family.

In a statement on Monday, Mary Noel-Berje, Chief Press Secretary to Bello, said the governor had issued a directive for the release of the victims from his base overseas.

She said he left the country on a security mission.

“He has, however, given directives to the security operatives and state government officials to do all they can towards ensuring the safe return of the abducted Tegina Islamiyya children and others.

“The Governor, who is expected back in the country within the shortest period of time, has assured the rescue and safe return of the children,” she said.

While assuring the parents of the abducted children of their safe return, the governor urged citizens to cooperate and share intelligence that will help in the quick rescue of the children.

Bello also directed that a situation room be reactivated to update the public.
Source – Daily Trust

Tarzan Actor And His Diet Guru Wife Gwen Among Seven Dead In Tennessee Plane Crash

Tarzan actor Joe Lara and his Christian diet guru wife Gwen are among seven people presumed killed after a small plane crashed into a Tennessee lake.

Mr Lara, 58, was best known for playing the heroic character raised by gorillas in the 1990s TV series Tarzan: The Epic Adventures.

His wife, 66-year-old Gwen Shamblin Lara, founded the Remnant Fellowship Church in 1999 and Christian weightloss programme The Weigh Down Workshop.

The others on board include her fellow church leaders Brandon Hannah, David and Jennifer Martin, and Jessica and Jonathan Walters, all of Brentwood, Tennessee.

All those on board are believed to have died when the Cessna C501 jet plunged into Percy Priest Lake near Smyrna on Saturday morning. It crashed after taking off from nearby Smyrna Rutherford County Airport en route to Palm Beach International Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Remnant Fellowship Church paid tribute to Mrs Lara, calling her a “kind, gentle, and selfless mother and wife, and a loyal, caring, supportive best friend to all” who “has a place in millions of people’s hearts around the world”.

“Her wonderful and supportive husband, Joe Lara, will also be greatly missed,” the statement read. “The other passengers who perished in the crash were Remnant Fellowship leaders who were very involved in the community and loved by many.”

Mrs Lara and her church have faced controversy, with some describing it as a cult. In 1998, she told CNN’s Larry King that she believed God had led her to become a dietitian.
Source – inews

Lagos State Raises Alarm, Claims 119 Passengers From High-Risk Countries Refuse Isolation

There is fire on the mountain if the words of the Lagos state commissioner for health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, is to be believed.

According to the state commissioner, about 119 passengers from high-risk countries have refused to be isolated after coming back into the country, he wrote on Twitter.

Prof. Abayomi who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, May 29, also appealed to the families of those who refused to be isolated to return them for testing.

Going further, he threatened that the government will use its power to deal with absconders.
Source – Legit

Uzodimma: Gulak’s Murder Appears To Be Political Assassination

Hope Uzodimma, governor of Imo state, says the killing of Ahmed Gulak, a former aide of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, seems to be politically-motivated.

Gulak was murdered in Owerri, Imo capital, on Sunday while on his way to the airport.

The police said members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) were behind the murder and some of them have been killed.

Speaking at a media briefing on Monday, Uzodimma said murder is “not in our character as Ibos”, adding that “Imo people are very hospitable.”

The governor also commended the police for the progress they have made in the investigation into the murder of the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain.

“I was shocked to my marrows when the sad news of his callous murder was broken to me. I was getting ready to go to church when the sad news came and I could not attend the service again. It was simply one of the most devastating news I have had in my life and I am yet to recover from the shock,” he said.

“Alhaji Ahmed Gulak was in Imo State for a national assignment. He came to Owerri with the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendment. Being a humble man, he chose to travel incognito according to his friend who was with him.

“Someone must have trailed him from the hotel to the airport. That is exactly why his gruesome murder appears to be a clear case of political assassination.

“According to reports by the police, he was shot in cold blood and the assailants did not remove a pin from him. It is most benumbing that people chose to waste such innocent blood in such a dastardly and cowardly manner.

“Let me make it very clear that everything will be done by security agencies to find those who murdered Gulak and their sponsors. They will not by the grace of God escape their deserved punishment.

“This is not in our character as Ibos, not in our tradition nor in our culture. We must condemn this callous act.”
Source – The Cable

Attempt To Remove Buhari Without Constitutional Means Is Treasonable – Keyamo

Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, on Monday, cautioned aggrieved Nigerians not to throw the country into anarchy.
According to him, it is a treasonable offence to remove a democratically-elected government through any means other than the ballot box or constitutional means.

This comes after former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, was allegedly shot at a rally with some associates at the Unity Fountain in Abuja, on Monday.

The PUNCH reported that the publisher of SaharaReporters was injured by a tear gas canister fired by a police operative in Abuja.

Reacting to the incident, Keyamo noted that the lawful way to change the present government is to vote them out in the next election.

He argued that anything short of that is treasonable and no reasonable government will tolerate such an attempt.
Source – Wuzup Nigeria

Security Agencies Labeling, Arresting Innocent Youths As IPOB/ESN Members – Intersociety Raises Alarm

Security agencies have been called out for allegedly arresting and labeling innocent Igbo youths as members of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

According to DailyPost, the human rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) made the allegation on Monday.

In a statement signed by its Board of Trustees Chairman, Mr Emeka Umeagbalasi, the indiscriminate arrest, torture and even extrajudicial killing is not only limited to Monday’s sit-at-home protest but has been on since the beginning of this year, just as it listed some names of victims of arrest and detention.

“We have received over 100 phone calls and messages from members of the public testifying in favour of the abducted and slain citizens named above.

“Intersociety hereby calls on the Nigeria Police Force and Nigerian Army to immediately and unconditionally release all the citizens named above and desist from perpetration and perpetuation of such dastardly acts including frame-ups and trumped-up allegations or charges, spilling of innocent blood as a mark of gallantry, abductions and disappearances, extrajudicial killings and other forms of genocidal operations going on in the East.”

The group titled the statement: Graphic Details of how soldiers, Police, others in the East hatefully/falsely label & abduct innocent citizens and spill their blood for gallantry.

“These have led to not less than 170 open killings, secret abduction and permanent disappearance or feared unlawful execution in the custody of no fewer than 550 and general arrest/abduction of not less than 2100.

“The arrested/abducted are presently held in different open and secret dungeons located within and outside the East and among those outside the East are Makurdi Prisons in Benue State where over 300 were recently found to have been transferred and kept.

“Others are conventional and unconventional military, police and SSS detention facilities in Abuja, Niger State and other undisclosed locations in the North. They are also in Owerri, Awka, Port Harcourt and Abakiliki State CIDs and Prison or Correctional facilities such as Owerri Prisons holding over 130 including 107 remanded days ago.

“Shockingly, in the past one week or Monday 24th to Sunday 30th May 2021, not less than 30 open and secret killings by soldiers and police have taken place with most taking place in Imo State where scores of corpses have been freshly traced to the mortuaries of the Government Medical Centers,” the statement read.
Source – Tori NG

Oshiomhole Bows To Obaseki, Says ‘Our Differences Unfortunate’

Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has congratulated Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, over his victory at the Supreme Court, describing their differences as unfortunate.

Obaseki who succeeded Oshiomhole as governor of Edo State, was disqualified from contesting the governorship primary of the APC, under the watch of Oshiomhole as national chairman of the party.

Obaseki, however, defected to the PDP, where he secured the party’s ticket and eventually won the September 19 governorship election.

The APC and one of its chieftains, Williams Edobor, later engaged Obaseki in a protracted lawsuit, over alleged certificate forgery.

The Supreme Court, however, declared Obaseki winner of the poll, noting that the appellants failed to prove that the governor forged his University of Ibadan degree certificate.

In the congratulatory letter he personally signed on Monday, the former Edo State Governor said he had put all that transpired between him and his estranged political godson, behind him, describing their differences as “unfortunate”.

He said: “Congratulations on your victory at the Supreme Court, which has effectively laid to rest all matters arising from the last election.

“As I had repeatedly reminded you during our several meetings, our relationship has through the years developed beyond being friends to being brothers of different parents.
Source – PM News