Isreal Adeusi, the Olufon of Ifon in Ose local government area of Ondo state, has been shot dead.
Tee-Leo Ikoro, police public relations officer in Ondo, confirmed the tragic incident to TheCable on Thursday.
He said Adeusi was on his way from a meeting in Akure, the state capital, when he was attacked.
TheCable gathered that the monarch was returning from a meeting of the council of obas when the tragic incident occurred.
He was said to have been shot at Elegbeka, a few kilometers from Owo town, and later rushed to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Owo, where he died.
The news of the monarch’s death broke hours after report of an attack on a branch of a commercial bank in Ode-Irele, headquarters of Irele local government area of Ondo.
The gunmen invaded the bank, which is located along Akure-Ado Ekiti expressway, around 4:10pm and started shooting sporadically,
According to a witness, the robbery operation lasted for over 50 minutes without any interruption from security agents.
The source said one person was killed in the attack.
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he had pardoned Michael Flynn, the former security advisor whose lies about his Russian contacts spurred the troubling investigation into Trump campaign collusion with Moscow.
The pardon, which was expected, came in the final weeks of Trump’s presidency, two years of which was spent fighting the allegations that Trump had overseen and sought to cover up a dangerous scheme of cooperation with Russia.
It was the first of several possible pardons that analysts think Trump could extend to political aides and allies before he steps down on January 20.
Those could include former 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort, also convicted in the Russia collusion investigation, Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, former advisor Steve Bannon, and Roger Stone, whose prison sentence for lying and witness tampering the president already commuted.
‘Innocent Man’?
Thursday’s announcement helped Flynn avoid a potential prison sentence being weighed in a Washington federal court.
It also appeared to bring to a close the last case arising from special counsel Robert Mueller’s sprawling 2017-2019 investigation of the Trump campaign, which saw six campaign associates plead guilty or be convicted at trial.
“It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon,” Trump tweeted.
He wished the retired army lieutenant general a “truly fantastic Thanksgiving!” holiday.
In a broader statement, the White House said the pardon brings “an end the relentless, partisan pursuit of an innocent man.”
The statement said the investigation into Flynn was part of “a coordinated attempt to subvert the election of 2016” and to “undermine (Trump’s) administration at every turn.”
Secret Calls With Russians
Flynn was initially targeted in an FBI counterintelligence investigation over secret phone calls with the Russian ambassador to the United States in December 2016, after Trump’s election victory but before he took office.
In one key phone call Flynn sought to undermine the impact of sanctions and expulsions announced by then-president Barack Obama against Moscow for its interference in the 2016 election.
Coupled with Flynn having taken significant sums of money over the previous two years for appearances with Russian companies — including one in which he sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Moscow gala — US investigators were concerned that Trump’s top national security aide may be vulnerable to compromise.
He was forced to resign as Trump’s national security advisor in February 2017, less than four weeks into the administration.
Trump’s efforts to defend and protect Flynn led to the naming of an independent counsel, Robert Mueller, whose investigation into both collusion and obstruction of justice clouded the first half of Trump’s tenure in office.
In late 2017 Flynn reached a deal with investigators and pleaded guilty, twice, to lying to FBI agents, avoiding heftier charges tied to his allegedly illegal lobbying for Turkey.
But after Flynn’s trial exposed some missteps by the FBI and investigators, Trump and his supporters said it was evidence that the entire Mueller probe was politically tainted, Trump labelling it a “witch hunt.”
Just as he faced a light sentence of possibly weeks in jail, the former Pentagon intelligence chief did an about-face last year, seeking to withdraw his plea.
Then, in a bizarre series of events that raised charges of political interference, Attorney General Bill Barr, the Trump-picked head of the Justice Department, overrode his own prosecutors to try and drop the case entirely.
The federal judge in the case rejected that move, and the two sides continued to battle in court.
Democrats Outraged
Democrats expressed outrage at Flynn’s pardon.
“Trump has once again abused the pardon power to reward Michael Flynn, who chose loyalty to Trump over loyalty to his country,” said Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee which also investigated Russian collusion.
“Flynn lied to the FBI about his communications with the Russians — efforts which undermined US foreign policy after sanctions were imposed on Russia for interfering in our elections,” he said.
“A pardon by Trump does not erase that truth, no matter how Trump and his allies try to suggest otherwise.”
Sudan’s former Prime Minister and top opposition figure Sadiq al-Mahdi has died from a coronavirus infection, his party said.
The 84-year-old, Sudan’s last democratically elected prime minister, died on Thursday, said the moderate Islamist National Umma Party.
Mahdi was transferred to the United Arab Emirates for treatment three weeks ago after being hospitalised in Sudan and testing positive for Covid-19.
“We offer our condolences to the Sudanese people over his death,” the party said in a statement.
The government on Friday declared three days of national mourning for the former premier.
Sudan has recorded nearly 17,000 coronavirus cases including more than 1,200 deaths.
Mahdi was toppled in 1989 by now-ousted president Omar al-Bashir in an Islamist-backed military coup.
He was a staunch opposition figure during Bashir’s long rule and threw his weight behind a mass protest movement that eventually prompted the military to overthrow the president last year.
Since his ouster, Bashir has been jailed in Khartoum’s high-security Kober prison and was found guilty last December of corruption.
He is currently on trial in Khartoum for his role in the 1989 coup that brought him to power and the International Criminal Court (ICC) has charged him with alleged war crimes in the Darfur war that began in 2003.
If convicted, Bashir and his co-accused — including former top officials — could face the death penalty.
A four-year-old girl, Ugochi Nwosu Christian, who was born on February 12, 2016 in India and her parent, Tochukwu and Olivia Nwosu Christian, are among 40 Nigerians the Mandideep Police Station, Raisen District of the State of Mandya Pradesh filed First Information Respondent and a Look-Out Circular against, documents seen by SaharaReporters have showed.
Look-Out Circular is synonymous with the Interpol Red Alert.
This means none of the accused persons can leave India without being arrested at the airport or any of the country’s borders.
It was gathered that three of the accused individuals have already been arrested at various airports in India and are currently being held in jail without trial.
One of them, Steve Egbo from Edo State, who approached the Delhi Immigration office to get proper documents to visit his family in Nigeria, was sent to a deportation camp in South-West Delhi and later arrested on 6th of April 2019.
Egbo was shackled from New Delhi to Sub-jail in Goharganj Village, a remote area in Raising district in the state of Mandya Pradesh, and has been in detention for 19 months without trial.
Another accused on the list identified as Osahon, also from Edo State, was arrested on March 1, 2020 at Mumbai International Airport en-route Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.
He was sent to Andhery Police station in Mumbai before he was shackled from Mumbai to Sub-jail in Goharganj Village where he has been detained without trial.
The third accused currently in custody is one Osamuyimen Gaius Obasogie, who is from Edo State.
He was arrested at Indira Ghandi International Airport in New Delhi en-route Nigeria on 12th October 2020.
He was shackled by a team of Policemen from Koh-e-fiza Police Station to Bhopal in the state of Mandya Pradesh.
Obasogie, like others, is currently being held at central jail in Bhopal without trial.
Documents obtained from Goharganj Magistrate Court indicate that Egbo was denied bail on 12th of October 2019.
No reason was given for not granting him bail as the offence, which they have been accused of, is a bailable offence under the India I.P.C. Code.
His lawyer also petitioned the High Court of Mandya Pradesh twice for bail but his applications were dismissed by the presiding Judge, Justice Akhi Kumar Srivastava.
The reason given for denying the accused bail as stated in the court order says that “Other accused are absconding”.
Osahon, the second accused to be arrested also has his bail application dismissed by Goharganj Magistrate Court and the high court of Mandya Pradesh located in Jabalpur.
Court documents from the High Court of Mandya Pradesh, Jabalpur shows that Justice Ms Anguli Palo said she cannot grant him bail because Egbo had earlier been denied bail by Justice Srivastava.
According to one of the lawyers to the accused, Justice Srivastava who is the main judge in charge of the case stated that until all the forty accused are arrested, the case will not go on trial and none of them will be granted bail.
SaharaReporters gathered that all the accused are victims of a scam orchestrated by a fellow Nigerian simply identified as Stanley and an immigration officer at the immigration office in Bhopal, India and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan University in Bhopal.
The university is notorious for offering foreign and local students fake admission in exchange for money.
Information available online shows that in 2017 the “The Supreme Court of India cancelled admission of 150 medical students in the Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan University in Bhopal citing poor facilities and ordered a probe into allegations that the private institute used fake patients to get the Medical Council of India’s approval”.
Information obtained from some of the accused, who now live in constant fear in India because of the fear of being arrested as their names and passport details have been circulated to local police stations all over India that they are wanted by the Mandya Pradesh Police.
The university it was gathered approached Stanley in 2018 to help them get foreign students from Nigeria for their school.
Stanley approached these Nigerians who were already residing in New Delhi individually that he has connections to help them get admission in a college in Mandya Pradesh.
He also made the victims understand that he will help them get a student visa and a resident permit. Each of his victims made a payment of $1500 which excludes the actual school fees and registration fee of the university.
The $1500 was to cover the expenses of taking their passports to Nigeria and getting a genuine student visa from the India High Commission in Abuja on their passports and also obtaining resident permit in Bhopal that will help them live and school in India legally.
All the victims handed over their Nigeria passports to Stanley and $1500 each.
Mr Christian paid $4500, which was for himself, wife and little two years old Ugochi.
It was further learnt that Stanley took all the passports to a graphic designer in New-Delhi, designed India visas and stick them on the passports of the victims.
All the visas were actually issued by Stanley and not from any embassy.
Documents obtained from the charge-sheet shows that Mr Stanley also issued fake stamps on the passports of the victims.
With his connection at the immigration office in Bhopal and the embattled university, these Nigerians were made to visit the immigration office and were issued valid resident permits.
None of them knew the visas on their passports were fake because they actually got their resident permits from the immigration office by themselves.
“In actual sense, a resident permit cannot be issued on a fake visa. The immigration officer in charge is supposed to detect the fraud immediately. After the bobble bust, Stanley actually confessed to one of us that from the $1500, Rs 50,000/- was for his contact at the immigration office. Rs 50,000/- is around $750 and that Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan University in Bhopal was also aware of this,” one of them said.
After getting their resident permits most of these Nigerians relocated to Bhopal, paid their school fees Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan University and started school.
Documents and receipts obtained from the charge-sheet also showed that tens of thousands of dollars was paid by these Nigerians as school fees and registration fees.
But for the role of the immigration officer, most of these victims wouldn’t have fallen prey to this scam.
A verification document dated 15th November, 2018 which was sent by the High Commission of India in Abuja to the investigating officer Sub-inspector Pooja Patel as obtained from the charge-sheet of one of the accused showed that the visa numbers used by Stanley actually belongs to other individuals.
For example, visa number VJ9605772, which was written on the visa of one of the accused Peter Nkem is a single entry medical attendant visa issued to Khadijah Muhammad on 05/10/2017.
Also, the visa number VJ9605771 is another accused Mr Paul Iyere is an X-single entry visa issued to one Kabuwat Yayock in 2017.
Trouble started for these Nigerians in June 2018 when one of the students was about to travel to Nigeria with the visa and valid resident permit.
The Delhi Immigration discovered the irregularity at the airport and subsequently reported the anomaly to the immigration authority in Bhopal.
Investigation revealed that all the visas of the Nigerians were fake.
A case was registered against twenty six of them at Mandideep police station while Koh-e-fiza Police Station in Bhopal filed a case against 14 others.
They were all slapped with I.P.C. Passport (Entry in India) Act, 1920, The Foreigners Act, 1946//India penal code-420/467/468/471, Code of criminal procedure-439, passport(Entry to India)Act-12(1)A/(12).
Upon the discovery of this scam, the Mandya Pradesh Police immediately deported Stanley to Nigeria.
“The move to deport him to Nigeria was an act to cover up the involvement of the immigration officer in the crime. The immigration officer who was an enabler in this crime was not charged nor was any official from Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan University booked.
“Instead the police made the school to file a case against all the students that they came to seek admission in their institution of higher learning with fake visas. It was not stated in the case that any of the students was issued a resident permit.
“In similar circumstances, there are over one thousand Nigerians scattered all over several jails in India without trial. As we speak, there are over one hundred Nigerians in Delhi deportation camp. Some have spent over two years in Delhi deportation camp.
“These are Nigerians who willingly submitted themselves to the immigration office that they want to go home. Instead, they were sent to Delhi deportation camp. Sometime in June this year, some Nigerians protested in the deportation camp in New Delhi that they should be allowed to go home. “Upon investigation by the jail authority, 12 Nigerians who were deemed to be the leaders of the protest were arrested in November 2020 and sent to Tihar jail, New Delhi.
“Some of them that could afford the services of a lawyer have got advocates to get them out on bail while the majority have not been able to hire advocates. The advocates can only fight for their bail considering the fact that it takes an average of three to four years to finish any case in India. Once they are out on bail, they will be sent to back deportation camp until they finish their case.
“The federal government of Nigeria and the Nigeria embassy in New Delhi should engage the India authority to vacate the Look-Out Circular against four-year old Ugochi Adalia Nwosu Christian and others so that they can come home. Also, the India authority should allow the Nigerians that they have kept in deportation camp to go home,” one of the accused said.
Regretting the helplessness of state chief executives to draft security agents in time of strife, Taraba State Governor Darius Ishaku, has described the 1999 Constitution as “defective.” During a statewide tour of damaged structures and looted warehouses in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests yesterday, he partly blamed the development for the escalation of the demonstrations.
Deploring the inability of security operatives to contain the unrest and check the looting early in the day, Ishaku noted: “Our constitution is defective. It is true we copied the American constitution, but we copied it wrongly. It is wrong not to allow state governments to have control over security agencies in their states, especially the police.”
The governor, who also condemned the violence and pillaging of COVID-19 palliatives that followed the nationwide marches, pleaded with the Federal Government and humanitarian agencies to assist his state in fixing the vandalised properties and restoring the stolen goods.
Wondering why hoodlums took advantage of a peaceful protest to steal and destroy items worth hundreds of millions of naira, Ishaku pleaded that Taraba, being a state with poor resources, would “find it extremely difficult to replace the stolen items and rebuild damaged structures on its own.”
The governor, a strong advocate of community policing, said rather than wait for security agencies, especially the police to undergo the tedious journey of taking orders from their national headquarters during emergencies as was in the case under review, the situation could be better handled by state police.
Citing the United States where the initiative has been effective, Ishaku believes that it would also work perfectly in Nigeria when embraced.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked Senator Ishaku Abbo (Adamawa North) to vacate his seat in the Senate following his defection, yesterday, to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement said the lawmaker “should be aware of the provision of the Constitution which made it compulsory for any member of the National Assembly who defected to another party to immediately vacate his seat.”
According to him, the main opposition is not fazed by Abbo’s decision.
“Abbo is fully aware of the constitutional implication of his decision to defect to another party, which is that he cannot continue to occupy the seat of the PDP in the Senate,” he clarified.
The party said it would take immediate steps to ensure the senator does not remain in the upper legislative chamber.
“The place of any senator who changed parties except on the grounds provided by the constitution is very clear, and the PDP will not allow Senator Abbo to run away with our mandate. It is impossible,” Ologbondiyan added.
The spokesman explained that the party had “already commenced processes for Abbo’s replacement with a credible, stable and acceptable person to take over his seat in the Senate.”
However, the Adamawa legislator, while submitting his defection letter to Senate President Ahmad Lawan yesterday in Abuja, said his verdict was informed by the zeal to support what he called “unprecedented welfare programmes of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.”
He also claimed that his decampment was made inevitable by Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri’s alleged polarisation of the PDP in the North East state.
Abbo was recently convicted by an FCT High Court in Abuja and ordered to pay N50 million in a civil suit between him and Ms. Osimibibra Warmate for an assault on her in a sex toy shop last year.
In his remarks, Lawan described the senator’s defection as “a show of patriotism, a show of purpose and a show of unity for the development of Nigeria.”
He invited other PDP parliamentarians to join hands with the ruling party to build Nigeria
The correspondence, tagged “Movement of God’s People from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress, read in part: “I write to formally inform you Sir, the Senate and indeed Nigerians of my defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“This is as a result of the mismanagement of the PDP by Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri in Adamawa State which led to the polarisation of the party in the state (PDP and rPDP).
“Today (Yesterday) I join the APC and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, to build the Nigeria of our dream.”
Diego Maradona has died at the age of 60 after suffering a cardiac arrest, according to multiple reports.
The football legend had a heart attack at his home just two weeks after leaving hospital where he underwent surgery on a blot clot in his brain.
Maradona, regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, helped Argentina win the World Cup in 1986, the pinnacle of an illustrious career.
He played club football for Boca Juniors, Napoli and Barcelona among others and was adored by millions for his brilliant skills.
Maradona was responsible for the infamous ‘Hand of God’ that eliminated England from the 1986 tournament.
The Argentine news outlet Clarin broke the news on Wednesday afternoon UK time, describing the news of Maradona’s passing as having a ‘worldwide impact’.
Soon, tributes were pouring in from all over the world of football.
Maradona left hospital on November 11 just eight days after being admitted for emergency brain surgery.
The iconic former Argentinian footballer was driven away from the private Olivos Clinic just before 6pm on Wednesday as hundreds of fans of photographers tried to get a glimpse of him.
Maradona was hospitalised the previous week and had to have an emergency operation to remove a blood clot from his brain.
Argentinian TV reporters travelling on motorbikes filmed the ambulance carrying him leaving before following the vehicle to transmit every inch of his journey.
His lawyer, Matias Morlahas said that the 60-year-old would continue to receive treatment for alcohol dependency.
Maradona was expected to stay in a house near his older daughters.
Maradona, who won the World Cup with Argentina in 1986 and was the coach of Gimnasia y Esgrima in his home country, had been admitted to hospital on several occasions since his retirement. He almost died of cocaine-induced heart failure in 2000 and underwent years of rehabilitation.
Maradona, who was well known for having a wild lifestyle during and after his playing days, had a gastric bypass operation to lose weight in 2005 and was once more hospitalised two years later for alcohol-induced hepatitis.
He also fell ill at the last World Cup in Russia, where he was filmed passing out in an executive box when Argentina took on and beat Nigeria in Group D.
Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has given a clear hint that the country’s land borders may be reopened soon.
The borders that have been closed since August 2019.
But speaking to State House correspondents on Wednesday, Ahmed said the presidential committee set up on the matter has completed its job and has recommended its reopening.
She said the committee would soon submit its report to President Muhammadu Buhari, following which a formal pronouncement would be made on the matter.
Ahmed however did not reveal when the report will be submitted and how soon the land borders will be reopened.
Nigeria closed its land borders last year, in a bid to curtail illegal importation of drugs, small arms and agricultural products into the country from neighbouring West African nations.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has accused CNN of desperation over its second report on the Lekki toll plaza shootings that happened on October 20.
The Minister said this on NTA on Wednesday.
The PUNCH reports that CNN had on Tuesday released a second ‘investigative report’ on the shootings at Lekki toll plaza during the #EndSARS protests amid threats of sanction from the Federal Government.
But the minister faulted CNN’s reports, saying it lacked credible sources.
When asked about the second CNN’s report, Mohammed said, “It shows that they (CNN) are desperate. The so-called recent development has been seen before. There is nothing new. If there is anything new, it is a contradiction of CNN’s position.
“What we are asking CNN is that where is your evidence? The military has been consistent. CNN contravenes the basic principles of journalism – fairness, and balance.
‘They did the story without contacting the Federal Government for its own side. They relied on second and third parties narratives.
“They (CNN) were caught spreading fake news and they are trying to escape.
“We are accusing them (CNN) of basing their stories on videos sourced on social media. CNN has been inconsistent. It also doctored the video it got.
“We are confident in our position.”
On the letter addressed to Jonathan Hawkins, VP (Communications), CNN Centre, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, the minister said, “We have received an acknowledgment and we were told that the letter has been passed to the editorial team.”
CNN, in its second report titled, ‘Analysis of CCTV footage from Lekki toll gate raises new questions about shooting’, stated that it had obtained the video and subsequently analysed its content.
CNN also compared the CCTV footage with some of the videos on social media which the National Broadcasting Commission had sanctioned three local television stations for using and concluded that the authorities had more questions to answer.
The fresh report also shows the Commander, 81 Division, Brig.Gen Ahmed Taiwo, admitting before the judicial panel that his men indeed took live ammunition to the tollgate.
The CNN report also highlights the fact that Brig.Gen Taiwo’s claim is at variance with that of the minister who had claimed last week that the army fired blank bullets.
