A Channels TV Reporter in Benue State, Pius Angbo, has been accused of beating his wife, Ifeanyinwa Angbo, following a disagreement between the couple.
In a video obtained by SaharaReporters on Sunday night, Ifeanyinwa was seen with bruises and injuries on her cheeks as a result of the battering by his husband.
She revealed that she had never known peace in six years of her marriage, adding that she gave birth to a baby through cesarean section four weeks ago.
She said her husband assaulted her after she advised him to desist from spending recklessly on other women and save the money to take care of his children.
“He tried to strangle me when I was three months pregnant,” she said. “Calling him out, he works with Channels TV and his name is Pius Iroja Angbo from Benue state.”
It was gathered that Ifeanyinwa is a medical doctor in Owerri Imo State.
While reacting to the incident, Channels TV said on Twitter that it had commenced an investigation into the matter and assured that appropriate action would be taken.
“Channel TV does not condone violence against women or anyone in general. The domestic violence matter reported against one of our reporters is being investigated and appropriate action would be taken,” the station tweeted.
Channels Television does not condone violence against women or anyone in general.
The domestic violence matter reported against one of our reporters is being investigated and appropriate action will be taken.
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Kayode Fayemi, has urged the service chiefs in the country to recommend their successors to President Muhammadu Buhari.
The recent horrific killing of at least 43 rice farmers at Zabarmari in the Jere Local Government Area of Borno State had sparked fresh calls for the sacking of the country’s service chiefs by the President.
However, Fayemi said it is not about the sacking of the service chiefs but it is about “transitioning them out of their current responsibilities into retirement”.
The Ekiti State governor spoke on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme monitored by The PUNCH.
He said, “The service chiefs have served the country well, they’ve given their best and they’ve been committed. I know them personally and I know how well they are committed to ensuring that we get rid of this insurgency. Still, the point I am making is that if you have done something, the same thing for five years, and you have even gone beyond your retirement age, of course, once you are a service chief, you may argue that there is no retirement age. Still, the military has protocols, the military has processes and from time to time, one of the real considerations is a renewal of the leadership.
“My approach is for Mr President to ask them in their role as service chiefs who understand the military very well, who know their men very well, even to be the ones to suggest some of the best men that may step into their shoes.
“It’s not about sacking them; it’s about transitioning them out of their current responsibilities into retirement. A part of me even feels that there may be some of them that would instead exit now but they wouldn’t want to be seen as jumping ship if Mr President has not directed them but I am not the president of Nigeria and the president has within his rights to determine how he wants to direct this.
“Our own as governors and field commanders in the 36 states is to let him know the feelings of our people about security in the country and that we will do when we have the meeting.”
Fayemi said the 36 state governors would meet with the President very soon and convey the feelings of the people on the insecurity in the country to him.
The Defence Intelligence Agency, Abuja, has acquired equipment which can spy on calls and text messages by Nigerians, a new report by CitizensLab has shown.
The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto in Canada.
The report titled, “Running in Circles: Uncovering the Clients of Cyber-espionage Firm Circles” offers new perspectives detailing how a telecoms surveillance company, Circles, has deployed its platforms across Africa, helping state security departments to snoop on communications of opposition politicians, journalists, and protestors.
It noted that Circles is affiliated with a Tel Aviv-based NSO Group, which became globally known last year for the Pegasus spyware scandal.
The same Circles was reported to have been used to exploit a vulnerability in the popular WhatsApp application to spy opposition organisers in several countries.
The report reads, “Our scanning identified two Circles systems in Nigeria. The same entity may operate one system as one of the Nigerian customers of the FinFisher spyware that we detected in December 2014.
“The firewall IPs are in the same /27 as the IP address of the FinFisher C&C server we detected in our 2014 scans (41.242.50.50). The other client appears to be the Nigerian Defence Intelligence Agency as its firewall IPs are in AS37258, a block of IP addresses registered to “HQ Defence Intelligence Agency Asokoro, Nigeria, Abuja.”
“Members of civil society in Nigeria face a wide range of digital threats. A recent report by Front Line Defenders concluded that Nigeria’s government has conducted mass surveillance of citizens’ telecommunications.”
The report quoted an investigation by an online newspaper, Premium Times, which found out that the Nigerian governors of Bayelsa and Delta states purchased systems from Circles to spy on their political opponents.
“In Delta State, Premium Times reports that the system was installed at the “governor’s lodge,” and operated by employees of the governor, rather than police.
“In Bayelsa State, the governor reportedly used the Circles system to spy on his opponent in an election, as well as his opponent’s wife and aides. The investigation also found that the two Circles systems were imported without the proper authorisations from Nigeria’s Office of the National Security Adviser,” the report added.
Other African countries that have been employing Circles’ surveillance platforms are Kenya, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, Morocco, and Zambia.
Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, has fumed over Thomas Partey’s decision to walk off the pitch injured, during their 2-0 defeat at Tottenham on Sunday.
Partey returned from a thigh injury to start the North London Derby.
However, the Ghana international walked over to the touchline during the build-up to Harry Kane’s goal that put Spurs 2-0 up and was replaced by Dani Ceballos immediately.
After the match, Arteta confirmed Party would have an MRI, but insisted the 27-year-old had to stay on the pitch during the attack.
“I applaud their first goal, it is world class, but the second goal we were a man down, we left a massive gap and they took advantage,” Arteta told the BBC.
“He [Thomas Partey] has to stay on the pitch. It looks like the same injury he has already had, he will have an MRI.”
Partey had been out of action since he was taken off during Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat at home to Aston Villa on November 8.
The Queen’s head housekeeper at Sandringham has mysteriously quit her job after 32 years working with the monarch.
Patricia Earl, 56, who lives close to the royal estate in the Norfolk village of Dersingham, has left her position, following a staff revolt earlier this year which saw workers rebel against plans to isolate them from loved ones for a month.
According to The Sun Online, the housekeeper was ’embarrassed’ after Royal Household staff refused a plan for them to stay in the royal’s Covid-19 bubble at Sandringham over Christmas.
The housekeeper was a well-respected royal member of staff, and in 2018 Patricia was presented with the Royal Victorian Medal.
First established by Queen Victoria in 1896, the Royal Victorian Order is chosen at the Queen’s discretion, and is often awarded to those who have served the monarch or the royal family with dedication.
Patricia did not want to comment on her departure, while a Buckingham Palace spokesman told The Sun Online yesterday: ‘This was a completely amicable departure.’
A team of about 20 employees had been asked to remain on the monarch’s Norfolk estate without their families to support her, Prince Philip and other members of the Royal Family during the festive period.
But the group – said to involve cleaners, laundry and maintenance workers – are believed to have mutinied because they are unwilling to isolate from loved ones for four weeks.
A staff uprising over Christmas plans means the Queen will spend Christmas at Windsor Castle for the first time in 33 years. Pictured, Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle in March +4
A staff uprising over Christmas plans means the Queen will spend Christmas at Windsor Castle for the first time in 33 years. Pictured, Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor Castle in March
Staff were being asked to stay for the month-long period so they could remain in a Covid bubble to protect the 94-year-old monarch.
The Queen typically spends her winter break at Sandringham, travelling up after the Christmas party for extended family members at Buckingham Palace in December.
But the uprising means the Queen and Prince Philip will spend Christmas at Windsor Castle for the first time in 33 years.
It was announced earlier this week that this year they will forgo the festivities and remain at Windsor, where they have been isolating with a ‘bubble’ of staff since October.
It is understood the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will not take advantage of the relaxed Covid restrictions to form a Christmas bubble with other households.
It means the couple face spending Christmas Day without any of their four children for the first time since 1949, when the then Princess Elizabeth left a one-year-old Charles in the UK so she could be with Prince Philip in Malta.
Vanity Fair’s Katie Nicholl said the Queen wants her children and grandchildren to ‘enjoy Christmas with their other loved-ones’ and ‘not feel torn’ as she prepares for a ‘quiet’ festive season at Windsor.
She claimed: ‘The Queen has said that this is the year for her family to enjoy Christmases with other family members and not feel torn, as they often do, when a royal Christmas takes priority.’
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall will spend Christmas at Highgrove, in Gloucestershire, although they expect to see the Queen and Prince Philip at Windsor at some point over the festive season.
They will also see Camilla’s children Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes at some point.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Sunday said it would not end the strike it embarked on until government paid all the salaries of its members it withheld.
The President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, in a telephone interview with our correspondent in Lagos, said government should not expect the lecturers to resume without paying the withheld salaries.
Recall that there were reports on November 27 that the union had agreed to end its strike following the Federal Government’s promise to release N70bn to ASUU as earned allowance.
But Ogunyemi on Sunday explained that the members were still consulting and at the same time waiting for the government to fulfil its promise of releasing members’ withheld salaries.
“We are still consulting; we have not finished consultation, by the end of this week we shall make our report public. There are promises government made with dates. Government promised to release salaries of our members. The withheld salaries have not been paid and we need to have information on that. Government should not expect us to resume without releasing our salaries.”
He emphasised that once the timeline expired this week without the salaries being paid, the union would take a final decision.
Ogunyemi also said that he could not determine when ASUU would suspend the strike.
“I can’t vouch for anything about resumption, but my members will determine that. The only thing I know is that payment of withheld salaries can smoothen the process and that is what we have told the government. It will aid the final decision.
“The government gave a timeline and we are monitoring, once the timeline expires this week, our members will take a final decision. If they pay the withheld salaries, it will make the process easier to handle.”
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has commiserated with the Soun of Ogbomoso, Oba Jimoh Oyewumi, on the death of his son, Pastor Olumide Oyewumi.
Governor Makinde, in a condolence message made available to journalists by Taiwo Adisa, his Chief Press Secretary, on Sunday, urged the monarch, the royal family, and the people of Ogbomoso, to take solace in God saying there is no questioning the Almighty.
It stated that the late Pastor, who was a Chief Accountant at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, was a humble and kind-hearted individual.
Noting that it is not possible for mortals to question God and that the demise of Olumide Oyewumi at the age of 45 had left him with a heavy heart, the statement called for prayers for the parents and family of the deceased, saying, “Our hearts and prayers are with our father, the Soun of Ogbomosoland and his family on the death of Pastor Olumide Oyewumi.
“Sad events like this point us as mortals to the finality and absoluteness of God’s decision over our lives. We cannot question whatever God decides, but the death of our brother, a shining star and amiable individual with bright ideas and future, leaves us with heavy hearts.
“I urge the family to take heart and take solace in God who giveth and taketh while also calling on our people to remember our Baba, the Soun of Ogbomosoland and the families Pastor Olumide left behind in their prayers.”
On January 22, 2015 at Chatham House, London, Sambo Dasuki, former national security adviser (NSA), baited the whirlwind. He said he had suggested to Attahiru Jega, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to postpone the general election scheduled for February 14 by six weeks – which is within the constitutional 90-day election window – to give more time for voter-card distribution.
“It costs you nothing, it’s still within the law,” Dasuki was reported to have told the INEC chairman.
Being a spy chief, Dasuki secreted the underlying reason for his startling suggestion away in election contingencies. But the raison d’être for his proposition was the Boko Haram snag. The insurgents had scaled up their pursuit of tragedies months before the scheduled date of the election. In fact, the Chibok schoolgirls’ abduction happened just 10 months before the time.
Eventually, the concealed agenda seeped into the news — the Armageddon; the six-week battle to miniaturise Boko Haram. There was hysteria of pessimism. How can a government which has failed to trim the large coats of the insurgents over the years bring the group to capitulation in six weeks? It was doubtful. But there was an outlier. Gladiators from South Africa and Eastern Europe were being thrown into the arena.
Dasuki had said at Chatham House that “cowards” peopled the rank and file of the military and dismissed the claim that there was a hierarchical conspiracy to keep the insurgency alive.
“We have people who use every excuse in this world not to fight. There is no high-level conspiracy within the army not to end the insurgency,” he said.
And truly, Boko Haram sustained the most lethal blow ever in those six weeks. They were pummelled and expelled from their “terrodoms”. They subsequently tumbled into the fringes and territories outside Nigeria. The six-week operation could have been the defining surgery on the malignant cancer, if the Buhari administration which inherited this success was responsible.
In 2015, elections were held in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and other areas hitherto dominated by the insurgents owing to the effective war campaign driven largely by the mercenaries. There was scarcely any report of attacks during the election. In fact, President Buhari secured some of the highest votes in these troubled states.
The 2015 election has been widely described as peaceful, free, fair and credible. The Buhari administration was the biggest beneficiary of that successful operation. But what did the APC and Lai Mohammed, its spokesman, say at the time when shifting the election was contemplated?
Hear Lai: “Why are they not ready? Why should we postpone? We say ‘no’ to postponement. They know that if they don’t postpone they can’t win. They are just terrified.”
The lies of a liar will always find him out.
Tukur Buratai, chief of army staff, and other service chiefs were appointed at the time the tide of insurgency was receding. Perhaps, lost in the reverie of the success against Boko Haram, Buratai boasted that the army was capable of interring the group finitum and had no need for external support. The same army chief is now saying the insurgency will live with us for 20 years.
The mercenaries who had secured the most evident success against the insurgents were “clamped down” on and ‘’expelled’’ like aliens by the Buhari administration.
Eeben Barlow, founder of Specialised Tasks, Training, Equipment and Protection (STTEP) which recruited the foreign fighters that secured the gains, ululated about how they were abysmally treated by the Buhari administration.
In a Facebook post in August 2019, he alleged that the Buhari government politicised their effort and ignored all intelligence warnings by his team. He also alleged the government repudiated their strategy to take down Boko Haram.
Barlow said: “The initial 3-phase campaign strategy (known as ‘Operational Anvil’) to degrade and destroy BH in Borno state, was rejected by his (Buhari) advisors.’’
And speaking on the terror alerts, he said: “These warnings covered the implications of not allowing the 72 MSF to annihilate BH in Borno province; the plans by Boko Haram to re-arm and escalate their activities; the implications of regional spill-over, the impact on the armed forces; and so forth.”
Alas! Five years after the fiercest blitz on the insurgents, we are back in the days of the freewheeling of terror — when insurgents can massacre as much as 78 people without any resistance and when bandits extract tax and tolls from citizens to allow them access to their farms. We are back in the night of doom. Governors of the north-east are now calling for the enlisting of mercenaries to deal with the jagged threat.
There is no shame is seeking external help to deal with a threat like Boko Haram. In fact, it is a viable strategy to enlist specialised agents to deal with certain threats. But the undoing of the Buhari government is its insincerity and hollow ego. The government bragged that it “technically defeated” the insurgents by sleight of hand only to be caught up in a web of its own lies and perfidy.
The lies of a liar will always find him out.
It is asinine to send soldiers in droves to die when there is an option of drafting agents that can push back the violators. Again, there is no shame in engaging mercenaries against Boko Haram; even the US and Israel deal with terror by engaging external agents on certain missions. It is a standard practice. It does not make our military less powerful.
But the trouble with the Buhari regime is the lies, deceit and vacuous ego. I hope the government has learnt its lessons. Messing with mercenaries can cost lives.
Fredrick Nwabufo is a writer and journalist Twitter @FredrickNwabufo
The European Union’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier looks on as he addresses the European Economic and Social Committee, at the EU Parliament in Brussels, Belgium October 30, 2019.
British and EU negotiators will embark on probably their final two-days scramble to secure a post-Brexit trade deal on Sunday (today), after failing to reach agreement for eight months.
Michel Barnier and his UK counterpart David Frost will resume talks in Brussels where they broke off on Friday, calling a pause after a fruitless week of late-night wrangling in London.
“We will see if there is a way forward,” Barnier tweeted.
Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will reportedly lobby European leaders, after a call with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday ended with the sides still facing “significant differences” on the key issues.
The pair’s next call will be on Monday evening and then the 27 EU leaders will gather in Brussels on Thursday for a two-day summit planned to tackle their own budget dispute, but which will now once again be clouded by Brexit worries.
Johnson and von der Leyen’s issued a downbeat joint statement after their call.
“Whilst recognising the seriousness of these differences, we agreed that a further effort should be undertaken by our negotiating teams to assess whether they can be resolved,” they said.
While much has been agreed, the sides cannot close out the thorniest debates over fishing rights, fair trade rules and an enforcement mechanism to govern any deal.
Anything Is Possible
Britain formally left the EU in January, nearly four years after a referendum on membership that split the nation down the middle and two months after Johnson won an election touting what he claimed was an “oven ready” Brexit deal.
The UK is bound to the EU’s tariff-free single market until a post-Brexit transition period expires the end of the year — an immovable deadline by which time the two sides must try to agree on the exact nature of their future relationship.
“Anything is possible. The three open issues are linked by Britain’s intent to keep sovereignty a priority and Europe’s fear of UK freeloading,” a source with close knowledge of the talks told AFP.
Without a deal, the bulk of cross-Channel trade will revert to World Trade Organization terms, a return to tariffs and quotas after almost five decades of close economic and political integration.
Talks through this year have finalised most aspects of an agreement, with Britain set to leave the EU single market and customs union, but the three core issues are unresolved.
Johnson has insisted Britain will “prosper mightily” whatever the outcome of the talks, but he will face severe political and economic fallout if he cannot seal a deal.
“If we fail to get an agreement with the European Union, this will be a serious failure of statecraft,” influential Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat told the Lowy Institute in an interview published Saturday.
European capitals have remained remarkably united behind Barnier through the fraught Brexit process, but some internal fractures have now begun to surface.
On Friday, France threatened to veto any deal that falls short of their demands on ensuring fair trade and access to UK fishing waters, where they have demanded a durable agreement, whereas Britain wants frequent renegotiations.
“We know that 100 percent access to fishing waters in the UK maritime zone is finished,” European Affairs minister Clement Beaune told le Journal du Dimanche.
“But we need lasting access. The British can’t have total access to our EU single market and exclude fish.”
Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Denmark share Paris’s concerns that the EU side could give too much ground on rules to maintain competition.
There are just days left to finalise a deal, with an EU leaders’ summit on Thursday looming large and the European Parliament repeatedly insisting that it needs time to evaluate and ratify any compromise.
President Muhammadu Buhari has called for the commitment of member-states of the Economic Community of West Africa State (ECOWAS) as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement begins on the 1st of January.
Buhari made the call at the 13th Extra-Ordinary Summit of the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government held virtually on Saturday.
Buhari, who was represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, said that the successful commencement of the trade in January 2021 was indeed a fulfillment of the collective dreams of Africa’s founding fathers.
He said that the AfCFTA sought to achieve better, united, peaceful and prosperous Africa, adding that any abuse of the rule could affect trade relations, cause disorder, regional and geopolitical tensions and reduced economic growth.
Buhari pledged Nigeria’s commitments in taking all the necessary steps towards the effective commencement of the trading on Jan. 1, 2021.
“In view of Nigeria’s strategic role in our collective efforts to build the Africa we want, the Nigerian government has taken bold steps to ratify the AfCFTA.
“It is, however, pertinent to remind us of the need to preserve the agreed rule we are putting in place, to ensure that there is no breakdown or abuse of the rules based continental free trade framework.
“We must, therefore, work assiduously to encourage probity, transparency, and promote a shared and inclusive prosperity for all Africans,” he said.
According to him, Nigeria is keenly aware of her role in deepening intra-Africa trade and making it a success. We remain open to transparently work with our brothers and sisters across Africa in the spirit of cooperation.
“To deepen Continental Integration through the free movement of goods, natural and legal persons across the continent we must remain strident and committed in our support for the instrument while timeously addressing actions that could lead to breakdown of rules-based African Continental Free Trade Area.
“The successful commencement of trade in January 2021 is indeed the fulfillment of the collective dreams of our founding fathers, for a better, united, peaceful and prosperous Africa.
“Let us, therefore, keep in mind that any form of abuse of the rules that undermine our borders and affect our markets could be a recipe for strained trade relations, disorder regional and geopolitical tensions and reduces economic growth,” Buhari said.
Buhari also said that trade rules requires trust and constant updates. We must continue to work to address and close noticeable gaps, in particular, the challenges occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and other critical issues affecting the continent.
According to him, AfCFTA is a rules-based system that provides governance structure for intra-Africa trade, including for settlement of trade disputes and smooth operationalisation of the agreement.
“In this regard, we are further assured that the mechanism will provide the essential balance previously lacking in our trade relations.
“Importantly, this agreement is strategic and relevant to the establishment of an economic and legal framework for intra-Africa trade relations and further serves as a platform for deepening Africa’s integration into the global economy,” he said.
Buhari expressed optimism that the opportunities abound within the AfCFTA framework for the engagement of businesses that would foster trade as well as investments flows.
He added that the agreement would also foster growth of regional and global value chains.
Buhari noted that it is important that the launch of the trade in 2021 produces a win-win situation and shared prosperity for all member states.
