Yoruba nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, has been released from custody in Cotonou, Benin Republic, after nearly two years.
Igboho, in a statement, confirmed his freedom and stated that he can now return to Nigeria and travel worldwide as he has met all legal bail conditions.
However, he did not specify when he plans to return to Nigeria.
He expressed his gratitude to President Talon of Benin Republic, Professor Banji Akintoye, Professor Wole Soyinka, and various Yoruba indigenes, politicians, media, academia, and monarchs for their unwavering support during his trial period in Cotonou.
Igboho also extended his thanks to religious leaders, traditional worshippers, and others who prayed for his release.
While acknowledging the support of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Baba Ayo Adebanjo, Igboho emphasized the importance of unity among Yoruba leaders and urged political figures and monarchs to work together for the betterment of Yoruba land.
Igboho was initially arrested on July 20, 2021, in Benin Republic while attempting to travel to Germany.
Israel’s defence minister on Monday ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza, as the military said it had retaken control of Israeli communities near the coastal enclave that were stormed by Hamas’ gunmen in an unprecedented attack over the weekend.
Yoav Gallant said on camera that Israel would halt the supply of electricity, food, water and fuel to Gaza. “I have given an order – Gaza will be under complete siege,” Gallant said. “We are fighting barbarians and will respond accordingly.”
Israel has retaken control of all communities around Gaza and there is no ongoing fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants inside Israel, the Israeli military said on Monday, following continued assaults by both sides.
The announcement by Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari came more than 48 hours after Hamas launched a surprise assault with thousands of rockets and sent armed fighters into Israel.
Israel on Sunday formally declared war on the Islamist militant group Hamas after its fighters launched an unprecedented attack that has so far killed more than 700 people in Israel. At least 2,506 people have been injured, the Israeli Health Ministry said.
Israeli jets continued to bombard the Palestinian enclave of Gaza on Monday as the war entered its third day. Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed at least 493, including dozens of children, and left 2,651 injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
An incursion by Gaza militants of this scale has not been seen in Israel since the nation’s founding in 1948.
Earlier Monday, as Israeli forces battled to expel the last assailants, Hamas launched a fresh barrage of rocket attacks.
Hamas said it fired 120 rockets toward the coastal cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon, in response to Israeli airstrikes. A CNN team on the ground saw dust billowing over the sky, as rockets launched from Gaza were intercepted by the Israeli air defence system in Ashdod.
Hamas militants claimed late Sunday to be holding more than 100 hostages in Gaza, including high-ranking Israeli army officers, according to Mousa Abu Marzouk, chief deputy of Hamas’ political bureau.
Videos on social media showed militants capturing multiple civilians, including children, as Israeli families across the nation made anxious pleas for the safe return of their loved ones.
In addition to Israeli captives, there are also other nationalities believed to have been taken hostage, including American, Mexican, Brazilian and Thai nationals – further complicating Israel’s response to the Hamas attack.
For now, airstrikes have been the primary retaliation measure within Gaza itself, with Israeli jets repeatedly pounding the heavily populated 140 square mile coastal strip, turning multiple buildings to rubble.
The IDF says it has been hitting Hamas, destroying around 800 targets and killing “hundreds” of fighters, wounding thousands and capturing scores of others, spokesperson Hagari said Sunday.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced in Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said, and access to medical care has been complicated by Israel cutting power to the territory, threatening the “lives of hundreds” of those injured, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said.
While it remains unclear what the full scale of the Israeli response will be, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday predicted a “long and difficult war” and vowed “mighty vengeance” on Hamas.
Horror on the ground
Many Israelis have spent much of the past two days in bomb shelters and saferooms, while Palestinians in Gaza have struggled to contain the devastation from deadly Israeli airstrikes along the strip.
Israel’s Ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog, told CNN Hamas fired more than 4,000 rockets at Israel and sent hundreds of militants into Israeli territory.
Throughout the bloody weekend, Hamas rockets made direct hits on multiple locations inside the country including Tel Aviv, while armed terror groups entered Israel and infiltrated military bases, towns and farms, shooting at civilians and taking hostages.
Among those killed in Israel were 12 Thai citizens, 10 Nepalis, four US nationals, two Ukrainians, one French and one British citizen.
Images and videos show the horror unfolding on the ground.
Photos released by the Israeli foreign ministry showed dozens of bodies in the aftermath of a Hamas attack on a music festival near the Israel-Gaza border, which emergency responders said left at least 260 dead.
Former presidential spokesperson and renowned journalist, Reuben Abati, has raised a pertinent question regarding the whereabouts of Nigerian President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Abati’s keen observation highlights that President Tinubu has been conspicuously absent from the public eye for several days, with no official statement clarifying his location, consequently sparking concerns about his well-being.
In his inquiry, Abati directed attention to the President’s handlers, emphasizing the need for transparency and regular updates to keep the citizens informed about their leader’s activities.
Abati underscored that the last public sighting of Tinubu was during the nation’s 63rd independence anniversary celebrations on October 1, shortly after his return from an extended trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
The President’s whereabouts remained unknown until his return to Nigeria on the night of September 29, despite unconfirmed reports suggesting he might have flown to Paris from New York.
During his appearance on the Arsie TV Morning Show, Abati pointed out the absence of key government activities, such as council meetings, the inauguration of recently screened Ministers, and the timely execution of essential government functions.
Additionally, Abati noted that President Tinubu has not been participating in official functions nor receiving guests at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa.
Instead, Vice President Kashim Shettima has been representing the government in various public engagements.
Former President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and gubernatorial aspirant, Olumide Akpata, has shared his inspiring journey as a cancer survivor during his 51st birthday celebration in Benin on Sunday.
Akpata revealed that he miraculously overcame stage three cancer a decade ago after multiple surgeries, and he has remained cancer-free for the past five years.
Expressing his gratitude for life, Akpata said, “It is a miracle that I am still standing,” while dancing with thanksgiving.
He also reflected on the loss of his mother at a young age, emphasizing that God’s blessings and mercies have shaped his life positively.
Akpata, a member of the Labour Party (LP), discussed his political aspirations, stating that the party had warmly welcomed him and expressed confidence in winning the 2024 governorship election in Edo State.
He conveyed his determination to become the next governor of the state.
The event was attended by notable dignitaries, including Edo Deputy Governor, Comrade Philip Shaibu, the Secretary to State Government (SSG), Osarodion Ogie, Commissioner for Information, Chris Nehikhare, Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General of Edo State, Oluwole Uzi, and other prominent figures from the legal and political spheres.
The Zungeru hydropower project will generate 2.64 billion kWh of electricity annually, a Chinese consortium comprising China National Electric Engineering Company (CNEEC) and Sinohydro, has said in Abuja.
The consortium said via a statement, that the project will make a significant contribution to Nigeria’s power generation capacity and is proof of the China-Nigeria partnership.
“The project will provide flood-control, irrigation, water-supply and fish-breeding facilities; although construction works on the power plant started in May 2013, it was expected to take 60-months for completion with initial completion date of 2018.
“However, legal and financial challenges related to ecological settlement in the affected area delayed the project commissioning to 2021.
“The global pandemic COVID-19 further delayed the construction period as the site was shut down from operation in the year 2020 during the peak of the pandemic.”
The engineering, procurement and construction contract was awarded to the China National Electric Engineering Company (CNEEC) and Sinohydro.
It said amidst security challenges such as attacks on workers at the site in 2022, the project progressed, adding that as of Aug. 15, 2023, the project was successfully handed over to the Federal Government.
NAN reports that the project located on the Kaduna River in Niger is a 700MW hydroelectric facility built by the consortium.
The project which costs about 1.3billion dollars approximately (₦162.9 billion) is the biggest power project completed in Nigeria in the past ten years and one of the biggest power projects in Africa.
The is designed to generate 2,630 GWh energy with a total installed capacity of 700MW.
Zungeru is one of several hydro projects that are part of Nigeria’s Renewable Energy Master Plan (REMP) proposed in 2006.
REMP seeks to increase the supply of renewable electricity – including wind, solar, biomass and small hydro – from 13 per cent of total electricity generation in 2015 to 23 per cent in 2025 and 36 per cent by 2030, according to the Nigerian government.
The government said additional hydro power plant (HPP) projects in various stages of development include 3,050-MW HPP, 360-MW Gurara II HPP, 38-MW Dadinkowa HPP, 40-MW Itisi HPP and 3,100-MW Mambilla HPP.
Nigeria’s population is more than 160 million people and published reports indicate the country’s 10 national integrated power projects only generate 4,000 MW of electricity.
The Federal Government is rapidly retooling its numerous Social Investment Schemes to enable it to immediately lift an initial 70 million Nigerians out of poverty within the next twelve months.
Speaking on a television programme monitored by NIGERIAN ANCHOR on Sunday, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Betty Edu listed the programmes and their targeted intervention figures to include the N-Power programme that is aimed at removing five million people out of poverty in five years and the GEEP that is supposed to provide funds to 1.5 million Nigerian small business owners and the Home-Grown School Feeding for 10million children amongst others.
She disclosed that a presidential approval shall be obtained on October 17, 2023 for the roll out of the repackaged Conditional Cash Transfer which shall be targeted at benefitting a total of 15 million households.
To achieve this, she said, critical stakeholders partnering with the ministry were already on the field working round the clock to revalidate the data and to clean up the register.
“As we speak, we are having a verification exercise. Every state can bear us witness that we have put boots on the ground – persons who are working with the state cash transfer office as well as the governors who are the heads of the steering committee and then several other persons,” she disclosed.
She disclosed that altogether, about 62million individuals shall benefit from the N25,000 that shall be disbursed to 15million households per month for an initial period of three months.
Regarding the other flagship scheme of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), she said, the Federal Government will restart the Tradermoni scheme simultaneously in the 109 senatorial districts in the country in November with each beneficiary getting N50,000 to support their businesses.To achieve this, a large market shall be selected from each senatorial zone where the traders shall be processed and selected for the intervention, Dr. Edu disclosed.
Even though she did not disclose how many traders shall be captured at this phase of the programme, Edu emphasized that, “Now, for the first set, which we are starting in November, we are selecting one big market per senatorial district. That is 109 markets and we are going into the markets, capturing the traders in their shops in the markets.”
Towards the end of last year, the National Bureau of Statistics released the report on its national poverty survey in which it disclosed that a total of 133 million Nigerians were multidimensionally poor. Out of this number, about 71million Nigerians have been classified as extremely poor.
Speaking to these grim statistics, Mrs. Edu explained that the immediate objective of the Federal Government was to pull the extremely poor out of poverty while erecting safety nets to prevent the multidimensionally poor from falling into extreme poverty.
Earlier, the minister had announced the suspension of the N-Power programme which had been enmeshed in controversies. She threatened that those found guilty of any form of malfeasance shall be made to face the due process of the law.
In response to the threat made by the Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike, to ban the movement of cows within the Nigerian capital, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore has issued a statement dismissing the minister’s warning as inconsequential.
Saleh Alhassan Kubah, the National Secretary of the organization, expressed skepticism regarding the feasibility of such a ban.
Kubah stated, “Where is the grazing land in Abuja? Is it inside the building they will graze? The thing is, Wike is not consequential. We have seen Ortom come and go.”
He further highlighted that many of the cattle in Abuja belong to the elite and suggested that Minister Wike should find a way to accommodate them.
He also called for the development of the city, addressing the needs of neglected indigenous people, and focusing on rural areas and satellite towns.
Kubah concluded by saying, “No matter how it is, he will leave very soon. We can’t engage him. He can’t get new information from us. He’s an attention seeker. Is there any grazing land around the Villa?”
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has put forth an urgent appeal to the government for permission to carry firearms.
The request comes in the light of increasing concerns about the safety of its personnel, who often face attacks from road users and criminals while performing their duties.
Corps Marshal Dauda Biu conveyed this plea during the inauguration of 1,762 newly trained FRSC personnel in Kontagora, Niger State, on Saturday.
Represented by the Deputy Corps Marshal Shehu Zaki, Biu stressed the necessity of arming FRSC members to ensure their protection amidst the current security challenges in the country.
The FRSC has been pursuing approval to bear arms since 1992, and the rising insecurity in Nigeria has amplified the urgency of this request.
Biu emphasized, “Right now, looking at the level of insecurity in the country, it is not out of place for the FRSC to start using arms to enable us to protect ourselves when the need arises.”
While making this appeal, Biu also called on the newly trained personnel to exhibit unwavering dedication, discipline, honour, integrity, accountability, transparency, courtesy, confidentiality, decency, loyalty, and team spirit in the performance of their duties.
Furthermore, he expressed gratitude to Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, the Chief of Army Staff, for granting the FRSC access to the training facility and commended the army trainers for their crucial role in ensuring the success of the training exercise.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has alerted Nigerians to expect flood in nine states as Cameroon began the release of water from its Lagdo Dam.
The states are: Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Anambra, Edo, Delta and Bayelsa.
Mr Mustapha Ahmed, Director General, NEMA, disclosed this at the weekend in Abuja when he briefed newsmen on the release of water from the dam.
He said that the nine affected states which had communities along the banks of River Benue may be affected by the water release, which is expected to last till the end of October.
Ahmed said that the recent release had led to the displacement of communities and could lead to further destruction of crops and other infrastructure.
“NEMA has been alerted on sudden increased inundation of riverine communities and farmlands along the banks of River Niger in Adamawa, Taraba and Benue states in the past 48 hours.
“The sudden situation is attributed to the rapid release of water from Lagdo fam in the Republic of Cameroon and has resulted in the displacement of several inhabitants of the affected communities.
“Furthermore, crops, lands and valuable infrastructure are at risk of getting washed away by the flood waters.
“Situation reports from Adamawa State confirmed the upsurge of flood waters along the flood plains of River Benue.
“The situation is expected to be replicated in downstream states of Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Anambra, Edo, Delta and Bayelsa as the River Benue joins River Niger and flows to the Atlantic Ocean through the Niger Delta,” he said.
The director general also cautioned states and local government areas along the River Niger and Benue Basins to immediately activate their emergency response plans to avert potential damage and losses that could arise due to the flooding of communities.
Ahmed added that, so far, 159,157 persons had been affected by this year’s flooding, as 28 persons had lost their lives and 48,168 individuals displaced in 13 states across the country.
He, however, added that the agency would continue to provide further updates as it received more situation reports from the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) as well as frontline states’ emergency management agencies.
The Defence Headquarters says troops of the armed forces have in the last one week neutralised 31 terrorists and apprehended 81 others in various operations across North East, North Central and North West.
The Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Edward Buba, said this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.
Buba said the troops also rescued 10 kidnapped hostages, while a total of 63 Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists and their families surrendered to troop across theatres of operation.
In the North East, he said the troops of Operation HADIN KAI conducted fighting patrols to Bama and Chibok local government areas of Borno, as well as Gujba Local Government Area of Yobe.
Buba said the troops also recovered 12 AK47 rifles, two locally fabricated rifles, three dane guns, 181 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, four magazines, three motorcycles, among other items.
He added that the troops neutralised 13 terrorists, arrested 12 and rescued five kidnapped persons.
In the North Central, he said the troops of Operation Safe Haven arrested five suspects, recovered arms and ammunition, as well as 145 rustled cows during the week.
He said troops of Operation Whirl Stroke had On October 1, arrested two IPOB/ESN criminals in Katsina-Ala Local Government Area of Benue while on patrol.
He stated that the criminals were arrested at the residence of a top herbalist, while the herbalist fled.
He added that “troops recovered one body armour and bullet proof vests.
“Overall, troops arrested three suspects and recovered two locally fabricated rifles, 10 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, five cutlasses, one body armour, one bullet proof vest and a jack-knife.”
In North West, Buba said troops of Operation Hadarin Daji neutralised six terrorists, arrested 12 and rescued 33 kidnapped persons.
He said the troops also recovered four AK47 rifles, two dane guns, 35 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, three motorcycles, five mobile phones, one cutlass and five solar panels.
Troops of Operation Whirl Punch also eliminated one terrorist and recovered three AK47 rifles, one AK47 magazine loaded with five rounds of 7.62 mm Special ammo, 32 rounds of 7.62mm special, 10 rounds of 7.62 x 39mm war heads, one cutlass, amongst other items.
He stated that the armed forces and citizens are partners in combating common enemy, which are the terrorists and violent extremist groups.
“Accordingly, the military, through its operations, continues to prevail against the effects of insurgency and terrorism with an ultimate goal of securing the country against perpetrators of insecurity for national progress,” he said.
