Youths and women took to the streets in Niger State on Monday in protest of what they called the biting hardship and the rising cost of living in the country.

The protest started when a group of women blocked the Minna-Bida Road at the popular Kpakungu Roundabout to lament what they termed the sufferings under the Bola Tinubu government.

They were later joined by men and youths who barricaded the road and halted vehicular traffic.

The economic situation in the country had become unbearable following the removal of the fuel subsidy by President Tinubu on May 29, 2023.

The policy triggered a surge in food inflation and a hike in costs of transportation, goods, and services, resulting in a higher cost of living.

Also, the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria in June 2023 to float the naira, which allows buyers and sellers to set their exchange rates in the FX market, has led to a depreciation of the national currency which has continued to lose its value against the greenback.

As of Monday, the naira exchanged for N1,440 to the US dollar on the black market while the CBN rate was pegged at N905/$1.

In reaction to the economic distress, the protesting youths and women halted commercial activities as they lamented how the economy was getting worse under Tinubu’s leadership.

A youth, who gave his name as Ibrahim Gana, said, “A measure of rice was sold for N2,000 in Minna markets while maize was N1,000 per measure. The Federal Government needs to take action to reduce the hardship faced by poor Nigerians. Things are becoming unbearable.”

The protesters defied a team of police operatives deployed to disperse them.

Attempts by the operatives to quell the protest and arrest the youths failed as they chased the officers.

The police operatives fired teargas canisters but the protesters were unmoved as they stood their ground.

Niger State Police command spokesman, Wasiu Abiodun, explained that the police applied minimum force to disperse the protesters.

He added, “I woke up this morning with information that a large number of people protesting blocked Bida Road, obstructing motorists and people were unable to go about their work. So, we had to deploy there this morning.

“After so much persuasion, they refused to open the road, even the deputy governor was there to address them. As a result of that, we had to use minimum force to disperse the protesters; the road was opened and there is free flow of traffic now.”

Commenting on the demonstration in Minna, Executive Director of the Rule of Law, Advocacy and Accountability Centre, Okechukwu Nwaguma, said he expected the protest to spread across the country “to send a message to the President to sit up or step down,” emphasising the hardship under Tinubu’s leadership.

On his part, Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Auwal Rafsanjani, said the Minna protest could escalate if the government did not take quick measures to reduce the people’s sufferings by minimising waste and corruption.

“This protest against poverty, hunger, and hardship in Nigeria is something that if the government does not take measures to ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians may escalate everywhere because right now, living conditions are very hard and difficult for many Nigerians who are even employed, not to talk of people who are not even earning any means of livelihood.

“So, the government must ensure it has a package that could minimise waste, diversion of taxpayers’ money, extravagancy, and outright embezzlement of funds by public officials. This is the only way the government could douse the tension”, he suggested.

The Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Andrew Mamedu, said the protest in Niger State reflected Nigerians’ growing frustration with the government, adding that the people must unite to demand an improvement in their standard of living.

“The protest in Niger State is indicative of broader socio-economic challenges that Nigerians are facing. While we cannot predict the trajectory of the protest, it is evident that there is growing frustration among the Nigerians concerning the economic hardships they are experiencing.

‘’The hardships faced by Nigerians are not isolated to one region, and now is the time for citizens to unite, speak up against the prevailing hardships, and demand the social justice they rightfully desire,’’ he counselled.

While calling on the Federal Government to address the current economic challenges, Mamedu encouraged the citizens to conduct peaceful and purposeful protests.

“However, we encourage peaceful and purposeful protests during these trying times and ActionAid joins its voice with other Nigerians to call on the Federal Government to listen attentively to the voices of the people and take decisive actions to address the root causes of the economic challenges. Indeed, enough is enough,” he stated.

 

Punch

There was heavy traffic gridlock in some parts of Lagos on Monday as motorists formed long queues outside the forecourts of filling stations on what appeared may herald a fresh scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit.

One of our correspondents observed along the Ikorodu Road axis how motorists endured an unusually heavy gridlock due to a long queue of motorists waiting to buy petrol at filling stations. Also, the Total Filling station at the Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way had queues which led to heavy tariff around the Ikeja axis.

Our correspondent also noticed that many of the filling stations along the Ikeja axis, through Obafemi Awolowo Road in Ikeja were shut.

Meanwhile, some motorists had begun to hike the prices of their fares due to the development.

A commercial transport operator plying the Unilag-Jibowu axis in Yaba told our correspondents that he was forced to hike his fees after waiting for hours to buy fuel.

The commercial transport operator, who refused to disclose his name said, “Do you know how long it took me to buy fuel today? Anybody who doesn’t want to enter should stay out.”

Our correspondent also observed that all the filling stations along Ogunnusi Road inbound Berger did not also sell petrol to customers.

It is not immediately clear why fuel queues have resurfaced in Lagos.

Meanwhile, our correspondents gathered that the queues were noticeable in major filling stations considered to be selling at lower rates.

It was gathered that a number of filling stations owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway did not dispense fuel too.

National Vice Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Hammed Fashola, said he was aware of the queues in some filling stations in Lagos.

However, Fashola said the queues might be due to panic-buying on the part of customers.

“I am not in Lagos as we speak. But I heard about it too that there are queues in Lagos. It may just be panic buying. I am not sure there is fuel scarcity. People are just panicking. However, I will find out what the problem is,” Fashola said.

 

Punch

National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says over 50 percent of certificates of pharmaceutical products (CPP) of medicines imported into Nigeria are fake.

A certificate of a pharmaceutical product is a document issued in a format recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that establishes the status of the product in the exporting country.

Speaking on Monday at a stakeholders’ engagement meeting with regulators, policymakers, and law enforcement agencies in Abuja, Mojisola Adeyeye, NAFDAC director-general (DG), said sending a CPP out to another country gives assurance on the quality of the product.

But the NAFDAC DG noted that most certificates of pharmaceutical products imported into Nigeria are fake.

“We have a scheme where before medicines that were approved leave that part of the world, we do pre-shipment testing, and that comes with CPP to assure us of quality, but that is not the case, because through our scheme we have been able to stop over 140 products that were approved for coming in,” she said.

“We found out that more than 50 percent of the CPPs that come into our country are fake. Part of those responsible is our people that go to China or India and we are going to deal with it.

“We are very stringent than ever and there is no cutting of corners, we have blacklisted many companies, we have sanctioned them because we want people to respect our people.”

She said trade is a mutual agreement adding that if that agreement is harming one party to the deal, it would be stopped.

“If a company is suspected to be compromising, in two hours we will be there, and we will shut the company down,” she said.

 

The Cable

At least 13 passengers have been abducted by gunmen in Kogi state.

The passengers, who were said to have been travelling from the south-east to Abuja, were kidnapped in Inyele Eteke, Olalamaboro LGA, on Saturday.

The gunmen reportedly hijacked the vehicles before abducting the occupants.

William Aya, police spokesperson in Kogi, confirmed the development to our correspondent Monday night.

Aya said the incident involved a GIGM bus carrying 12 passengers and a vehicle owned by ABC Transport with two occupants.

The police spokesperson said the driver of the GIGM bus has been rescued by security operatives.

“Efforts are on to ensure that others are rescued,” he said.

There has been an uptick in kidnapping for ransom, and killings orchestrated by gunmen across Nigeria in recent times.

Last week, gunmen abducted schoolchildren from their school bus in Ekiti.

They were rescued on Sunday Morning after spending six days in captivity.

Gunmen also killed traditional rulers in Ekiti and Kwara states in about two weeks ago.

Bandits have also been raiding and abducting residents of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city in recent times.

Authorities and security agencies have been struggling to contain the surge in attacks and abductions by bandits in border towns of Abuja.

 

The Cable

Blinken returns to Mideast in push for hostage deal and postwar plan for Gaza, but obstacles loom

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Monday at the start of his fifth visit to the Middle East since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, hoping to press ahead with a potential cease-fire deal and postwar planning while tamping down regional tensions.

But on all three fronts he faces major challenges: Hamas and Israel are publicly at odds over key elements of a potential truce. Israel has dismissed U.S. calls for a path to a Palestinian state, and Iran’s militant allies in the region have shown little sign of being deterred by U.S. strikes.

In Gaza, meanwhile, Hamas has begun to re-emerge in some of the most devastated areas after Israeli forces pulled back, an indication that Israel’s central goal of crushing the group remains elusive. Video footage from the same areas shows vast destruction, with nearly every building damaged or destroyed.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the military would continue to conduct operations in northern Gaza for many months and press ahead with its main offensive in the south, where it has been locked in heavy fighting for weeks, until it has “full reign” over the entire territory.

He said the offensive will eventually reach the town of Rafah, on the Egyptian border, where some 1.5 million displaced Palestinians have sought refuge. Egypt has said an Israeli deployment along the border would threaten the peace treaty the two countries signed over four decades ago.

Blinken met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shortly after arriving in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Saudi officials have said the kingdom is still interested in normalizing relations with Israel in a potentially historic deal, but only if there is a credible plan to create a Palestinian state.

Blinken “underscored the importance of addressing humanitarian needs in Gaza and preventing further spread of the conflict,” and he and the crown prince discussed “the importance of building a more integrated and prosperous region,” the State Department said in a statement.

But any such grand bargain appears a long way off as the war still rages in Gaza, where 113 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours alone, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Another 205 people were wounded, the agency said.

The fatalities bring the overall Palestinian death toll from nearly four months of war to 27,478. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but says most of the dead have been women and children.

The war has leveled vast swaths of the tiny enclave, displaced 85% of its population of 2.3 million Palestinians and pushed a quarter of residents to starvation.

HAMAS RETURNS TO WAR-BATTERED STREETS

A video circulating online Monday showed masked gunmen leading a line of shirtless detainees past bombed-out buildings in northern Gaza, forcing them to shout out that they are thieves. The Associated Press was not able to independently confirm the incident, but it is consistent with AP reporting.

It was the latest sign that Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since seizing power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007, is reasserting control in parts of the north. Residents say Hamas-led security forces, which numbered in the tens of thousands before the war, have begun to reappear in some areas where they focus on distributing civil salaries and cracking down on looters.

The Israeli military says it has launched targeted operations in northern Gaza over the last week to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its capabilities.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Israel crushes Hamas’ military and governing abilities and wins the return of the 100-plus hostages still held by the militant group after the Oct. 7 cross-border raid that ignited the war.

Hamas and other militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the attack and abducted around 250. More than 100 captives, mostly women and children, were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

Meeting with troops on Monday, Netanyahu said Israel had defeated 18 of Hamas’ 24 battalions, without providing evidence. “We are on the way to absolute victory, and I want to tell you that we are committed to it and we will not give it up.”

CEASE-FIRE TALKS ADVANCE, BUT GAPS REMAIN

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have drawn up a proposal for a cease-fire of several weeks and the phased release of the remainder of the hostages.

But Hamas, which has yet to publicly respond to the proposal, has said it won’t release any more captives until Israel ends its offensive. The militants are expected to demand the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners in return — demands Netanyahu has publicly ruled out.

The war has ignited tensions across the region, with a flurry of strikes and counterstrikes raising the risk of a wider conflict.

Israel and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah militant group trade fire across the border on a daily basis, and in recent weeks apparent Israeli strikes have killed senior Hezbollah commanders.

A drone attack launched by Iran-backed militants killed three U.S. soldiers near the Jordan-Syria border last week, prompting a wave of retaliatory U.S. strikes. The United States and Britain have also carried out strikes on the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen in response to their attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, which the rebels portray as a blockade of Israel.

 

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Some Ukrainian soldiers express unease over possible dismissal of army chief

As Ukraine's president looks poised to fire the head of his armed forces, some soldiers fighting Russia's latest onslaught on the eastern front are sceptical, but say that much will depend on who he might be replaced by.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview published on Sunday that he is considering replacing armed forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi as part of a broader wartime shake-up of the top brass.

Zaluzhnyi is viewed as a hero by most Ukrainians, with the memories of the stunning underdog victories against Russia in 2022 outweighing the failure of last year's counter-offensive in the minds of many.

"I think this dismissal would not be appropriate now, because on the field of battle you do not change commanders," said a 31-year-old anti-tank unit commander who asked to be introduced by his call sign, Tiger.

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Tiger's brigade, the 59th, are fighting on a section of the front in the eastern Donetsk region near Avdiivka, a town built around a vast coking plant which has borne the brunt of Russia's second winter assault.

The soldier, choosing his words carefully and speaking in the basement of a house where he was resting between frontline rotations, said a lot depended on who would replace him.

"The most popular (commanders) are those who are here, and who fight alongside the lads, who sit in the trenches," he said.

He added that whoever was in charge should ensure the arrival of fresh replacement troops and a larger supply of drones - both things that Zaluzhnyi has pushed for.

The importance of the identity of the next commander was echoed by 33-year-old company commander Ihor.

"Before you fire someone from their post, especially such an important one, you need to be sure who will replace this person and what their vision is for the future of this situation," he said.

"If our government wants to change someone, these changes should only make things better, and not worse."

A December 2023 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found 72% of Ukrainians would view the dismissal of Zaluzhnyi negatively, with only 2% seeing it positively.

The soldiers who spoke to Reuters were cautious not to express strident opinions in a row that pits their commander-in-chief against a president who heads the armed forces.

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But Mykola, a 59-year-old who commands a GRAD rocket launcher truck, said he thought Zaluzhnyi had been sucked into a political dispute.

"Everyone thinks we had some successes in 2022... But in 2023 (not as much). That doesn't mean that Zaluzhnyi was managing the armed forces badly," he said.

MOBILISATION WORRIES

Longstanding friction between Zelenskiy and Zaluzhnyi over the conduct of the war has come to a head over the issue of mobilisation.

Zelenskiy has said the military wants to recruit up to 500,000 men in 2024, something a source said the president opposes, although his government has submitted a draft law to parliament tightening up military recruitment.

The soldiers in Donetsk region, many of whom volunteered not expecting to be still fighting after two years of full-scale war, said they did not want to shoulder the entire burden of the conflict.

"The mobilisation is necessary, because we don't have enough people, the enemy has a great advantage over us in the number of soldiers," Ihor said.

Tiger estimated 60-70% of the original 59th brigade were still serving, and it had not been able to fill all the gaps left by those killed, injured or signed off for other reasons.

Mykola, the 59-year-old, said he would go home when he turned 60 in line with the current rules. He said he felt for younger soldiers who didn't have that option.

"Everyone has to understand that the entire country of Ukraine is at war, not just those who have been fighting for the last two years."

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian drone production soaring – deputy PM

Russia expects to see a major increase in drones supplied to its military this year, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said in an interview with the TV channel Russia 24 on the sidelines of the second World Defense Show that kicked off in Riyadh on Sunday.

According to Manturov, who also serves as the trade and industry minister, Russia is planning to allocate 100 billion rubles ($1.1 billion) for the research, development, and production of drones in the next three years. 

“First of all, of course, there will be more drones. Our armed forces are actively using them in many areas. The range of products is very wide, from heavy unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs] to first-person view [FPV] drones,” the official said.

He specified that the plan entails producing hundreds of thousands of FPV drones and dozens of heavy UAVs.

“This is one of the important areas where we will be working together with the Defense Ministry, and our industrial enterprises are expected to build up both competencies and production volumes,” Manturov said.

He stressed that communication equipment ensuring tactical interaction in the field would be produced in greater amounts, while production of heavy and light armored vehicles, air-defense systems and equipment for counter-battery warfare will see an expansion as well.

The use of drones has become a critical part of combat operations in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Although the technology has been used extensively on twenty-first-century battlefields, the current conflict has produced innovations in autonomous warfare never seen before, military experts highlight.

 

Reuters/RT

The shock of the new, in political life, often sends us back to the past in search of an intellectual compass. Amid the rise of Donald Trump, Viktor Orban, Jair Bolsanaro and other authoritarian leaders, Hannah Arendt’s “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” published in 1951, enjoyed a surge of attention, and Arendt herself acquired a prophet-like status among liberals seeking to understand how their world had gone so wrong. The threat of illiberal nationalism hasn’t faded — on the contrary — but in an age consumed with racism, police violence and the legacy of European colonialism in the Middle East and Africa, Arendt’s popularity is increasingly rivaled by that of a man she both sharply criticized and grudgingly admired: Frantz Fanon.

Fanon, a psychiatrist, writer, and anticolonial militant, who grew up in a middle-class Black family in French colonial Martinique, was not merely a thinker; he was a political theoretician, a fiery spokesman for Algeria’s independence movement, the National Liberation Front (F.L.N.), which he joined while working as a psychiatrist in Blida, on the outskirts of Algiers. He captured, as no other writer of his time did, the fury engendered by colonial humiliation in the hearts of the colonized. He was also a startlingly prescient analyst of contemporary ills — the enduring psychological injuries of racism and oppression, the persistent force of white nationalism and the scourge of autocratic, predatory postcolonial regimes.

Fanon wrote at the height of the Cold War, but, with no less prescience, he regarded the East-West struggle as a passing sideshow, of far less consequence than the divisions between North and South, of the rich world and the poor world. If the colonial world was, in his words, “a world cut in two,” our postcolonial world seems scarcely less so. Just consider the starkly different responses to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza — or South Africa’s case against Israel, on the charge of genocide — in the global north and the global south.

Much of the writing Fanon produced in his short lifetime — he died at 36, of leukemia — was in the form either of psychiatric studies or propaganda dashed off for the purpose of revolutionary instruction. It gives off the heat of battles that haven’t ended, battles over colonialism and racial injustice. Not surprisingly, Fanon’s name has been invoked in discussions of everything from the precariousness of Black lives to the campaign to repatriate African art objects, from the refugee crisis to Hamas’s murderous attack on Oct. 7. It’s not as if his work ever vanished. But it hasn’t been cited with such frequency or urgency since the late 1960s, when the Black Panthers, Palestinian guerrillas and Latin American revolutionaries pored over copies of “The Wretched of the Earth,” Fanon’s 1961 anticolonial manifesto.

Back then, Fanon was a minor celebrity on the radical left. Today he is an icon, enlisted on behalf of a range of often wildly contradictory agendas: Black nationalist and cosmopolitan, secular and Islamist, identitarian and anti-identitarian. He’s the subject of two forthcoming biopics, and “The Wretched of the Earth” even shows up as a prop in an episode of “The White Lotus.” Left-wing artists, academics, activists and therapists hungrily rummage through his writings for catchphrases (and there are many) about the psychological effects of white domination, racist misrepresentations of the Black body, the meaning of the Muslim head scarf, the anger of the colonized and the exhibitionist violence of imperial powers. But the far right has also had a longstanding fascination with his work: both the writer Renaud Camus and the French politician Éric Zemmour, proponents of the racist Great Replacement theory, are readers of Fanon.

After the murder of George Floyd, protesters held up banners quoting Fanon’s observation in “Black Skin, White Masks,” a study of racism published in 1952 when he was 27 years old, that the oppressed revolt when they can no longer breathe. Since Oct. 7, he has been celebrated by pro-Palestinian students — and denounced by their critics — for his defense of violence by the colonized in the first chapter of “The Wretched of the Earth.” What Fanon’s contemporary admirers and detractors have in common is that many, if not most, of them appear not to have read past the first chapter, portraying this complex and challenging thinker as little more than a supporter of revolutionary violence by any means necessary — a Malcolm X for the French-speaking world. Or, more precisely, the caricature to which Malcolm X, like so many Black revolutionaries, has been reduced.

 

New York Times

Sometimes, the signs that someone is smart are easily recognizable. Other giveaways are more subtle.

The top one: being a good listener, says New York-based psychotherapist and career coach Jenny Maenpaa.

People who “are able to perceive an interaction holistically, rather than just being in the moment and responding to the last thing you said with the first thing they thought of” are usually highly intelligent, Maenpaa tells CNBC Make It.

This skill is also known as active listening, and it requires more than just sitting in silence while someone speaks.

“Active listening is when someone can listen to you at length, truly taking in what you’re saying, and not interrupt,” Maenpaa says. “Active listeners respond with questions because they are genuinely curious about what you’re saying. They can hold their questions in their mind until you finish instead of interrupting to clarify or to share a thought they had just because you reminded them of it.”

Successful people can use this skill to foster relationships and build trustand with colleagues, bosses, mentors or anyone else around them. Many professionals believe that they’re active listeners, but 70% of them actually exhibit poor listening habits in the workplace, resulting in misunderstandings and damaged friendships, according to a 2020 University of Southern California report.

Some people are “naturally gifted with [active listening skills] from an early age, and often receive feedback like, ‘You’re so easy to talk to!’ or ‘I feel like I’m the only person in the room when we talk,’” says Maenpaa.

Others can develop the ability through practice. Maintain eye contact with your conversation partners, sit still instead of fidgeting, and wait for people to finish their thoughts before speaking, psychologist and mental health coach Amanda O’Bryan recommended in a 2022 Positive Psychology blog post.

Internalizing what the other person is saying, rather than focusing exclusively on your own thoughts, can also help.

“Active listeners will be able to circle back to an earlier point in the conversation and say, ‘What you just said reminds me of something you said a few minutes ago,’ and make connections or draw themes from the conversation,” Maenpaa says.

The skill can help you create long-lasting connections with the people around you, she adds: “Talking to someone who is an active listener will often have someone leaving the conversation feeling seen, heard, and validated from their interaction.”

 

CNBC

Parents of five abducted pupils of the Apostolic Faith Group of Schools, Emure Ekiti on Sunday said they went through a tedious journey before securing the release of their children.

The abducted five pupils of the school were released on Sunday after the kidnappers collected a N15m ransom.

Apart from the ransom, the kidnappers insisted on collecting fried rice, energy drinks and cigarettes.

The school proprietor, Gabriel Adesanya, told The PUNCH that the driver was killed. According to him, the corpse of the driver, who was kidnapped alongside the pupils and staff members of the school, has yet to be found.

He said, “The corpse of the driver has not been found yet. The freed kidnapped victims said he was killed between yesterday and this morning. We cannot trace the body at the moment since we don’t know the location where they were kept. We have discussed with the police whether we can recover it.”

When contacted, one of the parents of the kidnapped victims, Adebisi Jegede, confirmed that a ransom was paid to the kidnappers.

He said, “A ransom was paid to the kidnappers and the money raised was around the N15m they demanded. I was not the one that counted the money but it was around that amount.”

Relatives of the victims said the kidnappers, who initially demanded N100m, reduced it to N15m after negotiations.

The victims were on their way home from school last Monday when five of the pupils, three teachers, and the bus driver were abducted.

The schoolchildren were abducted on the same day gunmen killed two Ekiti monarchs-the Onimojo of Imojo, Olatunde Olusola, and the Elesun of Esun Ekiti, Babatunde Ogunsakin, but the Alara of Ara Ekiti, Adebayo Fatoba, escaped.

The parents and families of the kidnapped persons, who were happy to reunite with their beloved ones who spent six days in the den of kidnappers, said that the journey to their release was torturous.

A man, whose wife and son were among the kidnapped persons, said that N15m ransom and some other items were handed over to the kidnappers in an expansive forest before the abductees were released to them.

The man who spoke anonymously for fear of being abducted, said, “Nine persons were kidnapped. But eight persons were released, we didn’t see the ninth person. The kidnapped persons told us after their release that the gunmen shot the driver dead”.

The man said, “It gave us a lot of problems to see the kidnappers. When we first entered the forest, we spent about two hours without seeing them. We had to go forth and back before we saw the kidnappers.

“When we eventually saw them, they took us into the bush far away from where we parked the motorcycle that we took there. We gave them what they demanded and they released the kidnapped persons to us.

“We gave them N15m and the food items they asked us to buy for them – eight packs of fried rice with chicken and drinks – can malt drink, fearless energy drink, bullet energy drink and cigarettes.

 As they collected the money and the items, they said we should run off.”

The source, who said he could not say specifically the location in the forest, said, “The place is between Ondo and Ekiti States. We entered around Ago Panu along Owo–Ikare Road in Ondo State and went deep in the expansive forest.

“When they released them to us, I embraced my family members, I thank God for the reunion, for surviving the torture, and hunger.”

Shedding more light, a woman, whose three grandchildren were among the kidnapped persons, said that her joy knew no bounds on reuniting with them after they were released in the early hours of Sunday.

She said, “My joy knows no bounds as I speak with you. When I saw my children, we held one another in long embrace and we all wept especially when I saw the condition they were in. They spent about a week in the forest.

“God was with us in our journey yesterday (Saturday), I could see my children again. I went to the bush with the search party for the rescue. It was located off Owo-Ikare Road in Ondo State. Initially, I didn’t want to go because of my leg, but on second thought that my three grandchildren were involved, I chose to go.

“The kidnappers were calling persistently that we should hurry up. They said we should meet them at Ikare Junction. I wondered how come Ikare junction when they took the children from Eporo. When we got to Ikare Junction, they said we should buy food, so we went to buy rice, meat, and other things.

“At a point, they called that we should turn back and described another road. We decided that all of us should not go there so that they would not think that we came with policemen who could make them injure the abductees.

“Later, the kidnappers said that only two persons should come. They threatened to waste the kidnapped persons if more than two persons should come. So, only two persons continued while the rest of us sat on the road there.

“The driver of the vehicle had to return at a point and two persons then used a motorbike to trace the kidnappers to drop the money and food.

“On collecting the money and food, they released the kidnapped persons, and our people used the motorbike to take them to the road, it was then they called us to bring the vehicle to convey them.

“The kidnappers collected N15m. We (parents and families) contributed N4m, people came to our aid by contributing. Even they called for contributions in the markets and the people supported, they contributed so that the kidnapped persons would be rescued.

A political leader at Eporo, who pleaded anonymity, said, “The children told us that when the kidnappers were asking for the telephone numbers of relatives, the driver told them he didn’t know that of his wife and school proprietor off-hand, this made them angry and they hit him with their gun.

“For five days, he was said to be having issues after the injury he sustained and he was shot dead on Saturday morning. It was a bitter experience for the victims, especially looking at how the driver was killed.

One of the parents appealed to the governor to employ the freed teachers in any of the public schools in Eporo.

“If the governor can show mercy to them by giving them jobs or teaching appointments, there are public schools in Eporo where they can teach without having to travel to and fro daily. Then, they will have job security as well.

“I plead with the governor, to please, have mercy on the teachers and as well the children. May God give them the grace to forget their experience in the kidnappers’ den. If the governor can do this, it will be yet another positive thing we will be saying about him,” the parent said.

The Proprietor of the school, Adesanya, on his part confirmed that a ransom was paid, adding that a group of persons in the community organised the payment.

“Ransom was paid to secure their release but I was not a party to the people that went to pay the money. One thing I am sure of is that ransom was paid. I am aware that the last time they called, they were hell-bent on collecting N15m and the parent was not even able to raise enough money. And as of the time they claimed to have raised N7m, I did not know if the money was up to that.”

He said, “When I spoke to the people that were coordinating the payment, they said the important thing was to get the victims released and that whatever money they were demanding, they would work it out. So by the time they concluded, I was not informed. I was not even told when they went to pay the money. I was only invited when the victims were brought to the palace. In fact, I was thinking the police would be able to rescue having deployed their resources including a helicopter, but today I was called that they were already brought to the palace.”

 

Punch

Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) says the national grid has been fully restored.

The national power grid had collapsed in the early hours of Sunday, causing a blackout across the nation.

Speaking in a statement on Sunday, Ndidi Mbah, the general manager of TCN’s public affairs, blamed the incident on gas supply constraints that continuously affect the stability of the grid.

“The grid experienced a partial disturbance at about 11:21 Hours today with Ibom power islanded, feeding Eket, Ekim, Itu & Uyo transmission substations, during the period of partial disturbance,” TCN said.

“TCN initiated immediate restoration of the affected part of the grid, and presently, the grid is fully restored.

“Prior to the incident, total generation on the grid was 3,901.25 MW at 08:00 Hours, a little over three hours before the time of partial collapse.

“It is important to note that low power generation has persisted since January 2024, to date, exacerbating daily due to the lingering gas constraint.

“According to the National Control Center (NCC), the Internet of Things (IoT) was revealed just before the partial disturbance, which occurred at 11:21 Hrs. Today, Sapele Steam & Egbin Substations lost a total of 29.32MW & 343.84MW at 11:20:14Hrs & 11:20:17Hrs respectively, totalling 373.16MW.

“This, combined with the current low power generation due to gas constraints, caused the imbalance leading to the partial system disturbance.

“Gas constraints continue to impact grid flexibility and stability.”

Mbah, however, said ensuring sufficient gas supply to power generating stations is crucial for grid stability as sufficient generation allows for better grid management in the event of sudden generation losses.

She also said the transmission company will investigate the cause of the tripping of Sapele Steam and Egbin power generating units.

 

The Cable