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BUHARI’S KANO VISIT: PROTESTING YOUTHS BARRICADE ROADS, STONE HELICOPTER

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The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) inaugurating the 10mw solar-powered electricity project sponsored by the Nigerian Social Investment Agency in Kano, as angry residents stoned his chopper…on Monday. Photo: AbdulAziz Na’ibi Abubakar

Some angry youths in Kano State, on Monday, hauled stones at the advance convoy of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), during an official visit to Kano.

Security had been beefed up across the Kano metropolis as the President visited the state to inaugurate eight development projects.

The President arrived at the Aminu Kano International airport in the morning and from there, he was conveyed by helicopter to the palace of the Emir of Kano, Aminu Bayero.

However, in spite of the heavy security presence mounted on the routes leading to Ahmadu Bello way where the President was to launch Galaxy Backbone Limited’s project, angry youths holding stones of various sizes and wielding sticks reportedly attacked Buhari’s convoy and helicopter as it hovered above them.

Videos circulated on social media showed the moment the irate youths pelted stones at the helicopter believed to be conveying the President.

One video showed citizens angrily struggling with some unidentified security agents while a convoy made its way through their midst.

Another video showed a road littered with stones while teargas canisters were being fired to disperse the angry mob.

Our correspondent observed as the protesting youths shouted “ba ma yi” (down with you) and ran helter-skelter to avoid being caught by heavily armed security operatives who provided security for the President and his convoy.

Besides Hotoro and a few other projects that were inaugurated, the President’s chopper was parked at the Emir’s palace, from where he proceeded to Kumbotso Local Government to inaugurate the 10 megawatts solar power projects.

However, the President’s trip to Kumbotso did not record any attack by any mob, as he was sandwiched by security operatives, who comprised heavily armed soldiers aboard motorised Toyota Hilux and was also supported by armed mobile police special forces.

The Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, had recently in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Abba Anwar, asked Buhari to postpone his planned trip to inaugurate some projects in the state.

Ganduje said in the statement that the naira redesign and January 31 deadline for old notes had brought hardship on residents of the state, adding that the development made people angry.

“Deeply concerned with the hardship caused by the limited time given for halting the use of old naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria, and for security reasons, Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje reveals that the state resolved and wrote to the presidency that the visit of the president to commission some projects to be postponed,” the statement said in part.

However, Ganduje, while speaking to journalists after a meeting with Buhari in Katsina, expressed readiness to receive the president to commission the projects in the state.

“We are very much ready to receive him and we have a lot for him to commission, including Federal Government projects and state government projects. They are state-of-the-art projects,” Ganduje said.

Prior to the Ganduje episode, angry youths had attacked government officials when the President visited his home state in Katsina to inaugurate some projects on Thursday.

The youths were said to have staged the protest to express their anger against the hardship being experienced in the country.

The situation reportedly degenerated when the youths started throwing stones, causing a commotion that created tension in the area

PDP PCC

Reacting to the Kano rampage, spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Dino Melaye, who shared one of the videos from the reported attack, blamed it on the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

In a post, he wrote, “The fight between Tinubu and Buhari is entering a new dimension. The attack in Kano was properly coordinated and funded allegedly by Asiwaju.

“The meeting to push Buhari to submission or face sponsored attack in the north was said to be hatched in Burdillon. Me, I am busy with Atiku.”

A political activist, Deji Adeyanju, who shared another video of the reported attack, said, “They are showing Buhari and APC Shege in Kano and many northern states.”

Similarly, the PDP in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, on Monday also blamed Tinubu and the Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, for the attack.

According to the party, the attack was designed to undermine the Presidency, cause confusion, trigger violence in the country, disrupt the conduct of the 2023 general elections “and derail our democracy having realised that he cannot win in a peaceful, free and fair electoral process.”

The statement read in part, “The PDP invites Nigerians to note how Governor Abdullahi Ganduje attempted to abridge President Buhari’s movement and even tried to stop him from visiting Kano State.

“More disquieting is the fact that the APC Presidential Campaign sought to humiliate and harm President Buhari while performing his official duties in Kano.

“It should be noted that the APC presidential candidate has been displaying open aversion and making inciting statements against President Buhari since Mr President’s declaration, in line with democratic best practice all over the world that Nigerians should freely vote for any candidate and party of their choice in the 2023 general elections.

“The apparent frustration of Asiwaju Tinubu to resort to encourage or condone violence is fueled by his entitlement mentality, that it is his turn to be President, despite his numerous ineligibility and disability baggage.”

Ologunagba reminded Nigerians about Tinubu’s infamous statement in London where he declared to his supporters that “political power is not going to be served in a restaurant, it is not served a la carte.”

In its reaction, the APC  described as “fake news,” the allegation that Tinubu and Ganduje were behind the attack.

A statement issued late Monday night by the Director of Media and Publicity of the APC Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, accused the main opposition party of peddling the “fake news* and urged Nigerians to disregard same.

The statement read in part, “We were  not surprised to read of the imaginary attack on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria being peddled by the Peoples Democratic Party since the party has nothing tangible to tell Nigerians from its crumbling Presidential Campaign.

“This invented attack on President Muhammadu Buhari must have happened only in the fertile imagination of PDP National Publicity Secretary, one Debo Ologunagba.

“Nigerians should disregard this fake news from a party that has lost touch with reality and is suffering the agony of violating its own rules on power rotation.

“Just as it has been masterminding fake news against the APC presidential candidate and trying vainly to cause disharmony in the APC family, we believe the party may have planned to embarrass President Buhari in Kano and then put the blame on host Governor Ganduje and Tinubu.

“This is because PDP has recently morphed from being a Buhari virulent critic to strangely becoming a Buhari spokesperson. The last time, it issued a self-serving misinterpretation of Asíwájú’s statement in Abeokuta as an attack on President Buhari.”

The statement further said the fear of impending defeat may have pushed the PDP “into frenzied hallucinatory mode of mindless, ridiculous, ludicrous litany of lies and fabrications against APC and its candidate.”

It continued, “The PDP is a drowning party feverishly clawing at any straw of lies and lashing out in all delusional directions to keep afloat – but sink it will.

“We believe Nigerians are not taken in by the jejune antics.

“The PDP now runs the most unethical, pernicious and inelegant, abusive, obtrusive and nationally divisive campaign in the history of electioneering in Nigeria.

When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, declined to comment. He explained that he was not on the delegation at the time of the incident.

When contacted for a response to the allegation about Ganduje, the Kano State Commissioner for Information, Mohammed Garba, did not take several calls made to his phone and did not respond to the text message sent to his line as of the time of filing this report.

But when contacted for confirmation of the alleged attack, the Kano Police Command spokesman, SP Abdullahi Haruna, dismissed the claims as false and unsubstantiated.

According to him, a Kano Road Traffic Agency official stabbed a commercial tricycle operator, adjacent to Abubakar Rimi I Television Station in Hotoro, a situation that resulted in chaos.

The PPRO said the incident did not go down well with youths within the vicinity, who mobilised to descend on any KAROTA personnel sighted, leading to the hauling of stones on KAROTA officials, who fled the scene to safety.

The President was said to have retired to the government house after the inauguration of projects as of the time the rampage was ongoing.

The Police PRO, therefore, vehemently denied that nobody or group attacked the President’s convoy, adding that the visit was peaceful and hitch-free, following the huge combined security presence.

Foreign elements

Meanwhile, during the lunch held in his honour at the Kano State Government’s House, Buhari alleged that some foreign elements were part of the conspiracy that used Boko Haram to destroy the country.

The President added that it was unfortunate that Boko Haram had stopped the country from tapping its resources in the Lake Chad Basin.

He said, “We have shown Nigerians and the rest of the world that we have so many natural resources. Boko Haram insurgents took over the control of 17 local governments in Borno State. Out of the 27 LGs in the state, 13 were under Boko Haram and only four were with the government.

“Half of Yobe State was in the hands of Boko Haram. I suspect there is an international group that wants to destroy Nigeria, if not how can Western education be Haram” he queried.

“I was a Minister of Petroleum when I was there for four years. Go to Chad Basin and see what we established there, and then you go to Sokoto Basin. So, we have to pray hard and also thank God.

“We fight for our land from the groups that are trying to destroy Nigeria, but we are very lucky.  I am very happy that Nigerians showed me support, they identified with me and I identified with them also.”

According to the statement by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, Buhari during the state banquet to conclude his one-day official visit to Kano after launching several projects, urged citizens to appreciate what they had.

He said, “We have a great country, but we do not appreciate it until we visit our neighbours and other countries where the preoccupation is for people to have one good meal a day.”

He also described ongoing infrastructure development nationwide as “fantastic,” and urged citizens to appreciate what they have as the country’s situation is not dire compared with her neighbours.

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DEADLY CROWD CRUSH DURING SALE OF SEIZED RICE IN NIGERIA

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Bags of confiscated rice for sale are seen in Lagos, Nigeria, in this photo shared by Nigeria Customs services on February 23, 2024. From Nigeria Customs servicesCNN — 

There was a deadly crowd crush during the sale of seized rice in Nigeria. The Nigeria Customs Service says it is investigating reports people were trampled to death during a sale of bags of confiscated rice amid growing anger over skyrocketing prices of food in Africa’s most populous country.

“There was a chaotic situation caused by the impatience of people to follow the laid down procedures and rules that were set up for the exercise,” spokesperson for the service, Abdullahi Maiwada told CNN on Saturday. “I can neither confirm or deny any deaths but we are investigating,” he added.

Long queues have formed outside the Lagos customs office since the commencement of the sale as thousands of locals struggle to grab a bag of the 25-kilogram rice selling at a discounted price of 10,000 naira ($6.80).

Some eyewitnesses said they saw people “trampled to death” Friday.

“A man just died in my hospital, he was stamped on after falling at the custom office trying to get rice. He was on the queue with his wife when he fell down and couldn’t get up on time which resulted to people stamping on him. So sad. Survived by very young children,” said one Nigerian doctor on X.

Last week, anti-government protests broke out in parts of the West African nation as the country battles one of its worst cost-of-living crisis that has seen inflation accelerate to nearly 30% – the highest in 30 years.

The local currency has also significantly depreciated, losing over half its value to the US dollar following its second devaluation in less than a year.

More than 80 million Nigerians live on less than $2 a day, representing “the world’s second-largest poor population after India”, according to the World Bank.

The customs service said the distribution of the seized bags of rice was part of the government’s plan “to tackle the pressing issue of food insecurity.”

The cost of rice, a staple food in Nigeria, has surged in recent months. It is now priced at over N70,000 ($47.60) per 50kg bag, compared to a range of 45,000 to 50,000 naira previously.

The customs service says it has been confiscating contraband rice from smugglers following restrictions on foreign rice imports by the Nigerian government.

Analysts welcomed the rice distribution initiative but questioned its viability in tackling Nigeria’s worsening food insecurity.

“Interventions in terms of food supply look like a good idea but there should have been a policy rolled out to define how this will happen,” political analyst Sam Amadi told CNN.

“There is some distribution in Lagos now, what about other parts of the country? Is it just a Lagos intervention? Is it going to be a one-off, or a consistent sharing and does it have the potential to make some impact?” he asked, adding that “there is a lack of intelligible criteria and framework.”

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, who has faced criticism over the spike in the prices of goods and services said he is “dedicated to evolving home-grown solutions to tackle our nation’s food security challenges head-on.”

His government came under fire last November over a budget that allocated funds for purchasing SUV vehicles for the presidency, amounting to N2.9 billion ($3.6 million), and to cover the cost of renovating the president’s residential quarters, estimated at N4 billion ($5 million) as the country grapples with mounting debts.

Tinubu said he trusts the country’s central bank to fix the issue of the plummeting local currency.

The Lagos government said Thursday it was rolling out plans to address the food crisis in the state. Its governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu announced the opening of special markets “across the state to sell food items at really affordable rates.”

“We aim to serve over 500,000 Lagosians with essential food items at rates that defy inflation” in addition to the construction of food hubs, Sanwo-Olu added.

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DOZENS OF HAMAS TERRORISTS SURRENDER TO ISRAELI SOLDIERS

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Dozens of Hamas terrorists surrendered to Israeli force s in northern Gaza Thursday, Dec. 7, according to reports.

The Hamas terrorists turned themselves in after being pushed back by the advancing Israel Defense Forces near Jabaliya, the Times of Israel reports.

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Photos show dozens of alleged Hamas terrorists lined up on a street, sitting in rows with their hands over their heads.

The men were stripped to just their underwear as the IDF troops lined them up.

In one clip, the dozens of Hamas members could be seen in the back of an Israeli military vehicle.

Channel 13 reporter Almog Boker estimated that more than a hundred Hamas fighters turned themselves in, the largest group to surrender to the IDF since Israel began its incursion into the Palestinian enclave.

However, Israel’s Kan News reported that the group of men were detained before the IDF could verify whether they were all in fact members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The New Arab, a Qatari-owned news outlet based in London, alleged that one of the men seen in the footage was Diaa Al-Kahlot, one of its correspondents reporting from Gaza.

Senior Hamas leader Osama Hamdan claimed that the people arrested in the video were unarmed civilians who were not affiliated with the terror group, Arabic broadcaster Al Araby reports.

The IDF has yet to comment on the arrests in Jabaliya.

Many watchers of the ongoing situation in Gaza had always believed it was a matter of time before the Hamas terrorists began to be captured or surrender in their numbers.

Hamas is already claiming the dozens of alleged Hamas terrorists rounded up were not it’s members. Before now, people have been wondering why upon all the footages of the war in Gaza most pro Hamas media organisations have been portraying most graphically, no wounded or killed Hamas combatants have been shown.

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MAN EATEN ALIVE AFTER JUMPING INTO TIGER CAGE IN PAKISTANI ZOO

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Joe Exotic in Tiger King

A zoo in Pakistan has been shut down after a man was mauled to death by tigers in an attack discovered during routine cleaning, officials said Thursday. The body was found on Wednesday morning in Bahawalpur’s Sherbagh Zoo in the eastern province of Punjab after staff spotted one of the three tigers with a shoe…

A zoo in Pakistan has been shut down after a man was mauled to death by tigers in an attack discovered during routine cleaning, officials said Thursday.

The body of the man who apparently eaten alive was found on Wednesday morning in Bahawalpur’s Sherbagh Zoo in the eastern province of Punjab after staff spotted one of the three tigers with a shoe in its mouth.

“The zoo is closed right now as we determine how the man got in,” Ali Usman Bukhari, a senior officer of the province’s wildlife department, which operates the zoo, told AFP.

The condition of the body suggests the attack happened late Tuesday night after he jumped into the cage and was eaten alive by the tigers.

“The autopsy report has not been released, however, evidence gathered from the enclosure points towards him being alive when he was attacked by the tigers,” Bukhari said.

“The tigers did not go out of the den to attack the man, he jumped into their enclosure,” he said.

“If we find a security lapse, we will address it. If need be, we will hire private security guards.”

The man eaten alive has not been identified and no family member has come forward to claim the body.

Speaking to media outside the zoo after the body was discovered on Wednesday, senior local government official Zaheer Anwar said all staff had been accounted for.

“Our assessment so far is that this appears to be a lunatic, because a sensible person would not jump into the den,” he said.

“You can see the den is secured. There are stairs behind the den, maybe he jumped from there.”

The three tigers present in the den when the body was discovered have been restricted to a smaller space while evidence is collected.

The zoo was built in 1942 by the ruling royal family of the former princely state of Bahawalpur and costs adults 50 rupees (18 cents) to enter.

Pakistan’s zoos are generally in a poor condition and frequently accused of disregarding animal welfare.

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