All Nigerian students fleeing war-torn Sudan have been successfully evacuated from Sudan. The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) made the announcement on the Federal Government’s behalf on Saturday. Since the commencement of the evacuation exercise on May 3, no fewer than 2,518 Nigerians have been airlifted to the Nigerian soil. Saturday’s evacuation happened to be the 15th batch where 125 more Nigerians arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja. READ ALSO: 125 More Nigerians Arrive In Abuja, Number Of Sudan Evacuees Hits 2,371 The evacuees arrived at 12:49 pm on a Tarco B737-300 aircraft from Port Sudan. The latest arrival brings the total number of evacuated Nigerians from Sudan to 2,371. Upon arrival, the returnees were processed by immigration officials alongside their colleagues from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons. On May 3, after nearly two weeks of assurances by the Federal Government, the first batch of Nigerians fleeing Sudan arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. The Air Peace flight carrying over 270 Nigerian students from the Aswan Airport in Egypt first landed at the airport, with the NAF C-130H jet conveying about 80 persons following closely behind. Two days later, the second batch arrived in Abuja around 3 pm on board a Tarco Airline aircraft carrying 130 passengers including 128 females and two males. EVACUATION UPDATE: (Last Batch of Evacuation). The 15th match of Evacuees: 147 Nationals that departed Port Sudan International Airport, landed at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport around 8:30 pm local time on May 13 via Tarco Air. The total breakdown so far; Advertisement 1st Batch -… pic.twitter.com/0mGS8NYko8 — Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (@nidcom_gov) May 13, 2023 It is not clear if the evacuation process will continue for other non-students who may be stranded in Sudan. According to the commission, the evacuations were carried out by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Tarco Air, Max Air, Azman Air, and Air Peace. The evacuated Nigerians were brought home batch by batch, with Tarco Air responsible for 11 of the 15 flights. “During this exercise, no single Nigerian life has been lost so far,” NIDCOM added. With this batch of evacuation, all Nigerian students in Port Sudan and Egypt border have been evacuated home . Allhamdulilah ???????????????? https://t.co/eO3MW7DEzi — Abike Dabiri-Erewa (@abikedabiri) May 13, 2023

  The Federal Government has said that governors can offset or grant waivers to inmates with fines less than N1 million. This was disclosed by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, during the commissioning of a 20-bed space medical facility at Port Harcourt maximum security custodial centre. Aregbesola said while the Federal Government is finding long time solutions to the challenge of prison decongestion, the State Government can in the meantime provide basic supports, like offsetting the meager fines and debts, building court houses at the correctional services premises or try the defendants virtually from the Correctional Centres for speedy determination of cases. He held that some of the inmates are held behind bars for minor offences that can be easily waved by the states. The Minister further asserted that he recently asked the comptroller of Correctional centres to compile the list of inmates whose reason for incarceration is a fine or a debt not more than one million naira that are meant to be paid to the state governments. He said about 5,000 inmates where shortlisted under this category and Al of them have stayed long enough in the care of the Federal Government to consume foods worth more than they are supposed to pay as fines and debt to the states. According to him, in Rivers State, there are about 22 of such inmates and the 22 of them are collectively owing a little above 3million naira, an amount he thinks the State Government can offset or wave for the inmates to be freed.   The minister noted that apart from reducing the financial burden on the Federal Government, such decisions by the state will also help in decongesting the correctional centres. He said for instance, the Maximum facility in Port Harcourt was built 1,800 inmates, but as of May 12, 2023 the centre was holding 3,100 inmates. While emphasizing that the situation in Port Harcourt is a reflection of the cases in most of the facilities across the country, the minister said Additionally, the Federal Government is building 6 mega facilities with at least 3,000 capacity in the six geopolitical zones to further decongest the existing facilities. The one for the South-South is located in Bori in Khana Local Government Area of the Ogoni ethnic group in Rivers State.

  Peter Okoye of PSquare has appealed to the Nigeria Police Force on behalf of his colleague, Seun Kuti, to temper justice with mercy. The singer’s plea comes as the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, has ordered the arrest of Seun Kuti for physically assaulting a police officer. On Saturday, Seun Kuti a son of the late legendary afrobeat singer, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, was caught on camera slapping a policeman. In the video, the Grammy nominee was seen yelling at the policeman saying, ‘You want to kill me and my family.’ Soon after the video went viral, the IGP ordered the arrest of the singer. However, pleading on his behalf, Peter Okoye fondly known as Mr P acknowledged that his colleague’s action was wrong. Taking to his verified Twitter account, the music star wrote, “Quite an unfortunate incident and from reports, it seems Seun’s family was in danger hence the altercation. When you understand what happens when a man is put in a situation to protect his family from any form of danger, our emotions get the better of us. I ask and plead that the #NigerianPoliceForce accept our unreserved apologies for the unfortunate outburst and tamper justice with mercy.   He further asked social media users to stop tagging him over the incident thinking he would be ‘excited’ about Seun Kuti’s predicament. “For those tagging me and expecting me to be excited about the Police incident! Pls Stop! As a people, we just want a country where no one is above the law and a place of Law and Order! Everybody go dey alright las las! Happy Sunday. Dear @PoliceNG. What Seun did was wrong! Please temper justice with mercy!”(sic) See the post below: Quite an unfortunate incident and from reports, it seems Seun’s family was in danger hence the altercation. When you understand what happens when a man is put in a situation to protect his family from any form of danger, our emotions get the better of us. I ask and plead… — Peter Okoye MrP (@PeterPsquare) May 14, 2023

  Suspected armed bandits have attacked Fugge community in the Rijau Local Government Area of Niger State, kidnapping the village head, Mallam Abdullahi Zaure and 49 others. A community member who craved anonymity said most of those abducted during the last Friday attack were women, and children, while few of them were males.   Besides those abducted, many cattle were also rustled. It was gathered that the terrorists invaded the village on several motorcycles and started shooting into the air to scare the villagers in broad daylight. Efforts to contact the Niger State Police Public Relations Officer, Wasiu Abiodun proved abortive as his phone line didn’t go through. In a text forwarded to him, Abiodun promised to make enquiries and provide details. The police spokesman however failed to do so as of the time of filing this report. Gunmen have been wreaking havoc on Niger and other states in the North-West and North-Central regions despite the efforts of security agencies and the Federal Government to tackle the menace. Abductions for ransom and intercommunal attacks have been on the rise again in the last few weeks after a brief calm period during February and March elections for the presidency and governorship posts.   Just last week, nine people, including a local chief, in Idon Gida community in nearby Kajuru district of Kaduna State, according to local sources. Bandits burst into the Christian village around 8pm, taking away seven women and two men, residents said. Mass kidnappings and bandit gangs in the northwest are just one of several security challenges facing president-elect Bola Tinubu when he takes the helm of Africa’s most populous nation later this month. Nigeria’s military is also battling a grinding jihadist conflict in the northeast that has killed 40,000 since 2009 as well as simmering separatist tensions in the southeast of the country, where gunmen often target police.

  The Nigeria Labour Congress on Saturday said it was looking forward to holding a meeting with the incoming administration of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, over matters relating to the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol. It, however, insisted that its position on fuel subsidy had not changed, stressing that the government must endeavour to get Nigeria’s refineries functional before taking out subsidy on petrol. The labour union’s position was also re-echoed by the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, as IPMAN explained that while it was important to halt the subsidy regime, the government should at the same time strive to fix Nigeria’s refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri. The NLC Vice President, Nigeria Labour Congress, Adewale Adeyanju, told our correspondent that though the NLC had already made its position known to the incoming administration, it was looking forward to meeting the President-elect after he has been sworn in as President. “The man (President-elect) has not been sworn in. When he is sworn in, he can then sit down with the NLC to discuss the fuel subsidy issue. The NLC has been making its position known to Nigerians and to even the incoming government. “The incoming government has been advised properly by all stakeholders about removing the subsidy and I cannot advise them more on this. But let them come in first and we can then sit with them and discuss this matter,” Adeyanju stated. On what the position of the NLC was, he explained that it had remained that the government should get Nigeria’s refineries running, as this would help ameliorate the cost burden of fully deregulated petrol. About two weeks ago, The PUNCH exclusively reported that Nigerians should brace up to pay N8.4tn for petrol from July to December 2023, once the Federal Government stops subsidy on PMS in June, as planned. This was following the explanation by oil marketers that the average cost of petrol could rise to about N700/litre from July, should fuel subsidy be brought to an end in June as projected by the Federal Government. “If the refineries are not working and we are going to depend on imports, then the price of petrol may rise even above the N700 or N750 that is being projected,” the President, Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, had told our correspondent. He added, “This is because it is going to depend on the dollar rate and crude oil cost. When you check the landing cost, logistics, overhead, profit, etc, you may be looking at about N800, though the average is pegged at N700. “And that is if we continue to depend on imports. Now, this calculation is based on when we get the product at the approved Central Bank of Nigeria dollar rate, and not at the over N740/$ black market price. “If the dollar is accessed at the black market rate, then you can double that N700/litre average price once the subsidy is removed. So you should be looking at between N1,400 to N1,700/litre. This is why we must get our refineries working.” Gillis-Harry’s position was further given credence by the Secretary, IPMAN, Abuja-Suleja, Mohammed Shuaibu, who explained, as captured in the exclusive report that though it was vital to halt the subsidy regime, implementing this without functional refineries would definitely lead to high PMS price. ‘Fix refineries first’ Also speaking on the issue, the National Public Relations Officer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chief Ukadike Chinedu, said IPMAN had repeatedly made it clear that subsidy should be removed when refineries are working. “We have said this time without number that though subsidy removal is okay, it should be done when the government has fixed our refineries. This will help cushion the hardship which the full deregulation of petrol would have on the masses,” he told our correspondent. Ukadike had earlier explained that IPMAN was not saying that subsidy should not be removed. MOMAN objects But the Executive Secretary, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Clement Isong, gave a different view on the subsidy debate, as he insisted that it was high time the government stopped subsidising petrol. Asked to state what could be the cost of petrol when deregulated, he replied, “It is not safe to project the cost of petrol at the pumps because it is all based on how we manage our foreign exchange as a country. But that does not mean we should continue to burn trillions of naira on subsidy. It makes no sense. He said, “If there is visibility, if you stop your multiple exchange rates, if everybody develops confidence in the credibility, sincerity, transparency in the management of the nation’s foreign exchange, then your pump price can indeed, even if it stands at N400 or above N400, go lower. But this is if the cost of crude, cost of Platts continues to trade lower in the international market.”

  Four staff members of a Microfinance Bank are presently in the Police net over alleged murder of a debtor’s wife in Ogun state. The staff members of ZEFA Microfinance Bank, Abule Ijoko Lemode of Ifo Local Government Area of the state, were arrested on May 10 over the death of 50 years old Vivian Omo, wife to one of their debtors. They were alleged to have beaten the woman to death when she failed to produce her husband, the debtor. Trouble started when the bank staffers visited the home of the deceased to ask for the payment of loan taken from the bank by the deceased’s husband, but they were told that the man was not at home. Not satisfied with the woman’s explanation about the whereabouts of her husband, the bank staffs decided to pack all the electronics in the house to their office, the action was resisted by the deceased.   According to Ogun State Police Publlic Relations Officer ( PPRO) SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, While the deceased was struggling with the Bank’s staff, one of them pushed her and she fell down and was unconscious. “She was there and then rushed to the hospital for medical attention, but was confirmed dead by the doctor on duty. “The report was quickly lodged at Agbado Divisional headquarters by the daughter of the deceased, consequent upon which DPO Agbado division, CSP Awoniyi Adekunle, led detectives to the scene where four staff of the bank namely: Badmus Olalekan, Ajibade Oludare, Eniola Aduragbemi, and Femi Oloko, were arrested. “The corpse has been deposited at Ifo General Hospital morgue for autopsy”. Meanwhile, Commissioner of Police, Mr. Olanrewaju Oladimeji, has ordered the immediate transfer of the suspects to the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation Department(SCIID), for further investigation. He also warned loan agencies to stop taking laws into their hands in the process of recovering loan from their debtors, as anyone caught in such act will be arrested and prosecuted.

  Kashim Shettima, vice-president-elect, has implored lawmakers-elect to accept the zoning arrangement of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the leadership of the 10th national assembly. Shettima spoke during a meeting some of the house of representatives members-elect on Friday. Earlier this week, controversy ensued within APC after the party nominated Godswill Akpabio, a former minister of Niger Delta affairs, and Abbas Tajudeen, a house of representatives member from Kaduna, for the national assembly leadership positions.   While Akpabio was nominated for president of the senate, Tajudeen was endorsed for the speaker of the house of representatives. The party also nominated Barau Jibrin, senator representing Kano north, as deputy senate president, and Benjamin Kalu, a lawmaker from Abia and current house spokesperson, as deputy speaker. The nominations have been faulted by lawmakers within and outside the party and several attempts to mitigate the rift have proven futile so far. Speaking during the meeting with lawmakers-elect, Shettima said APC seeks to avoid a situation where all the top officials of the incoming administration would be of the same faith. He said the circumstance could “validate the negative narrative of the Islamisation agenda of Nigeria”. Shettima added that the leadership of the forthcoming national assembly must be inclusive because the “stability of the nation is much more important than any other consideration”. “What we are trying to avoid is a situation whereby the number one citizen, number two citizen, the number three citizen, and the number four citizen are all of the same faith. That will lend credence, and validate the negative narrative of the Islamisation agenda of Nigeria,” the vice-president-elect said. ‘This is why my principal, a fair-minded leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is more inclined towards having the number three citizen from the South/south or the south-east. Even in the current circumstance that we find ourselves in, the stability of the nation is much more important than any other consideration. “All other considerations have to be relegated to the background because we are talking about the stability of the nation. “We are talking about inclusivity, we are talking about togetherness because nation-building is a continuous work in progress and politics is about perception, it is about optics. I am quite glad that Benjamin Kalu will emerge as the deputy speaker. The hope for the black man rests with the people of this country.”

  The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency(NDLEA) has disclosed that the two businessmen arrested by its operatives at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja for cocaine ingestion have both excreted 193 pellets of the illicit drug after three days in observatory custody. The traffickers: Onoh Ebere, 49, and Christian Ifeanyi Ogbuji, 47, were intercepted at the Abuja airport on Wednesday May 10 upon their arrival from Uganda via Addis Ababa, onboard Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 951. A statement by its Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi said though both suspects have businesses they manage in Nigeria, their main source of income has been drug trafficking. They both travelled to Uganda and from there crossed over to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where they picked the consignments before returning to Abuja with Lagos as their final destination. After days in excretion room, Ebere Onoh excreted a total of 100 pellets weighing 2.137kg while Christian Ifeanyi Ogbuji expelled 93 pellets hidden in his stomach with a gross weight of 1.986kg. Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives have raided two notorious drug joints, Zaro bunk in Bama road, Sabongari and the Sani Abacha indoor stadium, both in Kano metropolis where a total of 160 suspects were arrested with different quantities of illicit substances. Also, two suspects: Abubakar Sallau, 55, and Nazifi Abdullahi, 25, were arrested on Saturday May 13, along Kano-Maiduguri road, with 5,000 pills of Tramadol 200mg, while a total of 65,200 tablets of tramadol and exol-5 were seized from the duo of Adamu Nagati, 30, and Ali Nasiru, 35.   This is even as operatives in Abuja also arrested 25 suspects in raids across Tora Bora, Gwarinpa village, 3rd avenue in Gwarinpa, Karamo, Garki market, Sabongari Bwari and New Kucigoro IDP camp, within the FCT. Another bid to smuggle into Lagos a consignment of 24kg cannabis indica concealed in imported used cars from Canada was again frustrated by NDLEA operatives who seized the illicit substance on Thursday 11th May during a joint 100% examination of a container marked, MSMU 7412069, at the Prime Connection Bonded terminal, off Oshodi-Apapa expressway. Two clearing agents linked with the container, Chief G.O. Njokwu and Mr. Christopher Obialor, have been arrested in collaboration with men of Customs Service. In the same vein, operatives of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, DOGI, attached to courier firms have intercepted a Saudi Arabia-bound 398grams of cocaine hidden in native dresses during outward clearance of goods. A female suspect, Fatima Hassan was arrested on Friday May 12 at Agege, Lagos with 33.5kg of cannabis sativa, while 44kg of the same substance was recovered same day from the Lagos Island warehouse of a fleeing drug dealer. The previous day, Thursday May 11, another suspect, Peter Joseph was arrested along Lagos/ibadan expressway with 10,000 pills of Tramadol 250mg and 1,500 tablets of Rohypnol concealed inside his Toyota Sienna vehicle, with registration number NRK 961XB. Similarly, a total of 68, 300 pills of various opioids mainly tramadol were recovered from one Bello Nasiru Usman when the truck conveying the illicit drugs was intercepted in Awka, Anambra state. In the same vein, 460,000mls of Akuskura in 7,800 bottles were seized from a dealer, Mohammed Kyari, 42, when he was arrested in Gamboru Ngala town, Jere LGA, Borno on Wednesday 10th May. While NDLEA operatives supported by soldiers raided the hideout of a notorious drug dealer, Jimoh Lekan (aka ‘komokomo’) in Owode, Ogun state where 134kg cannabis was recovered from his store on Thursday May 11, their counterparts in Plateau state on Tuesday 9th May arrested a suspect Bashir Usman, 32, at the Gangare Area of Jos, with 43.951kg of cannabis. While commending the officers and men of NAIA, Tincan, Kano, FCT, Lagos, Ogun, Taraba, Borno, Plateau and Anambra Commands of the Agency as well as those of DOGI for their resilience, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Marwa (Retd) has urged them and their peers across the country to intensify their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction activities.