The new Minister of Interior, Bunmi Tunji-Ojo, has bemoaned the delays experienced by Nigerians to obtain their passports. According to him, Nigerians should not be made to wait endlessly before getting their passports. He directed the acting Comptroller General of the Immigration, Caroline Wuraola-Adepoju, to ensure the reasons for the delays were addressed. Tunji-Ojo said this on Tuesday during a meeting with the head of paramilitary organisations under the ministry as well as other stakeholders. He said, “Mr. President is desirous of bringing in key reforms in our immigration policy, immigration service; a lot of reforms in terms of keeping Nigerians waiting to get their passports. Nigerians cannot be made to wait endlessly for what is their rights. We have to look at the bottleneck. We have to collaborate with the Service and make sure that we unburden those bottlenecks and make the Service more to the benefit of the people. Immigration service, you have to do more. We are ready to work. We have to roll up our sleeves and work.” He also said technology would be deployed to secure the borders to complement human efforts. Tunji-Ojo said, “We need to secure our borders and we need to ensure that all borders, whether land, air, or our sea borders, are all protected. We have to employ technology to complement and consolidate what you are already doing because I know you’re already doing some things, but we need to move at a faster pace and make sure we secure our territory as a nation. “I want to beg you, do not disappoint me because I need to build on your performance for us to be able to deliver the Renewed Hope agenda. ” He also said key performance indicators would be used for staff and heads of paramilitary agencies under the ministry. “There must be timelines and key performance indicators because responsibility without accountability is irresponsibility”, he added.

  Men of the Nigerian Army have foiled an attack on the Forward Operating Base by the Indigenous People of Biafra fighters in Imo state. The Army said the IPOB fighters who attempted the attack on its base were met with stiff resistance by the personnel on the ground. A statement on Tuesday by the Director, of Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu said in the fierce gun battle that ensued on August 20, the troops killed one of the fighters and arrested two. It read, “Troops of 34 Artillery Brigade, operating in 82 Division Nigerian Army, Area of Responsibility have foiled an attack by Indigenous People of Biafra and its armed affiliate, Eastern Security Network on its Forward Operating Base at Ukwuorji, along Owerri – Onitsha expressway. The irredentist fighters attempted the attack on the troops on 20 August 2023 but met their Waterloo, when they came under the superior firepower of the vigilant troops. The troops neutralized one of the fighters, while 2 others were arrested, as others fled. Items recovered at the scene of the shootout, include one vehicle, one mobile phone, one machete, nine empty cases of expended 7.62 mm Special Ammunition, and one empty case of expended 12.7mm Ammunition.” He also said a Boko Haram fighter with his wife surrendered to troops after an aggressive operation in Borno. In another development, following troops’ aggressive combat operations against insurgents in the north east, one Boko Haram fighter alongside his wife surrendered to troops of 26 Task Force Brigade Garrison in Gwoza. Items recovered from the terrorist, include one AK 47 Rifle and 10 Live rounds of 7.62 mm Special Ammunition, ” the statement added. Onyema also disclosed that troops in another operation on August 21 were waylaid by bandits preparing to attack a village in Zamfara state. He said two of the bandits were killed, four motorcycles and two AK 47 were recovered from them. Onyema said, “In a separate operation on 21 August 2023, troops of 1 Brigade Garrison, operating under 8 Division, Area of Responsibility, while acting on actionable Intelligence, ambushed insurgents who were on a mission to attack Bobo Village in Talata Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State. In a fierce fight with the insurgents, troops eliminated two of the criminals and recovered two AK 47 Rifles and four motorcycles.”

  President Bola Tinubu has directed Aliyu Abubakar Aziz, the director-general and chief executive officer (CEO) of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), to commence a 90-day pre-retirement leave. The leave, which takes effect from August 24, 2023, would lead to his retirement from service on November 24, 2023; according to a statement on Tuesday. Tinubu also approved the appointment of Bisoye Coker-Odusote to serve as the acting director-general and CEO of (NIMC). The appointment, which is also for a 90-day period, will take effect from August 24, 2023, after which, a full term of four years will begin as the substantive NIMC director-general and CEO, beginning on November 24, 2023. Coker-Odusote is the general manager and CEO of the Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency (LASIMRA). More to follow…

  The Canadian Housing Minister, Sean Fraiser, has said Canada is currently faced with the increasing cost of accommodation and the government might limit international students visas which have skyrocketed in recent years. Fraiser made this known to reporters on Monday, on the sidelines of a cabinet retreat in the Atlantic province of Prince Edward Island, Reuters said. When asked if the Canadian government could consider imposition on the number of students, Fraiser said, “I think that is one of the options that we ought to consider.”   “We’ve got temporary immigration programs that were never designed to see such explosive growth in such a short period of time,” he added. There were more than 800,000 foreign students with active visas in 2022, up from 275,000 in 2012, as Canada has become a popular destination for international students since it is relatively easy to obtain a work permit. Fraser, who was immigration minister before taking up his job last month, said the sharp rise in the number of students was putting pronounced pressure on some housing markets. The official opposition Conservative Party, ahead in the polls of a federal election that must be held by October 2025, said the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is not doing enough to address the housing issue. Canada, which has a population of around 39.5 million people, plans to take in a record 500,000 new permanent residents in 2025. Fraser said limiting the number of newcomers was not the answer, according to Reuters.

  A 24 year old housewife has been arrested by the police in Bauchi State for allegedly killing her four-day old step-son. The suspect, Furera Abubakar who hailed from Bantu village in Ningi Local Government area of Bauchi State, allegedly kill in the infant with insecticide liquid (Gramalin) According to Ahmed Mohammed Wakil, the command’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO,) the baby was murdered by Ferera on August 19, 2023, before the naming ceremony. “The incident was reported at the Ningi divisional police headquarters on August, 19, 2023,” Wakil, a Superintendent of Police, said. The PPRO said that the murdered baby was born on August, 15, 2023. “Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect is a co-wife to the nursing mother (victim’s mother),” he said. “The suspect entered the co-wife’s room with insecticide liquid (Gramalin) and applied it to the unhealed baby’s umbilical cord. “The liquid which was suspected to be corrosively affected, and led to the deterioration of the baby’s health eventually led to his death “The investigation is discreetly ongoing, after which the suspect will be profiled and charged in court accordingly”

  No fewer than eight people were reportedly killed by bandits in two communities of Chitto and Gbeji, in Ukum local government area of Benue state. Locals from the council told our correspondent on the phone that the casualty was recorded when the two rival bandit groups engaged in a killing spree. The incident which started on Monday was said to have spread till Tuesday leading to burning down a market in the area. The killing came barely 24 hours after a ward commander of Benue State Livestock Guard was killed in the local government area. Locals from the area who didn’t want to be named said five persons were killed in Chitto on Monday, while another three were killed in Gbeji on Tuesday, August 22. One of the locals who spoke to journalists in a phone conversation on Tuesday, said, “Five people were killed yesterday in Chitto, a suburb of Ukum LGA by bandits. They burnt the market. It was a different attack from that of the list livestock guard who was killed in Tine Nune. Four killed in Chitto and one killed in the suburbs of Chitto in two different attacks making five.” Another source from Ukum LG also told journalists that the bandits killed three persons on Tuesday along Sankera-Chitto road. He said, “To the best of my knowledge, the bad guys are fighting themselves. I think that is the summary of what is happening there. One faction is facing the other. We have the presence of military in Zaki-Biam and yet they continue to operate like this. It is unfortunate.” A member of State House of Assembly representing Ukum state constituency, Ezra Nyiyongo confirmed the incident but said that information at his disposal was scanty. The lawmaker said, “You know I don’t stay there now but when I heard of the incident I made a call to DPO who told me that three corpses were recovered so far and taken to the mortuary, beyond that I will need to confirm from him again.” When contacted, the State command spokesperson, Catherine Anene said she was yet to receive the information.

  Boniface Innocent Uko, father of a 26-year-old has allegedly hacked his son to death for harvesting cassava from his farm. It was gathered that the father of the deceased, Mr Innocent Uko, an indigene of Ebe Ikpe village in Essein Udim Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State was angered that his son harvested his cassava without permission. While reacting to the incident, he killed his son with a machete. The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Odiko Macdon, told our correspondent during a chat on Tuesday in Uyo that after killing his son, the man burnt the corpse and dumped the carcass in an abandoned pit toilet in his compound to conceal the act. When arrested and confronted on the incident, the father of the deceased who confessed to the crime said he committed the act due to his late son’s bad character and incessant harassment and embarrassment. “One Chief Akpan Aniekan, the village head of Ebe Ikpe village in the company of one Sylvester Akpan ‘m’, the village council chairman reported that one Innocent Uko ‘m’ of Ebe Ikpe village in Essein Udim Local Government Area, used machete and killed his son Boniface Innocent Uko, aged 26yrs, burnt the corpse and dumped the carcass of the deceased in an abandoned pit toilet in his compound to conceal the act. “Based on the report, police operatives of the Essien Udim Divisional Headquarters visited the scene, and the deceased burnt corpse was recovered and deposited at a morgue. The suspect was arrested and he has confessed to killing his son on the grounds of bad character and incessant harassment and embarrassment,” Macdon stated. The police also revealed that Operatives of Uruan Division, on intelligence report, arrested one Charley Edem John for stealing two seven-year-old children. It was gathered that John used his 10-year-old junior brother to lure his victims, who are in the same school as his brother out of their classes so he could abduct them. “The said suspect uses his younger brother who is 10 years old in the same school to call and lure the children out of their class for him to kidnap them. The two boys have been rescued and reunited with their parents,” the PPRO said.

A lecturer at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Peter Ekemezie has been sentenced to six months imprisonment for publishing defamatory statements against one Prof. Alex Asigbo. Ekemezie, convicted on three counts of charges bordering on forgery and defamation, was given an option of a N300,000 fine. Delivering the judgment at an Awka Magistrates’ court, His Worship, E.C. Chukwu noted that he considered that the defendant had spent one month in a psychiatric home and four months in a Correctional Centre. Prof. Asigbo had told the court that Ekemezie forged his signature when he refused to give him (Ekemezie) a witness statement but instead advised him to procure a subpoena. Asigbo said this led to Ekemezie writing and publishing a series of defamatory statements against him on Facebook and other social media platforms. However, it was unclear if Ekemezie was still a lecturer at Unizik by the time he was sentenced.

  Suspected armed Islamists have killed 12 soldiers in Niger’s remote southwest, state television reported on Tuesday, in the latest attack since army officers seized power last month. An anti-jihadist operation by national guards was “the target of an ambush” Sunday evening at the locality of Anzourou in the Tillaberi region, Tele Sahel said. It added that the troops’ “response… led to heavy losses being inflicted on the enemy.” The troops have already been buried, in a ceremony attended by the province’s military governor, Lieutenant-Colonel Maina Boucar, it said. At least 17 soldiers were killed on August 15 near the town of Koutougou, also in Tillaberi, the authorities have said. Twenty other soldiers were wounded while more than 100 of the assailants were “neutralised” while retreating on motorbikes, they say. The West African regional bloc ECOWAS has threatened to use force to reinstate Niger’s elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, who was detained by guards on July 26. The African Union said Tuesday it had suspended Niger until civilian rule was restored and would assess the implications of any armed intervention. Niger’s new leaders justified their coup over a perceived deterioration in security under Bazoum. The insurgents have plagued West Africa’s Sahel region for more than a decade, breaking out in northern Mali in 2012 before spreading to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015. But according to a toll compiled by an independent monitor, attacks in Niger fell in the first six months of this year. In the first half of 2023, attacks on civilians fell by 49 percent compared with the same period in 2022, while the number of deaths was down by 16 percent, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) project. AFP

  Former Military Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, on Tuesday visited President Bola Tinubu in Abuja to brief him on the outcome of his diplomatic shuttle to the Niger Republic. Abubakar who went to the Niger Republic recently as an envoy of the Economic Community of West African States met the President in the company of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, among other officials. Speaking with State House correspondents after the meeting with Tinubu on Tuesday, Abdulsalami noted that the visit to Niger was a fruitful one and While giving further details of his discussions with the President, the elder statesman said, “As you are aware, the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government have made me an envoy to Niger Republic and we were there over the weekend to see the military people and discussed to find a way out of the lacuna we find ourselves. So, that’s why I’m here this afternoon, together with the President of the ECOWAS Commission, to give a report back to Mr. President on our discussions in Niger. “I must say that our visit to Niger has been very fruitful and that it has opened an avenue to start talking and hopefully we’ll get somewhere.” Reacting to the Niger junta’s announcement that power will be handed over to a democratically elected government in three years, Abubakar said, “Well, like I said, we’ve started talking, they have made their own points and then I made my report to the Chairman of the ECOWAS Heads of state and President. He will now consult with his colleagues and then the ding-dong starts and we’ll get somewhere hopefully. “Hopefully, diplomacy will see the better of this. Nobody wants to go war, it doesn’t pay anybody, but then again, our in leaders have said if all fails and I don’t think all will fail, we’ll get somewhere we’ll get out of this mess.”channels for diplomacy have been opened.