Terrorists have killed three football fans and abducted 10 others in a fresh attack on the Idah community of the Kagarko Local Government Area of Kaduna State, The incident, it was learnt happened last Wednesday when the victims were watching the Champions League match between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. Idah is located along the Bwari federal highway that links the Federal Capital Territory with Kaduna State. A top government official in the Kagarko Local Government Area, who pleaded anonymity for security reasons, confirmed the incident to The PUNCH on Sunday.   According to him, one of the slain victims was a nephew to the former acting District Head of Ida, Felix Ibrahim.   The 10 kidnapped victims were identified as Hanatu Sati, Rose Mary Sati, junior Samuel, Japhet Emmanuel, Chinedu, Salansa, Jostin Manda, Doris Markus, Morin Felix, Mrs. Abraham with her two children. “The terrorists invaded the village at about 9:30 pm, took vantage position and began to shoot indiscriminately at the spectators. “In the course of running for safety, two were shot dead while over 10 persons were abducted,” the government official said. He added that some sustained gunshot injuries and were rushed to the hospital for medical attention. When contacted, the Kaduna State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mansir Hassan, said,” I will get back to

  Internet connectivity was disrupted in several East African nations on Sunday due to faults reported on the East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and SEACOM cables, Internet monitoring groups said. NetBlocks, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), stated, “Network data show a disruption to Internet connectivity in and around multiple East African countries.” It was noted that Tanzania and the French Island of Mayotte were experiencing a high impact on Internet connectivity, while Mozambique and Malawi were seeing a medium impact. Another Internet firm, Cloudflare, also confirmed on X that connectivity disruptions were ongoing in Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, and Madagascar. Earlier, Safaricom, Kenya’s biggest telecoms operator, announced that it had activated redundancy measures to minimise service interruption and keep subscribers connected as they await the full restoration of the cable. The telecom operator, however, said subscribers would experience reduced Internet speeds. In March, Internet outages were reported in West African countries, including Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Benin, Ghana, and Burkina Faso, as well as South Africa. The outages were attributed to damage to four sub-sea cables off the west coast of Africa, which disrupted connectivity across the continent. The affected cables included the West Africa Cable System, MainOne, South Atlantic 3, and ACE sea cables, which are critical for telecommunications data. The Chief Executive Officer of West Indian Ocean Cable Company, Chris Wood, said it could result in collective repair costs of about $8m for the four digital infrastructure companies affected. The cable firms might need to allocate between $1m and $2m for the complete restoration of a single subsea cable, depending on the severity of the damage incurred, he explained in March.

  A landlord, Bola Abiodun, and her husband, identified simply as Sunday, have flown their Temidire community home in the Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State after allegedly disposing of their tenant’s body in a canal. Our correspondent learnt that the incident, which occurred at about 12:05 pm on May 8, 2024, led the state police command to launch a manhunt for the couple after their disappearance following the alleged crime. According to a police source in the command, who was privy to the report but did not want to be named because he was not permitted to speak for the command, the tenant, who went by the name Iya Ibukun, had earlier been knocked down by a hit-and-run driver on May 5, 2024. After suffering various degrees of injury from the accident, our correspondent learnt that the deceased had turned to self-medication out of concern that she would not be able to pay for her medical bills. After turning to self-medication, the renter, our correspondent learnt, passed away in her apartment a few days later. The corpse was allegedly taken from the room and disposed of in a nearby canal by the landlady and her husband. The chairman of the Community Development Association, Mosuru Akindele, was reportedly called by the residents who had suspicions about the alleged occurrence, and the youth leader, Olabode Kazeem, was also contacted following the incident. “There was an accident; a hit-and-run driver allegedly knocked the tenant down. She didn’t go to the hospital and started treating herself at home. She died a few days after the incident. The landlady and her husband conspired to dump the body in a canal,” the cop told our correspondent. The state Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola, confirmed the incident to our correspondent and said the police were working to recover the body from the canal. “Our men went to the house and discovered a two-year-old boy in a welfare facility. Meanwhile, our men combed the entire canal in search of the body, but we haven’t found anything,” she said. It was reported a few years ago that a landlord known as Sunday Omosule was nabbed after he allegedly killed his tenant’s four-year-old son with a pestle. Omosule, a landlord in Onipanu, Ota, in the Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, was arrested by men of the state Police Command after a distress call was sent out. The erstwhile spokesperson for the command, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said, “The landlord was arrested following a distress call to the police at the Onipanu division.” During interrogation, Oyeyemi said the victim claimed to be under spiritual attack.

  A Customs licensed agent, Ibrahim Egungbohun, has approached a Federal High Court in Abuja to debunk an allegation that he is a top smuggler. According to PunchOnline, Egungbohun, popularly called IBD Dende, in the suit he filed through his team of lawyers led by Mr. Bola Aidi (SAN), said he was on several occasions, through posts that were shared on a social media platform, X, described as the biggest smuggler in the South West region of the country. He told the court that he was equally wrongly accused on the micro-blogging platform of smuggling bullets and guns to the eastern part of Nigeria. According to the claimant, a series of defamatory posts that were made against him by the defendants tarnished his hard-earned reputation and caused him a loss of goodwill. Cited as 1st to 3rd defendants in the suit marked CV/2286/24, are; an investigative journalist, Fisayo Soyombo; the Foundation for Investigative Journalism and the Arise Media Group. The claimant told the court that he is an established and renowned businessman and philanthropist. “The claimant is a Customs Licensed Agent and the owner and Chief Executive Officer of IBD Impex Limited, a company which is into clearing and forwarding of goods, construction, agriculture, real estate, and oil and gas. “The claimant, as a clearing and forwarding agent, carries out his legitimate work of importation through the land border just like every other clearing and forwarding agent. “The claimant is also into the hospitality business and is the owner of IBD International Hotel in Ogun State, adding that he is “an indigene of Ogun State, is also a socialite and is well known within the social and public space as IBD Dende,” the statement read. “The claimant’s hard work, integrity, dedication and tenacity have given him business goodwill among well-meaning Nigerians and have enabled the claimant to establish business and personal relationships with top Nigerian businessmen and politicians including Nigerian President, His Excellency, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, incumbent Governor of Ogun State, His Excellency, Dapo Abiodun, amongt several others,” he averred in the court process. He told the court that owing to “the persistent defamation of the claimant by the defendants, “the Eselu of Iselu in Ogun state, Oba Akintunde Akinyemi, who is his traditional monarch, wrote an ‘Open Letter’ to the 3rd defendant on the defamatory and damaging nature of a documentary that was aired against him. “In the said open letter, the monarch advised the 1st and 3rd defendants to desist from further defamation of his subject and to always verify their claims before feeding it to the public.” Citing examples of some of the posts that were shared against him, Egungbohun said, “The claimant avers that in the defamatory post of 26 March 2024, the vivid description given by the 1st defendant on how the bullets and guns alleged to have been smuggled in by the claimant were pierced into their component parts, smothered with black nylons just how turkey is packaged, lumped together with turkey as though the real import is turkey, and smuggled to eastern Nigeria with the knowledge of a particular Customs officer in Zone B shows that the 1st defendant was either present at the time of smuggling/partook in the smuggling of the bullets and guns, or that he was present and saw when the guns and bullets were smuggled into Nigeria. “The claimant avers further to paragraph 35, that the defamatory statement of the 1st defendant that the claimant smuggled bullets and guns to eastern Nigeria is an innuendo which infers that the claimant is a sponsor of the insecurity and terrorism in eastern Nigeria. “The claimant states that the defendants’ tagging of the claimant as a smuggler, gun runner, terrorist, etc. is outright falsehood and defamatory of the claimant’s hard-earned reputation and character as the claimant has never engaged in the act of smuggling, gun running, terrorism or any other illegal act,” among others. Furthermore, “the claimant avers that the defendants’ derogatory post, publication and remarks have soiled his hard-earned reputation before his friends, business associates, colleagues and clients. “The claimant avers that the defendants in defaming and assassinating his name and character with reference to his goodwill and relationship with prominent Nigerians, deliberately seek to malign the claimant’s name and reputation before his friends, business partners and political associates,” noting that the “claimant’s good name and reputation have been smeared for life by the libelous posts of the defendants.” “The claimant puts the defendants to the strictest of proof of all the defamatory and derogatory allegations made against him,” he added. Consequently, the claimant, among other things, prayed the court to hold that he was defamed, as well as to issue an order to compel the defendants to retract the libelous statements and tender an apology to him through their various platforms. Aside from seeking a restraining order against the defendants, the claimant is also praying the court to award N5 billion to him as general damages and another N10 million to cover the cost of the litigation. Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for the matter to be heard.

  At least 34 people were killed and 16 more were missing in western Indonesia after flash floods and cold lava flow from one of the archipelago’s most active volcanos damaged homes, roads and mosques, officials said Sunday. Hours of heavy rain caused flooding in Agam and Tanah Datar districts in West Sumatra province on Saturday evening, threatening thousands of people after the downpours swept ash and large rocks down Mount Marapi. “I heard the thunder and the sound similar to boiling water. It was the sound of big rocks falling,” housewife Rina Devina told AFP, adding that three of her neighbours were killed. “It was pitch black, so I used my cellphone as a flashlight. The road was muddy, so I chanted ‘God, have mercy!’ over and over again,” she said of her evacuation to a local official’s office. West Sumatra disaster agency said 16 people died in Agam district and 18 in Tanah Datar, with 18 people injured overall. “We are also still searching for 16 other people,” agency spokesman Ilham Wahab told AFP. Damaged houses are seen after flash floods and cold lava flow from a volcano in Tanah Datar, West Sumatra, on May 12, 2024. (Photo by REZAN SOLEH / AFP) He said the search effort involved local rescuers, police, soldiers and volunteers. Abdul Malik, head of the search and rescue agency in provincial capital Pandang, told reporters three more people had died but they were yet to be confirmed by other authorities. The flash floods and cold lava flow hit the two districts at around 10:30 pm (1530 GMT) on Saturday, according to the Basarnas search and rescue agency. Cold lava, also known as lahar, is volcanic material such as ash, sand and pebbles carried down a volcano’s slopes by rain. Abdul Muhari, spokesman for the national disaster mitigation agency, or BNPB, said in a statement that 84 homes, 16 bridges and two mosques were damaged in Tanah Datar, as were 20 hectares (49.4 acres) of rice fields. About 370,000 people live in the district, where several mosques and a public pool were also damaged, with large rocks and logs scattered on the ground, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. In Lembah Anai, a popular tourist spot with a waterfall in Tanah Datar, a road connecting the cities of Padang and Bukittinggi was severely damaged and access for cars was cut off. Aerial images seen by AFP of the district showed roads covered by mud, with roofs and a mosque’s minarets jutting out of the sea of brown mud. Trucks swept away Ilham said Sunday that authorities were still receiving reports of missing people from relatives. He said he could not give a figure for the number of people evacuated from the area because the search and rescue effort was still focused on the victims and the missing. Two trucks had been swept away by the flooding and strong currents in a nearby river in Tanah Datar, the journalist said. In Agam, which has a population of more than 500,000 people, dozens of homes and public facilities were damaged, the district’s disaster agency chief Budi Perwira Negara told reporters. He said 90 people had been evacuated to a school being used as a shelter. Nine bodies, including those of a three-year-old and an eight-year-old, were identified on Sunday, Malik said in an earlier statement. Authorities sent a team of rescuers and rubber boats to look for the missing victims and to transport people to shelters. The local government set up evacuation centres and emergency posts in several areas of Agam and Tanah Datar. Indonesia is prone to landslides and floods during the rainy season. At least 26 people were found dead in March after landslides and floods hit West Sumatra. In 2022, about 24,000 people were evacuated and two children were killed in floods on Sumatra island, with environmental campaigners blaming deforestation caused by logging for worsening the disaster. Trees act as natural defences against floods, slowing the rate at which water runs down hills and into rivers. Marapi is the most active volcano on the archipelago’s Sumatra island. It erupted in December and spewed an ash tower about 3,000 metres (9,800 feet) into the sky, taller than the volcano itself. At least 24 climbers, most of them university students, died in the eruption. AFP

  The Edo state police command has arrested the father of a minor who was used for sensual content creation. An X user had called the attention of the authorities to the alleged abuse of the girl, said to be about four years old. Videos and pictures trending on social media show the minor in revealing clothes while in the company of some men, including her father, in a hotel in Auchi, Edo state. The minor has an Instagram account in her name where her semi-nude pictures are posted. The development has sparked public outcry on social media. In a statement on Sunday, Chidi Nwabuzor, spokesperson of the command, said on learning of the situation, Funsho Adegboye, Edo police commissioner, ordered his officers to arrest the suspects involved. Nwabuzor said the father of the girl was arrested 12 hours later, and that investigations are ongoing. The Edo State Police Command is aware of the trending video of a child of about 4 years old conspicuously naked and used as an adult content in an undisclosed hotel in Auchi, Edo State,” the statement reads. “The Commissioner of Police Edo State Command, CP Funsho Adegboye, mni immediately drafted tactical team to go all out and arrest the suspect and his cohort. Within 12 hours, the father of the girl was arrested, investigation has commenced further revelation will be made known to the public.” The commissioner appealed to the public to remain calm, while assuring that justice will be served.