The Nigerian Army has vowed to sanction some detained soldiers who protested “overcrowded cells and poor feeding” at the Sokoto barracks detention facility. In a viral video, a soldier was reportedly shot while some detained colleagues broke out of “overcrowded cells” to protest poor feeding at the Sokoto detention of the Nigerian Army on Thursday. In a statement on Saturday, a spokesman for the Army, Major General Onyema Nwachukwu said the authorities have taken note of the viral video produced by some of its personnel held in custody at the 8 Division Garrison detention facility. “Undoubtedly, the Sokoto barracks detention facility incident is quite unfortunate and an embarrassment to the sound administration efforts of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), to say the least, and in line with his leadership style, the COAS has instituted an appropriate investigation into the incident to determine whether it is an isolated or widespread situation in similar detention facilities.   “While the service regrets and has gleaned some lessons from the incident, it will however not condone the manner the inmates expressed their purported grievance,” the statement partly read. The Army described as “mutiny and conduct prejudicial to service order”, the actions of the detained soldiers. The Army said such “grievous misconducts” won’t be tolerated. The military authorities said the directives of the Army chief Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja to look into the state of all military detention facilities in the country will be implemented “as detainees’ lives also matter”. “The Service shall not shy away from appropriately sanctioning the soldiers involved in the unruly behaviour in its Sokoto detention facility for failing to exhaust all available options to channel their complaints to the appropriate authorities and if it was discovered they did and nothing was done, necessary administrative actions will be taken against anyone found to have failed to discharge his/her duties effectively. While the Service is mindful of its subjective oversight engagements by statutory bodies, it remains primarily a responsible, self-regulating professional body. “As such, the Service remains committed to ensuring that everyone, even those found guilty of aiding terrorists, kidnappers, and bandits, and are awaiting confirmation of their sentencing, as it has been discovered in the Sokoto case is accorded a relatively decent life until their judgment is confirmed and executed,” the statement added.

  More than 200 people were killed in flash floods that ripped through multiple Afghan provinces, the United Nations said on Saturday, as authorities declared a state of emergency and rushed to rescue the injured. Heavy rains on Friday sent roaring rivers of water and mud crashing through villages and across agricultural land in several provinces, with northern Baghlan one of the hardest hit. More than 200 people were killed and thousands of houses were destroyed or damaged in Baghlan alone, the UN’s International Organization for Migration told AFP. In one district, Baghlani Jadid, up to 1,500 homes were damaged or destroyed and “more than 100 people died”, Mohammad Fahim Safie, the National Programme Officer leading IOM’s emergency response said, citing government figures.     Officials from the Taliban government had said 62 people had died as of Friday night. “Hundreds of our fellow citizens have succumbed to these calamitous floods,” government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement posted to X on Saturday. He did not differentiate between the numbers of dead and injured, but told AFP dozens had been killed.   Rains on Friday also caused heavy damage in northeastern Badakhshan province, central Ghor province and western Herat, officials said. Emergency personnel were rushing to rescue injured and stranded people, according to the defence ministry. “In addition to human casualties, these floods have also caused huge financial losses to the people,” said Ahmad Seyar Sajid, head of the natural disasters management department in northern Takhar province, where he estimated 20 people have died in the flooding. State of emergency The defence ministry ordered multiple branches “to provide any kind of assistance to the victims of this incident with all available resources”. The air force said it had started evacuation operations as the weather cleared on Saturday, adding that more than a hundred injured people had been transferred to hospital, without specifying from which provinces. “By announcing the state of emergency in (affected) areas, the Ministry of National Defense has started distributing food, medicine and first aid to the impacted people,” it said. Video footage seen on social media from Friday showed huge torrents of muddy water swamping roads and bodies shrouded in white and black cloth. In one video clip, children are heard crying and a group of men are looking at floodwaters, in which bits of broken wood and debris from homes can be seen. Since mid-April, flash flooding and other floods had left about 100 people dead in 10 of Afghanistan’s provinces, with no region entirely spared, according to authorities. Farmland has been swamped in a country where 80 percent of the more than 40 million people depend on agriculture to survive. Afghanistan — which had a relatively dry winter, making it more difficult for the soil to absorb rainfall — is highly vulnerable to climate change. The nation, ravaged by four decades of war, is one of the poorest in the world and, according to scientists, one of the worst prepared to face the consequences of global warming. AFP

  Tragedy struck the Oke Kura Correctional Facility in Ilorin, Kwara State, as a 63-year-old land agent, Alhaji Taye Hussein Abubakar, passed away on Friday morning. According to the Daily Post, he was said to have been detained for over four months. Abubakar’s detention stemmed from legal disputes arising from his involvement in land deals, leaving a community in mourning and raising questions about the circumstances surrounding his demise. Contrary to widespread rumours suggesting otherwise, Phillip Adegbulugbe, the Public Relations Officer for the correctional facility, clarified that the deceased passed away in a hospital, not within the confines of the prison. Meanwhile, PUNCH Online on Saturday morning contacted the Head of Corporate Affairs at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Mrs Elizabeth Ajiboye who denied having any knowledge about the incident. A relative of the deceased, speaking to journalists, levied accusations of neglect against both the judiciary and the authorities of the correctional facility. “He was involved in land deals that resulted in court matters. The court released him on bail but he could not appear in court on the day when he was to attend court because he was sick. “So he was picked up and detained since then, about four or five months ago. He has not been brought to court since then but has been abandoned. “At least he should have been given a second chance. How could he have gotten money to repay those involved in the land deals if he was kept in prison? The judge was approached and begged to release him on bail with some sureties to stand for him, but all to no avail.   “So, on Friday, we learnt he was rushed to the hospital. Some said he died on the way to the hospital, while others said that he died while receiving treatment. “His health condition was not fine before his death, and the judge knew about it,” the relative whose name was not revealed said. Responding to the incident, Adegbulugbe confirmed the demise of the land agent. Adegbulugbe attributed his passing to complications from a kidney-related illness while receiving treatment at a hospital. “He was taken to the General Hospital in Ilorin, where he died. I saw his hospital file stating the illness. “The deceased was taken to the hospital on Thursday evening and reportedly died at about 8 am today, Friday. “He didn’t die in the facility, as some people were saying. I was just coming back from the hospital,” he stated. When asked via a phone call, the hospital PRO stated that she did not know any inmate from the Correctional Facility being admitted to the hospital, let alone of any death occurring. Ajiboye said, “I am not aware that the Federal Correctional facility brought any patient to our hospital talk less of being dead. So, I don’t know anything about it