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WHAT’S NEWS? Friday, October 6, 2023.
By Ezinwanne Onwuka
● Lawmakers summon military chiefs, security adviser over rising insecurity
Nigeria’s upper legislative arm, the Senate has summoned all five military chiefs as well as the inspector general of police Kayode Egbetokun and national security adviser Nuhu Ribadu to brief it on the steps being taken to mitigate rising terrorism and banditry across the country. The invitation followed the lawmakers’ consideration of a motion on the recent spate of student kidnappings in northwest Nigeria.
TruthNigeria reported how bandits abducted five schoolgirls of the Federal University Dutsinma (FUDMA) in Katsina State from their off-campus hostels in the early hours of Wednesday, October 4. The attack happened 12 days after scores of bandits forced their way into three off-campus hostels of the Federal University, Gusau (FUGUS) in Zamfara State, and left with 24 students, 10 of whom remain hostages.
Such abductions from schools are common in northwestern and central Nigeria. The regions have become kidnap-for-ransom hot spots. More than 1,680 schoolchildren have been kidnapped since the 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok community in Borno State, according to non-profit organisation Save the Child International. The senators resolved that special military operations have become necessary to dislodge the bandits terrorizing the northwest and other parts of the country. The date for the meeting has yet to be announced.
● Atiku’s attorney calls for annulment of Presidential election based on forgery of Tinubu’s academic record
The legal team of Atiku Abubakar has listed at least five discrepancies with the academic records of President Bola Tinubu as released by the Chicago State University (CSU) which is now in the public domain. At a press briefing on Thursday, Kalu Kalu, Atiku’s counsel, said the discoveries made during the examination of the documents are enough to annul Tinubu’s election and its validation by the election tribunal in Nigeria.
Tinubu’s profile is murky. His dubious identity and academic qualifications have informed the calls for his resignation as Nigeria’s President even as his election is being challenged in court despite an election tribunal having validated his presidency in September.
Kalu said Atiku’s legal team was able to establish that the CSU certificate Tinubu submitted in his election bid was forged; that a Southwest College transcript the Nigerian leader used to gain admission into CSU identified him as a female and so cannot belong to him; that Tinubu claimed to have attended Government College in Lagos State and graduated in 1970 in his CSU admission form whereas the school came into existence in 1974.
The attorney said the same admission form indicated that the student was a black American and could not belong to Tinubu because he denied having dual citizenship in a document submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigeria’s electoral body. Lastly, Kalu said the admission form has a different name for the initial ‘A’ from the national youth service certificate Tinubu submitted to INEC. While the former has ‘A’ as Ahmed, the certificate shows the name “Adekunle.”
● Plaintiffs Challenging Presidential election accused of ‘infantile obsession’: APC official
Nigeria’s ruling party All Progressives Congress (APC) has said Atiku Abubakar’s quest to challenge President Bola Tinubu’s election is an indication of a “deep animosity” towards Tinubu. Felix Morka, national publicity secretary of the APC, said Atiku’s desperation to see Tinubu unseated is because of his unrealized dream of becoming the president of Nigeria.
Atiku told a news conference on Thursday that following the documents he obtained from the CSU, he would file fresh evidence at the Supreme Court in Nigeria in his continued legal battle with Tinubu. The APC spokesperson described Atiku’s inquiry into Tinubu’s academic records as an “infantile obsession” and as a “fishing expedition”.
Morka urged Atiku to “graciously accept his defeat in the presidential polls and quietly lick his political wound with some dignity.” He added that President Tinubu will not be distracted by “a man who has consistently failed to achieve his self-serving and brutal quest to become Nigeria’s president.”
● Mob attacks cops battling to stop lynching in Abuja
A mob in the Dei Dei area of Nigeria’s capital Abuja, on Thursday evening, attacked five police officers and destroyed their patrol van. The officers arrived to intervene in the lynching of a man simply identified as Mubarak, who was accused of surgically removed an unidentified young man’s sexual organ. Nigeria has a longstanding crime problem with mutilations carried out to obtain body parts for use in cultic rituals.
When policemen came to Mubarak’s rescue, the mob refused to release the victim and descended on the officers too. An eyewitness told The PUNCH that more officers were deployed to the area and normalcy was restored.
The allegations of missing organs have spiked in recent times in Abuja. In September, authorities said a mob lynched a man accused of the same crime.
