adebukola adebanji's blog

Two soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram rocket attack on a military vehicle in the northeast Nigerian town of Baga, residents told pressmen on Tuesday.  Six other soldiers and a civilian vigilante were critically injured when their vehicle hit a mine planted by the Islamists just outside the town in Borno state on Sunday, they added. The attack and the mine explosion happened as the military escorted some 1,200 people from Baga on a brief return visit to their hometown from the Borno state capital, Maiduguri. Boko Haram seized the town on the shores of Lake Chad on January 3 and is suspected of killing hundreds in what was feared to have been the worst massacre in the six-year insurgency. Nigeria’s military said it had recaptured the town in late February, as an operation also involving Chad, Niger and Cameroon stepped up to drive out the militants from occupied territory. “Boko Haram fired a rocket-propelled grenade on a military van in an ambush in Baga whic

Nigerian health authorities said on Monday that ethanol poisoning from a local gin may have been responsible for the sudden death of 18 people last week. “We strongly suspect ethanol poisoning and in view of this, we have ordered for another toxicology test for the surviving victims,” Ondo state health commissioner Dayo Adeyanju told AFP. Preliminary investigations ruled out viral or Ebola infection for the outbreak of the mysterious illness in the southwestern town of Ode-Irele on April 15. “Our investigations revealed that five of the victims took local gin mixed with herbs. Three of them died while the other two have been put under close observation,” he said. In total, 23 people were affected, out of which 18 died. The five others were referred to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital for further tests and monitoring. Adeyanju said the disease was not contagious, adding no new case has been reported for the past four days. “We will continue to monitor the s

Gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen in the early hours of Monday attacked some villages in Donga Local Government Area of Taraba, killing at least seven persons with scores still missing. Local residents said the attackers first attacked and burnt Ayiase village in Takum Local Government before heading for Tse-Gbaun and Gaza villages in Donga , Local Government. An eyewitness revealed that the gunmen killed Msugh Gaza and three of his sons in Gaza village, while the other three were killed in Tse-Gbaun and Ayiase villages. “The attack happened in the early hours of today (Monday), and the area is not safe as I talk to you, as such we cannot search for the other missing relations. But we have so far, recovered seven dead bodies,” he said. Police spokesman Joseph Kwaji said efforts to reach the DPO of Donga for details of the attack failed as his number was switched off. But an aide of the state acting governor, Alhaji Sani Abubakar Danladi said, the acting g

  Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs II, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, is hopeful that citizens affected by the xenophobic attacks in South Africa will be compensated. Since the renewed attacks started last week, several Nigerians have lost their businesses and other belongings to fire set by locals on buildings where their businesses were housed. Senator Obanikoro in an interview with Channels TV, said that Nigerian High Commissioner, Martin Cobham and other delegations were taking stock of damages done to Nigerians to ensure that adequate compensation would be given to them. “We have situations where some of our people lost their shops in this attack. “We are taking stock of the damages done to them and we are going to be engaging the South African Government,” senator Obanikoro said. He stated that the South African government had been exploring different avenues to end the attacks that have claimed several lives in KwaZulu-Natal province. “One

Some youths, under the aegis of The Flagship, have threatened to shutdown South African firms operating in Nigeria over the alleged killing of Nigerians and looting of their property in the ongoing xenophobic attacks in South Africa. The aggrieved youths said this on Monday during a protest at the office of telecommunications giant, MTN, on 3rd East Circular Road, Muritala Muhammed Way, in Benin. the Edo State capital. They also carried placards with several inscriptions, some of which read, ‘Xenophobia is ‎inhuman’, ‘Zuma, call your boys to order’ and ‘S/Africans can’t be making money from us, killing us’. Spokesperson for the group, Austin Enabulele, described the alleged attacks as inhuman and condemnable, adding that the protest was a warning to the South African government to put a stop to the attacks on Nigerians or risk losing its foreign investments. Enabulele said, “We are all Africans; we wonder why they should attack our fellow Nigerians who are doing

 South African police have arrested 3 of the four men who attacked Mozambican, Emmanuel Sithole on the streets of Alexandra on Saturday April 18th. Emmanuel later died of his wounds in an hospital,  According to the police, “The suspects were arrested in Alexandra (on Sunday evening) with help from the members of the community. Several exhibits that may be used as evidence were seized during the arrests” Lieutenant Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said. He also said there's a manhunt for a fourth person. The three are expected to appear in a Magistrate court in Alexandra tomorrow Tuesday April 21 on charges of murder.

The level of violence in Rivers State took a fresh turn on Saturday and Sunday as four persons were killed in Eleme and Okrika Local Government Areas of the state. Two persons were attacked by gunmen in Okrika, including a man that was killed in his car and taken away by his assailants. The incident, which was said to have happened at about 8pm, shocked indigenes of the area, even as another victim fell to the bullets of gunmen in his house in the same Okrika. A source, who expressed shock over the attacks on Saturday, explained that the second victim was killed inside his residence, his body was found floating on a river. In Ebubu community, Eleme Local Government Area, two persons were killed on Sunday during a clash between two rival cult groups. Though no reason has been ascertained to be the cause of the clash, the rival cult groups had fought each other with guns, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons. Some members of the community had deserted the place in