Tag: Nigeria

” Madam President, this is a lone voice from Nigeria. We tried our best in Angola and we failed to lend a collective voice to what is happening in Gaza. Today,  the world is very expectant. We must drop ego. It has nothing to do with which country brings the proposal. The basic tenets of humanity demand that we leave here with a resolution for the rest of the world, to show that we have human feelings in us. 

The issues are very clear. If you notice the proposal for 12 blocs; they attempted to even marry the proposals from South Africa. Yes! South Africa has a right to be emotional, but we have children who are dying even as we are talking now. We have people who do not have water to drink even as we are talking now. We have people who are going to suffer infection from gunshots. 

We have to show the world that we are human beings. The cessation of hostilities must be a part of our resolutions. Access to humanitarian aid must be a part of our resolutions. At the same time, release of hostages and even those who are Prisoners of War, because if both sides take steps in releasing the hostages, releasing the Prisoners of War, it means that both sides have agreed that the International Community can go to the next stage, which is negotiation for sustainable peace. 

If they cannot agree, I would urge that from here, we have a  three-man drafting committee to come up with those resolutions which we must make before we leave here. We can no longer allow a child to die tonight, without lending our voice. It doesn’t matter which side. We are all parents. If we come here to look for ego and then, try to be emotional, it’s not affecting them. 

There’s nothing affecting Denmark, there’s nothing affecting South Africa. The people affected are over there and nobody will agree to the lone resolution from Israel. It must be all-encompassing, so that we stand up from here as human beings. That would be my plea.

Let them go aside, meet and remove those vexatious items. In the course of their discussions, we can have amendments, we can add items that we should add but we must discuss the Gaza issue in this 148th IPU Assembly. That is my position,” he declared.

 

 

 

 

 

The President Bola Tinubu-led Nigerian government says it has invited Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, over his comments on the activities of bandits in the country.

 

The Minister of Information and Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this while addressing journalists at the State House, Abuja, on Monday. 

 

Idris said Gumi was not above the law, noting that the government had deemed it necessary to invite him for questioning.

 

SaharaReporters reported on March 21 how Gumi noted that the Niger-Delta region was relatively peaceful after the Nigerian government granted amnesty to militants, adding that the same method must be applied to bandits currently ravaging the country.

 

Gumi had noted that the Nigerian military had been hard on bandits with the approach it used to win the war against banditry in the northern part of the country.

 

Speaking on Daily Trust’s X Space conversation titled, “When will there be an end to Nigeria’s recurring abductions?”, he had noted that both the Army and Air Force troops launched ground and air strikes that killed the bandits’ families – wives and children – which have angered them, as they see it as a war.

 

He had said, “To them (military) they are fighting a war. Honestly, the military has been very hard on them, the Air Force is killing their families.

 

Insisting on socio-economic methods, the scholar said, “When you think of synergy, you can’t rule out the military, but there has to be synergy. Let the non-kinetic approach be in the front. When it fails, then the kinetic can come in.

 

“And in fact, it will come in a better position because the non-kinetic approach will give access to have a better intelligence, better knowledge and with that kind of intensive engagement in negotiation.”

 

Gumi, who has visited bandits in the forests a number of times, to negotiate the release of victims, gave a similar occurrence of how former President Musa Yar’Adua gave amnesty to the oil-rich Niger-Delta militants which stopped the kidnapping of expatriates.

 

The scholar said as militants destroyed oil pipelines then, the bandits are also doing the same preventing farmers from working on the farm causing food insecurity, as well as abducting innocent children and women for ransom. 

A Nigerian man was arrested by customs officials at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand for smuggling 69 pellets of cocaine inside his stomach.  

 

The passenger landed on a flight from Doha, Qatar on Monday, March 25, 2024, and was arrested by Customs officers working with the Airport Interdiction Task Force (AITF).

 

Upon arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport, the suspect exhibited suspicious behaviour and was subsequently subjected to a thorough check.

 

Sixty-nine cocaine lumps with a total weight of 1,390 grams and a value of 4,170,000 baht were found in his body. 

 

The officers documented the seizure and handed the suspect over to Suvarnabhumi Airport Police Station for further prosecution.

 

Mr. Thirach Attanawanich, Director General of Customs, stated that in line with the government’s strict anti-drug policy, he has directed officials to step up their vigilance in monitoring all channels for drug smuggling.

 

 

 

 

 

An appeal court has lowered former President Donald Trump’s bond in the New York civil fraud case from $454 million to $175 million to be paid within ten days.

This comes as Trump attends a hearing in New York for motions in the hush money case against him.

The ruling came the same day that New York Attorney General Letitia James would have been allowed to start seizing the former president’s real estate assets and bank accounts to satisfy the $454 million-and-rising judgment after he failed to obtain an appeal bond.

James is prevented from doing so — for now — due to the order from the five-judge panel in Manhattan Supreme Court’s appellate division, CNBC reports.

Trump in a social media post quickly said that he would  “post either a bond, equivalent securities, or cash” in the new amount set by the appeals court.

Earlier Monday, he had raged in a Truth Social post that he might be forced to sell his “babies” — real estate assets — to satisfy the large judgment amount while he appeals the verdict in the case, where a judge found that he and other defendants for years fraudulently inflated the stated value of properties.

Trump’s lawyers previously suggested that the appeal bond in the case be set at $100 million.

In a court filing last week, those attorneys said that it was “impossible” for Trump to get an appeal bond for $454 million after having approached more than 30 surety companies without success.

Trump’s two adults sons, his company the Trump Organization and two executives who all were co-defendants in the case owe a total of about $10 million in additional damages.

None of the surety companies were willing to write a $464 million bond without Trump posting cash or some other liquid asset, the attorneys wrote in their filing with the appellate division.

Because of the size of the fraud judgment, the companies insisted that Trump show “cash reserves approaching $1 billion,” according to his lawyers. But neither Trump nor the Trump Organization company has that amount of cash on hand, the filing said.

While Monday’s ruling lowers the size of the required appeal bond, it does reduce the size of the judgment in the case. If Trump and the other defendants lose their appeal, they would be on the hook for the full judgement, unless the appeals court reduces that as well.

In its order Monday, the appeals court stayed trial Judge Arthur Enfgoron’s decision that had barred Trump from serving as an officer or director of a New York company for three years, and that had barred him and the corporate defendants from applying for loans from New York lenders for the same period. The order also stayed Engoron’s judge’s ruling that had barred Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, from serving as officers and directors of New York companies for two years.

But the appeals court panel rejected a request to block enforcement of Engoron’s order extending and enhancing the role of a financial watchdog the judge had installed to monitor the Trump Organization’s finances.