Category: News

Bandits have resumed operations in Kagara, Niger State on the same day that 42 students and other persons they kidnapped from a school in the town regained fredom.

No fewer than four persons were on Saturday reportedly killed and scores kidnapped in fresh attacks on the town and adjoining villages in Rafi Local Government Area of the state.

According to Musa Kwabe, a community leader in Kagara, eight persons were kidnapped in Kundu and 11 others in nearby Gunna district.

He said the four people killed were from Karako, a neighbouring village where seven persons are still missing.

He also told PREMIUM TIMES the bandits rustled many cows in the affected villages.

Muhammed Hussein, a chief in Kagara and a former local council chairman, named one of those kidnapped as Ibrahim Ruvo, who is a chief imam at Madaka village.

“One chief Imam, Ibrahim Ruvo, was kidnapped around Madaka axis. He is yet to be found.”

Mr Hussein begged the state government to deploy more security operatives to the affected communities to prevent further attacks.

The spokesperson of the police in Niger, Abiodun Wasiu, told PREMIUM TIMES that he would confirm the incident and send a feedback when contacted on Saturday afternoon.

This newspaper had reported how Kagara and its adjoining villages have been under the siege of bandits for more than two years.

However, it was the kidnapping of the schoolboys that brought the ordeals and sorrow of the community to national attention.

In that incident at the public secondary school on the outskirts of Kagara town, bandits abducted 42 persons, including 27 students, three staff and 12 members of their families.

The bandits raided two of the five hostels in the school, Barde and Lafene halls, to ferret out the students, in the process killing one of them, Benjamin Habilah.

This newspaper learnt that the schoolboys were released on Saturday morning after more than nine days in captivity.

As of the time of filing this report, the state government is yet to brief the public on how it secured the release of the students and whether or not payment of ransom was involved.

The Department of State Services (DSS) has denied reports that it had attempted to arrest Yoruba activist, Sunday Igboho, in Oyo State on Friday February 26.

Public Relations Officer of DSS, Dr. Peter Afunanya, debunked the report in a statement released this evening. It read;

”The Department of State Services wishes to refute the news that it attempted to arrest one Sunday Igboho, today, at Ibadan, Oyo State. The said news is misinforming and should be taken as fake and therefore be disregarded.

President Muhammadu Buhari has cautioned Governos against the policy of amnesty for bandits.

He stated that rewarding bandits with money and vehicles by some States may “boomerang disastrously.”

The President stated these in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.

The President appealed to Governors “to review their policy of rewarding bandits with money and vehicles, warning that the policy might boomerang disastrously.”

He also advised state and local governments to be more proactive by improving security around schools and their surroundings.

He described the abduction of 317 girls in Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe in Zamfara as inhumane and totally unacceptable.

He warned bandits that they cannot defeat government, stating: “No criminal group can be too strong to be defeated by the government. The only thing standing between our security forces and the bandits are the rules of engagement.

“Let them not entertain any illusions that they are more powerful than the government. They shouldn’t mistake our restraint for the humanitarian goals of protecting innocent lives as a weakness or a sign of fear or irresolution.”

Seven out of the 317 school girls abducted by bandits at Government Girls Science Secondary School, Jangebe have escaped.

A source Jangebe town confirmed that on Friday evening the girls returned home from their captors.

He said they claimed they maneuvered their way back from the bandits while trekking along the forest.

He said more of the girls have escaped and were being expected having run out of the grip of bandits while trekking in the forests.

Details shortly…

A man has cut off parts of his genitals in Benue State to curb his insatiable appetite for female flesh, The Nation learnt.

Terhemen Anongo, popularly called Doc K or Bob Korna, said it was best to cast off what caused him to sin rather than end up in hell, as the bible enjoins.

A resident of Gboko, the Tiv heartland, Anongo said it was increasingly difficult to resist immorality in a society of pervasive nudity.

So he elected to emulate a certain ascetic monk who paid medics to surgically remove his genitals in order to focus better on his spiritual duties.

Anongo pulled out of University of Ibadan medical school in his final year in 2007 owing to psychiatric reasons and has been living alone in his father’s house, having chased out all other relatives who he accused of being behind his plight.

Gboko residents, however, see him as highly articulate, intelligent and well-behaved. Being jobless, Anongo transports traders’ articles in a wheelbarrow to make ends meet. He reads the bible and newspapers religiously.

After work, though, he dresses like a Taliban to attract attention and preaches, it was said .

But to put his sexual drive in check Anongo sought genital surgery from several professionals, all turning him down.

Being something of a medic himself, he took matters into his own hands, acquired the required tools and medications and proceeded to perform the surgery.

He snipped off the right testicle after dabbing the relevant parts with some local anaesthetics, and was determined to remove the left one as well when he was prevailed upon to stop due to excessive bleeding.

He walked to a medical facility where he was treated and discharged after a few days on their bed. Asked whether he would remove the remaining testicle after recuperating, Doc K said, “No, I won’t try it again.”