Chioma
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BREAKING: Buhari laments loss of lives, mum on Lekki shootings
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), has lamented the loss of lives and properties suffered in different parts of the country as hoodlums hijacked the #EndSARS protests against police brutality and extrajudicial killings.
Buhari, in a live broadcast on Thursday evening, warned the miscreants who have taken advantage of the situation to loot and destroy public and private assets to desist from such acts.
The President also expressed sadness that innocent lives have been lost, saying, “these tragedies are uncalled for and unnecessary.”
He said, “I must warn those who have hijacked and misdirected the initial, genuine and well-intended protest of some of our youths in parts of the country, against the excesses of some members of the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad.”
However, in his broadcast tonight, the President was silent on Tuesday attack at the Lekki toll gate where eyewitnesses said soldiers opened fire on #EndSARS protesters around 7pm.
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, while on a visit to the injured youths on Tuesday night, had said about 30 of the young protesters were receiving treatment in various hospitals around the Lekki area.
Eyewitnesses also said about seven persons died in the attack.
Sanwo-Olu had said he did not order the deployment of uniformed men to the protest ground.
Nigerians expected the President, in his capacity as Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federation, to answer pertinent questions about events that culminated into the deployment of troops on unarmed youths but Buhari was mum on the matter.
He, however, paid tributes to cops who paid the supreme price in the last few weeks, saying, “Let me pay tribute to officers of the Nigeria Police Force who have tragically lost their lives in the line of duty.”
He also lamented that “human lives have been lost; acts of sexual violence have been reported; two major correctional facilities were attacked and convicts freed; public and private properties completely destroyed or vandalised; the sanctity of the Palace of a Peace Maker, the Oba of Lagos has been violated. So-called protesters have invaded an International Airport and in the process disrupted the travel plans of fellow Nigerians and our visitors.
“All these executed in the name of the #EndSARS protests.
“I am indeed deeply pained that innocent lives have been lost. These tragedies are uncalled for and unnecessary.
“Certainly, there is no way whatsoever to connect these bad acts to legitimate expression of grievance of the youth of our country.”
The Lekki Tuesday incident has been condemned by both local and international civil rights groups and personalities.
By Kayode Oyero
Source:https://punchng.com/breaking-buhari-laments-loss-of-lives-mum-on-lekki-shootings/
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Chioma
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Hoodlums, residents loot COVID-19 palliatives in Mazamaza
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Hoodlums on Thursday attacked a warehouse where COVID-19 palliatives are kept at Mazamaza community in Amuwo Odofin Local Government, Lagos State. ---
Chioma
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Alleged Police DPO trying to run into a hotel after his station got burnt
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Alleged Police DPO trying to run into a hotel after his station got burnt They refused opening the gate for him then he had to jump the gate!!!
Chioma
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Hoodlums destroy ATM machines of Access bank in Enugu
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This happened in presidential Road, Enugu despite the curfew imposed by the state government over the #EndSARS protests.
Hoodlums defied the government's directive and went about destroying properties, including these atm machines owned by access bank
Chioma
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FEC: Buhari, ministers keep mum on Lekki killings
THE President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Wednesday presided over the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council from the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Despite that the meeting held a few hours after soldiers opened fire on protesting youths in Lekki, Lagos State, and at a time there were reports of continued killing in some parts of the state, the council kept mum on the issue.
None of the ministers who briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the meeting mentioned anything relating to the incident that had turned international attention on the country.
Those who spoke to journalists after the meeting are the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed; Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire; Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo; and the Minister of Environment, Mohammed Mahmood.
Ehanire said his ministry presented a memorandum to the council on a bill to establish a Council for Traditional, Alternative and Complementary Medicine Practice in Nigeria.
He said the memorandum sought to take traditional and complementary medicine out of obscurity and institutionalise it as has been done in other countries, particularly China and India.
Ehanire said, “The outbreak of COVID-19 has renewed the call for home-grown solutions to all these public health diseases and to find the value in our traditional medicine.
“This is an opportunity with which traditional medicine practice can not only be upscaled but also be regulated because there are also areas of malpractice that should be checked.
“It will also provide for the possibility of trainings setting up institutions and also being able to research further, working with the Institute of Pharmaceutical Research of Nigeria to dig out the values that are in our traditional medicines, where they can be used and be used for research.”
Adebayo, on his part, said the council ratified Nigeria’s membership of the International Coffee Organisation.
He said the country had been having an observer status in the organisation since 2008 when it signed the agreement and had been missing out on benefits accrued to members.
This, he said, was because the agreement had not been ratified.
By Olalekan Adetayo, Abuja
Source:https://punchng.com/fec-buhari-ministers-keep-mum-on-lekki-killings/
Chioma
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Yesterday, 8:02 am
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•Apapa and environs must not be allowed to slide into chaos again
There are apprehensions about the probable return of anarchy to Apapa and environs, following the withdrawal of the Presidential Task Force that had for months been maintaining sanity in the place. The stakeholders’ concern is accentuated by reports that days after the Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo-led task force had wound up, and presumably handed over the control of law and order, as well as the management of traffic to the Lagos State Government, the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) was yet to take over.
There is, indeed, cause to worry. Not only is the chaotic traffic situation said to be resurfacing, LASTMA has denied the report that the control of traffic in Apapa had been handed over to it.
The agency, in a statement issued on October 12, by its general manager, Mr Olajide Oduyoye, denounced the report, maintaining that LASTMA and other enforcement agencies in the state were yet to be officially briefed about the handover, despite the fact that they had been part of the successes recorded by the task force.
The LASTMA boss assured that the law enforcement agencies would never abandon the Apapa traffic management responsibilities, adding that the agency will continue to carry out its functions to ensure free flow of traffic in that axis.
This presupposes that LASTMA and other enforcement agencies in the state are yet to take full control of traffic in Apapa and environs. It is quite difficult to reconcile LASTMA’s reaction with the report that the decision to hand over the continued enforcement of law and order to the Lagos State Government was taken at a meeting held on October 7. The meeting, according to the report, was attended by the representatives of the vice-president, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and other federal agencies.
It is befuddling that five days after a meeting to hand over the control and management of Apapa traffic to the Lagos State Government reportedly held, such an important decision was either yet to be communicated to the appropriate quarters, or those who were to effect the official handover were yet to do so as at that date.
Something is definitely wrong somewhere and it does no credit to the good job, which the presidential task force had done in restoring sanity to Apapa.
Following the public outcry against the near-total collapse of law and order in Apapa and environs last year, leading to the famed gridlock, which had rendered the place almost inaccessible, President Muhammadu Buhari had given owners of all trucks and trailers a 72- hour ultimatum to remove them from roads leading to Apapa. The President eventually set up a task force with the mandate to restore law and order within two weeks.
The task force was headed by the vice-president as chairman and Mr. Kayode Opeifa as executive vice chairman. It moved in immediately and was able to check the indiscriminate parking of trucks, tankers and other containerised heavy duty vehicles on the roads leading to Apapa port city and environs.
The task force also devised ingenious means, which succeeded in putting paid to the corrupt practices that had fuelled the engine of the intractable gridlock in that axis. And in no time, businesses, which had taken flight during the chaotic era, began to spring up again, as Apapa residents, business owners and other stakeholders could easily access the area once again.
Critical stakeholders have, however, begun to worry that the place may become inaccessible again following the lacuna created by the exit of the presidential task force.
Let those directly concerned move in and resolve whatever differences there are as soon as possible, so that LASTMA and other enforcement agencies could assume immediate and full control and management of traffic, law and order in Apapa. The return of sanity to Apapa port city and environs must be sustained by all means possible. Those concerned must, therefore, put their acts together urgently and ensure that LASTMA and other enforcement agencies in the state continue where the presidential task force had stopped. Apapa must not be allowed to slide into chaos again.
By TheNation Editorial
Source:https://thenationonlineng.net/not-again-3/