TIMITALKS

  Nigeria’s NYSC Members Among 35 Passengers Kidnapped By Gunmen In Enugu, Millions Of Naira Demanded From Families Ayet-to-be confirmed number of the  National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members were among those abducted by suspected herders at Enugu-Ezike in the Igbo Eze North local government area of Enugu State. SaharaReporters had exclusively reported how  gunmen on Thursday, January 9, 2025, abducted about 35 passengers along Enugu-Nsukka Road in the community. Three buses were attacked , and  initially, four Nigerian Army personnel were taken, but one, PTE Usendu Emediong (24NA/87/7560), managed to escape. However, PTE Usoro Ezekiel Paul (24NA/87/6751), Jeremiah Inimbom Thomas (24NA/87/7937) and PTE Victor Itiat Godwin (24NA/87/8348) were taken away with the other passengers. “ They successfully attacked three 18-seater buses and kidnapped at least 35 people from these buses forcefully . In the course of moving the victims into the bush, one of them managed to...

  Gunmen suspected to be bandits on Tuesday continued their raid on Katsina State as they reportedly attacked Kankara General Hospital in Kankara Local Government Area of the state. During the attack , one of the medical doctors on duty, Dr. Murtala Sale Dandashire was shot. NewsDay gathered that five people were also abducted by the gunmen who invaded hospital around 11pm. It was learnt that the bandits, in large numbers, stormed the hospital shooting sporadically during their operation without any intervention from security personnel and the local vigilantes from the area. Dr. Murtala Saleh Dandashire, an indigene Kankara LGA, is the best graduating Medical student of the year 2019, from the Medical School of the prestigious ABU Zaria. Katsina is one of the states in Nigeria most affected by rampant kidnappings by bandits. Efforts to get the reaction of the State Police command failed as the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, ASP Abubakar Sadiq Aliyu could not be reached...

  The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has decried the misrepresentation of figures in the 2025 budget proposal presented to the National Assembly Joint Committee on Finance. Reacting to questions from newsmen on the sideline of an event in Abuja, yesterday, he dismissed reports making the rounds that the Board spent huge amounts on fumigation, meals, among other items in 2024. Oloyede stated that the Board’s total expenditure for fumigation across all states in 2024 was less than N1 million. He said what was presented before the committee was not the 2024 expenditure but solely the 2025 budget proposal. He added that claims regarding humongous spending in 2024 on meals or fumigation, security and cleaning were totally unfounded. “I want to say emphatically, without any iota of doubt, that I never presented any budget performance of 2024 before the National Assembly yesterday. I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding. “I did not talk...

  The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has reacted to a trending video insinuating that one Mr. Jonathan Okunbor, a suspect reportedly being investigated for an alleged N6 billion fraud, was an election witness in Edo state. In a statement on Wednesday by Dele Oyewale, EFCC’s Head, Media & Publicity, the anti-graft agency clarified that the suspect is not a witness of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election tribunal as claimed by the party’s candidate, Mr. Asue Ighodalo. “Rather, he (Okunbor) is a prime suspect connected to a case of misappropriation of funds involving all the 18 local government areas of Edo State,” the commission stated. “Ongoing investigations showed that about N6 billion was diverted to Kezmith Global Ventures owned by Okunbor. The suspect was running the ventures using the name and identity of Mr. Godfrey Emode. “The Commission’s investigators, in their quest to unearth the shadiness of Ogunbor, arrested Emode who led them to the suspect...

    Chaos erupted outside the Governorship Election Tribunal in Benin City today when an unidentified man, dressed in clothing resembling that of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), began firing sporadically into the air. The incident has sparked accusations from the PDP, who allege that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) orchestrated the act as part of a broader scheme to disrupt the ongoing legal challenge over the disputed Edo State governorship election. In a statement issued by  Dr. Anthony Aziegbemi, Chairman of the Edo PDP Caretaker  Committee, the party condemned the shooting as a “desperate attempt” by the APC to frustrate the tribunal’s proceedings and discredit the PDP. The statement emphasized that the PDP had, before the start of the Tribunal proceedings, instructed all its members to avoid the venue in anticipation of potential APC-instigated violence. “Pray tell, why would the PDP attempt to disrupt the only opportunity it has to reclaim the ma...

  Former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has said he would throw a party on the island of Mallorca should the Premier League strip Manchester City of their titles due to breaches of financial regulations. Klopp's Liverpool finished second to Pep Guardiola and his all-conquering City team twice, first in 2018-19 and again in 2021-22. The Premier League referred City to an independent commission in February 2023 over 115 alleged contraventions of financial rules dating from 2009 to 2018. The club have always denied any wrongdoing. At his first public appearance as Red Bull's head of global soccer, Klopp was asked about how he would react should the commission find City guilty and remove the league titles from their honours list. "We had this discussion when I left," Klopp said. "I haven't spent a lot of time in Mallorca because I am always flying around the place. But if it would happen, I told all the people who wanted to [come]: 'Just book a flight...

  A 76-year-old military veteran, Colonel Nasiru Salami (retd.) has expressed worry over the ill-treatment given to retirees of the Nigerian Army by military authorities. The septuagenarian who was was a guest on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief programme on the occasion of the 2025 Armed Forces’ Remembrance Day on Wednesday, complained about his unpaid pension and other post-retirement packages. “We are asking for war bonus, those of us who fought the war. I retired in December 1983 and they promised us heaven and earth that they would give us our war bonus but up till now, we have not seen it,”  he said, appealing to the government to do the needful and improve the welfare of him and his colleagues. Salami said the Nigerian Legion in Lagos has over 24,000 members and that the Nigerian government was yet to pay him and his civil war survivors war bonuses over 50 years after. The 76-year-old civil war veteran however, stated that he won’t encourage any of his children t...