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The Chief of Army Staff, Maj.-Gen. Farouk Yahaya, on Wednesday said only the land forces in the military can not contain enormous security challenges ravaging the country.

The COAS stated this when he paid a courtesy visit to his counterpart at Air Force, the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Oladayo Amao, at the Nigerian Air Force Headquarters, Abuja.

According to him, the war against insurgency and armed banditry cannot be won by a single Service but rather, through a synergistic approach.

He added that the centrality of air power to the success of the ongoing fight against insurgency, armed banditry and other forms of criminality in the country is very key.

”The earlier we all recognized that no Service can do it alone, the better for us as an armed forces and a Nation to surmount the current security challenges,” the COAS said.

The COAS stressed that he has always been an advocate of air power employment as a critical requirement of a fighting force having witnessed its formidable influence in various theatres of operations.

On his part, the CAS, Amao congratulated the COAS on his appointment and urged him to sustain synergy of efforts by the Nigerian Army and the NAF, in conjunction with other security agencies to rid the country of all criminal activities.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has obtained an interim forfeiture order in respect of eight properties linked to Brigadier-General Jafaru Mohammed.

Justice Folashade Ogunbanjo granted an ex parte application for interim forfeiture of the assets and property by the chairman of the EFCC, made on March 9.

The court ordered the publication of the interim forfeiture of the assets and invited people “who may have interest in the assets and properties listed in the schedule to show cause, within 14 days of such publication, why a final order of forfeiture to the Federal Government of Nigeria of the said assets and properties should not be made.”

The assets traced to the proxies and associates of the General include: House on Plot 7, God’s Own Estate, Road 1, Wamna District, Abuja; a fencer plot at No 1 Jubril Aminu Crescent, Katampe Extension, Abuja; plot at Kubwa Express, Directly opposite Abuja Model City Gate, Abuja; and a house on Block SD 22 House 2, Road 5, Kabusa Garden Estate, Abuja.

Others are: No 15, 21 Crescent, 2nd Avenue, Gwarinpa Estate, Abuja; No 3 Liverpool Close, Sun City Estate, Abuja; No 52 Mainstreet, Sun City Estate, Abuja; and No 25 Osaka Street, Sun City Estate, Abuja.

The Kaduna State Governor, Nasiru El-Rufai, and his deputy, Hadiza Balarabe, have received the first dose of the Astrazeneca COVID vaccine jab.

The governor disclosed this on his Twitter page shortly after receiving the vaccine in Kaduna on Wednesday.

Using his experience as instance, El-Rufai urged residents of the state to dismiss rumoured claims that the vaccine has side effects.

He wrote: “Astrazeneca vaccine is safe: Just had my first meal some 5 hours after taking my first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. No pain. No headache. No side effects. Excellent appetite.”

El-Rufai stretches the list of governors, who have been vaccinated against the novel disease so far.

Nigeria had received 3.92 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine last weekend, delivered under the international COVAX scheme.

Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has appealed to the Federal Government to re-open the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano to allow for the resumption of international flight operations.

This is contained in a statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Abba Anwar, in Kano.

The governor spoke when he led a delegation of legislators, business, traditional and civic leaders to pay a courtesy visit to the Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, in Abuja.

He lamented that the continued closure of the airport is causing hardship to international travelers from the Northern part of the country, as the action is severely impacting on ease of doing business in Kano.

“The closure of MAKIA has impacted negatively on the business environment in Kano, which is the commercial nerve center of Northern Nigeria and even some West African Countries.

“We appreciate President Muhammadu Buhari for the completion of the international wing of the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport because it will further facilitate commercial activities, and we fervently appeal for the resumption of international flight operations at the airport,” he explained.

The governor expressed concern over the effect of the continued suspension of international flights to and from the airport by passengers and service providers.

According to him, the Kano State government has put in place all that is necessary to make the state healthy for flights, including mobilisation of the populace for the COVID-19 vaccinations.

‘Huge revenue loss’

On his part, the minister assured that his ministry was favorably disposed to re-opening the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, for international flight operations, lamenting that the continued suspension of international flights to and from the airport was causing the ministry and its agencies huge revenue loss.

“It does not make economic sense for the government to spend so much money, as it has done in the airport, and just decide to leave it dormant, with the attendant degeneration on infrastructure, staff redundancy, revenue losses and hardship to travellers, amongst others,” he said.

He, however, told the delegation that the decision to suspend international flights to and from the airport, like the ones in Enugu and Port Harcourt, was for health and security reasons.

The Minister acknowledged the hardship faced by passengers and service providers patronizing the airport, promising that everything that was necessary for the resumption of international flight operations at the airport would be fast-tracked to ensure that it resumes soon.

He, however, challenged Kano indigenes to create activities that would make the airport more viable through increased passenger traffic. (NAN)

Four ministers from the Republic of Benin along with other officials are in Nigeria for talks with Nigerian rice farmers under the aegis of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) to fine-tune a memorandum of understanding.

The ministers were Alimatau Shadiya, Minister of Industry and Trade, Cossi Gaston Dossouhoui, Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Samon Seidou Adambi, Minister of Mine and Water Resources and Romuald Wadagni, Minister of Finance and the Economy and head of the delegation.

Mr Wadagni stated that because of the new vision of cooperation between the two countries, President Patrice Talon decided to send four ministers to Nigeria to chart the way forward for a robust cooperation on rice production.

“We want to put in place a partnership between the rice producers of Nigeria, and the rice producers in the Republic of Benin,” he said.

Earlier, the national president of RIFAN, Alhaji Aminu Goronyo, who led a delegation to the Benin Republic president in Cotonou, last week, said the Abuja meeting would look at the technical areas for learning and the way forward.

He said “the team was in Nigeria to see what we are doing right under the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme launched by President Muhammadu Buhari which made Nigeria today to record huge success in the rice revolution.”

In a related development, Benin Republic has approached President Muhammadu Buhari to seek Nigeria’s help for rice production.

The country sent in a delegation of officials who met with the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday to tap from Nigeria’s experience in reviving rice production.

The delegation was led by the country’s Minister of Agriculture, Gaston Cossi Dossouhoui. They were led to the Villa by Kebbi State Governor Atiku Bagudu and the Nigerian Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.

Bagudu later told reporters that the delegation and the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria met with Gambari to advance ongoing talks between both countries on how to replicate Nigeria’s rice farming programme in Benin Republic.

“This is partnership within the framework of ECOWAS agreement and the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement and our brotherly relationship between President Muhammadu Buhari and President Patrice Tallon who have the safe vision that we can be greater together,” he said.

* Directs deployment of 6,000 troops

* Emirs kick against no-fly zone order

* ‘Banditry, mining not related’

* ACF commends move, Masari wants coordinated approach in N/West

President Muhammadu Buhari has given bandits in Zamfara two months to surrender, Governor Bello Muhammad Matawalle said in a state-wide broadcast Tuesday evening.

Matawalle said the president also ordered the deployment of 6,000 troops to crush the bandits if they failed to surrender their arms.

The governor made the statement a few hours after traditional rulers in the state told the service chiefs, who were visiting in the state, that there were over 30,000 bandits in Zamfara forests, a number that far outweighs the less than 10,000 troops deployed to the state to tackle the age-long insecurity.

The directive by President Buhari came about a week after he declared Zamfara a no-fly zone and halted mining activities to stem what presidency officials described as “arms-for-gold swap” activities in the state.

In his broadcast last night, the Zamfara governor said he undertook a four-day working visit to Abuja to brief President Buhari and other critical stakeholders on the security situation in his state.

“In my discussion with President Muhammadu Buhari and the security higher commands in Abuja, it was resolved that 6,000 additional troops will be deployed to complement the effort of other security forces in tackling the security challenges in the state.

“The troops will soon arrive in the state for their operations and we are grateful to the federal government.

“The president has agreed to a time frame within which the recalcitrant bandits should surrender their weapons and key into our peace initiative…The peace deal initiated by my administration has recorded successes including the disarmament, securing the release of hundreds of kidnapped persons, reopening of markets and the resumption of other economic activities across the state.

“Even though we are enjoying relative peace as a result of this dialogue and reconciliation programme, some armed bandits refused to key into the programme and they sustain their attacks on our communities. The government has equally observed that there is sabotage by some unscrupulous elements within and outside the state,” he said.

The governor also directed traditional rulers and local council administrators to remain in their domains to monitor the movement or influx of suspicious characters.

“Conveyance of more than two persons on a motorbike is hereby banned with immediate effect. No movement of motorcycles in groups in all the nooks and crannies of the state and security operatives are directed to apprehend the violators of this order,” he said.

Governor Matawalle further reaffirmed the ban on the activities of Yan Sakai (local self-help groups) in the state, adding that whoever was found with a gun would be dealt with accordingly.

Emirs reject no-fly zone order

Emirs in Zamfara said on Tuesday that the state was being unjustly treated as evident in declaring it a no-fly zone.

They spoke through their chairman and Emir of Anka, Alhaji Attahiru Muhammad Ahmad, while addressing the new service chiefs led by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, who were on an official visit to the state.

The emirs said Zamfara had no airport to warrant the declaration, insisting that there were states worst hit by armed banditry but that were not declared no-fly zones.

According to the Anka emir, “There is no connection between mining and armed banditry. We have no evidence that aircraft are coming to provide weapons to bandits or that miners are giving arms to bandits. On two occasions, bandits had attacked mining companies, abducted staff and policemen and confiscated their guns.

“In the same vein, on the very day Jangebe schoolgirls were abducted, armed men attacked Sabuwar Tunga, a village located on the border between Maru and Anka, killed 10 people and kidnapped more than 100 persons. This happened at a mining site.

“So we can see that there is no connection between mining and armed banditry,” he told the service chiefs while the other emirs nodded their heads in affirmation.

The emirs said artisanal mining activities in Zamfara had helped many jobless people, especially the IDP’s, adding that banning the activities would amount to inviting more problems for the communities.

“The people that matter in the defence of this nation are here. The state government had initiated dialogue with the bandits and it has greatly reduced the bloodshed in the state. Many markets that were hitherto closed are now open.

“We see dialogue as the way to go because if we make a comparison between the number of deployed troops to the state and the armed criminals in the forest, there is a problem. There is no way the deployed troops can handle the number of armed bandits in our forests.

“We don’t think the soldiers in the state, including the police are up to 10,000, but I can tell you that these criminals are more than 30,000 in the forests and have sophisticated weapons.

“I am not a soldier, but I sympathise with our armed forces because they are lacking the modern warfare gadgets,” the emir said on behalf of his colleagues.

Governor Matawalle also sided with the emirs and reaffirmed that there was no empirical evidence to prove there was a connection between armed banditry and mining in the state.

“The theory that armed banditry is aimed at controlling Zamfara gold resource does not hold water. My administration has facilitated the arrest of many foreign nationals, especially Chinese, engaged in illegal mining activities,” he said.

He said his government would support any move that would end armed banditry not just in Zamfara but in the whole of the North West, adding that the troops should go out and hunt armed men not willing to surrender.

Earlier, General Irabor said the service chiefs were in Zamfara to assess the security situation and meet the troops of Operation Hadarin Daji.

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has called on the leadership of the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuff and Cattle Dealers in Nigeria (AUFCDN) to put a halt to the blockage of foodstuff from the North going to the South.

The Chairman of ACF, Chief Audu Ogbe, in a statement issued in Kaduna, said: “Nigeria is not at war with itself and such a drastic action is not necessary, but will only further complicate the socio-economic and political problems facing our country today.

“ACF shares the concerns of Nigerians over the decision of the AUFCDN to stop movements of needed food from the North to the South.

“We call on the leadership of the union to put a halt to their so-called embargo and blockade.”

Ogbeh further said, “The members of the union were said to have suffered severe losses during the #EndSARS riots and the recent violence in Sasha in Oyo State targeted against Northerners.

“But we believe that whatever may be the difficulties of their members in operating in other parts of the country, ACF leadership led by me is willing to help them solve these by talking to security agencies and the government.

“There is no need to mount a blockade by one section of the country against the other.

“Whatever may be our differences, the ACF as an ardent believer in free trade believes that goods should be allowed to move freely. This extreme measure is not progressive and is even counter-productive. This is not the way to go.”

Former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, has said Salihu Tanko Yakasai, former media aide of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state, has more courage that Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, presidential spokesmen.

Salihu was arrested on Saturday over his call for President Muhammadu Buhari to resign due to widespread insecurity.

News of his arrest was making the round when Ganduje announced his sack.

Reacting in a statement on Monday, Lamido said Salihu is as brave as his father who stood up to tough leaders.

“The Government and its Security Agencies need to be more circumspect in dealing with minor political irritations from irritant youths. Those dealing with security management should have done some background checks to understand the political DNA of Salihu Tanko and device better means dealing with his perceived irritation.

“The father of Salihu, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai had all his life been talking to power right from the time of colonial masters to the feudal Emirs through to all our post Independence Governments be they civilian or military, he has said as much or even more about APC Government. Alhaji Tanko Snr had been in and out of jail/detention more than he can care to remember. What this means is that Tanko Jnr political DNA is in the family lineage and his cannot be expected to be different at his birth!

“We only need to reflect not too far away to find that what Tanko Jnr is saying is no different from what those now in power have said before their ascendency to Government. If any thing the hordes of APC people in this Government are bigger culprits. President Buhari should take pride in Tanko Jnr for emulating his courage.

“Tanko Jnr has lost his job and pay for the courage of his convictions. But his background of honor will not allow him to be like Adesina or Garba Shehu to keep quiet on the face of injustice just for the pay.

“I know you stand the import what Hillary Clinton said about people with very thin skin. If tyranny, persecution, harassment, intimidation, detention and jailing could not conquer Tanko Snr, I don’t see how it will on Tanko Jnr!”