₦airaland Forum

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday approved the appointment of Mr. Abdullahi Muhammadu as the new Commandant-General of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.

According to a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, Muhammadu succeeds Dr. Ade Abolurin, who has retired from service.

He said the new NSCDC boss, who was an Assistant Commandant-General of the NSCDC before his new appointment, hailed from Muye in Lapai Local Government Area of Niger State.

Muhammadu holds a B.Sc in Sociology from the University of Sokoto, and a Masters in Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, will this week begin the trial of subsidy thieves in the country.

According to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Muhammed Adoke, the trial of subsidy thieves will begin this week.

While briefing State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Adoke said the EFCC would be prosecuting those found culpable in the report of the House of Representatives Committee on subsidy regime.

The revelation by the AGF, who spoke on the outcome of a meeting of representatives of the three arms of government on corruption which held at the instance of President Goodluck Jonathan, perhaps put paid to fears that the subsidy report would be compromised following the bribery scandal involving chairman of the subsidy probe panel, Farouk Lawan, and a businessman, Femi Otedola.

Otedola had alleged that Lawan put him under pressure for a $3m bribe, out of which $620,000 had been paid to the lawmaker.

Lawan who confessed to collecting the bribe money however claimed that he only did so in order to expose the businessman.

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Suspected Boko Haram militants launched an attack on the prison in the southern Niger town of Diffa late on Saturday, military sources said, in an apparent bid to free fellow members of the Nigerian Islamist group held there.

Three of the assailants and one soldier were killed before the attack was repelled, the sources said. Boko Haram also attacked the prison in February.

"When the attack was repelled, the assailants fled, probably back into the town," one military source said. "We are searching for them."

A second military source said the attackers may have been residents of Diffa, as no one had seen them enter the town.

Boko Haram is seeking to carve out an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria. Despite losing territory to an offensive by regional militaries this year, Boko Haram has carried out a wave of deadly attacks in Nigeria, Chad and Niger in recent weeks.

The group has sworn allegiance to Islamic State, which has declared an Islamic caliphate in the large parts of Iraq and Syria that it controls.