The Chief of the Naval Staff @NigerianNavy, Vice Admiral Idi Abbas Admiralty Medal has approved the appointment of Captain Abiodun Abidemi Folorunsho as the new Director of Naval Information and Spokesperson for the Nigerian Navy.
Captain Folorunsho is taking over from Commodore Aiwuyor Adams-Aliu, who has been redeployed as the Commander of Nigerian Navy Ship BEECROFT, Nigerian Navy’s premier base.
Captain Folorunsho, the new DINFO, is a member of 50RC. He holds the following degrees:
📜Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Nigerian Defence Academy @NDefenceAcademy
📜Master of Science degree in War Studies (Maritime) from the National Defence University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
📜Master of Science degree in International Affairs and Defence Studies from the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna
📜Master of Science degree in Energy Management from the World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden
📜Master of Arts degree in National Security & Strategic Studies from the United States Naval War College, Rhode Island, United States.
📜Graduate Certificate in Ethics & Emerging Military Technology from the United States Naval War College, Rhode Island, USA.
Captain Folorunsho is a recipient of the following Awards:
🥇The Chief of the Naval Staff Award for the Best Graduating Student of the Junior Course, Department of Maritime Warfare, Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji in December 2009.
🥇The Chief of the Naval Staff Award for the Best Graduating Student on completion of the Naval Warfare Course at the Naval War College of Nigeria in 2019.
🏆 The Force Commander United Nations Mission in South Sudan Commendation Award in 2017.
Pam Bondi is the attorney-general of the United States.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi @AGPamBondi
At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Journalist and former CNN anchor Don Lemon followed protesters into a church to report on their protest. The protesters targetted the church because its pastor is an ICE agent.
Former CNN host Don Lemon faces charges after anti-ICE protest at Minnesota church
Brandon Drenon 30 January 2026
Former CNN host Don Lemon has been arrested and will face federal charges after he entered a Minnesota church and filmed anti-immigration enforcement protesters as they disrupted a service.
Lemon, now an independent journalist, was taken into custody by federal agents on Thursday, according to his lawyer Abbe Lowell. "Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court," Lowell said.
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said Lemon is being charged with "conspiracy to deprive rights" and "violation of the FACE Act", by allegedly interfering in someone's First Amendment rights by force.
The 59-year-old is due to appear in court later on Friday.
The FACE act is a law that typically has been used to crack down on demonstrations at abortion clinics but also prohibits obstructing access to houses of worship.
Lemon went into the Cities Church in St Paul on 18 January with a group of protesters who said one of the pastors was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official.
"Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done," Lowell said in a statement that his client posted on his Instagram account on Friday.
The lawyer added: "This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand."
Lowell said Lemon had been arrested while he was in Los Angeles covering the Grammy Awards.
In his own defence, Lemon said in a recent video: "Once the protest started in the church, we did an act of journalism, which was report on it."
US Attorney General Pam Bondi said three others had been arrested: local independent journalist Georgia Fort, along with activists Trahem Jeen Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy.
America's top law enforcement official accused them of participating in a "coordinated attack" on the church.
FBI Director Kash Patel said investigators from his agency and the DHS had arrested Lemon and the other three.
Fort posted a livestream of federal agents arriving at her home to arrest her.
"Agents are at my door right now," she said in the clip. "My children are here, they're impacted by this."
President Donald Trump's administration initially sought to charge eight people involved in the Minnesota church protest with conspiring to deprive rights and interfering with someone's religious freedom in a house of worship.
But a magistrate judge who reviewed the evidence approved charges for only three of those involved, excluding Lemon.
The government challenged that decision, but an appeals court suggested prosecutors take the case to a federal grand jury - a panel of citizens that evaluates if there is enough evidence to charge someone in a case.
A longstanding Trump critic, Lemon was fired from CNN in April 2023 after 17 years with the company. The morning show host had apologised for on-air comments that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, then 51, was past her prime.
In the Minnesota church protest, he live-streamed with anti-ICE protesters on YouTube. The broadcast began with Lemon standing with the group in a car park where he says: "This is an operation that is secret.
"I can't tell you what is going to happen, but you're going to watch it live unfold here on 'The Don Lemon Show.'"
He followed the group - whom he called "resistance protesters" - into the church, initially without his camera operator.
His microphone picked up audio of a woman shouting "excuse me pastor".
Protesters chant "Justice for Renee Good", referring to the US citizen who was fatally shot in her vehicle on 7 January during a confrontation with an ICE officer in Minneapolis.
Footage showed a chaotic scene unfolding inside the church, which belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention, as protesters and members of the congregation shout at each other.
Lemon repeatedly says he is there as a journalist and is unaffiliated with demonstrators.
"We're not part of the activists, but we're here just reporting on them," he says.
The pastor says: "This is unacceptable, it's shameful. It's shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship."
Harmeet Dhillon, of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, said during an interview with podcaster Megyn Kelly on Friday: "We're going to pursue this to the ends of the Earth."
The White House appeared to celebrate the arrest, posting a photo of Lemon on its official X account with the caption "when life gives you lemons", next to an emoji of chain links.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the detention of Lemon "shocking" and "alarming."
CNN said it raised "profoundly concerning questions about press freedom and the First Amendment". The network said it would follow Lemon's case closely.
This is the second high-profile incident this month of the Trump administration investigating a journalist, raising the alarm of free speech advocates.
On 14 January, the FBI showed up unannounced to the home of a Washington Post reporter with a search warrant and seized her devices over the alleged leak of classified information, although she herself was not charged with any crime.
Protests are continuing in Minnesota, where an operation by federal immigration agents has sparked confrontations that have left two US citizens dead: Renee Good, a mother-of-three, and Alex Pretti, a nurse.
Abdulkarim Zakari was executed for being involved in a coup in Nigeria, who was Abdulkarim Zakari and which gun did he carry?
avalancheMedia: Something isn't sitting right with how the alleged coup plot against President Tinubu is being handled. And Nigerians deserve answers.
Let me break it down simply.
According to reports, 35 military officers—including a Brigadier General, Colonels, Lieutenant Colonels, Majors, and others—have been detained since October 2025 for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government. These are serious people. Trained soldiers. Men with access to weapons and military infrastructure.
Yet not a single one of their faces has appeared in public. No photos. No names splashed across headlines. Nothing.
But somehow, Stanley Amandi, a Nollywood filmmaker and former chairman of the Actors Guild in Enugu State—is the one being paraded. His name is out there. His career history is being published. His Instagram is being referenced.
A filmmaker.
**How does a filmmaker fit into a coup?**
Think about it. Coups are carried out by people with guns, military formations, and access to power. They're not directed by people who make movies.
The authorities say Amandi was hired to play the role of a "propagandist." But what does that even mean? Was he going to announce the coup on camera? Make a documentary about it? The explanation raises more questions than it answers.
**Why the selective exposure?**
Here's what's strange: The military officers—the actual alleged plotters—remain faceless and nameless to the public. But the one person whose identity is being made visible happens to be an Igbo man from Enugu State.
Is this a coincidence? Maybe. But in a country where ethnic tensions are always simmering, the optics matter.
We need to ask some uncomfortable questions. Is there an attempt to give this story an ethnic angle it didn't originally have? Is someone trying to drag the Southeast into a narrative that, until now, had no Igbo involvement?
**The silence is loud**
The detained officers are reportedly falling ill. Families say they've been denied access to lawyers. Some have allegedly been moved to underground cells. Yet the government's loudest move has been to name a filmmaker.
We're not saying there's a conspiracy. But we are saying this: Nigerians deserve transparency. If 35 soldiers planned a coup, show us who they are. Explain the evidence. Let the public see what's really going on.
Because right now, the only face attached to this "coup" is a man who makes movies.
There were attacks in Niger, Nigeria and Mali on the same day. The terrorists used drones in their attack in Borno State, Nigeria.
Russian channels are reporting that it was Russian mercenaries that repelled the attack in Niger. They claimed that Nigerien troops slept while the Russians fought the attackers. They said that some Nigerien troops were killed in the attack.
The Russian drones at the airport were not damaged in the attack.
Jeudi 29 janvier 2026 il est actuellement 2h02 . Du Matin au Niger actuellement à l' Aéroport de Niamey Au Niger, là actuellement on est ce pas si c'est un Coup d'État au Niger pic.twitter.com/l9B80FkllM
🚨 BREAKING NIGER | COUPS DE FEU + EXPLOSIONS MASSIVES près de l'aéroport international de Niamey (Diori Hamani) ! Tirs soutenus, détonations, défense aérienne active contre projectiles non identifiés. Attaque jihadiste ? Coup interne ? Ou proxy war incoming ? 🔥🇳🇪 pic.twitter.com/KriujeHaEf
🔴NIGER 🇳🇪| Attack on the Niamey airport and airbase : in a belligerent public statement, the Transitional President of #Niger, General #Tiani, speaks of a foiled coup attempt, and accusing them, directly threatens the Presidents of #Benin, #IvoryCoast and especially #France. pic.twitter.com/VYoJkLbgDb
Suspected jihadists attack airport near Niger's capital
Chris EwokorandBasillioh Rukanga
Suspected jihadists have launched an attack on the international airport outside Niger's capital Niamey.
Niger's defence ministry said four military personnel were injured and 20 attackers were killed, with state television saying that a French national was among them.
There were 11 arrests over the attack at Diori Hamani International Airport overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, in which sustained heavy gunfire and loud explosions were heard nearby.
Eyewitness accounts and videos showed air defence systems apparently engaging unidentified projectiles in the early hours of Thursday but services at the airport returned to normal during the day.
The head of Niger's junta on Thursday thanked Russia for its help in foiling the attack on the airport, and accused the presidents of France, Benin and Ivory Coast of backing those responsible.
The military leaders who seized power in a July 2023 coup have frosty relations with France and Benin, and regularly accuse them of trying to destabilise Niger, which both countries deny.
"We commend all the defence and security forces... as well as Russian partners who defended their security sector with professionalism," General Abdourahamane Tiani said on state radio.
"We remind the sponsors of these mercenaries, notably Emmanuel Macron, Patrice Talon and Alassane Ouattara: we've heard them bark quite enough; now they should get ready to listen to us."
Since the coup, Niger's junta has cut military ties with France, the former colonial power, and instead worked with Russia to help tackle the Islamist fighters who have been fighting in the region for over a decade.
Niger's Defence Minister Salifou Modi said in a statement on public television that the mercenaries attacked an air base in the capital for "about 30 minutes" before an "air and ground response".
The channel broadcast footage of Tiani visiting the military base, showing the bodies of the attackers and said there was "a Frenchman" among them.
The airport houses an air force base and is about 10km (six miles) from the presidential place.
One local resident told the BBC that shots had been fired from outside the airport, targeting planes.
Others described their fear as they heard the gunshots and explosions.
“We didn't sleep last night," said one resident. "Our room and the whole house was shaking from the gunshots and explosions,” she said.
"Yesterday was the first time I have ever heard gunfire," another woman said. "We were so scared."
Several unconfirmed reports said unknown assailants had thrown explosive devices towards the airport area before exchanging fire with security forces.
According to the FlightRadar24 website, several flights bound for Niamey were diverted.
AFP reports there was a heavy security deployment around the airport on Thursday morning.
Niger is a major producer of uranium.
A huge uranium shipment destined for export has been stuck at the airport amid unresolved legal and diplomatic complications with France after the military government nationalised the country's uranium mines.
The shipment was unharmed in the attack, according to sources cited by Reuters news agency.
Actuellement il est 1h58 du Matin au Niger à l'aéroport de Niamey on ne sait pas si c'est un Coup d'État on a pas de confirmation pic.twitter.com/4n2NkUZA8G
For those that say, "Soludo has not done anything about security".
Soludo has signed the Anambra State Homeland Security Law, which establishes “Agunechemba.” He also launched a special security force -Operation “Udo Ga-Achi” and unveiled the first batch of 200 operational vehicles along with 2000 special personnel.https://t.co/oBn82VDSL5pic.twitter.com/UbKPrAruig
1) Every sensible person knows that Nnamdi Kanu began the practice of declaring sit at home protests. He usually threatened to declare sit-at-home protests on elections days (though he often made U-turns when politicians approached him). There were also sit-at-home protests to mark specific dates that were significant during the Civil War.
2) Every sensible person also knows that Kanu and his faction of Ipob abandoned the sit-at-home protests after he was detained. They were seeking a political solution to his detention and staging sit-at-home protests would make things difficult for him.
3) Every sensible person knows that Simon Ekpa and his autopiloters hijacked the protest. Armed autopiloters usually staged violent raids on Sundays in order to frighten people and prevent them from coming out on Mondays. I created a lot of threads about these raids and Ekpa often boasted about it.
4) Everybody knows that Ekpa held unending fund raising campaigns in order to raise money to finance the attacks.
5) Everybody also knows that the violence drastically reduced after Ekpa was arrested.
6) The violence reduced for 3 main reasons (A) Ekpa was in jail and so could no longer finance the terrorists. (B) The new leadership of the Autopiloters decided to focus on hiring lobyists to help them get American politicians on their side. It would look bad if they were meeting with American politicians and also financing terrorists.
7) The people on those threads cannot say anything meaningful and their little attempt to make sense is turned into nonsense by the next thing that I will write.
8 ) Nigerians governments, both at the federal and state levels, have done a lot to end the violence in the East. Governor Soludo did not just wake up and close Onitsha Main Market as his first step in solving the problem. Quite a lot of things have been done to solve the issue.
9) The Nigerian Federal Government put a lot of pressure on Finland to solve the problem of Simon Ekpa and he was eventually tried and jailed. Troops were also deployed to deal with the terrorists in the forests.
10) Governor Soludo met with Nnamdi Kanu in the DSS cell in Abuja in order to get him to end the protest. Kanu told the governor that he had nothing to do with the protest. Days afterwards, when his lawyers visited him, Nnamdi Kanu gave them instructions that they should make a press statement that he had disowned the sit-at-home protest and that he was against vilolence.
11) Governor Soludo also met with traders, unions, the clergy, politicians, etc in order to end the violence and sit-at-home protest. They even held a Holy Mass to signify the end of the sit-at-home protest.
12) Governor Soludo has donated a lot of equipment to the police, military and other security agencies in order to help them tackle the problem. The last round of donations was just a few days ago.
13) In fact, the Anambra State Government went as far as creating its own security outfit called Udo Ga-achi
14) These measures have worked. Previously I made threads about Autopilot attacks almost every week. Nowadays we rarely hear about attacks. People now use Mondays to hold weddings and other parties. As the governor said, he passed other markets on his way to Onitsha and they were open.
15) The fact is that there are Ipob and Autopilot sympathisers that do not want the sit-at-home protest to end. I have told you about all the measures that government has taken to end the violence and protest, these people have launched massive propaganda against all of them.
16) They said that Autopilot attacks were being done by Fulani herdsmen and all sorts of people, they said that Simon Ekpa was sponsored by Bola Tinubu, they said that Nigerian Army was massacring innocent people, they said that Simon Ekpa had not been arrested, they claimed that Udo Ga-achi was killing innocent people, there is nothing that they did not say.
17) Now the story is that Soludo has not done anything to provide security, that he is wicked, that he didn't consult anyone, etc. The simple truth is that they do not want the sit-at-home to end.
It gives them something to complain about.
As I said, many of them are Ipob and Autopilot supporters and they'll never want it to end.
Meanwhile the government constructed that market so that economic activities will take place. It generates revenue from the economic activities that take place there. It is a market, anyone that does not want to use it to trade and raise revenue for the government should be removed and replaced with someone that's ready to trade.
Audu Maikori is the founder of Chocolate City Records. The record company has had famous Nigerian artistes like M.I. Abaga, Ice Prince Zamani, Jesse Jagz, Ckay, Nosa and the Kenyan Victoria Kimani on its roster.
He is a lawyer and he is from Southern Kaduna.
Audu Maikori was a supporter of President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP and he had many clashes with the El-Rufai administration in Kaduna over the violence in Southern Kaduna. He was in Lagos, but he was arrested by policemen from Kaduna.
Imagine @elrufai of all people speaking about abductions when both the federal High court and the court of appeal ruled that your abduction of me in February and march of 2017 was illegal. What was my crime speaking out about your failure to safe guard the lives of your citizens in Kaduna and your clear bias against Southern Kaduna people. This statement is sour grapes , if you had gotten the ministerial position you lobbied desperately you would be singing praises of this same government. You are a sore loser oga
Politics › Re: Captain Abiodun Abidemi Folorunsho Appointed Director Of Naval Information by naptu2(op): 3:26am On Jan 31
