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Bandits Kill 11 In Kastina Attack
Not fewer than eleven persons were reportedly killed in a fresh attack launched by armed bandits on nine villages of Kankara Local Government Area in Katsina State.
This was as angry residents in the area staged a protest with corpse of persons killed barricading for hours major highway linking to major parts of the state (the state capital and the southern part (Funtua axis).
Information gathered by our correspondent revealed that the bandits stormed the area by 5pm on Saturday evening and launched the attack on the villages.
Villages attacked include Pauwa, Katoge, Danhayi, Gidan Guge, Kaurawa, Jan Bago, Kadanya, Gidan Kwaki and Lambar Kantoma. Locals said the eleven persons killed – eight (8) and three (3) in Katoge and Yar kuka villages, respectively.
It was gathered that the protesters took the corpses to the palace of Sarkin Pauwan Katsina, Alhaji Yusuf Lawal and later to the Chairman of Kankara local government area, Hon. Anas Isah Kankara upon which they pleaded with the persons who succumb to the plea and funeral prayer was observed on the corpse and buried.
It was also gathered that the residents repelled the attack of the bandit in another village where they succeeded in killing two of the bandits.
The protest by the angry residents who barricaded the roads for hours also left commuters traveling along the route stranded as a result of a traffic jam. It took the intervention of security personnel to restore calm and open up the road while others diverted to take another route.
Meanwhile, more than 2,000 people protested yesterday in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, calling for a ban on the anti-Boko Haram CJTF militia they accused of abuses after the killing of a rickshaw driver.
The protesters blocked major roads in the Suleimanti area of the city and set fires, causing chaos despite pleas from police and military officers, an AFP reporter at the scene saw.
“We want the CJTF to be banned from the city because of the abuses we suffer in their hands,” said Suleimanti resident Bukar Saleh.
“They have become a law unto themselves and are treating us badly. And now they have started killing us,” Saleh said. The CJTF militia tried to stop the demonstration, attacking protesters with batons and arresting scores of them. The protest erupted hours after a rickshaw driver was shot dead near a militia checkpoint.
“The victim was a known resident and his name was Modu but the CJTF just shot him for no reason,” Saleh said.
The CJTF insisted however that the victim was shot for failing to stop at a checkpoint during nighttime curfew hours.
The militia have intensified night patrols in the area in recent days following incursions by the jihadists.
“The driver’s refusal to stop raised the suspicion of our men and one of them took him down, because they believed he was a Boko Haram terrorist on a mission,” Babakura Abba-Ali, the CJTF head in Suleimanti area, said.
The militia man was handed over to the police for investigation, Abba-Ali added.
The CJTF emerged in 2013 as a vigilante group in response to Boko Haram’s deadly attacks in Maiduguri.
Young men and women mobilised and started going door-to-door hacking to death known Boko Haram members and forcing the jihadists to flee the city.
The vigilantes were later organised into a militia force and embedded with the military to fight the jihadist group.
Late Saturday, Boko Haram jihadists killed four people and looted food supplies when they raided Gamurari village, some 90 kilometres (60 miles) from Maiduguri, militia and residents said.
The decade-long Boko Haram conflict has killed at least 27,000 people and forced some two million to flee their homes in Nigeria alone. The violence has spilled into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a regional military response to fight the jihadist group.
Following reinvigorated operational strategies and robust anti banditry operations injected in to the activities of Operation HARBIN KUNAMA III, troops have in renewed efforts arrested several gangs of bandits terrorizing Isa, Rabbah and Burkusuma communities around Sububu Forest in Sokoto State as well as in Batsari, Safana and Kankara in Dumburum Forest of Katsina State.
Similarly, troops deployed in Super Camp covering Bena, Jega, Danko and Wasagu encountered and annihilated uncomfirmed number of bandits and destroyed five bandits’ camps in Gando Forest of Kebbi State.
Briefing journalists on the activities of the operation, the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 8 Division, Nigerian Army, Maj-Gen Hakeem Otiki, said that five camps and 25 motorcycles were destroyed during the operation.
Otiki added that the operation which covers Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states witnessed series of successful simultaneous ground operations activities involving raids, ambushes, cordon and search with the occasional support of the Air Task Force component which the troops are poised to sustain.
The GOC further listed items recovered during the operation to include, 8 x AK-47 rifles, 2 x General Purpose Machine Guns, 2 x G3 rifles, 3 x dane guns, 9 x AK-47 magazines, and 48 x rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition.
According to him, “The operation is to facilitate the return of refugees and internally displaced persons back to their homes, creating enabling environment for economic activities to strive and instilled confidence in the locals to remain in their villages and continue their normal lives unmolested.
He assured the residents of the Nigerian Army readiness to provide adequate security and improve synergy and collaboration with other security agencies within 8 Division Area of Responsibility with the aim of Combating banditry, cattle rustling, kidnapping and other security challenges.
Otiki used the opportunity to commend the gallant officers and soldiers of the Division for their resilience and patriotism in the ongoing operation even as he commends members of various vigilante groups and local hunters for their supportive roles to troops.
He appealed to residents of the areas to always provide useful and timely information to the security agencies for prompt action.
The Rivers State Investment Promotion Agency (RSIPA) has unveiled measures to enthrone ease of doing business and win back the confidence of the business community.
The Director-General of the Agency, Dr Chamberlain Peterside, unveiled the plans at the Breakout Session of RSIPA at the ongoing 18th Port Harcourt International Trade Fair, at the Obi Wali International Cultural Centre, in Port Harcourt.
Dr. Peterside said the agency was poised to free the state from accumulation of wrong narratives that branded it over the years as unsafe for business.
He, however, admitted that many things had gone wrong in the past where regulators joined to make the business environment difficult for investors.
He announced that the agency was rather focused on actions, solutions, and results as adopted in the mission statement of the Board.
“Our task is no mean feat. We are dealing with the perception risk that over several years branded the state as unsafe. We are also faced with the challenges of dealing with the lack of cohesion amongst MDAs, policy inconsistencies, multiple taxation, incessant harassment by miscreants, red tape and delays in obtaining operating permits, high cost of operations and opaque public sector,” he said.
“It is about listening to the investors in the field and ensuring that MDAs are carried along, hence the imperative for the setting up of our One-Stop-Center”, he added.
In his remarks, the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Warisenibo Joe Johnson, who represented the state governor, said the Fubara administration was ready to listen to the business community to see ways of reducing impediments to investments.
He listed the stages of actions being undertaken by the governor as outlined in his 37-page blue print to revive the economy of Rivers State.
The Mayor of Housing, My-ACE China, who was presented at the event as a star investor and promoter of Rivers State reputation, said for the plans of the investment promotion agency to materialize, an enabling law should replace the Executive Order that established the Rivers State Investment Promotion Agency.
He said this would insulate the agency from political instability and remove fear in the minds of investors about its sustainability.
According to him, protection precedes promotion and Local Direct Investment (LDIs) is what attracts and promotes Foreign Direct Investment (FDIs).
“It is the rat at home that reveals to the one in the bush that there is fish in the kitchen”, he added.
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?The Mayor of Housing who is also the CEO of the Alesa Highlands Sustainable Green Smart City said that Port Harcourt is like a business empire under lock and key because it is not protecting its own and also not promoting its own enough for investors to come in.
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?In the area of land documentation and inventory, China urged Rivers State Government to borrow a leaf from Abuja and adopt the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in dealing with land and property registration and documentation for ease of doing business.
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?He said Lagos understood the power of business information, adding “this creates the impression that if you are not doing it in Lagos, you are not doing it in Africa.
“We need to shout louder than Lagos, because we need more investments than Lagos and the structural integrity of Abuja. When you marry both, Rivers State would be wonderful and become green with investments,” he said.
In her speech, the President of Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (PHCCIMA), Dr. Chinyere Nwoga, called on the state government to look into the menace of parked trucks now turning Trans-Amadi into a risk zone.
She outlined the activities of the PHCCIMA and invited investors and businesses to the Port Harcourt economic hub, saying peace has returned.
The Director, Investors Relations of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC), Mrs Lovina Kayode, urged Rivers State to make haste and catch up on Ease of Doing Business, saying the Council has come to help businesses in the state.
Mrs Kayode, who represented the Executive Secretary/CEO of NIPC, Aisha Rimi, commended the Mayor of Housing and his counterpart, Mr. Oliver Biedima of Rainbow Heritage Group, for their decision to invest in Rivers State, saying it is a proof that Rivers State is safe for investors and their investments.
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In his remarks, Oliver Biedemi of Rainbow Heritage Group urged government to give the private investors chance to develop the economy, saying ordinarily government does not have the funds to develop the economy.
Happy Birthday Chief Barr. Nyesom Ezenwo Wike CON
Honourable Minister Federal Capital Territory
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We’ll Drive Tinubu’s Vision in Rivers With Vigour – Fubara …Inaugurates Dualized Ahoada/Omoku Road ….Debunks Rift With RSHA
Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, has stated that he will lead Rivers people to galvanize support for President Bola Tinubu to drive the vision and objectives of the Renewed Hope Agenda in the State with vigour.
The governor, who joined the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), on Tuesday, explained that his decision to join the APC was not for personal interest but for the overall benefit of Rivers State.
Fubara disclosed these while inaugurating the extension of the dualized Ahoada/ Omoku Express road in Ahoada East and Ogba Egbema Ndoni Local Government Areas of Rivers State.
He commended the contracting firm, Julius Berger, for timely delivery of the project, saying the project is a campaign promise fulfilled which will bring economic benefits to the people and tackle issues of insecurity associated with the route.
He said his administration has remained focused in delivering democratic dividends in the state despite facing glaring challenges.
The governor thanked the people of Ahoada East and Ogba Egbema Ndoni Local Government Areas for their continuous support, and urged his supporters to remain steadfast and also support President Tinubu who he said, has demonstrated love to Rivers State as a father.
Fubara denied having rift with the Rivers State House of Assembly, stating that his meeting with the lawmakers was stalled as a result of delay in the agreed meeting to be convened by former Governor Nyesom Wike and other stakeholders for him to meet with the state lawmakers.
“I have made every effort to meet with the Assembly members, but it is not within my leadership to initiate the meeting process.
“The arrangement was for my leader, Wike, and the elders led by Anabraba to call for a meeting with the the lawmakers.
“I’m a gentleman and principled. I can’t go behind to call them when we’ve already agreed. Whoever that tell them that I don’t want to meet with them, or I rejected proposal meant for them isn’t saying the truth,” Fubara said.
The Permanent Secretary of the Rivers State Ministry Works, Mr Austin Ezekiel-Hart, who gave the project description, said the delivery of the project was a fulfillment of long time dream by the people of Ahoada East and Ogba Egbema Ndoni Local Government Areas.
He said the road was previously a single lane and has now been dualised to 14.6 meters wide, complete with solar-powered streetlights with drainages.
He said the road significantly would reduce travel time between Ahoada and Omoku while improving economic activity in the region.
In his welcome address, Chairman of Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni Local Government Area, Hon. Chuku Shedrack Ogbogu, described the road as a symbol of unity, oneness, and development, thanking the governor for fulfilling his campaign promises.
On his part, the Managing Director of Julius Berger, Engr. Peer Lusbash, said the project was awarded to his company in 2023 with a completion period of 18 months which was achieved in best quality.
He added that Julius Berger enjoyed a good support from the Fubara administration, and assured to complete all ongoing projects being handled by Julius Berger on specification, especially the Ring Road project which is a legacy project.
