Tolulope Arotile, Nigeria’s first female combat helicopter pilot is dead.

The deceased, who was born in 1995, was 24 years at the time of her death. The late Arotile was decorated on 15 October 2019 as the first female combat helicopter pilot in Nigerian Air Force.

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Arotile, who hails from Iffe in Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State died as a result of head injuries sustained from a road traffic accident at Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Base Kaduna.

Her death came barely a year after she was winged as a combat helicopter pilot in the Air Force following the completion of her course in South Africa.

READ ALSO, Nigerians may soon give up the fight against corruption – Osinbajo

Confirming the accident, NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, said until her death, ‪Flying Officer Arotile, who was commissioned into the NAF in September 2017 as a member of Nigerian Defence Academy Regular Course 64, was the first ever female combat helicopter pilot in the service.‬

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Nigeria’s First Female Combat Helicopter Pilot Dies At 24

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has predicted that the fight against corruption will continue to get more difficult daily.

He said it would get to a point that many people would become discouraged to stand up against corruption.

Osinbajo said this in his address at the 20th anniversary regional webinar organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other offences Commission.

His Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, made copies of his remarks available to journalists on Tuesday.

The webinar was titled, “Combating corruption and illicit financial flows: New measures and strategies.”

The Vice-President said, “The fight against corruption is nuanced and hydra-headed, it is not going to get easier by the day; as a matter of fact, it will get more difficult by the day and many will become discouraged in standing up against corruption.

“But it is our duty both as individuals and institutions, especially in developing countries where corruption has such a devastating effect, to ensure that we prioritise the fight against corruption and continually devise new ways and new approaches even as the hydra-headed problem itself continues to manifest in different ways.”

READ ALSO, Osinbajo and Tinubu are Magu's godfathers – Fani-Kayode

Osinbajo said the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had been demonstrating the political will and support for anti-corruption measures, which, he said, had afforded all anti-corruption agencies in the country the latitude to do their work without interference.

Osinbajo said the theme of the webinar was only a reminder that corruption remained a scourge militating against the country’s development aspirations.

He noted, “Over the years, massive public resources and assets have been directly stolen, diverted, deliberately misapplied to gratify corrupt tendencies, stashed in foreign jurisdictions or mired in and susceptible to pilferage by the inequitable and unjust international economic system that continues to undermine the social and economic development aspirations of poor countries, especially from Africa.

“Without effectively combating corruption and IFFs and promoting international cooperation for asset recovery and asset return, Africa cannot achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 16 of the SDGs is devoted to corruption.”

He said breaking the wall of secret corporate ownership was crucial, especially in developing countries, because secrecy around corporate ownership was implicated in the countries’ underdevelopment.

Osinbajo added, “Although anonymous companies are not always illegal, nevertheless secrecy provides a convenient cover for criminality and corruption.

“Our experience in Nigeria, as in other developing countries, is that anonymous corporate ownership covers a multitude of sins, including conflict of interests, corruption, tax evasion, money laundering, and even terrorism financing.”

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The Vice-President disclosed that Nigeria was in the process of amending its corporate law to mandate the disclosure of beneficial interest in a company’s shares and prescribe punitive measures for failure of disclosure.

He added, “We must make corruption expensive for those who engage in it and send the unequivocal message that corruption simply does not pay.

“It is the unenviable but noble task of the ICPC and other anti-corruption agencies to make corruption unattractive to its disciples and facilitate new approaches to stemming IFFS and promoting asset recovery and return.”

Osinbajo added that while many citizens are interested in the fight against grand corruption, they also want to see action in what would be regarded as petty corruption.

He added, “We must protect, even more, whistle-blowers – persons who come forward with information against corruption.

“We must protect those who are ready to fight against corruption and who are prepared to do so without necessarily disclosing their identities and even those who are ready to disclose their identities.

“The thing that we must take note of is that corruption fights back. And it is fighting back and it has the resources to do so.”

Nigerians may soon give up the fight against corruption – Osinbajo

Nigerian cleric, Rev. Chris Okotie, the pastor of the Household of God Church International Ministries, in Oregun, Lagos, has described the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed nearly 600,000 people worldwide, as a satanic conspiracy to create global panic.

In a sermon which he delivered, titled, ‘The COVID-19 Mystery,’ posted on YouTube on Sunday, July 12, Okotie also described American billionaire businessman, Bill Gates, as the COVID-19 protagonist allegedly being used by Satan to challenge God.

According to Okotie, the number, 10, was symbolic to COVID-19 and Gates fitted that pattern perfectly.

He also described the COVID-19 pandemic as the precursor to the coming of the anti-Christ to the world, saying it was why people had been asked to stay at home worldwide.

Okotie, also posited that online church service was unbiblical and unacceptable to God.

He said, “There is a man who is the protagonist of this whole process that we are seeing today. His name is Bill Gates; and he is the one that I am going to be referring to.

“His name is William Henry Gates and he is the third generation of his family. His grandfather, William Henry Gates; his father, William Henry Gates; then himself, William Henry Gates, the third.

“For you to understand why he was chosen, you need to understand what the bible calls patterns.

READ ALSO, Army Foils Boko Haram’s Attempt to Seize Army Barracks in Maiduguri

“Satan decided that in the year 2020 – if you look at 2020, it is 10, four times and the number 4 is the number of creation. So, this year was particularly chosen by Satan as the year that he would challenge the power of the Almighty God, the authority of Almighty God upon the face of the earth, in preparation for the coming of the anti-Christ.

“But how is he going to do it? First, he has to get a man who has the pattern and that man is Bill Gates. And then there will be a conspiracy to bring a pandemic, sickness, a disease, whatever it is. Why is it that important? Because the curse of the law, which involves sickness and disease was dealt with when Jesus went to the cross and the sacrifice was accepted.

“So, if the earth is going to experience a challenge coming from the god of this world, it must refer to something that God has already dealt with spiritually. So, he brings a disease and names it COVID-19 and attaches the number, 10, to it and the protagonist of this will be Bill Gates, whose number is 10.

“Now, what would they do? They would create panic in the whole world because that is the only way that the enemy can control man, the way that God controls man through faith.

“If we look at the life of Bill Gates, we begin with his birth; the man is 64 years old; he was born on the 28 of October 1955. Now, October is the 10th month – that is the number 10.

“1955, when you calculate it numerically, it is 1 and 9, 5 and 5, it gives you 10, 10. So, you see his age, 64, is 6+4, again, it comes to 10 – this number that is identified with the power of Almighty God, demonstrating His supremacy.

“So, when Satan wants to challenge that, he would make sure that whoever is the instrumentality for that challenge bears the number, 10. And that is why Bill Gates has that number identifying him as the chief protagonist of this concept of the opposition of Almighty God created by the Luciferians right here in our own world.”

Okotie had recently opposed government’s COVID-19 social distancing guidelines for churches, describing the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria as “modern day Pharisees bereft of any authority to speak on behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ.”

COVID-19 is a conspiracy to create global panic - Okotie

Gunshots were heard in Maiduguri in the early hours of Tuesday as insurgents’ audacious attempt to seize an Army barracks in the town.

The insurgents in an attempt to seize the 333 Artillery Barracks of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri met their match in the soldiers with an ensuing fire exchanges lasting over an hour.

The firing which started from around 11.20pm on Monday lasted till around 1 am on Tuesday.

The intensity of the gunshots made many believe that Maiduguri was being overrun by the insurgents as the sound of gunshots was heard in almost all part of the town, rudely awakening sleepers.

It was later gathered from security sources that the insurgents had wanted to penetrate the 333 Artillery Barracks on the outskirts of Maiduguri, few kilometres to the Nigerian Air Force Base, which is key to the ongoing war against insurgency in the North East.

READ ALSO, 602 Boko Haram members released after repentance and rehabilitation 

Sources revealed that the insurgents who had come through Gambori village behind the Army barracks had positioned themselves around the facility.

They shot mortals into the barracks and they were replied with equally devastating shots by the soldiers.

The insurgents were equally bombarded from the air by warplane deployed from the nearby NAF base.

The attack made villagers around the barrack run into the bush believing that their villages may have come under siege.

The sound of the firepower however went quiet at about 1am on Tuesday when the insurgents were believed to have fled, though the number of casualties could not yet be ascertained as at the time of filing this report.

Confirmation of the attack from the military authorities is still being awaited.

Army Foils Boko Haram’s Attempt to Seize Army Barracks in Maiduguri

Some 602 Boko Haram members were freed in Nigeria on Monday after they regretted their membership and completed a rehabilitation and reintegration program.  

Bamidele Shafa, spokesperson for the Nigerian military’s Operation Safe Corridor, said members of the terror group who were caught in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states had sworn an oath of allegiance to the Republic of Nigeria.

Shafa said the freed men will not rejoin Boko Haram and that 1,400 other Boko Haram fighters who renounced their membership were released previously. Furthermore, according o him, 280 terrorists were now at the rehabilitation center.

Boko Haram terrorist attacks have killed over 30,000 people and displaced about 3 million since July 2009, when the violence started in the country's northeast states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe across an area roughly the size of Belgium.

The 602 ex-terrorists denounced membership of the group and swore oath of allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

They took the oath before an 11-man quasi-judicial panel headed by Justice Nehizena Afolabi of the Federal High Court, Gombe.

The denunciation followed months of participation in Operation Safe Corridor, a multi-agency humanitarian effort led by Defence Headquarters, that was launched in 2016 to encourage Boko Haram terrorists to surrender.

The programme is based on De-radicalisation, Rehabilitation and Re-Integration of former members of the insurgent group that has terrorised the North-East region for over 10 years. 

Speaking during the exercise, Maj.-Gen. Bamidele Shafa said the appearance of the repentant insurgents before the judicial panel was a major requirement before their reintegration into the society.

He said, “The panel is for the clients to appear before it to confess their pasts and denounce their membership of Boko Haram, Islamic State’s West Africa Province as the case maybe.

“And swear oath of allegiance to be loyal, discipline and obedient citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and then make commitment.

“The commitment is that at the end of the programme, where they commit any offence, they stand to forfeit all privileges that they have acquired today and will be liable of offence against the state.”

READ ALSO, Two killed, as JTF foils kidnap attempt on Abuja expressway

Shafa revealed that since the operationalisation of the DRR programme in 2016, it had admitted 893 clients into camp while 280 including two Chadians had been transferred to their various national and state authorities.

The Borno State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zuwaira Gambo, said there was already a structure on the ground in the state to continue from where the DRR programme stopped.

602 Boko Haram members released after repentance and rehabilitation

Two suspected kidnappers have been killed, while others escaped with various degrees of bullet wounds while trying to kidnap some commuters along Lokoja-Abuja expressway.

 It was gathered that the suspected kidnappers, numbering about fifteen, armed with AK-47 rifles, ambushed commuters at about 3:20am on Monday at Idu Bridge, along Lokoja-Abuja expressway, under Kogi Local Government Area of the State.

The bandits reportedly ambushed commuters and fired sporadically at a white sienna bus with registration number Osun BKN466XA. Unfortunately, the driver of the vehicle was injured as he was hit by a bullet in his upper arm.

The kidnappers after staging their deadly operation were, however, repelled by the Joint Security Task Forces of the state.  This led to the rescue of other two passengers in the Siena bus identified as Blessing Onu (aged 35) and Eze Ikechukwu (aged 40), both of whom were conveying vegetables from Akure to Abuja.

The Senior Special Assistant on Security to the Governor, in Kogi LGA Isah Abdulkarim, confirmed the incident on Monday evening.

He said “the Kogi State Government has re-strategized its security networks and responded head-on to the resurgence of kidnappings along the major road networks in the state.

“The remnants of kidnappers who were dealt a deadly blow by the current administration of Governor Yahaya Bello were trying to stage a come back in recent times.

“On 13th July 2020, about 0320 hours, at Idu Bridge, along Lokoja-Abuja expressway, Kogi LGA, unidentified bandits numbering about fifteen (15), armed with AK-47 rifles, ambushed commuters and fired sporadically at a sienna bus and hit the upper arm of the driver.

“The team went after the kidnappers which led to the death of two of the daredevil criminals during a gun exchange, with some of them escaping with bullet wounds.

Another kidnapping attempt according to sources was also repelled along Okene-Lokoja road by the proactive efforts of the Vigilante service.

It will be recalled that the Abuja-Lokoja- Okene expressway had recently become a haven for criminal elements despite efforts by the government to nip in the bud the upsurge of crime and criminality in Kogi State.

Two killed, as JTF foils kidnap attempt on Abuja expressway

The Lagos State Safety Commission on Sunday said it had sealed 33 religious and social facilities for operating against the state’s established COVID-19 reopening protocols.

The facilities included bars, lounges, restaurants, gyms and spas.

The Director General of the agency, Mr Lanre Mojola, in a statement, said the enforcement exercise affirmed that the state would not hesitate to deal with erring or non-compliant facilities.

He reiterated that the state had zero tolerance for establishments that continued to violate the state regulations and laws.

Lagos seals 33 religious, social facilities for flouting COVID-19 guidelines

Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has alleged that Ibrahim Magu, the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, worked for Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, and the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu while in office.

He insisted that Osinbajo and Tinubu are the two godfathers of Magu.

Fani-Kayode also claimed that Magu never worked for President Muhammadu Buhari while in office.

According to him, what is happening to Magu, who is being held at the Police headquarters, Abuja, over allegations of lack of transparency in managing recovered assets and mismanagement of the EFCC, was planned years ago.

READ ALSO, Ibrahim Magu opens up on ‘N550b missing interest’

Fani-Kayode said this in a tweet on his official Twitter handle on Sunday night.

He said: “What is happening to Magu today was planned years ago. The real target is not Magu but those he worked for and protected for the last 4 years.

“He NEVER worked for Buhari. He worked for Tinubu & Osinbajo. When they finish crushing him, they will move against his two godfathers.”

Magu is expected to reappear before the Justice Ayo Salami probe panel on Monday, to defend himself against several other allegations.

Osinbajo and Tinubu are Magu's godfathers – Fani-Kayode

Ibrahim Magu, the suspended acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has denied claims that he failed to account for the interest in the N550 billion recovered fund kept in the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, custody.

It will be recalled that the Final Report of Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets, PCARA, surfaced at the weekend showing how interest rates accrued from N550 billion recovered by the anti-graft agency in the period from May, 2015, to May 2020.

The report said the EFCC, “Failure to report on the interest on actual lodgments clearly establishes that interest element of over N550 billion has been re-looted relating to the period under review.”

However, in a statement by his lawyer Wahab Shittu on Sunday, Magu said such recovered fund kept with the CBN does not generate interest.

The statement added, “It is falsehood that Magu placed N550 billion recovered loot into a deposit account.

“The alleged transaction never featured in the proceedings before the Salami panel. Magu was never confronted with any such allegation by the panel and the news is blatant falsehood.

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“To the best of Magu’s knowledge, no such amount is in any such account and he remains aghast at such outrageous figures. No one has confronted Magu with such allegations.

“All recovered funds are lodged in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Such recovered funds do not generate interest. This is elementary and can be verified from the CBN and the federal ministry of finance.

“This can also be confirmed from other government revenue generating agencies. Funds kept in TSA account do not generate interest.”

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It will also be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had on Friday suspended Magu as the acting chairman of the EFCC.

The agency’s Director of Operations, Mohammed Umar, has taken charge and now oversees the activities of the Commission pending the conclusion of the ongoing investigation into Magu’s case.

Magu, on Friday wrote the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, asking to be released on bail.

In a letter dated July 10, 2020, Magu’s legal representative, Oluwatosin Ojaomo, asked Adamu to grant bail to his client on “self recognizance.”

The acting EFCC Chairman was arrested on Monday and taken to the presidential Villa in Abuja, where he is being interrogated by a panel headed by Ayo Salami, a retired president of the Appeal Court.

Ibrahim Magu opens up on ‘N550b missing interest’

The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere has condemned the decision of the Federal Government to keep schools closed in the country indefinitely. The group charged President Buhari to sack the ministers in of education for planning to ground education for a year.

The Secretary General of the association, Bashorun Sehinde Arogbofa, said the Federal Government should have allowed pupils to resume and find means of protecting them against coronavirus disease instead of declaring that schools should remain closed until further notice.

READ ALSO, Lagos lawmaker, Tunde Braimoh is dead

He said, “Adamu Adamu should be sacked, he cannot take our school system back to the stone age. They had about six months to plan for these children. What did the Federal Government do?

 “It means the two of them (Adamu and the Minister of State for Education) don’t know what they are doing, so they should go. I think the two ministers in the ministry should go. Why would one say the pupils should resume to take their paper in August and the other minister would come and reverse the order?”

This declaration by the Afenifere came following the reaction of Nigerians condemning the extended closure of schools and suspension of school reopening for graduating classes.

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, on Wednesday after the weekly Federal Executive Council, FEC meeting presided by President Muhammadu Buhari had announced that 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination, WASSCE, has been postponed indefinitely for Nigerian students.

The Minister stressed that it is more preferable for the students to lose an academic year than to be exposed to dangers amid  the raging coronavirus pandemic.

The development was met with criticism and diverse reactions from Nigerians on social media. Many expressed worries that the delays in opening of schools and preventing students from sitting for their WAEC exams will have a ripple effect on those in previous classes and universities.

Some of the comments gathered from Twitter read thus;

@ProfCS5 “What happened to pool testing WAEC candidates and letting them write their exams? We need to find a way to live with this virus! Knee jerk reactions will not save us!

@Dtraveller01 “It is only Nigeria that is claiming not ready to reopen school among the 5 West Africa member countries. Ghana with worse COVID-19 cases has been ready more than a month ago to take the exam. Don’t just lock the school, what actions are you taking to reopen schools?”

@Sirvhik “Our universities barely admit 30% of UTME applicants. So I don’t think postponing the exams and increasing the number of applicants is a good idea at all.”

@HisMkay “My problem is not this SS3, the next coming SS3. One year has been removed from your classes. You guys will repeat SS2 or there will be SS4.”

@NiyiOyinlola “We can reopen schools, the guidelines need to be improved. All final year students from primary to tertiary institutions have enough space to do anything they need to do.”

@Samisah01 “Dead people don’t get degrees. I am personally affected by this closure as a teaching staff but to be honest, we have to consider safety before anything else. Only the living can go to school.”

@Chidi Peter “I agree. It’s only when we are alive that we can go to school. The dead cannot go to school.”

@OgbeniDipo “It is very unfortunate that students won’t be taking WAEC this year. So they would potentially lose a year because of coronavirus. As unfortunate as it is, most people will agree that it is what it is and there is nothing the government can do if schools cannot be safely opened.

READ ALSO, Nigeria has developed COVID-19 testing kit - FG

@Akinolafestus “Level of risk taken differs. What do we lose if WAEC is delayed till January or Feb 2021, Higher education too cannot resume. The best is to shift everything forward including University/polytechnic admission forward.”

@FreddyMarshall “At least, the government won’t be liable for children’s health.”

“The Federal Government and National Assembly will have to find a way to compensate students who will miss WAEC this year. Perhaps for next year, allow anyone with 150 & above in JAMB exam get into the university of their choice. There are no easy solutions.”

@OforPeter “Do these people somehow believe that school children are locked indoors in their respective homes. Or that this coronavirus is concentrated in schools?

@FatopeTilewa “But these students are already in the market helping their parents, some are even going to tutorial already, so why can’t they go to school?”

Sack ministers for stopping school resumption - Afenifere demands 

Redeemed Christian Church of God Pastor, RCCG,Gideon Bakare, in Akure has been suspended after being caught while trying to sleep with a member’s wife in her matrimonial home in Akure, Ondo State capital.

Bakare was caught in a viral video sitting half naked in a compromising position with a woman who was described as a wife of a member of the church’s branch in Akure. In the viral video, the pastor is seen begging as the woman sits beside him while her family films the shot.

The woman, in the video accused Bakare of wanting to sleep with her even as the cleric begged for mercy. She also threatened  to call his wife to see what he had done.

The video generated a lot of reactions from Nigerians on social media which led to his suspension by the church administrators.

Consequently, the RCCG, in a statement by the Head, Media & Public Relations, Pastor Olaitan Olubiyi reacted to the video. In the statement which was released on Wednesday, the RCCG said Bakare has been suspended for attempting adultery.

According to the statement, Bakare had put the church in a bad light. 

”The Redeemed Christian Church of God has excommunicated Mr Gideon Bakare and relieved him of all ministerial duties in the mission.

“Bakare, who was an Assistant Pastor in the Church was recently accused of attempted act of adultery with a woman in her matrimonial home in Akure, Ondo State.

“The Church dissociates itself from such immoral act of Mr Bakare and has described it as being completely contrary to the values, doctrines, beliefs and practices of the RCCG and the undiluted word of God.

“The Church, after reviewing the report of her investigation, noted that by his conduct, Bakare has not only tainted his personal reputation but has portrayed the Church in a bad light.

”Mr Bakare has, therefore, been directed to return all official items in his custody and stay off all associated connections with the mission with immediate effect.”

Olubiyi also mentioned that Bakare was a part-time pastor with the church, and added that his family was also devastated by the incident. In addition, it was gathered that the cleric is a senior civil servant in the Ondo State Civil Service.

According to Olubiyi, Bakare could still attend any of the ministry’s parishes and appeal the church’s decision if he was not satisfied with the verdict.

RCCG suspends pastor for attempting to sleep with member’s wife in Ondo

The Federal Government on Thursday announced the indigenous development and validation of RNA-Swift, a test kit for the identification of SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent for COVID-19.

According to the FG, the move was to accelerate the capacity to test people and help effectively manage the coronavirus pandemic.

The Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, announced this during a press conference in Abuja.

He said, “The RNA-Swift has amazing precision for the detection of SARS-COV-2 and will be commercially available at a price that places it ahead of competitors in terms of sensitivity and affordability.”

The minister told reporters that in the coming months, five million farmers would be tested with the RNA-Swift kits from the first 10 million kits to be produced.

“I want to confirm to you that the RNA-Swift product team is in consultation with the African Development Bank for the funding of an African-wide testing programme for COVID-19 and the establishment for RNA-Swift production in Nigeria,” he stated.

Nigeria has developed COVID-19 testing kit - FG

Nigerian newspapers,on one page.