Category: PM News

Edo North Senator Adams Oshiomhole has declared that Peter Obi’s strong performance in the 2023 presidential election was driven by public anger over the failures of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, not enduring political strength.

Oshiomhole said the cash scarcity and fuel crisis that preceded the election created widespread hardship and frustration among Nigerians, resulting in protest votes for the Labour Party candidate.

Speaking during an interview on TVC News’ Beyond the Headline with Nifemi Oguntoye, the former Edo State governor blamed policies introduced during Buhari’s final months in office for worsening the hardship faced by Nigerians.

He argued that Obi was the major beneficiary of the anger generated by those policies during the presidential election.

According to Oshiomhole, the conditions that produced Obi’s 2023 electoral surge no longer exist, making it unlikely that he will repeat the performance in 2027.

The former APC national chairman also questioned Obi’s economic credentials, describing him as a trader focused on immediate gains rather than long-term national development.

He maintained that President Bola Tinubu’s infrastructure projects demonstrated a greater commitment to Nigeria’s economic future.

Turning to the 2027 elections, Oshiomhole said his priority was to persuade his constituents to re-elect him and support Tinubu alongside other candidates of the All Progressives Congress.

‘This time around, I want to concentrate on convincing the people of my constituency to vote for me, to vote for President Tinubu and to vote for the House of Representatives candidate and House of Assembly candidate because we belong to the same party,’ he said.

Oshiomhole also reaffirmed his loyalty to the APC, recalling that he refused to abandon his convictions even when he suffered personal consequences under the previous administration.

‘Everyone who knows me knows that I’m fiercely loyal. When my loyalty was tested by the previous administration, I stood my ground. They took their job, I stood my ground and kept my honour,’ he said.

The Oyo State Government has taken a major step to strengthen its security architecture with the acquisition of two Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft aimed at improving aerial monitoring, intelligence gathering and rapid response to criminal activities across the state.

The aircraft, identified as Diamond DA42 MNG ISR platforms, were procured at a cost of ?7.763 billion and are expected to enhance surveillance along Oyo State’s borders with Kwara State and the Republic of Benin, areas considered vulnerable to the activities of bandits and other cross-border criminals.

The acquisition comes amid growing security concerns following recent attacks in parts of Oyo State, including the abduction of pupils and teachers in Oriire Local Government Area.

Governor Seyi Makinde had disclosed that the surveillance aircraft were procured as part of a broader strategy to strengthen the state’s capacity to prevent and respond to security threats before they escalate.

According to the state government, delivery of the aircraft was delayed because their components required assembly by the Chinese manufacturers at the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) hangar in Lagos. Officials said the government opted to wait for the completion of all technical and safety procedures before deploying the aircraft rather than rushing them into service.

Makinde had expressed regret that the aircraft were not operational during the rescue mission for victims of the Oriire school abduction but stressed that deployment depended on the professional advice of the manufacturers and aviation experts.

The Diamond DA42 MNG aircraft are designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations, providing real-time aerial imagery and monitoring capabilities that can support security agencies in tracking criminal movements, securing forests and border communities, and coordinating rapid interventions.

The state government said the platforms will complement ongoing collaboration with the Nigerian Air Force and other security agencies, which have already deployed surveillance aircraft to support rescue operations during previous kidnapping incidents in the state.

Security analysts believe the aerial assets could significantly improve intelligence-led policing in Oyo, particularly in remote communities where difficult terrain has often limited the effectiveness of conventional security operations.

With the new surveillance aircraft expected to become fully operational, the Makinde administration says it is reinforcing its commitment to protecting lives and property while improving security across Oyo State and neighbouring border communities.

Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, on Tuesday rescinded his earlier decision to invite Oluwatosin Ajayi, the Director-General, Department of State Services (DSS), to testify in his defence in the ongoing trial for alleged criminal defamation.

Sowore, through his lawyer, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, SAN, made this known shortly before the conclusion of proceeding before Justice Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The defendant was alleged to have made false claims against the person of President Bola Tinubu by referring to him as ‘a criminal’ in a post he made on his ‘X’ and Facebook accounts.

Against this development, the DSS charged Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), with criminal defamation, cyberstalking and incitement.

Olumide-Fusika had, on July 22, indicated his intention to apply for a subpoena on the DG of DSS.

The lawyer had wanted Ajayi to appear to testify on his client’s behalf and produce a document; a letter dated Sept. 7, 2025, asking Sowore to retract his alleged criminal defamatory posts about Tinubu.

He said his decision to invite the DG, DSS was because of the alleged inability of the official of the service, Uwem Davies, who appeared as the second defence witness on subpoena; to adequately address questions he raised in relation to the Sept. 7, 2025, letter.

He had said since Davies, who authored the said letter, told the court that he acted on the directive of the DG, DSS, it was necessary for Ajayi to appear and shed more light on the letter.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Olumide-Fusika later changed his mind on the issue after a heated argument on the propriety of the appearance of Mr Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), in the case without a prior notice.

Earlier when the case was called, Fagbemi announced appearance for the prosecution.

Responding, Olumide-Fusika said the matter was scheduled for continuation of defence.

He, however, said that he could observed that ‘the prosecution is reinforced with the presence of the AGF and DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN.

According to him, I don’t know if there is a reason why they are here.

‘So, what do you want me to do? I hope you are not intimidated?’ Justice Umar asked.

‘I am my lord,’ Olumide-Fusika responded in a lighter mood.

When the judge asked him if he was ready to continue with the proceeding, the lawyer responded in affirmative.

Olumide-Fusika then said their ‘next witness is a subpoenaed witness, the DG DSS, Oluwatosin Ajayi, who holds the position.’

Fagbemi, who appeared for the first time, queried the competence of the subpoena issued on the DG, DSS, and urged the court to hold that the invitation to the DG, DSS amounted to an abuse of court’s process.

Fagbemi said it was incorrect to state that the subpoena was served on Ajayi as earlier claimed by the defence lawyer, noting that service of a subpoena ought to be personal on the person it was directed at.

The AGF also submitted that the application for subpoena and the writ subsequently issued did not indicate when the DSS’ DG was expected to attend court.

The AGF, who argued that the subpoena amounted to an abuse of the process of the court, said that the letter, which the defence had wanted Ajayi to produce and answer questions on, had already been admitted in evidence twice by the court.

‘As a matter of record, this document has been tendered and marked Exhibit D. It was also tendered as Exhibit DWC on July 22, 2026. It was tendered by the defendant,’ Fagbemi said.

The AGF argued that although it was the constitutional right of Sowore to apply for subpoena against anybody in aid of its case, such privilege had limitation.

Fagbemi said: ‘It is worth hearing that the document in contention was authored by DW-2 (Davies).

‘The matter in contention is an official matter.

‘The DG of the DSS is not being subpoenaed to come in his personal capacity.

‘He is being subpoenaed in his official capacity to give evidence in respect of an official letter.

‘It is not about his person or any allegations against him. So, there are limits.’

He urged the court to discountenance the subpoena and call on the defendant to proceed with his defence.

He further argued that the subpoena was being used by the defence for indirect and improper object order than any bonafide purpose.

Besides, he said the application was only to delay proceedings in the trial since the DSS had earlier allowed his official to give evidence in Sowore’s defence.

Responding, Olumide-Fusika faulted Fagbemi’s appearance in the case, arguing that if he wished to take over the case from Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN, the lawyer who had been handling it before now, he should do that appropriately by filing a notice.

‘What AGF has done today is to appear and make submissions.

‘We are entitled to be notified that he is taking over the prosecution of the case from the lawyer that filed the charge and has been appearing,’ Olumide-Fusika insisted.

He sought the leave of court to enable him reply to an authority cited by the AGF and urged the court to discountenance all that the AGF had said.

‘He (AGF) is not in the matter. He did not file the proper notice that he was taking over the case,’ he added.

Before both lawyers could agree on when to return for Olumide-Fusika to reply to the authority cited by the AGF, Fagbemi beckoned on the defence lawyer, who left his seat and moved towards where Fagbemi stood.

They conferred briefly, following which Fagbemi announced that Olumide-Fusika had changed his mind that he would no longer insist that the DG of DSS must appear in person.

He said the defence lawyer said someone else could come to answer the questions he had in respect of the letter of Sept. 7, 2025.

At that point, Fagbemi and Olumide-Fusika agreed that the latest development had overtaken their arguments and said it was no longer necessary for the judge to deliver a ruling on the earlier arguments.

Justice Mohammed Umar subsequently adjourned the matter untill Aug. 3 for any official of the DSS to appear in relation to the subpoena earlier directed at the DG, DSS.

This past week, a somewhat comical yet concerning development unfolded in the world of artificial intelligence. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, announced that some of its most advanced AI models had ‘escaped’ a test environment and essentially stole data from Hugging Face, a prominent AI start-up.

Tasked with solving an exceptionally difficult cybersecurity problem, the models took an extraordinary and unauthorised shortcut.

They exploited weaknesses within OpenAI’s own testing environment to break out, subsequently infiltrating Hugging Face’s systems to find a solution.

The situation would be humorous if the implications weren’t so grave.

While many headlines quickly labelled the models as ‘rogue,’ the reality is far more subtle.

Completely failed

There is no evidence that the AI developed an independent ‘desire’ to rebel or attack Hugging Face.

Instead, what is not in doubt is that the models somehow pursued a narrowly defined objective through unpredictable, unprogrammed routes that their designers completely failed to anticipate.

That distinction does not make the episode less alarming.

As a matter of fact, it is cause for even greater concern because it illustrates that AI models don’t have to be malicious or even conscious-as some people have feared-to cause serious harm.

All it takes is a sufficiently capable system, a poorly defined objective, and safeguards that fail to anticipate the means by which the objective may be pursued.

This means that, while we may see this simply as AI going rogue and stealing something, at a deeper level it exposes the difference between intelligence and judgement.

An AI system can identify an effective route to an objective without possessing any moral understanding of why that route should be rejected.

If an unauthorised intrusion appears to advance the assigned goal, the system will go for it, even if it is morally unacceptable, unless the option is clearly anticipated and excluded from the available choices.

In other words, the system does not need to decide that theft is acceptable. It only needs to discover that the intrusion works in solving the assigned problem.

This is serious enough, but worse still, these revelations demonstrate that the first line of defence in AI governance may well sit in the exact space most policy conversations rarely begin, that is, inside the laboratories where models are trained, tested and tweaked, long before they ever become public products.

This matters a great deal because, by the time an AI model is released to the public, many of the decisions that determine its behaviour will already be cast in stone. Regulation coming at this stage, however robust, will, therefore, be one step-too late.

The regulator will be seeking to govern how society should use a system, while in reality, the creators will already have decided what the system can do.

The incident also demonstrates that technical sophistication alone does not guarantee institutional control.

That Hugging Face detected and contained the intrusion before OpenAI had even traced its source shows how difficult it can be for even a leading developer to maintain complete visibility over its own systems operating in complex environments.

For Africa, this serves as a sobering preview of exactly what dependency can mean in practice.

It has long been argued that, by running on models built and tested elsewhere, Africa increasingly imports more than a technology.

It also, inevitably, imports undisclosed vulnerabilities discovered on someone else’s terms; safety assumptions set by someone else’s risk perception; and security risks that lie beyond the technical reach of local regulatory bodies.

This, then, raises the urgent question of sovereignty, not just in the development of AI tools, but more importantly in how they are governed.

Just who has the power to test AI models, who can see their failure modes, and who decides when it is safe enough to deploy?

Meaningful governance necessarily requires that countries possess the capacity to test claims made by AI companies about their products, inspect their failure modes, and even question the assurances accompanying each new model.

As if on cue, the inaugural Africa AI Governance Index was unveiled just as news of the OpenAI-Hugging Face episode settled.

Covering all 54 African states across 80 indicators, the Index confirms what many analyses have long suggested, notably, that the continent is still struggling to build the right institutions to govern AI in spite of the rapid development of AI policies.

In other words, the pace of writing AI policy on the continent far outstrips its ability and willingness to fund, staff, and enforce those very policies.

While the gap focuses on policy, it runs deeper than just a regulatory shortcoming. Today, the world’s second largest continent and home to 18 per cent of humanity, holds less than 1 per cent of global data-centre capacity and only about 3 per cent of global AI talent.

It remains woefully dependent on foreign providers for cloud infrastructure and advanced chips, while the frontier models entering its businesses and public institutions are designed, trained and controlled elsewhere.

Africa is therefore attempting to govern systems over whose underlying knowledge and infrastructure it can exercise only limited power.

Powerful fashion

Kenya captures that African AI conundrum in powerful fashion.

The country is home to East Africa’s most dynamic AI ecosystem and, according to the new Index, ranks fourth on the continent. Yet the speed of AI adoption in the country has also revealed the more obvious the limits of existing governance structures.

General data-protection laws, for instance, are being stretched to address risks for which they were never designed, while technology analysts routinely point out the country’s inadequate capacity to independently test the most advanced models it imports.

The contradiction, therefore, is that the country is strong enough to attract AI investment in droves and deploy robust systems, but not yet fully equipped to interrogate those systems on its own terms.

This is the story of many leading African economies, which have dialled up an AI revolution but, in so doing, also have to grapple with the risks of AI that are becoming more complex each day.

The lessons from the Hugging Face episode, which have been illustrated by the just-released Africa AI Governance Index, are clear.

Africa needs stronger regulators, independent researchers and technically capable public institutions.

Pool expertise

To this end, regional AI-safety centres could pool expertise, test advanced models before they are used in sensitive sectors and investigate serious incidents.

Just as importantly, learning institutions, civil society and the media must endeavour to understand these systems and clearly explain their consequences to the general public.

This is what sovereignty should mean for Africa in the age of AI. It does not necessarily require every African country to manufacture chips or build its own frontier models.

But it, no doubt, will require robust infrastructure and the technical capacity to understand what is being imported, set the conditions for its use and reject systems whose risks cannot be independently verified.

Dr Joe Ageyo is the Editor in Chief of the Nation Media Group. He holds a PhD in media studies with a focus on science and environment communication

Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke has declared that no one can rig or steal the August 15 governorship election.

Adeleke spoke while addressing supporters at a campaign rally in Oke-Ila, Ifedayo Local Government Area.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, the governor said Osun residents were not intimidated by alleged attacks and threats surrounding the election.

‘I heard some politicians vowing to steal the votes. Where and how? Osun votes are untouchable. This is Osun State, the heart of the Yoruba nation. Nobody can rig us out here,’ he said.

Adeleke maintained that the large crowds attending his campaign rallies demonstrated the support his administration enjoyed across the state.

‘We are going round the state. The people are trooping out. The people’s votes will be defended. Their will on August 15 will become a reality,’ he said.

The governor accused his opponents of pursuing violence while his campaign concentrated on winning voters.

‘We are getting the votes; they are chasing motor parks. We are winning the people; they are shooting at the people,’ Adeleke alleged.

He said the reported attacks and threats had strengthened the determination of residents to participate in the election.

‘Osun people are not scared. All these attacks and warmongering only hardened our people. Osun people are not cowards. They will vote and defend their votes,’ he said.

Adeleke also defended his administration’s record, saying major towns had been transformed while plans were underway to extend development to rural communities.

The Oke-Ila monarch commended the governor’s performance and urged him to develop tourism and sporting facilities in Ifedayo if re-elected.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has sealed three alcohol factories in Ota, Ogun State, for allegedly producing banned alcoholic drinks in sachets and PET bottles.

NAFDAC said its enforcement team uncovered several violations during the operation led by an Assistant Director in its Investigation and Enforcement Directorate, Kunke Ojo.

At the first unnamed factory, officials reportedly discovered sachet alcohol being produced alongside large quantities of PET bottles.

The agency initially placed the facility on hold but later discovered that the affected products had been secretly removed from the premises.

‘NAFDAC has flagged this as a serious violation, as the products were already under regulatory enforcement,’ the agency said.

Officials allegedly caught the second company producing sachet alcoholic beverages despite the Federal Government’s ban and immediately sealed the premises.

NAFDAC said it had inspected the third company in January and placed 22 production machines on hold. Millions of PET bottles and sachet packaging materials were also confiscated for destruction.

During the latest inspection, however, officials allegedly discovered that the company had broken the regulatory seals and restarted the machines.

Millions of additional PET bottles were reportedly found at the facility, prompting its immediate closure.

NAFDAC reiterated its zero-tolerance policy on regulatory violations, saying the operation was part of efforts to enforce the nationwide ban and protect public health.

Consumers were advised to report the illegal production or sale of banned sachet alcoholic drinks to the nearest NAFDAC office.

Kaduna governor Uba Sani has described his selection of Jerry Adams as his running mate for the 2027 governorship election as a reaffirmation of his administration’s commitment to inclusion, justice, fairness, equity and equal opportunities for all citizens of the state.

Sani said this on Tuesday when he confirmed the nomination of Adams, the Executive Chairman of the Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service as his running mate for the 2027 governorship election.

Sani made the announcement on Tuesday in Kaduna.

Adams will replace current Deputy Governor, Dr. Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe, who is also a Muslim like the governor on the 2027 ticket.

Balarabe has served as deputy governor since 2019 and is completing her second consecutive term.

She is therefore not eligible for another term of office under constitutional provisions.

However, Sani said the choice of Adams followed extensive consultations, deep reflection and prayers, stressing that it reflected values that had guided his administration since assuming office on May 29, 2023.

The governor said the nomination went beyond selecting a deputy governorship candidate, adding that it symbolised the determination to strengthen unity and deepen citizens’ sense of belonging.

According to him, Kaduna’s religious, ethnic and cultural diversity remains its greatest strength and should continue to unite, rather than divide the people.

Sani said his administration had spent over three years healing divisions and restoring public confidence through inclusive governance and equitable distribution of development projects.

He said investments in roads, schools, healthcare, water supply, agriculture and social protection had reached all 23 local government areas without discrimination.

The governor added that collaboration with traditional rulers, religious leaders, women, youths and community groups had strengthened peace and promoted shared development.

He said improved security had enabled farmers to return to their fields, businesses to expand and investments to grow across many communities.

Sani described Adams as an accomplished public servant and tax administrator who transformed the Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service through innovation, transparency and professionalism.

He said Adams’ leadership strengthened the state’s revenue generation, enabling greater investments in education, healthcare, infrastructure, agriculture and other critical sectors.

The governor also described Adams as a man of integrity, humility and competence, committed to peace, reconciliation and inclusive governance.

He said the nomination underscored his administration’s resolve to prioritise merit, competence and character in public leadership.

Sani urged Kaduna residents to embrace the development through the vision of a united state, rather than the lenses of religion, ethnicity or geography.

He pledged to continue building a peaceful, secure, just and prosperous Kaduna, expressing confidence that the administration would leave a stronger foundation for future generations.

Analysts believe that the choice of Adams will further strengthen support for Sani in Southern Kaduna

Speaking recently, during a meeting with leaders of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Kaduna, Adams had commended Sani over his efforts to promote peaceful coexistence across religious and ethnic lines in Kaduna State.

‘Governor Sani is doing well. He has done a lot in terms of peacebuilding and inclusivity. People are no longer talking about segregation in religion. What people are asking for is fairness, and that is what is happening now,’ he stated.

He also noted that Sani has strengthened his relationship with communities in Southern Kaduna with engagement with traditional institutions.

‘We have seen the governor in different Christian fora as a Muslim. Especially those of us from Southern Kaduna have seen him respect our traditional rulers’.

In 2019, I wrote a tweet about the expectations society places on people. I wrote, “A lot of us think life is so straightforward: graduate from university, get a job, buy a plot of land, build a house, buy a car, get married, have children, and live happily ever after. Life is full of ups and downs. It can’t be this straightforward.”

I think about that tweet a lot. I thought about it while reading Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. In this dark humour novel, Murata explores what is considered normal and what is not, and how society expects people to follow a particular path.

The novel follows Keiko, a 36-year-old woman who works at a convenience store, a job she began 18 years ago while still in college. By society’s standards, Keiko is not considered normal.

From a very young age, Keiko didn’t behave the way a “normal child” is supposed to. Normal children don’t take the world so literally. One incident at school confirms that she, after all, is not a normal child.

“When some boys started fighting during the break time. The other children started wailing. ‘Get the teacher! Stop them.’ And so I went to the tool shed, took out the spade, ran over to the unruly boys, and bashed one of them over the head.”

To Keiko, this was simply the quickest way to stop the fight, but it wasn’t the “right” way to do it. Who is responsible for teaching children the right way to stop other children from fighting? Also, have you met young boys fighting?

From this incident, Keiko decided that it wasn’t worth speaking when her thoughts and words would make those around her, especially her parents, unhappy.

It made me think about how much of who we become is informed by the people who raise us. We are rewarded based on how normal or how good we are by the people who love us and whose validation we crave.

But the funny thing about society is that you can never do right by it. Sooner or later, it changes its mind.

“The adults seemed relieved when I did not say a single word more than necessary or act on my own initiative. But as I got older, being so quiet apparently became a problem in itself.”

Keiko lives by observing the people around her. She imitates how they speak, react and behave until those behaviours become her own. Depending on who she speaks to, her reactions are informed by what feels appropriate.

This didn’t shock me because everyone who knows me knows a different Jane. My colleagues know one. My closest friends know another. So does my family.

My point is, we all have different versions of ourselves across different social settings. We absorb what we believe is acceptable and we stick with that. We are chameleons, if you will. Perhaps the difference is that Keiko knows she is pretending, while the rest of us have become so used to performing that we no longer notice it.

These expectations are not limited to women only. Men, too, are not immune to it.

Murata introduces Shiraha, who believes that the world has not changed at all and that we still live in the Stone Age, despite pretending to be a contemporary society, because we still behave as we did in prehistory.

Shiraha is so overwhelmed by society’s expectations that he joins the convenience store, hoping to find a woman to marry, someone who can support him financially so he can finally appear normal. I wanted to climb into the book and slap some sense into him and, while I was at it, Keiko too, for being willing to do it so she can please everyone.

“You are secondhand goods. Even if you are a virgin, you are grubby. You are like a Stone Age woman, past her childbearing age, who can’t get married and is left to just hang around the village, of no use to anyone, just a burden.

This kind of thinking and pressure is what, in my opinion, pushes women to seek marriage with anyone for the sake of fulfilling society’s expectations, regardless of how safe that person is for them.

Convenience Store Woman starts an important conversation about what is considered normal and what is not. Why is marriage the only achievement that should matter to women? Or why should being a provider be the only thing that should define a man’s highest achievement?

Perhaps we are all chameleons after all. The only difference is that some of us become so good at changing our colours that we forget what they looked like before the world told us who to be.

The Plateau State Police Command has arrested three persons in connection with the alleged mob killing of a 25-year-old man in Jos, warning residents against taking the law into their own hands.

The victim, identified as Ibrahim Mbaya from the Rayfield area of Jos South Local Government Area, reportedly died after he was attacked by a group of youths over allegations that he had stolen an iPhone 12.

The command’s spokesperson, Alfred Alabo, disclosed the development in a statement issued on Monday in Jos.

According to Alabo, officers at the Lamingo Police Division swung into action after receiving information from a concerned resident that the victim had been taken to the Jos University Teaching Hospital on Sunday.

When detectives arrived at the hospital, medical personnel confirmed that Mbaya had already died before reaching the facility.

Police investigations led to the arrest of three suspects identified as Rinji Daniel Fwanji, Emmanuel Newyear and Nensemka Fwanji.

Alabo said evidence gathered during the investigation included a viral video that allegedly showed Newyear striking the victim repeatedly with a large wooden plank. Investigators also recovered photographs that reportedly placed him at the scene of the attack.

‘The suspects admitted attacking the deceased instead of reporting the alleged theft to law enforcement authorities,’ Alabo said.

The police spokesman said the three suspects had been moved to the State Criminal Investigation Department in Jos, while efforts were ongoing to track down other individuals believed to have participated in the attack.

He added that the suspects would be arraigned after the investigation was completed.

Alabo strongly criticised the resort to mob action, stressing that members of the public had no legal right to assault or kill anyone merely on suspicion of committing an offence.

He also appealed to residents to report suspected criminal activities to the appropriate security agencies and allow due process to take its course.

A major kidnap operation by armed bandits was foiled in Sokoto State on Tuesday as security operatives rescued 32 abducted victims after a fierce gun battle in Rabah Local Government Area.

The operation, carried out by the Sokoto State Police Command in collaboration with the Nigerian Army, also led to the recovery of rustled livestock abandoned by the fleeing criminals.

The police, however, confirmed that four residents were killed by the bandits before security forces arrived at the scene.

According to a statement issued by the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Ahmad Rufai, the incident occurred at Maikujera Village, a remote community bordering Zamfara State.

The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Rabah reportedly received a distress call around 8:30 a.m. that a large group of heavily armed bandits had invaded the village, abducted several residents and rustled livestock while shooting sporadically at villagers.

Acting swiftly, the DPO mobilised tactical units, including operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit and the Violent Crime Reaction Unit (VCRU), and coordinated with troops of the nearby Army Forward Operating Base to block all escape routes.

Security operatives engaged the bandits in a prolonged gun duel, forcing the attackers to abandon their captives and flee into the forest under sustained pressure from the combined security team.

Following the exchange of fire, security personnel combed the surrounding bush and successfully rescued all 32 kidnapped victims.

The rescued victims comprised six adult males and 26 females, most of whom are children.

Police said all the victims were rescued unharmed and have been taken to a secure location, where they are receiving medical attention and psychological support before being reunited with their families.

Despite the successful rescue operation, the command disclosed that four persons lost their lives during the initial attack by the bandits before the arrival of security personnel.

Reacting to the incident, the Commissioner of Police in Sokoto State, Hayatu Hassan Shaffa, expressed sympathy to the bereaved families and assured residents that efforts were ongoing to track down and arrest the fleeing bandits.

He reiterated the command’s commitment to sustaining aggressive operations against banditry, kidnapping and other violent crimes across the state.

The police urged residents to remain vigilant and promptly report suspicious movements or criminal activities to the nearest security agency to strengthen ongoing efforts to improve security in the state.