Two More Commissioners Quit Fubara’s Cabinet, Resignations Rise To Nine

Two More Commissioners Quit Fubara’s Cabinet, Resignations Rise To Nine

The latest to resign are the Commissioner for Special Project, Emeka Woke and the Commissioner for Environment, Austen Ben-Chioma.

The number of resignations in the Rivers State Executive Council has risen to nine after two more commissioners handed in their resignations following the depature of seven of their colleagues from Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s cabinet.

The latest to resign are the Commissioner for Special Projects, Emeka Woke and the Commissioner for Environment, Austen Ben-Chioma.

While Woke served as the Chief of Staff to former governor and current FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, Ben-Chioma served as Commissioner for Urban Development in the immediate past administration.

Woke was also former Local Government Chairman of Emohua Local Government Area.

His letter of resignation is dated November 14, 2023 as that of the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Professor Zacchaeus Adangor (SAN), whose resignation was first to be reported.

“My decision to resign at this time necessitated by pressing family demands for my time and attention as well as the desire to afford other deserving Rivers people the opportunity to serve you and the state in that capacity,” Woke’s letter read in part.

However, Ben-Chioma’s letter is dated December 15, 2023 as the case with the rest of the cabinet members that have resigned.

He also highlighted that his decision to resign was due to personal reasons.

Those who resigned earlier include the state’s Attorney-General (AG) and Commissioner for Justice Prof Zacchaeus Adangor, Commissioner for Works George-Kelly Alabo, Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Commissioner Inime Aguma and Commissioner of Finance, Isaac Kamalu.

Others are Commissioner of Transportation, Dr Jacobson B. Nbina, State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Prince Chinedu, as well as the State Commissioner for Housing, Gift Worlu.

The resignation of these nine Commissioners have so far come to public knowledge since the escalation of the political crisis in Rivers State.

One Commissioner, Henry Ogiri who was in charge of the Ministry of Power had before the new wave of resignations, left in November to take up a federal appointment as a Commissioner in the National Population Commission.

The Rivers State cabinet is now left with about 8 commissioners assuming more cabinet members have not resigned yet.

Israel Troops Kill Three Hostages Mistaking Them For ‘Threat’

Israel Troops Kill Three Hostages Mistaking Them For ‘Threat’

Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military "bears responsibility for everything that happened".

The Israeli army said its troops shot and killed three hostages on Friday after “mistakenly” identifying them as a threat.

“During combat in Shejaiya (a battleground neighbourhood of Gaza City), the IDF (army) mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat. As a result, the troops fired toward them and they were killed,” the army said in a statement.

“Immediate lessons from the event have been learned, which have been passed on to all IDF troops in the field,” it added, expressing “deep remorse over the tragic incident”.

The army identified the hostages as Yotam Haim and Alon Shamriz, both taken from Kibbutz Kfar Aza during Hamas’s October 7 attack, and Samer El-Talalqa, who was taken from Kibbutz Nir Am.

“This is an unbearable tragedy,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

“The entire State of Israel mourns this evening. My heart goes out to the grieving families in their difficult time.”

Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military “bears responsibility for everything that happened”.

“We believe that the three Israelis either escaped or were abandoned by terrorists who held them captive,” he said, adding: “We still don’t know these details.”

Hamas kidnapped around 250 hostages during its October 7 attack on Israel, which killed 1,139 people, according to official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory war against the group has killed more than 18,700 people, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The Israeli government has repeatedly stated that bringing home all of the hostages is one of its chief war aims.

Missing UK Teenager Found After Six Years

Checks by French and British police confirmed his identity.

A British 17-year-old found in France six years after going missing in Spain is to return home to England this weekend, a French deputy prosecutor said on Friday.

Alex Batty, from the northern English city of Oldham, was picked up by a driver in a mountainous area of southern France.

Checks by French and British police confirmed his identity.

Police have said they suspect his mother, Melanie Batty — who did not have parental guardianship — and grandfather David Batty of having abducted the boy in 2017 when he was 11, under the pretence of going on holiday in Spain.

They went to live in alternative lifestyle communes in Spain and subsequently the French Pyrenees.

“He will be handed back to his maternal grandmother tomorrow (Saturday) or after tomorrow (Sunday) at the latest,” said the deputy public prosecutor for the Toulouse region, Antoine Leroy.

He would leave France via the southern city of Toulouse or southwestern city of Bordeaux, he said.

Alex’s grandmother was not able to travel and so the two would be reunited in the UK, he said, adding he was in touch with the British embassy.

Alex’s grandmother Susan Caruana, who according to British media reports is his legal guardian, expressed “relief and happiness” over the boy’s discovery.

“I spoke with him last night and it was so good to hear his voice and see his face again,” she said in a statement released by Greater Manchester Police.

“I can’t wait to see him when we’re reunited.

“The main thing is that he’s safe, after what would be an overwhelming experience for anyone, not least a child.”

Assistant Chief Constable Chris Sykes of Greater Manchester Police earlier told reporters: “Our priority is to get him back to the UK and getting back to his family in Oldham as soon as possible… I expect it to happen over the next few days.”

Leroy said the boy, his mother and grandfather had been in Spain and Morocco, before crossing over to France.

For six years, including two in France, he lived a “nomadic” life in a “spiritual “community”, never staying more than several months in the same place.

The teenager told investigators he had not suffered any physical violence during the past six years, but said he had been “sexually abused when he was… five or six years old”.

Mother ‘likely’ in Finland 

The deputy prosecutor described Alex as “bright and very calm”.

Leroy said he decided to escape when his mother announced she was going to go to Finland, where she is “likely” to be now. His grandfather died six months ago.

He said the 17-year-old walked for four nights in the direction of Toulouse before he was discovered at 3:00 am (02:00 GMT) on Wednesday by a young delivery man.

Toulouse public prosecutor Samuel Vuelta-Simon earlier told AFP that social services had taken care of the teenager.

The prosecutor added that there was no doubt over the boy’s identity.

Alex was last seen in Spain on October 8, 2017, the day he and his mother and grandfather were expected to return home from the family holiday.

Caruana has said she believed Alex’s mother and grandfather had taken him to live with a spiritual community to seek an alternative lifestyle without traditional education.

“They didn’t want him to go to school. They don’t believe in mainstream school,” Caruana told The Times of London.

Found By Delivery Driver 

The Depeche du Midi regional newspaper said Alex had been found by a student named Fabien Accidini.

Accidini, who delivers medicines to pharmacies in the area, said it was raining hard when he gave Alex a lift in his vehicle.

“He said that his mother had kidnapped him when he was around 12,” the student told La Depeche.

“Since then, he had lived in Spain in a luxury house with around 10 people. He would have arrived in France in around 2021.”

He had lived with his mother in a “spiritual community” in France and felt “no animosity towards her but wanted to go back to his grandmother”, Accidini said.

La Depeche said he had lived in France with his mother and grandfather in a “nomadic community” in the nearby Aude and Ariege departments.

Sykes, of the Greater Manchester Police, said that Alex had spoken to his grandmother by video call on Thursday night.

“Whilst she is content that this is indeed Alex, we obviously have further checks to do when he returns to the United Kingdom,” he added.

Anti-tank Mine Kills Four Soldiers in Senegal’s Casamance

Anti-tank Mine Kills Four Soldiers in Senegal’s Casamance a

The army has for several months been carrying out security operations against separatist rebels of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC), who want independence for the region that also borders Guinea-Bissau.

Four Senegalese soldiers were killed when their vehicle ran over an anti-tank mine in the southern region of Casamance, where separatist rebels operate, the army said on Friday.

Three others were wounded in the explosion, which occurred on Thursday in Nord Bignona, near the border with Gambia, the army’s public relations unit said on X, formerly Twitter.

The army has for several months been carrying out security operations against separatist rebels of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC), who want independence for the region that also borders Guinea-Bissau.

One of Africa’s oldest active rebellions, the MFDC has led a low-intensity separatist campaign since 1982 that has claimed several thousand lives.

The conflict was mostly dormant until Senegal launched a major offensive in 2021 to drive out the rebels.

Casamance, Senegal’s southernmost region, is almost separated from the rest of the country by the tiny state of Gambia.

It has a distinct culture and language derived from its past as a former Portuguese colony.

Senegal’s President Macky Sall has said that ending the rebellion is a priority, and in recent years the government has begun returning Casamance residents displaced by the conflict after announcing the destruction of several rebel bases.

26 Injured As Ukrainian Councillor Detonates Grenades At Meeting

26 Injured As Ukrainian Councillor Detonates Grenades At Meeting

The incident took place Friday morning at the headquarters of the village council of Keretsky in western Ukraine's mountainous Zakarpattia region.

A Ukrainian village councillor set off hand grenades at a meeting, wounding 26 people, national police said Friday, triggering the launch of a terror investigation.

The incident took place Friday morning at the headquarters of the village council of Keretsky in western Ukraine’s mountainous Zakarpattia region.

A video posted by the police on Telegram showed a man dressed in black entering the door of a council meeting during a heated discussion.

He then pulled three hand grenades from his pockets, released the safety pins and dropped them on the floor, triggering explosions as those at the meeting screamed.

“As a result, 26 people were wounded, six of whom are in grave condition,” the police statement said, adding that medics were trying to resuscitate the man who threw the grenades.

Ukraine’s police said the Ukrainian Secret Service (SBU) opened a terrorism investigation.

It also said national police opened a probe into the illegal handling of weapons.

The committee held a live video of its discussion on social media, which showed the man had walked in more than 1.5 hours into the debate and stood by the door before taking out the grenade.

It then showed chaos inside the small room, which went dark and was filled with smoke, with injured people on the floor.

Authorities did not name the man.

Many Ukrainians have access to weaponry due to the war with Russia.

N750/Litre Proposal: World Bank An Enemy Of Nigeria, Says NLC

N750/Litre Proposal: World Bank An Enemy Of Nigeria, Says NLC

The labour union urged the Nigerian government to resist foreign influence in economic policies and prioritise the welfare of its citizens.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has labelled the World Bank an enemy of the country after the financial institution asked the Federal Government to stop the subsidy payment on petrol and raise the cost of the product to N750/litre.

“It is truly a shame that the World Bank has really shown itself to be an enemy of the Nigerian nation. Its continued grandstanding and generation of anti-poor policies and programmes have destabilized many countries of the South, especially nations within the sub-Saharan region,” Ajaero wrote in part in a statement on Thursday.

The union criticised the World Bank’s lead economist for Nigeria, Alex Sienaert, for supporting the unwarranted recommendation during a presentation in Abuja and rejected an increase in petrol prices to N750 per litre.

“We vehemently reject the recent advice by the World Bank urging the Nigerian government to increase petrol prices to N750 per litre,” he said.

“We remind the government that Nigeria should not allow foreign entities like the World Bank and the IMF to dictate economic policies that are detrimental to the welfare of its citizens. It is imperative that our leaders look inwards, tapping into the vast resources and human potential within our nation to address challenges and formulate policies that genuinely uplift the standard of living for all Nigerians.”

While accusing the World Bank of promoting policies that prioritise foreign interests over the well-being of the Nigerian people, the Union advised the government to resist foreign influence in economic policies and prioritise the welfare of its citizens.

“The difficulties and suffering created by the last hike in the price of PMS which was a product of the advice of the World Bank and its sister institution; the IMF is still ravaging the nation destroying in its wake the nation’s industrial base and domestic manufacturing capacity which favours Western metropoles,” the NLC chief added.

The NLC also called on the government to look inward, tapping into domestic resources and human potential to address challenges and uplift the standard of living for all Nigerians.

Highlighting the disparity between international prices and local wages, the labour union cautioned against further increases in PMS prices, describing such a move as a “suicide pill” that would worsen the nation’s economic situation.

Fighting corruption in the downstream petroleum sector, reducing the cost of governance, and reviving domestic refineries rather than heeding the World Bank’s advice, Ajaero insisted should be the Federal Government’s topmost priority.

The Union cautioned the World Bank to steer clear of Nigerian economic policies and allow the country to implement its policies that will be of benefit to yrs citizens.

Duterte Denies Threatening To Kill Congresswoman

Duterte Denies Threatening To Kill Congresswoman

House of Representatives Deputy Minority Leader France Castro has alleged Duterte threatened her life twice in recent months and asked state prosecutors to charge him.

Former president Rodrigo Duterte has denied he threatened to kill a congresswoman and urged state prosecutors to refrain from filing criminal charges against him, according to a deposition made public on Friday.

House of Representatives Deputy Minority Leader France Castro has alleged Duterte threatened her life twice in recent months and asked state prosecutors to charge him.

Duterte sent a written deposition to a Manila prosecutor on Monday after the official summoned him and Castro to present witnesses and supporting documents relating to the first alleged death threat, the justice department said.

“There was never any deliberate intent on my part to single out and threaten complainant, Castro,” Duterte said in the deposition, a copy of which was released to the press by the department’s National Prosecution Service.

The case “must be dismissed”, Duterte added.

Castro had alleged that Duterte committed the crime of “grave threats” under the Cybercrime Prevention Act during two interviews with broadcaster SMNI.

On Friday Duterte said he recounted at an October interview advice he had given to his daughter, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte, on how she could use intelligence and confidential funds allocated to her office.

“Your first target with your intelligence fund is ‘You, you France’. Tell her, ‘It is you communists who I want to kill’,” Duterte said in the interview.

Duterte said in his deposition that his statements on Castro were just his “opinion and meant only to express… personal suggestion” to his daughter.

Duterte often threatened to kill people, including drug dealers and rights activists, when he was president from 2016 to 2022.

He also frequently labelled critics as communist sympathisers — a practice known as “red-tagging”, which can result in the arrest, detention or even death of the person targeted.

Castro told reporters Friday she expects the prosecutor to decide by next month whether there is enough evidence to charge Duterte in court.