Point One

Residents of Akinlalu community in Ife North council area of Osun State are crying for justice over the killing of at least three of their members by operatives of the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Amotekun Corps, in the state. Amotekun is the local security outfit raised by governments of Southwest states to foster security at the grassroots in complement to operations of the Nigeria Police. Akinlalu residents said an unprovoked attack visited on their community by Amotekun personnel on 30th September resulted in four fatalities and left nine others – mostly women and youths – severely injured. Among those killed were children of the Aro of Akinlalu, Chief Kamorudeen Oyebamiji. Official statements by the police and Amotekun acknowledged three fatalities and fewer injured persons.  According to local accounts, operatives of the security outfit a day previously arrested suspected thieves at a village close to Akinlalu, who managed to overpower the operatives and snatch...

It’s a fragile truce holding between the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals over alleged anti-labour practices by the refinery, regarding which the labour body had called down industry Armageddon. PENGASSAN suspended its nationwide strike mid- last week, but warned the backdown was only temporary. It vowed speedy return to the trenches at the slightest indication of bad faith by Dangote. The labour association had, on Sunday, called an industrial action that momentarily crippled Nigeria’s oil and gas sectors, all in avowed bid to bring Dangote into line. Government had to mediate and, on Wednesday, PENGASSAN announced it was pulling back on “moral high ground” by bowing to government persuasion despite strong doubts about the sincerity of Dangote Group. “We are only suspending, not calling off this strike. If any part of this agreement is broken, we will not give any warning. We will immediately resume our s...

 Brazil is currently in a battle for the soul of its democracy. The country is calling former President Jair Bolsonaro to account for alleged bid to sabotage that nascent dispensation after a bitter past under military dictatorships that she would not want reenacted. But she faces a heavy blowback from regional neighbour and supposed bastion of democracy, the United States of America, which has taken sides with Bolsonaro. Nothing could rank higher in conceptual contradiction if not understood through personality of incumbent American leader, President Donald Trump. Bolsonaro was earlier this month sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison after being found guilty of plotting a military coup. A panel of five supreme court justices handed down the sentence hours after they convicted the former leader. Four of the judges held that he was guilty of leading a conspiracy aimed at staying on in power after he lost the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva....

Among the Yoruba, there is a cultural awe for monarchs because they are regarded as representatives of the deities. They are esteemed above board in mortal fallibility, hence their recognition as one who is not to be questioned – ‘K’a bi o osi,’ which over the ages has been shortened into ‘Kabiyesi’. Only God is truly infallible and beyond questioning, though. It’s just that monarchs are deemed agents of the gods. But they are mortals after all, and anyone among them who strays from the hallowed ground of royal integrity gets stuck in muck like Oba Joseph Oloyede. The Alapetu of Ipetumodu, a community in Ife North council area of Osun State, recently got sentenced to jail in the United States for 56 months over fraud related to Covid-19 emergency loan for struggling businesses in that country. Oloyede holds dual citizenship of Nigeria and the U.S. And even though he was installed the Alapetu in October 2019, he is convicted and jailed for $4.2million fraud committed between 2020 and 20...

 Fifty bodies were reported retrieved and search continuing for more, though officials confirmed below 40 fatalities, in the  attack by bandits on a mosque in Unguwan Mantau community, Malumfashi council area of Katsina State. The attack on 19th August ranked among the deadliest terror incidents in recent times. It happened during the dawn (Fajr) prayer. Reports said the first call to prayer was barely concluded at about 5a.m. when gunmen stormed the small mosque packed with worshippers, young and old, all bowed in devotion. The timing was obviously intended for maximum surprise and ambush of the worshippers, who scampered hither and thither for their lives when shots rang out from the intruders.  A target couldn’t be softer for the agents of terror: the worshippers were unarmed and possibly praying for peace when violence struck. Survivors recalled a brief moment of stupefied silence in the mosque before the bandits released an indiscriminate volley of gunshots. “Many wo...

 A ranking member of the House of Representatives, Ibrahim Usman Auyo, recently opened the can of worms that typically lets off an odious smell about the conduct of lawmaking in Nigerian legislative chambers. He alleged that the wheel of legislation was more often than not oiled by frontloading bribe money running into millions of naira at each instance, not driven by duty on the part of legislators. Lawmakers ordinarily were elected by constituents into the legislative chambers to hear out and process motions, petitions and bills on their behalf as championed by members representing them in those chambers. But reality, according to Auyo, is that if you want to get heard by your fellow lawmakers, you pay your way to get their ears. The Jigawa State lawmaker, representing Hadejia/Auyo/Kafin Hausa federal constituency in the green chamber of the National Assembly (NASS), made the allegation in response to criticism by his constituents that he had little to show by way of sponsoring b...