Point One

Revenge is a dreaded forte of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He deals the hand coldly and assuredly. In the wake of the mutiny in his country last June, Russia watchers branded Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin a ‘dead man walking.’ Prigozhin had led his Wagner mercenary troops to rebel again Russian military command, seized a southern Russian city and threatened to overrun Moscow – coming within 250 kilometres of the capital before the mutiny was pulled at the instance of a hurried pact that wrung humiliating concessions out of Mr. Putin. The Russian leader survived the rebellion appearing demystified and weakened. The Putin mystique was dented, but pundits predicted it wasn’t the final word. The final word, as is seems, was Prigozhin’s mangled remains in a plane wreckage, unless fate wrought a chilling coincidence on the mercenary warlord.  Prigozhin, 62, was a longtime ally of the Russian strongman and Wagner, his 25,000-strong private army, has been a major fighting force for Ru...

Nigeria currently has a vicious war on her hands. Only that the war hugs the backlines of national attention unless something dastardly happens as it did last week when another set of gallant soldiers fell to the battle against terrorism. Some officers and men lost their lives in a Nigeria Air Force (NAF) helicopter crash in Shiroro council area of Niger State. The official narrative was that the helicopter crashed in bad weather while on casualty evacuation mission en route to Kaduna, but terrorists laid claim to shooting it down for assaying to attack their positions. Whichever is true, this country is ruing  her loss of high grade manpower to the mishap. The surveillance MI-171helicopter crashed near Chukuba village in Shiroro council area last Monday, according to a statement by the military. Air Force spokesman Edward Gabkwet, Air Commodore, said the aircraft departed Zungeru Primary School on its way to Kaduna, but was discovered to have crashed near Chukuba village. “Efforts...