NDLEA Arrests female bandits’ supplier with cache of ammunition Intercepts Colos consignment in boxing kits on New Year day

By: Michael Mike

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on New Year day, Monday 1st January 2024 intercepted at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos a consignment of Colorado, a very strong strain of cannabis, concealed in boxing kits imported from the United States of America.

A statement on Sunday by the spokesman of the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi said a weeklong intelligence-led operation to get the receiver arrested was consummated last Saturday following the successful tracking and arrest of 38-year-old Olorunfunmi Olakunle who distributes the dangerous psychoactive substance to dealers across Lagos state.

Babafemi said the consignment had arrived the country last Monday via Cairo on Egypt Airlines flight marked as boxing kits.

Olakunle during interrogation, disclosed that he has been delivering such consignments to different recipients whenever his childhood friend, US-based Sagir Salami sent them. The latest shipment has a total weight of 1.8 kilogrammes.

Meanwhile, a 28-year-old female supplier of ammunition to bandits, Bilkisu Suleiman came top on the list of 12 other suspects arrested by NDLEA operatives in new year interdiction operations in Kaduna, Lagos, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Borno, and Osun states.

Suleiman, according to the statement, was arrested last Wednesday by NDLEA officers on patrol along Zaria – Kano expressway in possession of 249 rounds of 7.62 mm live ammunition concealed in a black nylon bag kept in her lady’s handbag.

She was on her way to deliver the ammunition to an identified bandit in Kakumi village, Katsina state when she was nabbed after which she was transferred to the Kaduna state command of the Nigeria Police Force for further investigation.

The military authorities at the Bonny camp cantonment in Lagos last Tuesday transferred a suspect, Francis Suru, 37 and 63 jumbo bags of Ghana Loud, a strain of cannabis, weighing 2,104.2 kilogrammes and a truck to the Lagos state command of NDLEA.

Babafemi said the suspect and the drug exhibits were earlier intercepted by NDLEA officers on 12th December 2023 close to the gate of the military cantonment in Bonny Camp, Victoria Island.

According to him, some armed escorts resorted to sporadic shooting to obstruct the operation, a development which attracted soldiers from the cantonment, who eventually intervened and took custody of the consignment and suspect before transferring them to the agency.

In the same vein, NDLEA operatives in Niger state last Thursday during a stop and search operation along Suleja-Kaduna road intercepted a J5 bus coming from Ondo state to Zaria, Kaduna state with 23 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 219.5 kilogrammes. Two suspects: Umar Musa, 26 and Isachiru Abubakar were arrested in connection with the seizure.

Babafemi also disclosed that a female drug trafficker, Queen Onyema, 27, was arrested on Saturday 6th January in a commercial bus enroute Abuja along Okene-Lokoja expressway with 12 compressed blocks of cannabis weighing 4.6 kilogrammes and 0.046 kilogrammes designer drugs concealed in an indomie carton, another suspect Mubarak Sani, 20, was nabbed at Gadar Tamburawa area of Kano last Monday with 445.9 kilogrammes of the same psychoactive substance.

In Borno, four suspects: Zanna Alhaji Dala, 32; Musa Umar, 21; Mushe Ibrahim, 23, and Shehu Idris, 19 were arrested at Pomponari bye pass area of the state with 60 kilogrammes cannabis.

Also, in Osun, NDLEA operatives on patrol along Osogbo-Ode Omu road on new year day, intercepted a consignment of illicit drugs sent through waybill from Lagos to Osogbo. A follow-up operation led to the arrest of Ibrahim Olawale, 43. The drugs recovered include: cannabis sativa 10.8 kilogrammes; Loud 150 grammes; Colorado 19 grammes; Molly 5 grammes totalling 10.974 kilogrammes. A digital scale, N18,000 monetary exhibit and customized wrapping papers for Colorado were also seized.

Babafemi said NDLEA Commands across the 36 states and the FCT equally continued their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitisation lectures in schools, communities, work places and others.

The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Retd) while commending the arrests and seizures of the past week by officers and men of the MMIA, Lagos, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Borno, and Osun Commands, charged them and their compatriots across all formations of the agency to continue to remain vigilant and double their drug demand reduction as well as drug supply reduction efforts in the new year.

NDLEA Arrests female bandits’ supplier with cache of ammunition Intercepts Colos consignment in boxing kits on New Year day

Recruitment: Zulum Approves 4,000 New Teachers Shortlisted For Borno’s Primary, Secondary Schools 

… List to be pasted at secretariat, TSB, SUBEB 

By: Our Reporter

Governor Babagana Umara Zulum has given final approval for immediate recruitment of four thousand (4,000) new teachers already evaluated and shortlisted for deployment to public primary and secondary schools across Borno State. 

Governor Zulum announced the approval on Wednesday evening in Maiduguri. 

Of the 4,000 new teachers, a total of 3,000 of them are to be deployed to government primary schools across the state while 1,000 teachers are to be sent to government secondary schools also across the state. 

The 3,000 primary school teachers are mostly NCE holders who make up 77. 4%, Degree Holders- 22.2% and HND holders- 0.6%. 

The 1,000 secondary teachers include 5 masters degree holders, 658 bachelor degree holders (constituting 66% of all), 8 HND holders mostly graduates of technology, 130 NCE holders (constituting 13% mostly for subjects like French, English literature, Hausa, Technology, civic education etc which graduate-applicants couldn’t be found to teach) l. 

There are also 11 diploma holders of science, laboratory technology employed as lab attendants while there are 23 Matrons and 68 cooks to serve students. 

All the 4,000 shortlisted teachers were meticulously selected after they proved competent to teach in primary and secondary schools. 

A total of 19,305 persons applied for the teachers’ recruitment out of which 10,470 wrote the assessment examinations on various subjects taught in primary and secondary schools. 

621 applicants scored distinctions (A’s) in various subjects after they were scored while 162 scored merit (B’s) in various subjects. 

All those who scored distinctions and merit were shortlisted for recruitment while some of the best amongst those with less scores were shortlisted to teach subjects like French, Literature etc in which they were found competent to teach. 

It would be recalled that in February 2021, a committee set up by Governor Zulum to conduct 
Basic Literacy and Numeracy Competency Assessment of primary school teachers across Borno’s 27 Local Government Areas had found that of 17,229 teachers who were assessed, only 5,439 representing 31.6% were found to be competent enough to teach, while 3,815 constituting 22.1% were found to be incompetent to teach and untrainable. 

The committee found 7,975 constituting 46.3% to be trainable. 

The committee also found that Borno had 1,627 teachers with degrees, 8,153 NCE holders, 2,066 diploma holders, 713 teachers grade II holders, 2,281 SSCE/GCE holders while 2,389 constituting 13.9% of all the teachers were without any formal qualification. 

Governor Zulum directed that competent teachers be paid minimum wage while incompetent teachers be moved to non-teaching government establishments. 

He directed a committee to invite and shortlist competent teachers through rigorous assessment examination, from which 4,000 teachers have now emerged.  

… List to be pasted at secretariat, TSB, SUBEB 

Meanwhile, names of all shortlisted 4,000 teachers have been released by the committee on teachers recruitment. 

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The list is to be pasted as notices on public spaces at the Musa Usman secretariat, at the state’s Ministry of Education, the Teaching Service Board (TSB) and the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) all in Maiduguri. 

Shortlisted candidates are to cross check their data to ensure accuracy.

Recruitment: Zulum Approves 4,000 New Teachers Shortlisted For Borno’s Primary, Secondary Schools 

May 29: Days Count As Tinubu and Shettima Commit to Nigeria

By: James Bwala

The upcoming government of Bolo Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima stands apart in some way. They both come from the southwest and northeast, respectively, and have viewed the Nigerian states as an endeavor of hope that must satisfy their ambition for a new Nigeria.

It should be observed that both Tinubu and Kashim Shettima prepared to unite Nigerians before, during, and after their campaigns. The triumph they achieved during the general elections on February 25 speaks louder than the voices trying to thwart the return of optimism that the Nigerian states have been waiting for a long time.

Finally, we have arrived. The President-elect’s visit to Port Harcourt, in the state of Rivers, where he was called by Governor Nyesome Wike to commission some projects, has reawakened the spirit of unity and the dream of fresh hope for a better country and brighter future for the nation.

The new administration is carefully putting together plans and apparatus that would drive away corruption, religious bigotry, and its vises, which occupied spaces and were quickly taking on a culture of their own among the Nigerian people, despite the numerous calls for reductions in pedestrian fatalities.

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Politics has risen and fallen. Those who have lived in Lagos are familiar with the truth from fiction when it comes to the Tinubu administration’s intentions and what is likely to turn another page in history. The same held true for the inhabitants of Borno State and their anticipated future.

For those who are requesting an interim government. That is a fantasy. Nigerians have developed past their ethnic or religious allegiances. Nothing that did not occur prior to or during the election could ever occur. Negative challenges lead to negative expectations. The May 29, 2023 inauguration is a day of promise to Nigerians.

The next president and vice president of Nigeria, Tinubu and Shettima, will be sworn in. The tale no longer centers on the party to which they both belong, nor could it refer to what the opposition party represents to certain Nigerians. Tinubu and Kashim Shettima are leaders who are working to make Nigeria bigger, and their government will significantly enhance the lives of those who have faith in the stability of our nation.

May 29: Days Count As Tinubu and Shettima Commit to Nigeria