Headline

Apostle Suleman: Police Weigh Multiple Pointers To Assassination Attempt

Published

3 years ago

October 29, 2022

Some security insights have been provided on the recent attempted assassination of a frontline Edo-based cleric, Apostle Johnson Suleiman of the Omega Fire Ministries

The convoy of the General Overseer of Omega Power Ministries (OPM) Auchi, Apostle Suleman was last Friday attacked by unknown gunmen along the Benin Auchi Road, Edo State.

The cleric was said to be heading to Edo State after a foreign trip to Tanzania when the gunmen opened fire on his convoy.

Six persons, including policemen and Suleman’s drivers were said to have been killed during the attack.

The cleric, who described the incident as an assassination attempt, alluded to “certain things” happening since 2017.

This appeared to be a reference to the various sex scandals involving him.

He was quoted as saying “Since 2017, there are certain things that have been happening that I have been quiet about. There are things people don’t know, even though one or two people, along the line, took advantage of that to just come out and say one or two things.”

Suleman further explained that he is speaking up because they’ve done a lot and discovered that he is still moving on and have now decided to make an attempt on his life.

What transpired in 2017

In 2017, Suleman may have had multiple issues ranging from controversial preaching to political issues and a host of others

But one incident that was prominent was the issue of Stephanie Otobo, a Canadian based Nigerian singer, who accused the man of God of impregnating and dumping her.

Otobo had alleged that they were in a romantic relationship and had travelled far and wide. She also alleged that the cleric promised to marry her.

She had also claimed that she had no knowledge the apostle was married because he concealed his marital status from her.

In a petition through her lawyer, Festus Keyamo, Otobo whose stage name is Kimora, alleged that the romantic affair began in Canada in the year 2015. She also accused Suleman of illegal procurement of abortion, threat to life, and attempted murder.

Otobo further released an image of Suleman in an alleged romantic chat with her, but the cleric denied and described the photograph as fake and photoshopped.

At one point, Stephanie made a u-turn and apologised to the pastor at his church, saying she was paid to defame the pastor.

According to the Singer, some “very strong and powerful politicians and pastors” deceived her, and she succumbed to the manipulation because they told her it would help her career.

However, in 2022 Otobo returned with a fresh allegation that she went to apostle Suleman’s church to apologise under duress.

Otobo narrated that she was tired of the court processes and stress and also claimed that the cleric’s media aide, Phrank Shuaibu, had approached and promised her that the case would be settled if she made the open confession.

Herdsmen Criticism

Apostle Suleman has been a fierce critic of the killings by suspected Fulani herdsmen in parts of the country.

He had also in the past instructed his security aides to kill any Fulani herdsman who comes around his church premises after he claimed that someone had informed him of the plot to attack his church.

Many have been killed in the past during clashes between the cattle-herding Fulani indigenes and some communities that practice a mix of farming and cattle rearing. The clashes are due to disputes centred around land use.

Halima Abubakar’s sex scandal

Again, in September 2022 the self acclaimed prophet was involved in yet another sex scandal.

Nollywood actress, Halima Abubakar admitted to having a sexual relationship with Apostle Suleman.

Halima opened up on her affair with the cleric after reports emerged on social media that Suleman had an affair with a host of Nigerian actresses including Georgina Onuoha, Queen Nwokoye, Shan George, and Vivian Metchie.

Suleman had in reaction to the viral post described the list as an unrealistic litany of names curated to bring him down, However in a surprising twist, Halima Abubakar took to her Instagram to call him out.

The actress who was subjected to heavy criticism claimed that she only agreed to date him at the time because he told her he had separated from his wife.

He, however, filed a suit through his lawyer, accusing the actress who is currently battling an undisclosed ailment of defamation, blackmail and publishing demeaning statements about him.

Shortly after she told the cleric that they will meet in court, the actress announced that she had quit acting to ‘rejuvenate and continue healing’.

Killing of Suspected attacker

The Apostle’s allegation that some persons were after his life may have been justified after he raised the alarm that one of the gunmen who attacked his convoy was killed by the police to cover up some people.

Suleman, while condemning the killing, slammed the police for killing the arrested prime suspect.

According to him, the suspect who was captured alive was hurriedly killed in order to frustrate investigation and erase all evidence that could lead to the arrest of his attackers.

But, in reaction, the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Abutu Yaro, directed the withdrawal of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the Auchi Police Station, Ayodele Suleiman.

Yaro said the decision was taken to unravel the circumstances that led to the death of one of the surviving members of the gang.

However, sources say it is difficult to pinpoint the actual source of the attack on Apostle Suleman because of the multiple crises or battles he has engaged in the recent past.

Asked if Apostle Suleman’s public condemnation of the incessant killings by herdsmen across the country may have led to the assassination attempt on the cleric, an Abuja security expert, Dr. Abigail Uwanta, said the situation should not be completely seen that way.

According to her, “As a security monitoring expert, I will not look at it that way. Our major problem here in Nigeria is that cases are not being properly investigated to come to reasonable conclusions. Once something like this happens, we say thank God the victim survived and that’s it. Even the police and other security agencies would not take it upon themselves to get to the end of the matter. I think this is why people resort to speculation.

”In this particular case anything is possible. It could be terrorists, it could be someone who wants him out of the way. Him as an individual, it’s not everything he does that comes to public notice. Who knows where he goes and the people he meets there. He may have stepped on someone’s toes. That’s why I said anything is possible. It would be wrong but not totally out of place to link it to Fulani herdsmen.”

DAILY POST reports that as of the time of this report, the police are yet to make their findings public.

Headline

South Korea, Japan Protest China, Russia Aircraft Incursions

Published

2 days ago

December 10, 2025

Editor

South Korea and Japan reacted furiously on Wednesday after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols around the two countries, with both Seoul and Tokyo scrambling jets.

South Korea said it had protested with representatives of China and Russia, while Japan said it had conveyed its “serious concerns” over national security.

According to Tokyo, two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers on Tuesday flew from the Sea of Japan to rendezvous with two Chinese H-6 bombers in the East China Sea, then conducted a joint flight around the country.

The incident comes as Japan is locked in a dispute with China over comments Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made about Taiwan.

The bombers’ joint flights were “clearly intended as a show of force against our nation, Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi wrote on X Wednesday.

Top government spokesman Minoru Kihara said that Tokyo had “conveyed to both China and Russia our serious concerns over our national security through diplomatic channels”.

Seoul said Tuesday the Russian and Chinese warplanes entered its air defence zone and that a complaint had been lodged with the defence attaches of both countries in the South Korean capital.

“Our military will continue to respond actively to the activities of neighbouring countries’ aircraft within the KADIZ in compliance with international law,” said Lee Kwang-suk, director general of the International Policy Bureau at Seoul’s defence ministry, referring to the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone.

South Korea also said it deployed “fighter jets to take tactical measures in preparation for any contingencies” in response to the Chinese and Russian incursion into the KADIZ.

The planes were spotted before they entered the air defence identification zone, defined as a broader area in which countries police aircraft for security reasons but which does not constitute their airspace.

Japan’s defence ministry also scrambled fighter jets to intercept the warplanes.

Beijing later Tuesday confirmed it had organised drills with Russia’s military according to “annual cooperation plans”.

Moscow also described it as a routine exercise, saying it lasted eight hours and that some foreign fighter jets followed the Russian and Chinese aircraft.

Since 2019, China and Russia have regularly flown military aircraft into South Korea’s air defence zone without prior notice, citing joint exercises.

In November last year, Seoul scrambled jets as five Chinese and six Russian military planes flew through its air defence zone.

Similar incidents occurred in June and December 2023, and in May and November 2022.

Meanwhile, Tokyo said Monday it had scrambled jets in response to repeated takeoff and landing exercises involving fighter jets and military helicopters from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier as it cruised in international waters near Japan.

It also summoned Beijing’s ambassador after military aircraft from the Liaoning locked radar onto Japanese jets, the latest incident in the row ignited by Takaichi’s comments backing Taiwan.

Takaichi suggested last month that Japan would intervene militarily in any Chinese attack on the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as its own and has not ruled out seizing by force.

AFP

Headline

Thousands Reported To Have Fled DR Congo Fighting As M23 Closes On Key City

Published

3 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

Fierce fighting rocked the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday as the Rwanda-backed M23 militia rapidly advanced towards the strategic city of Uvira, with tens of thousands of people fleeing over the nearby border into Burundi, sources said.

The armed group and its Rwandan allies were just a few kilometres (miles) north of Uvira, security and military sources told AFP.

The renewed violence undermined a peace agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump that Kinshasa and Kigali signed less than a week ago, on December 4.

Trump had boasted that the Rwanda-DRC conflict was one of eight he has ended since returning to power in America in January.

With the new fighting, more than 30,000 people have fled the area around Uvira for Burundi in the space of a week, a UN source and a Burundian administrative source told AFP.

The Burundian source told AFP on condition of anonymity he had recorded more than 8,000 daily arrivals over the past two days, and 30,000 arrivals in one week. A source in the UN refugee agency confirmed the figure.

The Rwanda-backed M23 offensive comes nearly a year after the group seized control of Goma and Bukavu, the two largest cities in eastern DRC, a strategic region rich in natural resources and plagued by conflict for 30 years.

Local people described a state of growing panic as bombardments struck the hills above Uvira, a city of several hundred thousand residents.

“Three bombs have just exploded in the hills. It’s every man for himself,” said one resident reached by telephone.

“We are all under the beds in Uvira — that’s the reality,” another resident said, while a representative of civil society who would not give their name described fighting on the city’s outskirts.

Fighting was also reported in Runingo, another small locality some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Uvira, as the M23 and the Rwandan army closed in.

Burundi views the prospect of Uvira falling to Rwanda-backed forces as an existential threat, given that it sits across Lake Tanganyika from Burundi’s economic capital Bujumbura.

The city is the main sizeable locality in the area yet to fall to the M23 and its capture would essentially cut off the zone from DRC control.

Burundi deployed about 10,000 soldiers to eastern DRC in October 2023 as part of a military cooperation agreement, and security sources say reinforcements have since taken that presence to around 18,000 men.

The M23 and Rwandan forces launched their Uvira offensive on December 1.

Rich in natural resources, eastern DRC has been choked by successive conflicts for around three decades.

Violence in the region intensified early this year when M23 fighters seized the key eastern city of Goma in January, followed by Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province, a few weeks later.

– Regional risk –

The peace deal meant to quell the fighting was signed last Thursday in Washington by Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, with Trump — who called it a “miracle” deal — also putting his signature to it.

The agreement includes an economic component intended to secure US supplies of critical minerals present in the region, as America seeks to challenge China’s dominance in the sector.

But even on the day of the signing, intense fighting took place in South Kivu, where Uvira is located, which included the bombing of houses and schools.

Witnesses and military sources in Uvira said that Congolese soldiers fleeing the fighting had arrived in the city overnight Monday and shops were looted at dawn.

Several hundred Congolese and Burundian soldiers had already fled to Burundi on Monday, according to military sources, since the M23 fighters embarked on their latest offensive from Kamanyola, some 70 kilometres north of Uvira.
Since the M23’s lightning offensive early this year, the front had largely stabilised over the past nine months.

Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye warned in February there was a danger of the conflict escalating into a broader regional war, a fear echoed by the United Nations.

Headline

‘Santa Claus’ Arrested For Possessing, Distributing Child Sexual Abuse Material

Published

3 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

A 64-year-old man from Hamilton Township has been arrested in the United States after investigators linked him to the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material.

The suspect, identified as Mark Paulino, had been working as a “Santa for hire” at holiday events, a role that placed him in repeated contact with children.

Mercer County officials said the investigation began on 4 December when detectives were alerted to suspicious online activity involving the uploading of child pornography from a residence in Hamilton Township. The probe quickly identified Paulino, a retired elementary school teacher, as the person involved.

Police stated that Paulino had presented himself online as a retired teacher and had recently performed as Santa Claus for photographs and private, corporate, and organisational events. “Because this role involved direct, repeated contact with children, detectives worked around the clock to secure a search warrant,” authorities explained.

The warrant was executed on 5 December, during which police seized multiple items regarded as evidentiary. Paulino was taken into custody without incident and charged with possession and distribution of child sexual abuse materials, as well as endangering the welfare of a child.

Prosecutors have filed a motion to detain him pending trial. The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities have urged members of the public with relevant information to come forward.