Connect with us

Headline

INEC Office Fire Attacks: Yoruba Nation Agitators, Politicians Fingered

Published

on

The recent attacks on two offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in two States of the South-West have been generating speculations among concerned residents who were shocked by the unexpected incidents.

To indigenes and residents of the South-West, an attack on INEC office is strange and extremely unusual.

In some other parts of Nigeria, especially in the South-East, many INEC offices have been set on fire by unknown individuals.

Advertisement

In many of the attacks, members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) were fingered as the masterminds. This is so because the group has continued to agitate for an independent nation, saying no to the 2023 elections.

Since the Tuesday incidents in Osun and Ogun, some Nigerians have speculated that the brains behind the fire attacks might be some Yoruba Nation apologists, who have not stopped threatening that there would be no elections in Yorubaland in 2023.

READ ALSO: Yoruba Nation Can Be Achieved Without Firing Bullet, Says Sunday Igboho

Advertisement

Like their IPOB counterparts, Oodua Republic agitators have insisted that there would be no elections.

Since 2021, the self-styled Yoruba freedom fighter, Sunday Igboho, and his spokesman, Olayomi Koiki, have insisted that there would be no elections next year.

Though Sunday Igboho has ‘lowered his voice’ since his ordeals in Benin Republic, however, he recently said there is no going back on Yoruba Nation.

Advertisement

“I, Sunday Adeyemo and all those who are following me on the issue of Yoruba Nation, there is no going back for us. There are talks around that we have stopped clamouring for Yoruba nation, that is not true, it is an unconfirmed rumour. We want Yoruba Nation.

“I want you, the Yoruba monarchs, to call a meeting, come together, you can see how our people are being killed everywhere, this is not good. Please come together and support us, may you live long. Yoruba Nation, no going back,” he said.

In March 2022, a group known as the Yoruba One Voice (YOV), said the 2023 general elections were not on its agenda but rather, the agitation for self-determination of the Yoruba nation.

Advertisement

Likewise in May, a group identified as Yoruba Referendum Committee (Agbajoowo la fi n soya) called on the lawmakers in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, and Ekiti States to pass into law, the Bill for a Referendum, which they claimed has already been sent to them twice.

Also, the leader of Yoruba Self-Determination Movement (YSDM), Prof Banji Akintoye, recently expressed optimism that Yoruba Nation would have been achieved before February and March 2023, when the elections would take place.

In less than four months to the elections, some agitators, who have not seen any signal that their plans for a sovereign State would materialise, could have resorted to self help, our correspondent gathered.

Advertisement

Professor Akintoye alluded to the fact that the young ones in the struggle are eager to have their own independent nation, stating that, “I know that young people want to jump now. But their elders would hold them back by telling them to wait, and that they should not jump yet.”

Akintoye added that there are about 200 groups in the mission for Yoruba independence.

We have very many organisations in the struggle. They are up to 200. We deliberately did that from the beginning. Let there be many organisations and don’t let the authority be able to decipher who is who. That’s why we assisted many of our youths to establish their own organisations,” he added.

Advertisement

READ ALSO: Igboho Speaks From Prison, Says Yoruba Nation Must Happen To Enjoy Electricity

Earlier in the month of October, a coalition under the auspices of the Yoruba Appraisal Forum (YAF) had raised the alarm over alleged plans by Yoruba Nation agitators to cause violence and chaos in the South-West.

YAF National Coordinator, Adesina Animashaun, at a press briefing in Lagos State, said the objective of the secessionists was how to truncate the conduct of the 2023 general elections.

Advertisement

He alleged that some disgruntled persons in the South-West had been engaging in clandestine activities to spark off “killings, arson and mayhem that would undermine the electoral process and ultimately truncate next year’s elections” throughout the country.

According to him, the violence was planned to coincide with the campaigns by political parties in the six South-West States, as it was aimed at “re-enacting the arson and killings that characterised the unfortunate ‘Operation Wetie’ violence”, which he said took place in the First Republic.

It appears the alarm raised by the YAF group was not taken seriously by security agencies and the resultant effect was what we witnessed last week in Ogun and Osun INEC offices,” a source told DAILY POST.

Advertisement

It would be recalled that some Yoruba Nation agitators recently attacked soldiers in Ota area of Ogun, carting away the rifle of an officer who also sustained injuries.

A senior security operative in the South West confided in our correspondent that the Yoruba Nation agitators are prime suspects in the unfortunate incident.

According to him, it was not a coincidence that the two INEC offices were set on fire same day, same time. He recalled that the two were torched with loaves of bread soaked with gasoline.

Advertisement

“This is really a coordinated attack by those agitators who do not want the 2023 elections to hold. They are seeing that everything is getting set and they don’t know what to do to stop the election.

“Politicians will not go and burn voters’ cards because they know their members would be affected too. They will rather find another way to rig elections,” the security officer spoke anonymously because he is not permitted to address the press.

In his own view, a public commentator, Alhaji Ola Animashaun, said anything is possible as far as the arson is concerned.

Advertisement

However, Animashaun wants security operatives to dig deep in fishing out whoever was responsible for the attacks.

“Nothing is impossible and anything is possible in Nigerian politics, Ogun State inclusive.

“But without necessarily being restrictive, I would rather wish politicians should be effectively ‘x-rayed’ in this instance. However, some anti-democratic fifth columnists could also be at work for some unexplainable agenda as it were.

Advertisement

“I think the 2023 desperadoes should not be off the radar of those looking into the Ogun/Osun (Ede) INEC area offices fire disaster. Coordinated or coincidental, some people somewhere, within or outside INEC, are in what can be called “desperate mode,” Animashaun stated.

Speaking, a political leader in Ogun State, Chief Dapo Adeyemi, opined that the attacks might be the handiwork of some politicians who are afraid of their seamy popularity among the electorate.

“It is not the first time that INEC facilities are being attacked or burnt. I am not sure the latest attacks, though happening in the South-West, could be the handiwork of Yoruba Nation agitators.

Advertisement

“One obvious fact is that the recent attack has political undertone and this is where the security agencies should ensure that the arsonists are fished out and their sponsors identified,” Adeyemi posited.

INEC, security agencies take actions

Meanwhile, at an emergency meeting of the Inter-agency Consultative Committee On Election Security (ICCES) held Friday to discuss the simultaneous attacks on INEC offices in Abeokuta South of Ogun and Ede South of Osun, it was resolved that security agencies would upscale intelligence gathering, sharing and utilising same to stem further sabotage.

Advertisement

The meeting, which was co-chaired by the Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd), was attended by the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, representatives of the Armed Forces and others.

READ ALSO: Yoruba Nation Rally: Sanwo-Olu Donates Apartment, Cash To Jumoke Oyeleke’s Family

It was agreed at the emergency meeting that there would be the deployment of joint Security and Safety Teams to all INEC assets and facilities nationwide henceforth.

Advertisement

The teams, DAILY POST learnt, would include the police, Army, DSS, Civil Defence, the Federal Fire Service and others.

The meeting appealed to Nigerians to continue to support the INEC and the security agencies to ensure a peaceful and secure environment for the 2023 General Election,” a statement released by the National Commissioner and Chairman, Security Committee of INEC, Maj. Gen. Modibbo A. Alkali (rtd) said.
DAILY POST

Advertisement

Headline

UK Police Arrest Asylum Seeker Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed

Published

on

The UK police on Sunday arrested an Ethiopian asylum seeker and convicted sex offender, whose crimes had sparked anti-immigration protests, after he was accidentally released from prison in an embarrassing blunder by British authorities.

London’s Metropolitan Police said officers arrested Hadush Kebatu in the north of the capital on Sunday morning, nearly 48 hours after he was mistakenly freed around 30 miles (48 kilometres) away.

Kebatu, 38, had served the first month of a one-year sentence for sexually assaulting a teenage girl and a woman, but was reportedly due to be deported when the Prison Service error occurred on Friday.

Advertisement

His high-profile case earlier this year in Epping, northeast of London, sparked demonstrations in various English towns and cities where asylum seekers were believed to be housed, as well as counter-protests.

READ ALSO:UK Police Hunt Asylum Seeker Mistakenly Freed For Sex Offence

Commander James Conway, who oversaw the manhunt for him, said “information from the public” led officers to the Finsbury Park neighbourhood of London, where he was found.

Advertisement

He was detained by police but will be returned to the custody of the Prison Service,” he added.

Kebatu is now expected to be deported.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Friday he was “appalled” by the “totally unacceptable” mistake that saw him freed rather than sent to an immigration detention centre.

Advertisement

The Telegraph newspaper said he was wrongly categorised for release on licence and handed a £76 ($101) discharge grant.

READ ALSO:Alleged Misappropriation: MFM Accuses UK Agency Of Discrimination

Police had appealed Saturday for Kebatu to turn himself in, after reports emerged that he had appeared confused and reluctant to leave the prison in Chelmsford, eastern England.

Advertisement

A delivery driver described seeing Kebatu return several times in a “very confused” state, only to be turned away by staff and directed to the railway station.

The driver told Sky News he saw Kebatu outside the jail, asking, “Where am I going? What am I doing?”

He was starting to get upset, he was getting stressed,” the driver said.

Advertisement

READ ALSO:UK Is A Home, Not Hotel, Kemi Badenoch Tells Immigrants, Starmer’s Govt

The father of Kebatu’s anonymous teenage victim told the broadcaster that “the justice system has let us down.”

Police arrested the asylum seeker in July after he repeatedly tried to kiss a 14-year-old girl and touch her legs, and made sexually explicit comments to her.

Advertisement

He also sexually assaulted an adult woman, placing a hand on her thigh, when she intervened to stop his interactions with the girl.

He was staying at the time at Epping’s Bell Hotel, where scores of other asylum seekers have been accommodated, and which became the target of repeated protests.

AFP

Advertisement

 

Continue Reading

Headline

Madagascar Revokes Ousted President’s Nationality

Published

on

Madagascar’s new government has stripped ousted president Andry Rajoelina of his Malagasy nationality in a decree published Friday, 10 days after he was removed in a military takeover.

According to AFP, the decree means that Rajoelina, who was impeached on October 14 after fleeing the island nation in the wake of weeks of protests, would not be able to contest future election.

The decree published in the official gazette said Rajoelina’s Malagasy nationality was revoked because he had acquired French nationality in 2014, local media reported, as photographs of the document were shared online.

Advertisement

READ ALSO:Madagascar’s President Denounces ‘Coup Attempt’ As Gen Z Protests Escalate

French broadcaster RFI said it had confirmed the decree with the entourage of the new prime minister, Herintsalama Rajaonarivelo, who signed the order.

The decree cited laws stipulating that a Malagasy who voluntarily acquires a foreign nationality loses their Malagasy nationality.

Advertisement

Rajoelina’s French nationality caused a scandal when it was revealed ahead of the November 2023 elections, nearly 10 years after it was granted.

READ ALSO:Madagascar Passes Bill To Castrate Child R*pists

It triggered calls for him to be disqualified but he went on to win the contested polls, which were boycotted by opposition parties.

Advertisement

The 51-year-old politician fled Madagascar after army Colonel Michael Randrianirina said on October 11 his CAPSAT unit would refuse orders to put down the youth-led protest movement, which security forces had attempted to suppress with violence.

Rajoelina said later he was in hiding for his safety, but did not say where.

Randrianirina was sworn in as president on October 14, pledging elections within two years.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Headline

Kamala Harris Hints At Running For President Again

Published

on

Former US vice president Kamala Harris said in a British television interview previewed in Saturday that she may “possibly” run again to be president.

Harris, who replaced Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate but lost to Donald Trump, told the BBC that she had not yet decided whether to make another White House bid.

But the 61-year-old insisted she was “not done” in American politics and that her young grandnieces would see a female president in the Oval Office “in their lifetime, for sure”.

Advertisement

READ ALSO:FULL LIST: Trump, Kamala, Netanyahu, Others Shortlisted For 2024 Time’s Person Of The Year

“I have lived my entire career a life of service, and it’s in my bones, and there are many ways to serve.

“I’ve not decided yet what I will do in the future, beyond what I am doing right now,” Harris told the British broadcaster in an interview set to air in full on Sunday.

Advertisement

The comments are the strongest hint yet that Harris could attempt to be the Democratic Party nominee for the 2028 election.

READ ALSO:Kamala Harris Secures Democratic Presidential Nomination

The interview follows the release of her memoir last month, in which she argued it had been “recklessness” to let Biden run for a second term as president.

Advertisement

She also accused his White House team of failing to support her while she was his deputy, and at times of actively hindering her.

AFP

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending