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JUST IN: 3 Govs Placed Under Watch By Security Agencies

Published

3 years ago

March 19, 2022

Editor

Three serving governors in the country have run into trouble with security agencies over their alleged plot to incite violence that may engulf the northern part of the country, if not checkmated.

The three governors, who are in their final term of office, are reportedly drawn from the North East, North Central and the South-South geopolitical zones of the country.

The three governors, according to information available to Vanguard, clandestinely met in a secret location and mapped out their plan to stage a nationwide protest that would take the form of the 2020 #ENDSARS protest and bring the nation to its knees with a view to making Nigerians kick against the current administration and force a change.

Under the plot, which a foremost security agency is monitoring, the North East governor is to kick start the groundwork for the planned mass protest with a meeting with key stakeholders from the North in Kaduna with the allegation that the government has marginalized certain groups in his state and should be rejected in the 2023 polls.

On the other hand, the two vociferous North Central and South-South governors are to tackle the federal government for ‘woefully failing’ to provide basic needs for Nigerians in the areas of fuel, power, and education for children while promoting an ethnic and religious agenda at the expense of national interest.

Apparently acting the script, the North East governor reportedly met with several interest groups such as civil society organizations, labour leaders, students and disgruntled politicians in Kaduna earlier in the week to seek their consent for the planned mass protests.

The Kaduna meeting, according to the security agency, discussed in detail how to mobilize aggrieved Nigerian students who have been forced home by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, faceoff with the federal government, CSOs, NGOs, and aggrieved politicians to join the planned mass protests so as to register the kind of impact that the 2020 ENDSARS protest recorded nationwide.

According to the plot being hatched by the three governors, the planned mass protest is to move Nigerians to reject the current government and choose a new one as the next election is around the corner.

But a top security official, who is monitoring the actions of the three governors, told Sunday Vanguard that while they were not against freedom of association and protest, they were worried the planned protests could escalate into national violence that would be difficult to control as it was the case with ENDSARS in 2020.

“It is for this reason that our agency and sister security organisations have placed the three governors under constant watch and we are going to monitor their activities to ensure that they do not plunge the nation into avoidable crisis,” a senior official of the federal government said last night.

“We have also deployed our men to flashpoints to ensure that the country is not pushed into the precipice by malevolent politicians who have virtually come to the end of their tenure and do not care if the country burns or not,” the official said last night.

VANGUARD.

Headline

42 Killed In Israeli Attacks, Says Gaza’s Civil Defense

Published

4 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 42 people killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday, as the Israeli army prepared for a new assault on the Palestinian territory’s largest city.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there had been several air strikes around Gaza City — which the military is gearing up to capture — including one in the Al-Sabra neighbourhood that killed eight people.

Attacks were also reported elsewhere across the territory, he said, with the “total tally currently rising to 42 dead”.

The army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the figure.

“The situation is extremely dangerous… Each day, each minute, there are bombings, martyrs, death and blood — we can’t take it anymore,” Al-Sabra resident Ibrahim Al-Shurafa told AFP, explaining strikes and shelling were ongoing.

“We don’t know where to go. Death follows us everywhere,” he added.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

The October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,686 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

AFP

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Venezuela Frees Eight Opposition Leaders

Published

4 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Venezuelan authorities released eight opposition leaders from jail early Sunday, including a former congressman and two Italian citizens, and granted house arrest to five others, an opposition politician said.

Most of those released had been charged with corruption in opposition-run mayoral offices.

Also set free was Congressman, Amirico de Grazia, detained amid protests that erupted during President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection in 2024.

“Today, several families are once again embracing their loved ones. We know there are many left, and we have not forgotten them; we continue to fight for everyone,” two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said on X.

Opposition leaders Victor Jurado, Simon Vargas, Arelis Ojeda Escalante, Mayra Castro, Diana Berrio, Gorka Carnevalli, as well as Italian nationals Margarita Assenzo and de Grazia were released, Capriles said.

Nabil Maalouf, Valentin Gutierrez Pineda, Rafael Ramirez, Pedro Guanipa, and David Barroso were placed under house arrest.

The Italian government confirmed the release of de Grazia and Assenzo, who must appear in court to clarify the conditions of their release. It also vowed to continue working on securing the release of other detained Italians.

“We have always said, and we maintain it: we will talk to whomever we need to talk to so that there is not a single political prisoner in our Venezuela!” Capriles added.

AFP

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Russia, Ukraine Exchange Prisoners Of War, Civilians

Published

4 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Russia and Ukraine each sent back more prisoners of war on Sunday in the latest in a series of exchanges that have seen hundreds of POWs released this year, the two sides said.

Large-scale prisoner exchanges were the only tangible result of three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul between May and July.

They remain one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since Russia’s offensive began in 2022.

“On August 24, 146 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled” by Kyiv, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.

“In exchange, 146 prisoners of war of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were transferred” to Ukraine, it added. Ukraine did not confirm any figures for the release.

Russia also said that “eight citizens of the Russian Federation—residents of the Kursk region, illegally detained” by Kyiv were also returned.

Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August last year, seizing hundreds of square kilometres (miles) of territory in a major setback for the Kremlin.

Russia deployed thousands of troops from its ally North Korea as part of a counterattack but did not fully reclaim the region until April.

Among the Ukrainians released on Sunday was journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Khyliuk was kidnapped in the Kyiv region in March 2022. He is finally home in Ukraine,” Zelensky said on social media.

Also freed was former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, “who spent more than three years in captivity,” Zelensky’s aide Andriy Yermak wrote on X.

“In 2022, he was on the list for return, but Volodymyr voluntarily refused to be exchanged in favour of a seriously ill prisoner with whom he was sharing a cell in a Russian prison,” Yermak said.

AFP