ALERTS DATE
The following section illustrates the date alerts were reported on Tuesday, 24th January, 2023.
BANDITRY
- Terrorists killed three people and kidnapped three in Niger State’s Kuta district. The incident occurred on Sunday, when hoodlums attacked seven communities. Residents reportedly abandoned their homes and sought refuge at the Gwada Secondary School. According to a resident, the attack on some of the communities lasted several hours. They attacked villages such as Chiri, Kadna, Kam, Vemu, and others along the Zumba-Gwada Road for more than five hours without assistance from the police or any other law enforcement agent, he added.
- Dozens of women and children from Egwa, Chiro, and other communities in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State fled their homes on Sunday afternoon when bandits attacked and raided the villages. According to reports, the bandits who attacked around 1pm on Sunday carted away over 600 cattle from a Fulani settlement in Egwa Village, near Gwada town. The Shiroro LGA chairman, who was driving from Kuta to Minna, was said to have narrowly escaped when he collided with bandits crossing the road from Chiri to Egwa along Gwada road.
COUNTER TERRORISM ACTION
- Several Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) terrorists were defeated on Monday in Damboa, Borno, by troops from Operation Hadin Kai’s 25 Task Force Brigade. According to military sources, the terrorists were humiliated after launching a failed ambush in a convoy of attack in Komala village along the road from Damboa to Maiduguri. Terrorists in large numbers, riding on several Hilux trucks, MRAPs, and motorcycles, were said to have attacked troops on fighting patrol. The troops, on the other hand, stood firm and quickly responded with overwhelming gunfire. According to a counter-insurgency expert and security analyst in Lake Chad who confirmed the foiled attack, the Air Task Force deployed fighter aircraft, which assisted in the neutralization of many of the terrorists.
KIDNAPPING
- A new case of kidnapping has been confirmed by police in Iwo, Osun State. According to the agency, three men were abducted on Friday evening in their farm in the town’s Ologun area. The victims are Fulani in ethnicity. The police said they were collaborating with local hunters to find the victims and their kidnappers. According to one of the hunters, the kidnappers contacted the victim’s family and demanded a N5 million ransom. He claimed that the kidnappers had likely missed their intended victim, a Nigerian businessman with ties to the UK who owns a farm nearby.
KIDNAPPING RESCUE
- Three suspected kidnappers were killed by Kwara State Police Command operatives during a shoot-out in Bode-Sadu, Moro Local Government, Kwara State. According to the state Commissioner of Police, his men mobilized vigilantes and local hunters who stormed the forest while the kidnappers were planning to strike. Our men confronted the kidnappers, and during an exchange of gunfire, three of them were neutralized, while two others were apprehended with three locally made guns, he said.
- One of the three people kidnapped by gunmen in Fulani settlements near Iwo town in Osun State has been freed. According to reports, the rescued victim regained his freedom on Monday after the abductors encountered some hunters in the Papa area of Iwo. The three victims were abducted last Friday by eight gunmen at Idi Araba and Laagi Fulani on the Iwo/Aawe/Oyo Road. During the encounter at Papa, the abductors were said to have engaged the hunters in a gun battle, during which the victim was abandoned.
SHOOTING (GUNMEN)
- Gunmen have beheaded the sole administrator of Imo State’s Ideato North Local Government Area. The victim was abducted along with two others on Friday when gunmen attacked him and set fire to his home. The victim was from Imoko, a town in the state’s council district. The victim was beheaded by the gunmen after his family allegedly paid N6 million in ransom. According to sources, the gunmen were targeting supporters of the South-east elections in 2023.
- Imo State police in South-east Nigeria have spoken out about the recent beheading of the state’s sole administrator of Ideato North Local Government Area. The state police spokesperson revealed this in a statement on Monday. According to a police spokesperson, the attack was carried out by suspected members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its militant wing, the Eastern Security Network.
INSECURITY
- On Sunday, security operatives arrested one of the suspects in the Kaduna-Abuja train attack in Zuba, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory. The suspect was reportedly apprehended by vigilantes in Zuba after he got out of a vehicle near Dan-Kogi Motor Park. According to a vigilante, members of the Miyetti Allah Vigilantes spotted the suspect and immediately alerted security operatives, who arrested him.
- In 2022, 39 Catholic priests were killed by gunmen, while 30 others were abducted. According to a report released on Monday by SB Morgen Intelligence, 145 attacks on Catholic priests were recorded in the previous year. According to the report, the North-Central was the hardest hit, with 12 deaths, while the North-West had nine. Similarly, the south-east and south-south each had five deaths, while the north-east and north-west each had four. According to the report, 28 attacks were carried out by kidnappers, three by herdsmen, two by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, two by Boko Haram, and one each by bandits and mob violence.
STRIKE ACTION
- The Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc (NAHCO) workers have called off their strike, which began in the early hours of Monday. This is in response to a communique signed by company management, union representatives, and regulatory agencies, in which it was resolved that the workers call off the strike and resume work immediately. The parties agreed that staff welfare negotiations would resume on January 25 and be completed within a week.
DIPHTHERIA
- The Osun State Government confirmed the first case of diphtheria disease in the state on Monday. The incident was reported in the state’s Ilesa East Local Government Area. A middle-aged man whose identity has not been revealed was discovered to have contracted the disease and is currently being isolated at an unnamed hospital. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had previously stated that it was monitoring the diphtheria situation in Yobe and Osun States, where it had been detected.
COVID-19
- The Federal Government announced on Monday that international visitors to Nigeria will now be required to show proof of Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination. It stated that the new directive was prompted by an increase in COVID-19 cases in China, Japan, the United States (U.S.), and other countries. On December 12, 2022, the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 relaxed safety measures. The Federal Ministry of Health’s Director of Port Health Services stated this in Abuja while providing updates on COVID-19 and other health concerns in the country.
