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46 migrants found dead in abandoned trailer in United States

Published

4 years ago

June 29, 2022

Forty-six people were found dead after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer on a remote back road in San Antonio in what marked the latest tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico to the US.

Sixteen people were hospitalised, including four children.

A city worker heard a cry for help from the truck shortly before 6pm Monday and discovered the gruesome scene, Police Chief William McManus said.

Hours later, body bags lay spread on the ground near the trailer as a grim symbol of the calamity.

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the 46 who died had “families who were likely trying to find a better life.”

“This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy,” Nirenberg said.

It’s among the deadliest tragedies to have claimed thousands of lives of people attempting to cross the US border from Mexico in recent decades.

Ten migrants died in 2017 after being trapped inside a truck that was parked at a Walmart in San Antonio.

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In 2003, 19 migrants were found in a sweltering truck southeast of San Antonio.

The home countries of the immigrants and how long they were abandoned on the side of the road was not immediately known.

South Texas has long been the busiest area for illegal border crossings. Migrants ride in vehicles though Border Patrol checkpoints to San Antonio, the closest major city, from which point they disperse across the United States.

A city worker at the scene on a remote back road in southwest San Antonio was alerted to the situation by a cry for help shortly before 6pm Monday, Police Chief William McManus said.

Officers arrived to find a body on the ground outside the trailer and a partially opened gate to the trailer, he said.

Hours later, body bags lay spread on the ground near the trailer as a grim symbol of the calamity.

Bodies still remained inside.

Of the 16 taken to hospitals with heat-related illnesses, 12 were adults and four were children, said Fire Chief Charles Hood.

The patients were hot to the touch and dehydrated, and no water was found in the trailer, he said.

“They were suffering from heat stroke and exhaustion,” Hood said. “It was a refrigerated tractor-trailer, but there was no visible working AC unit on that rig.”

Those in the trailer were part of a presumed migrant smuggling attempt into the United States, and the investigation was being led by US Homeland Security Investigations, McManus said.

Three people were taken into custody, but it was unclear if they were definitively connected with human trafficking, McManus said.

Big rigs emerged as a popular smuggling method in the early 1990s amid a surge in US border enforcement in San Diego and El Paso, Texas, which were then the busiest corridors for illegal crossings.

Before that, people paid small fees to mom-and-pop operators to get them across a largely unguarded border.

As crossing became exponentially more difficult after the 2001 terror attacks in the US, migrants were led through more perilous terrain and paid thousands of dollars more.

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Heat poses a serious danger, particularly when temperatures can rise severely inside vehicles.

Weather in the San Antonio area was mostly cloudy Monday, but temperatures approached 100 degrees.

Some advocates drew a link to the Biden administration’s border policies.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, wrote that he had been dreading such a tragedy for months.

“With the border shut as tightly as it is today for migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, people have been pushed into more and more dangerous routes. Truck smuggling is a way up,” he wrote on Twitter.

Stephen Miller, a chief architect of former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, said, “Human smugglers and traffickers are wicked and evil” and that the administration’s approach to border security rewards their actions.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican running for reelection, was blunt in a tweet about the Democratic president: “These deaths are on Biden. They are a result of his deadly open border policies.”

Migrants — largely from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — have been expelled more than two million times under a pandemic-era rule in effect since March 2020 that denies them a chance to seek asylum but encourages repeat attempts because there are no legal consequences for getting caught.

People from other countries, notably Cuba, Nicaragua and Colombia, are subject to Title 42 authority less frequently due to higher costs of sending them home, strained diplomatic relations and other considerations.

US Customs and Border Protection reported 557 deaths on the southwest border in the 12-month period ending September 30, more than double the 247 deaths reported in the previous year and the highest since it began keeping track in 1998. Most are related to heat exposure.

CBP has not published a death tally for this year but said that the Border Patrol performed 14,278 “search-and-rescue missions” in a seven-month period through May, exceeding the 12,833 missions performed during the previous 12-month period and up from 5,071 the year before.

Yahoo News.

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Jigawa Ward Head Denies Viral Wedding Cancellation Over Tinubu Support

Published

2 hours ago

April 11, 2026

Trends Admin

Jigawa Ward Head Denies Viral Wedding Cancellation Over Tinubu Support

Confusion has continued to trail a viral report alleging that a father in Yalwawa community, Dutse, Jigawa State, cancelled his daughter’s wedding over the groom’s alleged support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC), with community leaders, family members, and residents now offering conflicting accounts.

The story, which spread rapidly across social media platforms, initially claimed that the wedding was called off due to political differences, sparking heated debates nationwide over the influence of politics on family decisions.

However, the Ward Head of Yalwawa, Ahmad Garba Yalwawa, has strongly dismissed the report, describing it as false, misleading, and malicious, saying no such incident occurred in the community.

He said he only became aware of the viral claim after it began circulating online and immediately launched an investigation to verify its authenticity.

According to him, several days of inquiries within the community yielded no evidence that any wedding was cancelled for political reasons.

“I investigated from Friday up to Tuesday evening, but no one could confirm witnessing such an incident. That alone raised serious doubts about the credibility of the story,” he said.

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He added that attention was later directed to a man identified as Muhammadu Sani, whose daughter reportedly got married on the same day referenced in the viral report. However, the ward head said Sani denied any connection to the allegation.

“He confirmed that his daughter’s wedding took place successfully and she is now in her husband’s home. There was no cancellation or controversy,” he said.

The ward head further warned that investigations are ongoing to identify those responsible for spreading the misinformation, noting that legal action could be taken against the originators of the false report.

In a separate clarification, Muhammadu Sani himself also dismissed the viral claim, saying he only became aware of the story after it circulated online and that he does not use social media.

“I heard about it like everyone else. My daughter’s wedding took place as planned. I have nothing to do with politics,” he said.

He explained that the marriage followed traditional Fulani customs and was arranged within the family, adding that the bride is now living with her husband.

However, the Chairman of the Yalwawa Development Association, Umar Kazaure, offered a slightly different account, stating that while the wedding eventually held, there was a minor disagreement that was later resolved through community intervention.

He suggested that any tension may have been influenced more by personal or economic frustrations than political affiliation.

As of the time of filing this report, the identity of the groom remains unclear, while efforts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.

Residents say the situation has since calmed, but the episode has left behind a trail of confusion, highlighting how quickly misinformation spreads in local communities and fuels national debate.

The incident has now become a talking point on social media, with Nigerians divided between those who initially believed the viral claim and others who see it as another example of fake news distortion in the digital age.

Jigawa Ward Head Denies Viral Wedding Cancellation Over Tinubu Support

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Nigeria’s Tax Reform Laws Contain Errors, Tinubu Minister Oyedele Confirms

Published

2 hours ago

April 11, 2026

Trends Admin

Taiwo Oyedele

Nigeria’s Tax Reform Laws Contain Errors, Tinubu Minister Oyedele Confirms

The Minister of State for Finance, Taiwo Oyedele, has admitted that Nigeria’s recently introduced tax reform laws contain errors, confirming that the federal government is already working on corrections through a new legislative review process.

Oyedele made the disclosure during a fireside chat at the 2026 annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Section on Legal Practice, themed “From Policy to Practice: Making Sense of Nigeria’s New Tax Reforms.”

He explained that the inconsistencies in the new tax framework were introduced during the drafting and legislative stages, describing them as the result of manual processes, multiple revisions, and technical lapses.

According to him, the government is now working with the National Assembly to review the affected sections and ensure a cleaner, more coherent legal framework going forward.

The Fiscal Reforms Committee, in a statement shared on social media, also confirmed that the minister acknowledged that errors occurred due to multiple layers of review and version control challenges during the lawmaking process.

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Oyedele, however, assured Nigerians that the errors do not invalidate the broader purpose of the reforms, stressing that a proposed Finance Bill will be introduced to correct identified issues and strengthen implementation.

He emphasised the need for a more transparent legislative process, noting that all versions of tax laws should be publicly accessible to prevent confusion and ensure accountability.

“What we need is a more transparent and reliable legislative process where every version of a law is publicly available,” he said.

The minister further clarified that the implementation of the new tax reforms under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration will not be arbitrary, insisting that the framework is built on principles of fairness, transparency, and economic efficiency.

He explained that one of the core goals of the reforms is to fix long-standing distortions in Nigeria’s tax system, particularly the imbalance between personal and corporate taxation, which he said has discouraged business formalisation.

Oyedele also noted that inconsistent tax policies in the past had weakened investor confidence, adding that stability and predictability are critical for economic growth.

“If policies can change overnight, it sends the wrong signal to investors. Consistency is critical,” he said.

Addressing concerns about fairness, he stressed that the new framework is designed to protect low-income earners and small businesses from excessive taxation.

He revealed that nearly half of working Nigerians earn less than ₦70,000 monthly, adding that taxing such groups heavily would be economically unjust and counterproductive.

Oyedele also explained that the reforms remove minimum tax obligations for loss-making companies, arguing that such provisions previously amounted to taxing capital rather than profit.

The minister further called for improved efficiency in tax collection and revenue utilisation, noting that Nigeria still lags behind peer economies in terms of tax-to-GDP performance.

Economic analysts say the admission highlights both the complexity and urgency of Nigeria’s ongoing fiscal and tax reform agenda, which aims to broaden the tax base, reduce evasion, and improve revenue generation without stifling businesses.

The development comes as stakeholders continue to scrutinise the implementation of the new tax laws, with expectations that the forthcoming Finance Bill will provide clearer legal backing and resolve outstanding inconsistencies.

Nigeria’s Tax Reform Laws Contain Errors, Tinubu Minister Oyedele Confirms

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Bayelsa Drama: Navy Arrests Officers After Clash with Soldiers During Tinubu Visit

Published

2 hours ago

April 11, 2026

Trends Admin

Bayelsa Drama: Navy Arrests Officers After Clash with Soldiers During Tinubu Visit

The Nigerian Navy has confirmed the arrest of officers involved in a viral clash with soldiers in Bayelsa State during the visit of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, an incident that has triggered widespread public concern.

The confrontation, which was captured in a 53-second video circulating online, showed uniformed personnel from the Navy and the Nigerian Army engaging in a heated argument that quickly escalated into a physical fight.

In the footage, a driver of a Hilux vehicle marked “Naval Police” is seen stepping out to confront another driver. Moments later, a soldier armed with a rifle approached and threw a punch, leading to a free-for-all fight involving multiple officers as shocked civilians looked on.

The incident reportedly occurred as the President was departing the venue of an official event in Bayelsa, a period typically characterised by tight security coordination among various military units assigned to presidential protection.

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Reacting to the development, the Director of Naval Information, Abi Folorunso, confirmed that all naval personnel involved have been taken into custody and are currently undergoing disciplinary procedures.

“The affected personnel are in custody and already undergoing appropriate administrative and disciplinary procedures in accordance with extant military regulations,” he stated.

Although the exact cause of the altercation has not been officially established, preliminary indications suggest the clash may have arisen from a dispute over movement control or right of way within the convoy arrangement.

Security analysts say the incident highlights possible coordination gaps and inter-agency tensions during joint military operations, especially in high-pressure environments such as presidential visits.

The development has sparked criticism from members of the public, with many describing the incident as unprofessional and embarrassing, given the role of the officers in ensuring security and order.

Authorities are expected to conclude investigations and determine appropriate sanctions, which could include detention, demotion, or other disciplinary actions under military regulations.

The Nigerian Navy reiterated its commitment to discipline and professionalism, assuring Nigerians that necessary measures will be taken to prevent a recurrence.