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Lagos commercial drivers begin 7-day strike, say no going back

Published

4 years ago

October 31, 2022

LAGOS YELLOW BUSES

The Joint Drivers Welfare Association of Nigeria (JDWAN), yesterday, declared that there is no going back on its proposed seven-day strike, starting today, Monday, October 31, as its meeting with the Lagos State Government yielded no positive result.

JDWAN national leader, Akintade Abiodun, in a statement issued yesterday, said the group met with the representatives of the state government and other stakeholders but their meeting yielded no fruitful result except threats to the union.

The statement read: “Leadership of the Joint Drivers Welfare Association of Nigeria met with Lagos State Government representatives, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation, Engr. Abdulhafiz Toriola, and the motor park management liaison officer, AIG Hakeem Odumosu (rtd), in the company of our legal adviser, Ayo Ademiluyi.

“The state government has since made no concrete response to JDWAN’s demands, rather, their representatives only asked for another letter to be submitted on Monday, which is regarded as a joke on our part. Having released press statement with concise demands, we also honoured the demand to deliver physical copy of the letters to the Lagos State government, the SSS, the Commissioner of Police and Commissioner for Transport respectively.

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“The retired AIG (Hakeem Odumosu) said they can’t get rid of bus stop to bus stop extortionists because they are working for the state government. He also suggested that MC Oluomo can organise thugs to attack us and we will be blamed or credited for the violence, all in failed fear-mongering tactics. Also, the assistant to the Minister for Transportation threatened to arrest us and our lawyer while in their office.

“The statement of threat by Odumosu that MC Oluomo could attack our members is already happening, through Berger of Badagry Roundabout Motor Park management branch, JAFO of Caretaker Committee, Iba branch, Bamgbose (Student) of Iyana Iba Caretaker Committee branch who threatened to beat and kill drivers on Monday, 31st of October. Lagosians must be aware that, if anything happens to our drivers, the elements named above should be held responsible

“It is pertinent to note that there is an existing restraining court order granted by Justice P.O. Lifu of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, against the Lagos State Government and all transport agencies, stopping them from ticketing, bus stop levies, motor park levies, dues and any form of extortion from commercial drivers with suit no: FHC/L/CS/224/2022 between applicant;

Olukoya Ogungbeje, Transport Union Society of Nigeria (TUSON) and respondents; NURTW, RTEAN, NARTO, Musiliu Akinsanya (Mc Oluomo), Mohammed Musa, Lawal Yusuf Othman, Lagos State Government, Attorney-General of Lagos State, Inspector-General of Police, Director General of State Security Service.

“It is sad that the representatives of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu are mocking Lagos drivers’ predicament and are disinterested in stopping the major factor causing high cost of living in Lagos, by asking for another letter and demanding that we call off the boycott without addressing our five demands”.

JDWAN’s demands from the state government include compliance to the court order, which stopped collection of levies by motor park thugs at every bus, stop end to harassment by law enforcement agencies, and building of more bus stops , among others.”SUN

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Security Forces Kill 24 Bandits, Foil Mass Abduction Plot in Katsina Community

Published

22 minutes ago

August 20, 2026

Trends Admin

Security Forces Kill 24 Bandits, Foil Mass Abduction Plot in Katsina Community

At least 24 suspected bandits were neutralized and numerous kidnapped villagers rescued after a joint security operation successfully thwarted a mass abduction attempt in Gidan Bawa village, Kandarawa Ward, Bakori Local Government Area of Katsina State. The operation took place on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, and involved troops of the Nigerian Army, operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), members of the Katsina Community Watch Corps, and the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) from Guga camp. According to multiple security sources, the joint team acted on sustained intelligence that uncovered plans by approximately 40 armed men loyal to the notorious bandit kingpin, Isiya Kwashen Garwa, to invade the community and abduct numerous residents, with a particular focus on women and children.

Security agencies received intelligence indicating that the bandits intended to carry out a mass abduction similar to the recent kidnapping of residents from the Woro community in Kwara State. The plot was allegedly intended to embarrass the government and undermine ongoing efforts to combat insecurity in the region. Acting swiftly on this information, DSS operatives mobilized members of the Katsina Community Watch Corps and the CJTF from Guga camp to intercept the attackers. The security personnel strategically positioned themselves along the bandits’ anticipated route and successfully ambushed the group.

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During the ensuing gunfight, the joint security operatives neutralized 24 of the suspected bandits. Several villagers who had already been abducted during the attack were successfully rescued, though the exact number of rescued victims was not immediately confirmed. Security operatives also recovered 19 stolen cattle from the community during the operation. Efforts are reportedly ongoing to locate and apprehend members of the gang who managed to flee the scene during the confrontation.

In a separate but concurrent operation in the same Bakori Local Government Area on the same night, security operatives neutralized an additional seven bandits and rescued 34 abducted victims, including women and children. That incident occurred when suspected bandits attacked Gidan Bawa community and abducted approximately 45 people with the intention of moving them into the forest. Local hunters, Civilian JTF members, and Community Watch Corps operatives stationed at Guga camp ambushed the bandits, leading to a gunfight that resulted in the death of seven bandits and the rescue of 34 victims. Tragically, three of those targeted for abduction lost their lives during the crossfire, while five others remain missing.

The successful operations in Katsina come amid continuing insecurity in parts of the state. Recent data from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) showed that armed bandits attacked multiple communities in Katsina State on August 6 and 8, 2026, affecting 6,023 individuals across 862 households and displacing 3,509 people. The affected communities included Na’alma in Malumfashi LGA, Turare in Dutsin-Ma LGA, and Tsiga in Bakori LGA. Despite some community-led peace agreements with bandit groups in parts of the state, attacks have continued unabated in areas like Bakori, with hundreds of residents displaced and many losing their livelihoods. The successful intervention by security forces in Gidan Bawa demonstrates the growing importance of intelligence-led collaboration between conventional security agencies and community-based security formations in countering banditry and protecting vulnerable communities in Katsina State. Efforts are continuing to track down the remaining bandits who fled the scene, as security authorities maintain operations to prevent further attacks and kidnappings in the area.

Security Forces Kill 24 Bandits, Foil Mass Abduction Plot in Katsina Community

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‘Show Me the Law’: Lawyer Questions FG’s Reluctance to Defend Kanu’s Conviction

Published

6 hours ago

August 20, 2026

Trends Admin

leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu with some of his lawyers

‘Show Me the Law’: Lawyer Questions FG’s Reluctance to Defend Kanu’s Conviction

A lawyer and member of Kanu’s legal consortium has challenged the Federal Government to identify and defend the specific law under which the IPOB leader was convicted, arguing that the government cannot hide behind “public legal illiteracy” to justify a conviction that may have been based on a repealed statute, as Barrister Christopher Chidera, a member of the Global Legal Consortium to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has backed the Okwu-Kanu family’s call for the immediate hearing of Kanu’s pending matters before the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, with the challenge stemming from Kanu’s conviction and life sentence on November 20, 2025, by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Chidera based his argument on Section 36(12) of the 1999 Constitution, which provides that a person shall not be convicted of a criminal offence unless the offence and its penalty are defined in a written law, and he questioned the “extant written law” governing the offence and punishment at the time Kanu was convicted, arguing that if the law under which Kanu was convicted had been repealed, reliance on a savings provision could not, on its own, resolve the constitutional question. He emphasized that a savings clause is not a penal statute, does not create the offence, does not prescribe the punishment, and is not, by itself, the written criminal law contemplated by Section 36(12), while explaining that savings provisions generally preserve specified legal consequences, including proceedings, investigations or liabilities, subject to the precise wording of the relevant legislation, and maintaining that such a provision should not be interpreted as automatically transforming a repealed criminal statute into an extant penal law.

The defence team cited Section 97 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 (TPPA 2022), which provides for proceedings commenced under repealed legislation to be continued and completed under the 2022 Act, but Chidera maintained that the existence of such a savings provision should not end the constitutional inquiry, asking that if the answer is that a savings provision preserved the old proceedings, the next question remains: where is the extant written law satisfying Section 36(12) under which the conviction itself was entered. He further explained that Section 98(3) of the TPPA 2022 only preserves past actions such as arrests, searches, or charges, but does not preserve a repealed law or authorize a conviction under it, noting that the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act 2013 was repealed in its entirety by the TPPA 2022, which came into force on May 12, 2022.

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Chidera identified questions he believes require judicial determination, including what law was in force when the conviction was entered, what written law defined the offence, and what written law prescribed the punishment, stating that these were not matters of public relations or political rhetoric but legal issues that should be addressed by the courts, and that they are not complicated questions but questions of law. The lawyer recalled that Kanu had raised similar questions during his trial, particularly through the demand, “Show me the law,” and said Kanu was now effectively asking the Court of Appeal to answer the same question, adding that if the Federal Government believes the answer is favourable to it, it should come to court and give that answer.

The Okwu-Kanu family has drawn local and international attention to what it described as the Federal Government’s unwillingness to join issues on proceedings seeking Kanu’s freedom, and in a letter dated August 18, 2026, the family expressed concern over the delay, saying Kanu has written to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and President of the Court of Appeal requesting immediate listing of his cases. The family disclosed that Kanu commenced proceedings before the Supreme Court on November 7, 2025, challenging the legality of the Supreme Court’s remittal judgment of December 15, 2023, and said the Federal Government was duly served but had not filed a substantive response or caused the case to be listed for hearing more than nine months later. Kanu also has a separate appeal before the Court of Appeal challenging his November 20, 2025 conviction and life sentence, with his Appellant’s Brief filed on June 5, 2026, and served on the Federal Government, but the prescribed period for filing the Respondent’s Brief had elapsed without one being filed.

The family based its demand on the Court of Appeal’s October 13, 2022 judgment, which discharged Kanu and quashed the criminal charges against him, and recalled that the Federal Government subsequently obtained a stay of execution on October 28, 2022—just 14 days after the judgment—preventing Kanu from regaining his freedom, stating that fourteen days were enough for a differently constituted panel of a functus officio Court of Appeal to deploy civil procedure against an acquittal-equivalent discharge, and that months cannot now be acceptable merely to list proceedings in which that same man’s liberty is at stake. The family stressed that Kanu was not asking the courts to rule in his favour, but to hear and determine his cases in accordance with the law, adding that if the Federal Government believes the Supreme Court remittal was lawful, it should appear and defend it, and if it believes the conviction and life sentence are lawful, it should file its papers and defend them.

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has claimed that the Federal Government, in its cross-appeal filed in response to Kanu’s appeal, admitted that Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court acted without jurisdiction in convicting and sentencing Kanu, with IPOB spokesman Emma Powerful stating that the government’s cross-appeal expressly admitted that Justice Omotosho acted without jurisdiction when it imposed the sentence of life imprisonment instead of death penalty. The separatist group argued that if the trial court lacked jurisdiction to impose sentence, then the same trial court lacked jurisdiction to produce the conviction from which the sentence arose, and stated that any attempt by the Court of Appeal to affirm the conviction while simultaneously accepting the Federal Government’s admission regarding jurisdiction would require the creation of an entirely new species of criminal jurisprudence unknown to Nigeria, unknown to the Commonwealth, and unknown to the common-law world. The family has disclosed plans to formally notify the United States Congress, Israeli Knesset and International Bar Association of what it described as an “unacceptable delay” in the handling of Kanu’s cases, saying the relevant chronology and court records would be presented to the international bodies for consideration.

‘Show Me the Law’: Lawyer Questions FG’s Reluctance to Defend Kanu’s Conviction

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Lagos Warns Consumers As Expired Products With Falsified Dates Resurface in Markets

Published

6 hours ago

August 20, 2026

Trends Admin

Lagos Warns Consumers As Expired Products With Falsified Dates Resurface in Markets

The Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency has raised an urgent alarm over the alleged reintroduction of expired and near-expired products into the market with falsified production and expiry dates, warning that devices and chemicals used to erase and reprint product dates are reportedly being circulated online, and urging residents to exercise caution when purchasing consumer goods as the practice could expose unsuspecting buyers to unsafe and potentially harmful products.

The Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency (LASCOPA) has warned residents against buying expired and near-expired products allegedly being reintroduced into the market with falsified production and expiry dates, raising the alarm over the reported circulation of devices and chemicals used to erase and reprint product dates, warning that the practice could expose unsuspecting consumers to unsafe and potentially harmful products. LASCOPA General Manager/CEO, Afolabi Solebo, said consumer safety remained non-negotiable, stressing that the alteration of expiry dates violated the Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency Law, 2025, as amended, and according to Solebo, LASCOPA enforcement teams have carried out inspections across all 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas in the state, uncovering suspicious date coding, damaged packaging and other questionable products.

Between January and June 2026, LASCOPA’s Monitoring and Enforcement Department inspected 663 stores and supermarkets, while 238 outlets were found to have violated provisions of the Lagos State Consumer Protection Law, with the inspections covering supermarkets, grocery stores, pharmacies, markets, shopping malls, and other retail outlets across the state. Solebo warned that businesses found engaging in the practice would face appropriate sanctions, including seizure of products, closure of premises and prosecution in line with the law, stating firmly that consumer safety is non-negotiable and that expired products are being reintroduced into the markets with falsified dates, in violation of the Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency Law, 2025, as amended, which poses significant public health risks.

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The alert comes amid intensified enforcement efforts by regulatory agencies, as the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) recently uncovered a warehouse stocked with banned, fake and unregistered cosmetic products valued at more than ₦3 billion at the APT Trade Fair Complex in Lagos, while also issuing alerts on counterfeit oncology medicines, including Herceptin 600 mg, circulating with fake batch numbers and expiry dates, with the counterfeit product reportedly offered to a customer by a pharmacist in Lagos at a significantly lower price of ₦50,000 compared to the standard rate. Additionally, the Lagos State Police Command recently arrested two suspects for allegedly trafficking adulterated and counterfeit pharmaceutical products, recovering about 300 cartons of suspected adulterated Omeprazole, six bags containing counterfeit Viagra, Ampiclox, Septrin, and Piriton, and more than 300 empty printed packs used for repackaging, with the suspects, who had allegedly been involved in the illicit trade for about two years, handed over to NAFDAC for further investigation and prosecution.

LASCOPA urged consumers to carefully examine product labels before making purchases, particularly looking out for smudged or altered dates, damaged packaging and other inconsistencies, while also advising residents to patronise trusted vendors and retain receipts as evidence of purchase in case of complaints. Solebo called on manufacturers to adopt clear and standardised labelling systems for batch numbers and expiry dates to prevent manipulation and protect consumers, describing consumer safety as a shared responsibility and reaffirming the agency’s commitment to sustained monitoring and enforcement operations across Lagos.

LASCOPA urged residents to report suspicious products through its official channels, including phone numbers 08124993895 and 09153894878, or via email at lasgcopa@gmail.com, while reports can also be made through the agency’s official social media platforms or its office in Ikeja, as the agency continues its crackdown on the dangerous practice of falsifying product expiry dates.