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FG kicks off process to evacuate stranded Nigerians in Sudan

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FG kicks off process to evacuate stranded Nigerians in Sudan

The Federal Government has set in motion the process of evacuating back home Nigerians who are currently stranded in war-torn Sudan, The Nation learnt last night.

About 4,000 Nigerian students are trapped in the country where a bloody confrontation between loyalists of the de facto president and commander-in-chief of the army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and those of  his rival and former deputy Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, have claimed at least 418 lives in the last one  week.

No fewer than a million other Nigerians reside permanently there.

The Nigerian Embassy in Khartoum is said to have started compiling the names of those willing to leave the troubled country.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has also announced the setting up of a committee to work out ways of evacuating the Nigerians.

The compilation of the names, it was gathered, would guide government in determining the kind of plane to send for the operation.

Almost all the airports have been closed on account of the fighting.

“One thing about evacuation is the fact that not everybody would want to leave, and that is why dedicated phone numbers were given for contact,” a source knowledgeable about the evacuation plan said.

“But I can tell you that the process is already on and people have started submitting names for evacuation.”

The source said the current window for evacuation for now is 72 hours.

“However, the government is exploring every way to ensure the safety of Nigerians in Sudan,” the source said.

Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said the evacuation was delayed because of the high level of insecurity in the country with several aircraft already burnt by the fighting troops.

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Gabriel Odu spokesman of NIDCOM  quoted  Dabiri-Erewa as saying even humanitarian groups are seeking ways of getting food, water and medicals across to people.

She said: “While the Nigerian Mission in Sudan and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) have put in place arrangements to evacuate Nigerian students and other Nigerian citizens stranded in Sudan, the tensed situation makes it gravely risky and impossible for any flights at this point in time.”

Al-Burhan confirmed yesterday that he was open to the evacuation of citizens and diplomatic representatives from the embattled country.

A Saudi Arabian delegation has already been evacuated from the eastern city of Port Sudan, he said, while a Jordanian delegation was due to  be flown out of Port Sudan last night.

NEMA sets up committee on evacuation

NEMA said in Abuja that the committee comprising  professional emergency responders, search and rescue experts is saddled with the responsibility of constantly evaluating the situation and seeking  the safest way to evacuate the trapped Nigerians.

It did not rule out evacuation through any of Sudan’s neighbouring countries.

Spokesman for the agency, Manzo Ezekiel, said it was in constant communication with all relevant partners including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nigerian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, and security agencies to find the best approach to the planned evacuation.

It, however, noted that the current emergency in Sudan is very complex with fighting between warring factions going on and all airports and land borders closed.

“NEMA is working assiduously with all its partners and is constantly compiling updated information on the situation,” he said.

He quoted  NEMA Director General Mustapha Ahmed  as saying that the agency was on top of the situation and “working on all possible options” to bring home the stranded Nigerians in a safe and dignified manner.

Nothing must happen to stranded Nigerians, AYCF tells FG

The FG plan came as the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) urged immediate evacuation of the stranded Nigerians in Sudan.

National President of AYCF, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, said in a statement in Kaduna that the excuse from the Nigerian Embassy that it would be difficult to evacuate the citizens was unacceptable.

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He said the AYCF would hold the Nigerian Embassy accountable should any harm come upon the Nigerians, especially those schooling in the country.

Yerima said: “As concerned Nigerians who are very uncomfortable with the fate of Nigerians trapped in Sudan due to ongoing war and killings, we feel duty bound to unequivocally state our final stand on this bloodshed and arson.

“It is totally unacceptable that while several countries were evacuating their citizens from Sudan, ours is the only African nation giving excuses.

“With thousands of Nigerians in Sudan, especially male and female Northern students being the majority, we reject the lame excuse given in a letter by the Nigeria Embassy about the difficulty of evacuating our sons and daughters. No Northerner in this country is at peace since the killings and arson started in Sudan.

“We are aware that the Sudanese government had already warned that the situation would escalate, and gave a 72 hour ultimatum for countries whose citizens are either doing business or schooling in that country to be evacuated.

“We cannot fathom why all we get at the moment is the excuse by our Embassy that doing so would be difficult. What held us from taking advantage of the 72 hours ultimatum in the first place?

“It is abundantly clear that lives are now at stake, especially for our Northern brothers and sisters schooling in Sudan, considering the escalation of this war that involves the use of heavy-duty incendiary.

“As a group, we wish to make it categorically clear that if our innocent Northern brothers and sisters schooling in Sudan get killed in this war, we shall hold the Nigerian Embassy in Sudan accountable.

“We wish to emphasize that on no account should these young and innocent Nigerians be left to their own devices, because they have a fatherland that has the constitutional and legal responsibility to protect the lives of citizens anywhere they are on this planet.”

One of the stranded Nigerian students, Hussein Musa Yusuf, told Daily Trust on the phone that the fighting had caused scarcity of water, food, electricity and other basic amenities.

Yusuf, a native indigene of Kano State, spoke of the danger they were exposed to if they were not quickly repatriated because they had no access to health centres and pharmacies.

He was quoted as saying: “Many students are stranded in their hostels and houses without basic needs of life such as food, water and electricity.

“Presently, there is no access to hospitals and pharmacies. There is a risk if they go out because there is shooting and civilian casualties have been recorded.”

Stranded British-Sudanese doctor: ‘I’m tired. I’m just really, really tired’

A British-Sudanese doctor who got stuck in the country while visiting family to celebrate the Eid el Fitri narrated her ordeal to the CNN.

Her words: “I’m tired. I’m just really, really tired. Exhausted is the right word for it; burnt out. There’s just so much adrenaline.

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“We were happy about the 24-hour ceasefire [earlier in the week], which was extended, not because there actually was a ceasefire, but there was spacing out between the attacks.

“[On Thursday] we all just felt really tired, we were still fasting in the midst of all of this, and everybody’s sentiment was Ramadan just has to come to an end.

“I prepared supper, made some sunny side up eggs, trying to make something nice out of a can of tuna. I tried to moisten some stale bread.

“Very late at night, we heard, I don’t know what they were, missiles maybe?

“My dad has quite limited mobility because he’s sick. He’s been lying sleeping on this sofa bed. We just had to just push him from the living room where he has been sleeping to a safer area where there was a wall covering rather than just windows.

“My cousin is also with us. My daughter was absolutely mortified and just inconsolable. My 96-year-old grandmother was in a room behind the place we were sheltering in. She could hear the shelling, she can feel the shaking, the sound coming into the house but I downplayed it for her. My mother was there as well. My sister.

“We also have with us domestic helpers. There’s one from Kenya. She’s not Muslim so I started reading the Lord’s Prayer with her. I thought maybe it will bring her some solace and reassurance to know that she’s not alone.

“We also have a couple of Ethiopian house helpers, and they were very scared. I kept thinking to myself, these poor people, they flee their countries to come to a place like Sudan, far from their families, to make money to send to them or to go to a safer place and this is what happens to them. It just seems so, so unfair.

“I think there were two or three very, very loud thuds that were very close to the house. We just started reading [the] Quran, praying that we were going to be safe trying to calm the children. I wish I was an octopus so [I] have more hands, hands and arms to put around people just to hug them.

“[Friday] has been a blur. I didn’t hear any of the Eid call to prayers, which is one of the things that usually fills me with a lot of joy. It’s one of the main reasons I came from the UK because I just wanted to have a nice fast with family and here it is. All the Eid clothes are in the bag. The nail polish, the hair stuff. I didn’t even put my mascara on. So it’s a really sad day.

“A lot of people are fleeing. There are a lot of people offering places on buses to go to Egypt. Ours is a logistical nightmare. It’s a big family and each person or each group of people or household has different requirements. Moving [my grandmother] is not going to be like moving my eight-year-old nephew.

“My brother’s daughter has certain health needs. She needs access to certain medications. My mother, my father, my grandmother and my sister, they also would all feel very poorly, or maybe not even survive if they don’t have their medications.

“We try to be positive. We try to play games, we try to watch movies, but our attention span has just completely gone. No one can sit and watch a movie.

“I focus on the good stuff: we have oil, we have electricity, we have running water because the water tank is working. We have cars in the driveway but no petrol for them.

“I’m avoiding the news. Statements by both parties seem to have the same author: I am your savior and victor. I know they are both untruthful, manipulative, blood thirsty men with no regard for the dignity nor lives of the people they are paid to serve and protect.”

As at yesterday, the army was in control of all airports in the country except those in Khartoum and the town of Njala in the South Dafur region

Al-Burhan told Arabic television station Al-Arabiya that he remained in control of the army and would only let his rival Daglo, the leader of the powerful paramilitary group RSF, get away “in a coffin.”

Fighting broke out in Sudan about a week ago between the country’s two most powerful generals and their respective military units.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), at least 413 people have lost their lives and more than 3,500 have been injured since the fighting began.

The airport in the capital Khartoum has been at the centre of the fighting and was therefore inaccessible. Diplomats have been trying for days to secure a resilient ceasefire for the evacuation of foreign citizens.

After a brief ceasefire on Friday due to the Eid el-Fitri, fighting continued overnight.

Yesterday morning, Khartoum was bombed again, a reporter at the scene told the German Press agency DPA. Shots rang out in the city, and eyewitnesses writing on Twitter reported explosions in the capital.

The ceasefire largely held during the night, the reporter said. There were only “sporadic clashes.”

The US embassy in Khartoum said on Saturday that the ongoing fighting and closure of the airport in the capital made it currently impossible to evacuate U.S. citizens.

The embassy continues to closely monitor the situation in Khartoum and surrounding areas, it said in a statement.

Apart from the fighting between the rival forces, there are currently reports of attacks, home invasions and looting.

In addition, the embassy has received incomplete information about convoys travelling from Khartoum towards Port Sudan, it said.

It added that it was not in a position to support convoys, meaning passengers travelled at their own risk, according to the statement.

NLC: Nigerians must not die in Sudan

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to act fast on bringing back the stranded Nigerians from Sudan.

Congress, in a statement yesterday by its President, Joe Ajaero, said: “Nigerians must not be allowed to die in Sudan because of negligence.”

No effort, according to him, should be spared in ensuring their safety and ultimately evacuation to Nigeria if the situation persists and escalates into a full blown war.

He added: “It remains the duty of the government and we urge the federal government to make this happen unless they want to tell us that these lives are not as important as the lives of the children of those in authority and does not deserve to be protected.”

He said the NLC was worried because “many Nigerians have become unwitting victims of the war and are stranded in that country and unable to get out.

“They have cried out for help to escape the horrors which the war has continued to mete out to persons still trapped in Sudan.”

FG kicks off process to evacuate stranded Nigerians in Sudan

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Osun man on death row for fowl theft shares how police subjected 17-year-old self to torture

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December 22, 2024

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Osun man on death row for fowl theft shares how police subjected 17-year-old self to torture

Segun Olowookere, a man who was sentenced to death for stealing fowls in Osun State when he was 17, has recounted how the police tortured and gave him a cutlass used as an exhibit against him as a minor in court.

FIJ had earlier reported that Governor Ademola Adeleke planned to pardon Olowookere after news of how Justice Sakariya Oyejide Falola sentenced Olowookere and Morakinyo Sunday to death in 2014 broke out.

Olowookere was charged in court with conspiracy, armed robbery and stealing. It was on these grounds that Falola delivered his judgment.

Olowookere and Sunday spent some days at a police station in Okuku before their arraignment and conviction. Olowookere said that the police gave them one cutlass each while at the station for weeding the premises.

However, the two of them were later transferred to Osogbo, the state capital, with the cutlasses. These cutlasses were later presented before the judge as exhibits of an armed robbery offence, Olowookere told The Punch in an interview on Sunday.

HOW HE WAS ARRESTED

Now in a custodial centre working with a medical team, Olowookere said he gave himself up for the arrest in November 2010.

“I was at my father’s shop in Oyan after returning from school. My dad and I were discussing my university admission and suddenly, we heard gunshots, and everybody ran away except my dad and a few others,” he narrated.

“My father was taken to a police van where there were some children. I was peeping out and could hear and see what was going on. The police asked my dad where I was and he asked them what my offence was. When they couldn’t give him a satisfactory response, my father shouted at the top of his voice that I should run away because the police wanted to arrest me.

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“But I was wondering what my offence was. So, I came out and went to meet them. I was detained at the police post in Oyan and was taken to Okuku Divisional Police Headquarters the following day. I met the children who were in the police van when they came for me sitting on the ground and eating rice.”

THEY WERE GIVEN CUTLASSES

Olowookere recalled that the divisional police officer (DPO) heading the station at the time accused him of being a leader of an armed robbery gang consisting of teenage children.

Some days after his arrest, his parents were still making efforts to secure his bail. While this was ongoing, the police engaged them in labour, giving them a cutlass each to cut the grasses at the station.

“The DPO told me that one of the children confessed to stealing two broilers and some crates of eggs. I met the broilers and the eggs at the station,” he said.

“The children were eight in number. He told me the children said I was their gang leader, which I denied. The children he was talking about were around 12 and 13 years old, while I was 17 then. I told him I knew the children but I didn’t have anything to do with them other than greeting them in the community.

“I met Sunday Morakinyo at the station, and he told the police that he didn’t know me nor had anything to do with me. I don’t even know where he was arrested. All the children were released but Morakinyo and I were not.

“We were seriously tortured from the first day I got to the Okuku Police Station under the supervision of the DPO. The children who allegedly committed the crime were not beaten. He repeatedly asked me to admit and confess to a crime I didn’t commit.

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“After some days, we were given cutlasses to cut the grass at the police station premises despite having injuries on every part of our body as a result of the torture.”

BAIL SUM BEYOND HIS PARENTS

Olowookere’s father was asked to produce N30,000 for his bail, but his father could only raise N20,000, and the police would not cut down this financial bail demand.

His father then left the station, perhaps to gather the shortfall of N10,000. Before his father could return, the police had ferried them to Osogbo.

“My father could only raise N20,000 out of the N30,000 they demanded. The police rejected it and insisted on the N30,000,” Olowookere said.

“My dad left the station to look for the money. But before he returned the following day, we had been moved to the SARS office in Osogbo. The cutlasses that were given to me and Morakinyo to cut the grass were presented to SARS as exhibits and they were told we were armed robbers.

“After 17 days in the SARS cell, we were taken to a magistrate court and charged with robbery, and from there to the High Court, where we were sentenced to death.”

The poultry farm from which they were alleged to have stolen fowls belonged to one of his uncles.

Despite initially promising not to pursue the case against him, the uncle went on to testify in court against him.

“We are from the same Ajerotutu Compound in Oyan. He was summoned to a family meeting where he said I was not among those who stole the fowls, but my name was mentioned by the children who were arrested,” Olowookere explained.

“He told the family that he would discontinue the case. But he later came to court to testify against me.

“I never wrote any statement to the police. My parents never had a flat, not to mention a six-bedroom flat. I lived with my parents until I was arrested.”

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Asked why his lawyer didn’t object to the statement during the trial, Olowookere said, “I didn’t know anything, but I am sure I didn’t write any statement.”

SUNDAY SUFFERS MENTAL ILLNESS

As a result of the torture they received at the police station before arraignment, Sunday began to bleed from several parts of his body.

Eventually, this bleeding led to his becoming mentally ill, according to Olowookere.

“He is now a mad person. He is at Ibara Prison. He developed mental issues when we were tortured at the police station in Okuku and by the officers of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad. I am just lucky, and I believe God’s grace is over me,” he said.

“Morakinyo was bleeding from the anus, ears, nose and on the head. The police did not treat him despite that. I cleaned the cell every day because his blood stained the floor. He was bleeding for the entire six days we spent inside the Okuku police cell before we were transferred to the SARS cell in Osogbo.

“We spent 17 days with SARS and Morakinyo bled every day. Some of the SARS officers noticed that he was not mentally normal again but others thought he was pretending, and from there, he developed full mental issues.

“When we were remanded at Ilesa Custodial Centre, the warders tried to manage his mental health but they didn’t have the capacity. His condition then worsened. As I am talking to you, he doesn’t recognise anybody again. His mother has stopped checking up on him.”

Olowookere said he was hopeful that he would regain his freedom someday to pursue his academic studies and become useful to the world.

“I first enrolled in Yewa College of Education, Abeokuta, Ogun State, after my sentence. It is my dream to study medicine, but it is not available at a college of education. I was later transferred to a maximum prison in 2016. But due to financial constraints, I couldn’t study my dream course,” he explained.

“However, I was encouraged to train under the medical practitioners in the prison. So, I applied and I was accepted into the medical line in 2017. Since then, I have been working with the nurses, pharmacists and doctors inside the prison.

“I believe I will be free one day, and when I regain my freedom, I will definitely go for medicine. I pray to God to set me free because I am innocent.

“I don’t know anything about the crime I am convicted for. I pray to God to give me the opportunity to prove my innocence to the world and be useful to society. I am not a criminal; I have never stolen anything in my life, not to talk of robbing somebody.”

Osun man on death row for fowl theft shares how police subjected 17-year-old self to torture

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Oil cabal sponsoring blackmails against Tompolo, Otuaro, Kyari, say Ijaw youths

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December 22, 2024

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Chairman of Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo)

Oil cabal sponsoring blackmails against Tompolo, Otuaro, Kyari, say Ijaw youths

Stakeholders under the Ijaw Youths Network (IYN) have alleged a well-coordinated international blackmail campaign against High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo), Chairman of Tantita Security Services; Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL); and Dr. Dennis Otuaro, Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).

In a statement issued on Sunday by its President, Frank Ebikabo, and Secretary, Federal Ebiaridor, the IYN accused a cabal of oil thieves of sponsoring the campaign to undermine the successes of Tantita Security Services and other security outfits in combating oil theft.

The group specifically condemned a staged protest outside the United Nations headquarters in New York, describing it as a smear campaign filled with false criminal allegations against Tompolo, Kyari, and Otuaro.

The IYN called on the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and others entrusted with the nation’s security to ensure a thorough investigation of persons behind the blackmail and bring them to justice in the interest of national security.

The stakeholders also urged President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to be resolute in sustaining the reversal of the evils of oil theft against Nigeria and her citizens.

The IYN stressed that oil thieves and their operatives armed with billions of ill-gotten resources were funding the recurrent attacks on Tompolo, Kyari and Otuaro.

The youths insisted that a virulent cabal of oil thieves with a vast network across international boundaries was on the  rampage to orchestrate the campaign targeting the economy of the country and its leadership.

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The IYN said that the oil thieves were pooling resources together with their international collaborators to undermine the President, national security and the nation’s economy.

The group said that it was not unexpected that the deadly cabal that almost ruined the economy of the country by stealing billions of petro dollars would not give up their lucrative crime without a fight.

The IYN said that the achievement of the Tinubu Administration which had been able to attain 1.8m barrels of crude oil per day, after serious efforts into the battle against oil thieves should be protected from such influential, deadly gang.

The IYN added some of those fighting Tompolo, Kyari and Otuaro were persons, who pressed to be appointed Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme without success.

The Ijaw youths groups said that the antecedents of Otuaro and his capacity to deepen consultations and sustenance of peace in the Niger Delta might be hurting those behind the campaign of calumny in the region.

The group called on all sister organizations in the Niger Delta to support the campaign against oil theft, Tantita Security Service Limited, the NNPCL and the PAP leadership.

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The group said: “We are shocked at the extent to which this deadly cabal of oil thieves can go to orchestrate a campaign of calumny against hardworking people carrying out their lawful responsibilities in the Niger Delta.

“Of course, nobody expects a group of extremely wealthy, connected and influential people who has been involved in oil theft, stealing billions for years to go away without resistance.

“The show of shame in front of the UN headquarters is a most reprehensible attack on the country image, the President, national security and our economy.

“The unpatriotic characters are conniving with enemies of Nigeria in their criminal bid to bring back the dark days of oil theft and its impact on the nation’s economy.

“We call on the President, to be firm in sustaining what is good for Nigeria. Tompolo, and Tantita have shown that it is not impossible to stop the menace of oil theft as shown by the daily production of oil to 1.8 million barrels per day,

“We also urge the Mr Kyari and Dr Otuaro to be firm in carrying out their official responsibilities to this great country. That oil thieves are focusing attacks on the, shows in clear terms that their actions are suffocating their evil activities in the region.”

Oil cabal sponsoring blackmails against Tompolo, Otuaro, Kyari, say Ijaw youths

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NURTW scribe felicitates Nigerians on Xmas, urges caution 

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December 22, 2024

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NURTW scribe felicitates Nigerians on Xmas, urges caution 

 

The General Secretary of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Comrade Kayode Agbeyangi, has enjoined Nigerians to imbibe the virtues of peace, love and compassion as taught through the birth of Jesus Christ.

He stated this in his Christmas and end of the year goodwill message to felicitate members of the union and Nigerians in general.

Agbeyangi urged Nigerians to use the festive season to reflect on the values of love, compassion, and sacrifice that Jesus Christ embodied.

“This period is not for merry making alone; we should also spare time to reflect on the birth and life of Jesus Christ.

“His birth teaches humility, love compassion and sacrifice. As Nigerians, we must show love to our fellow county men. We must love our country. As Nigerians, we must be ready to make sacrifices for the nation.”

The NURTW scribe also used the opportunity to appeal to members of the union and other road users to always exercise caution and adhere to all safety protocols while travelling during the festive season.

“As we celebrate, let us not forget the importance of road safety. The roads can be treacherous, especially during the festive season.

“I urge our members and all road users to drive safely, avoid overspending, overtaking at dangerous bends and overloading, and be courteous to other road users,” he stated.

He also advised drivers that all their vehicle papers should be up to date to avoid embarrassment from law enforcement officers on the highways.

Comrade Agbeyangi prayed for a peaceful and joyous celebration, and wished members of the union and Nigerians, a happy prosperous New Year.

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