Updated: NLC planned strike politically motivated, says MURIC  - Newstrends
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Updated: NLC planned strike politically motivated, says MURIC 

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MURIC Executive Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola

NLC planned strike politically motivated, says MURIC 

The Muslim Rights Concern has said the planned strike of the Nigeria Labour Congress over the removal of fuel subsidy is politically motivated.

The Islamic human rights organisation spoke on the development in a statement it issued on Sunday in Lagos.

MURIC therefore called on NLC to change its stance on the issue.

In the statement by its Executive Director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, MURIC said, “We are in possession of the video clip of a press conference addressed by the National Publicity Secretary of a faction of the Labour Party (LP), Abayomi Arabambi, in which he revealed that the same NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had supported the party’s presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, when he pledged to remove oil subsidy if elected president.

“It amounts to double standard for the same Peter Obi and his party to support the workers’ union in its planned strike over oil subsidy. It smirks of high level immorality, undisguised deceit and hypocrisy of the highest order. Peter Obi had described oil subsidy as organised crime during the campaigns. It has to remain so. Obi’s sudden volte-face on oil subsidy is illogical. It is inexplicable.

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“Nigerians must open their eyes very wide to be able to understand what is happening. The difference between LP as a political party and the NLC which is a workers’ union is like the difference between six and half a dozen. Peter Obi is trying to get through the bends what it could not achieve through the straights. It is an attempt to hijack the workers’ union for a personal ambition.

“NLC has lost its credibility by opposing the withdrawal of oil subsidy. We advise its president, Joe Ajaero, to retrace his steps before it is too late. Nigerians know where the shoe pinches them.

“Oil subsidy is a cancerous tumour in the nation’s anatomy which must be removed before it destroys all parts of its body. No competent surgeon will hesitate to amputate a rotten limb in order to save the rest of the body. That rotten limb in the body of the Nigerian economy is oil subsidy. It must go if the economy has to survive.

“We cannot continue like this. We cannot allow the wolves among us who masquerade as oil marketers to come under the guise of oil subsidy to arrogate all the milk and honey in the land to themselves. The time to stop oil subsidy is now.

“We charge Nigerians of all political divides to join hands with the new administration in ensuring that oil subsidy is killed permanently. It must not be allowed to rise again.

“All other sectors are suffering because of oil subsidy. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) revealed in February 2023 that oil subsidy now consumes N400 billion monthly (https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/582724-fuel-subsidy-now-above-n400bn-monthly-nnpcl.html). That is a humongous amount of money that should have gone to education, health, security, etc.

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“Because of oil subsidy, 7,256 nurses trained by Nigeria left for Britain in one year alone (https://punchng.com/7256-nigerian-nurses-left-for-uk-in-one-year-report/). 5,000 medical doctors also took the brain drain train to Britain within eight years (https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/560511-brain-drain-over-5000-nigerian-doctors-move-to-uk-in-eight-years.html?tztc=1).

“As a result of this oil-subsidy-induced neglect of the health sector, one million Nigerians are blind, 300,000 Nigerians die of malaria annually, 30 million are hypertensive, four million suffer from diabetes, 400,000 have tuberculosis, 32 million have river blindness, 130,000 die of pneumonia and 4,500 pregnant women die every year. Yet the calamities are avoidable if we drop oil subsidy.

“Because of oil subsidy, power and education sectors are in comatose and the subsidy cabal smiles to the bank. 55 million Nigerians have no access to education. It is on record that the education sector received a meagre N4.6 trillion in seven years from 2016 to 2022.

“The percentages of budgetary allocations to education from 2016 to 2022 were 7.6%, 6.1%, 7.1%, 8.4%, 6.5%, 5.7% and 5.4% in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 respectively. This was in spite of the recommendation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) of 26% budgetary allocation to education.

“Nigerians must summon the courage to give subsidy thieves the fight of their lives. We cannot wait for tomorrow to begin the struggle. Tomorrow will definitely be too late. We must frontally confront the monster now. Oil subsidy must go and, like a frightened dog, NLC must put its tail between its legs and run back to the drawing board. This politically motivated plan to go on strike has failed.”

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Bus driver arrested for stabbing LASTMA officer In Lagos

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Bus driver arrested for stabbing LASTMA officer In Lagos

Operatives of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority have arrested a commercial bus driver for stabbing a LASTMA officer after being apprehended for serious traffic obstruction around Costain in Lagos on Sunday.

This was disclosed in a statement released by the LASTMA Director, Public Affairs, Adebayo Taofiq, on Sunday.

The driver, whose name was not disclosed, was apprehended for picking passengers on the main expressway thereby causing serious traffic obstructions to other road users around Costain inward Iponrin in Lagos.

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The driver was reported to have made “dangerous driving attempts to escape before he brought out knife and stabbed” the officer.

“After seeing the deep cut he had inflicted with the knife, he decided to stripped himself naked and caused serious commotions before he was eventually arrested by Police men from Iponri Police Station,” the statement added.

After his arrest, dangerous weapons – cutlass and knife – were recovered inside his commercial Volkswagen ‘T4’ bus by security officers.

The government had confirmed that the arrested driver would be immediately prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to other recalcitrant drivers.

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NDLEA seizes Abuja-bound ‘laughing gas’ consignments, intercepts illicit drugs in Lagos, Kogi, others

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NDLEA seizes Abuja-bound ‘laughing gas’ consignments, intercepts illicit drugs in Lagos, Kogi, others

Over four tons of illicit and controlled drugs including consignments of nitrous oxide popularly known as laughing gas, skunk, codeine syrup, methamphetamine and tramadol have been intercepted by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, during interdiction operations in Lagos, Kogi, FCT, Jigawa, Kaduna, Sokoto and Edo states.

A statement signed by spokesman of the anti-narcotic agency, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday, also said 1,194 cylinders of laughing gas with a total weight of 2,547.2 kilograms loaded in two Toyota Sienna buses were on Friday 22nd September intercepted by NDLEA operatives along Okene-Lokoja-Abuja expressway.

According to the statement : “Two suspects: Onyebuchi Ikpozu and Kenneth Igwe who were taking the consignments to the nation’s Federal Capital Territory for distribution have been arrested and taken into custody.

” While one of the Toyota Sienna buses marked KTU 582 HV was conveying 99 cartons containing 594 cylinders weighing 1,267.200kgs, the second bus with registration number FKJ 329 YA was conveying 100 cartons of the substance with 600 cylinders weighing 1,280kgs. A 48-year-old woman, Mrs. Ugo Eluba was also arrested in Abuja in a follow up operation after 2,400 ampules of pentazocine injection and 100,000 tablets of Exol-5 intercepted in Kogi state were traced to her.

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“In the FCT, operatives intercepted 977 kilograms of skunk on Wednesday 20th September in a trailer marked LSR 343 XW, bearing cartons of maggi. The skunk consignment was loaded into the truck at Ipele junction in Ondo state. While 959kgs of the substance were meant for distribution in Sokoto state, the rest was to be dropped off at Gwagwalada. Two suspects: Auwal Mohammed and Abdullahi Abubakar have been arrested in connection with the seizure, while two other suspects: Mutari Abdulazeez, 31, and Ayuba Madaki, 28, were also arrested on Saturday 23rd September at Zuba area of the FCT with different quantities of methamphetamine, cannabis and 13, 930 pills of tramadol.

“In the same vein, Shuaibu Yusif, 27, and Abubakar Hussaini, 20, were on Saturday 23rd September nabbed with 89.1kgs of skunk along Kano -Hadejia road, Jigawa state during a stop and search patrol by NDLEA operatives.

” No fewer than 6,000 ampules of pentazocine injection were recovered from a suspect, Usman Musa Sidi, 35, on Monday 18th September along Abuja – Forest road, Kaduna while on his way to Bauchi state. A follow up operation in Bauchi led to the arrest of the actual owner of the consignment, Dominic Chukwuma, 35, on Tuesday 19th September, with at least 2.58kgs of Diazepam and 36.55kgs of pentazocine injection recovered from his home. Two other suspects: Inuwa Nuhu and Isiyaku Dahiru Sani were also arrested same Tuesday in connection with the seizure of 49 blocks of cannabis sativa concealed in a black sack weighing 26kgs in a commercial vehicle coming from Ogere, Ogun state to Kano.

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“While a total of 183kgs of Ghana Loud, a strain of cannabis, were recovered from body compartments of a J5 bus intercepted in Lagos on Wednesday 20th September, operatives in Sokoto, on Tuesday 19th September arrested one Charles Okeke, 44, with 473 bottles of codeine syrup at Unguwar Kosai area of Sokoto. In Edo state, 365 blocks of compressed cannabis sativa weighing 258kgs were recovered from a Toyota Camry car marked KTU 886 EZ at Igarra, Akoko Edo LGA.

“In a massive operation between Monday 11th and Wednesday 13th September, NDLEA operatives stormed thick forests in Ijesha Isu-Ekiti, Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti state, where they destroyed 40 tons (40,000 kilograms) of cannabis plants covering 16 hectares of farmland.”

NDLEA seizes Abuja-bound ‘laughing gas’ consignments, intercepts illicit drugs in Lagos, Kogi, others

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‘It’s not Buhari, El-Rufai or Islam related’ – Rep seeks massive retweet of S/Kaduna’s illegal gun factory

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‘It’s not Buhari, El-Rufai or Islam related’ – Rep seeks massive retweet of S/Kaduna’s illegal gun factory

A member of the House of Representatives for Kaduna North Federal constituency, Muhammed El-Rufai, has called for a massive retweet of a post on X (formerly Twitter) on the discovery of illegal gun factory in Southern Kaduna.

The lawmaker, who is a son of former Kaduna governor, Nasir El-Rufai, in a post on his verified X handle on Saturday, shared a tweet by one Kawu Garba, on the gun factory in Kaduna and urged followers to retweet aggressively.

“Please retweet aggressively. The normal failures will not because it is not Buhari, El-Rufa’i or Islam related,” the outspoken lawmaker said.

 “The Nigerian army discovered a gun factory in Kafanchan, Southern Kaduna. The owner of the factory Monday Dunia has confessed to fueling the crisis in Kaduna and Plateau to keep his business running.

” History will always be kind to Malam Nasiru El-rufa’i. I hope the fools that have never been to Kaduna State but always throw baseless accusations against him can read what’s written on the wall.”

It would be recalled that the Nigerian Army had on Friday uncovered a gun manufacturing factory in Kafanchan, Jema’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

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A statement shared on the verified social media pages of the Nigerian Army, said the feat was recorded by men of Operation SAFE HAVEN in the Southern Kaduna axis.

It reads in full : “In line with the Commander Operation SAFE HAVEN (OPSH) and General Officer Commanding (GOC) 3 Armoured Division, Major General Abdulsalam Abubakar’s resolve to deal decisively with sponsors and perpetrators of crime as well as mopping up illegal weapons in OPSH Joint Operations Area, troops have uncovered a gun manufacturing factory in Kafanchan, Jema’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

The discovery followed a week long intelligence operations that finally led to the capture of a wanted gunrunner Napoleon John who has been on the wanted list of OPSH. The suspect who confessed to the crime led troops to a concealed factory where arms of different calibre were sold by another miscreant identified as Monday Dunia, who confessed to have been in the business for more than five years fuelling the crisis in Kaduna and neighbouring Plateau States.

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A thorough search of the factory led to the recovery of 22 different weapons to include 7 pistols, 2 locally fabricated AK 47 rifles, 2 military grade AK 47 rifles and 9 revolvers. Others include one submachine gun, rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition, machine tools and a gas cylinder. In a follow on operations by midnight of yesterday uptill early hours of today, 22 September 2023, troops raided another hideout in Adua 1 village in Kafanchan and captured additional 2 x AK-47 Rifles, 2 x revolver rifles, live rounds of 9mm and 7.62 ammunitions, 6 x dangerous daggers, one x hacker axe, several empty cases of 7.62mm special rounds, 2 mobile phones, one fragmental jacket, 2 Police uniforms, one military camouflage trousers, one ammunition magazine carrier, one pistol holster, one military grade camel pouch, one police combat helmet, 2 masks, 4 identity cards, gunpowder, shrapnels, charms and amulets. Also recovered were machine tools and other equipment. The major kingpin(name withheld) is still on the run but would soon be apprehended.

While commending troops for their doggedness and resilience, the GOC/ Commander OPSH also vowed to ensure all fleeing syndicate members were arrested and made to face the full wrath of the law. He warned sponsors and perpetrators of criminalities to immediately abandon their evil ways and embrace lawful means of livelihood.

General AE Abubakar also thanked the general public for their unwavering support in the fight against criminality and urged them not to relent in furnishing the troops with actionable information. He further assured to treat information provided with utmost secrecy and confidentiality.

Recall that the GOC/Commander OPSH issued a stern warning to criminals during a stakeholders’ engagement with traditional and religious leaders on 10 September 2023 held at Zangon Kataf.”

‘It’s not Buhari, El-Rufai or Islam related’ – Rep seeks massive retweet of S/Kaduna’s illegal gun factory

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