These are the stories you should be monitoring today:
President Muhammadu Buhari has on Tuesday promised to put more pressure on security chiefs to stop the spate of killings in the land.
Buhari who spoke at an interactive session with stakeholders in Jos, the Plateau capital, in the aftermath of the killings in some communities urged traditional and community leaders to complement the government’s efforts by persuading their constituencies to tolerate one another for peace and unity.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the President said: ‘‘I will continue to pressurise members of the law enforcement agencies directly under me by the Constitution as the Commander-in-Chief. About eight days ago, we had five hours security meeting of the Service Chiefs and the Inspector-General of Police.”
The President condemned the bloodletting, wished those injured a speedy recovery and also used the interactive session to appeal to Nigerians to avoid inflammatory utterances that endanger peace or promote conflicts.
Organised Labour in Nigeria have condemned the mass killings in Plateau over the weekend and have called for a renewed security framework for the country.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in a statement by its President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, on Tuesday said nothing could justify the senseless and barbaric killings by suspected killer-herdsmen over the weekend, saying they were “disturbed by the range of targets, the duration of these attacks and the scope of casualties and destruction,” while adding that “even in a full scale war with another country, the statistics are numbing.”
The NLC further called on the Federal and Plateau State Governments in consultation with the parties to this bloody conflict to design a frame work for an enduring peace, rebuild the communities and restore shattered lives as well as put an end to this anarchy, noting that reprisal attacks cannot bring the much needed peace.
In same vein, the United Labour Congress of Nigeria (ULC) has called for the sack of all the heads of the nation’s security agencies and a total overhaul of the security system.
According to a statement by its President, Joe Ajaero who described the height of the exacerbated security challenges threatening the country as a clear demonstration of a total system failure in governance at all levels in Nigeria, stressed that the daily wastage of lives and properties across the country especially in the North East and North Central, could no longer be acceptable under any guise.
“While we await the immediate arrest and prosecution of the individuals involved in this dastardly act (though it may be wishful thinking as usual), we urge Governments at all levels to take positive steps to address and create frameworks that would guarantee the lives of the masses and peoples of Nigeria,” he added.
The Plateau House of Assembly on Tuesday constituted a seven-man special committee to investigate the recent killings in the state.
This was sequel to a motion moved at its plenary by Hon. Peter Ibrahim, member representing Jos Barikin Ladi Constituency who stressed that the communities lost more than 200 lives, leaving many severely injured, others missing, houses and farmlands destroyed and thousands displaced since the attack started.
The lawmaker also called for the investigation of security operatives in the area, urging government to intensify effort at ending the incessant attacks.
The house mandated the committee headed by Hon. Yusuf Gagdi to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the attacks, identify the perpetrators, ascertain the number of communities affected and the extent of destruction and make appropriate recommendations in its report to be submited in four weeks.
The Department of State Services (DSS) has released Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, lawmaker representing Abia South senatorial district on Tuesday night..
This was confirmed in a statement issued by his media aide, Uchenna Awom, who said the senator walked into freedom after five days in the DSS gulag at about 6.32pm on Tuesday, June 26, 2018,.”
Abaribe’s lawyers, led by Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume, SAN said he was granted administrative bail and praised what he described as the great spirit of Nigerians for justice shown through collective calls and demand for his release after he was arrested by operatives of the secret police on Friday for standing as a guarantor to Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) who disappeared from the public in September 2017 when soldiers raided his residence in Abia state.
Kanu is standing trial for alleged treason and was granted bail in April.
And stories from around the world:
Lionel Messi opened the scoring in the 14th minute and Nigeria’s Victor Moses equalised in the second half through a penaalty awarded by the VAR. Argentina however left it late when Marcos Rojo volleyed the ball into the net in the 85th minute.
Elsewhere, Croatia defeated Iceland 2-1 with goals from Milan Badelj and Ivan Perisic to ensure the victory. Gylfi Sigurdsson scored a penalty for Iceland. Croatia and Argentina progress and Argentina will face France (i hope they lose) Croatia will face Denmark.
Zimbabwean President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has said he suspects a group linked to the former first lady was behind an attempt on his life at a rally in Bulawayo on Saturday.
Mnangagwa who spoke with the BBC said he suspected the G40 group, which supported Grace Mugabe for the presidency, had carried out the attack and he expects arrests to be made shortly.
“I don’t know whether it was one individual – I would think it is broader than one person. I would think this is a political action by some aggrieved persons,” he said.
He added Zimbabwe was stable and that foreign investors should not worry, assuring that there would be no countrywide security clampdown and elections scheduled for next month would go ahead in a free and fair manner.
A US judge has ordered that migrant families separated at the border with Mexico under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy be reunited within 30 days.
District Judge Dana Sabraw made the sternly worded decision on Tuesday in San Diego that children under five must be reunited within two weeks of the order issued while an injunction was also issued against any more family separations, which was part of a policy under which anyone crossing the border illegally is detained and referred for criminal prosecution. (AFP)
Senior Myanmar military officials, including the commanders of its defense services and army, should face trial for crimes against humanity over the treatment of Rohingya minorities, Amnesty International said in a report on Tuesday.
Amnesty called for the United Nations Security Council to refer the report’s findings to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and impose a “comprehensive arms embargo” on the Southeast Asian country and financial sanctions against senior officials. (Reuters)
Theresa May’s plan to protect British industry by keeping the UK in a single market for goods without respecting the free movement of people after Brexit will be rejected by an “angry” France and Germany, despite some sympathy within the EU to Downing Street’s cause, Spain’s foreign minister has said.
The new Spanish government would also block such a political fix, Josep Borrell told the Guardian, ahead of both a summit of leaders in Brussels and a summer tour by the prime minister of EU capitals during which May hopes to convince leaders of her economic case.
Temidayo Taiwo-Sidiq is a Journalist, Political Analyst and Satirist with major interest in Nigerian Politics, Governance and Sports.
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