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The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) on Thursday, said that witches were not responsible for road traffic crashes in Nigeria but recklessness of road users.

This was disclosed by SC Istifanus Ibrahim, Sector Commander, Cross River Sector Command of FRSC during the flag-off of 2023 Ember Month Safety Campaign.

NAN reports that the theme of the campaign for 2023 was: “speed thrills but it kills, drive responsibly and avoid overloading”.

Ibrahim said the last four months of the year were characterised by increased vehicular and socioeconomic activities, hence, commercial drivers respond to the period by trying to make more money.

He said the Ember months were like every other month of the year, but road traffic crashes increased during the period due to the tendency of motorists to drive at excessive speed, while neglecting regulations.

“I wish to also use this opportunity to disabuse our minds from the belief that evil spirits are responsible for the increased crashes during this period of the year.

“This is unscientific, as crashes are caused by human, mechanical and environmental factors.

He said the Ember months were like every other month of the year, but road traffic crashes increased during the period due to the tendency of motorists to drive at excessive speed, while neglecting regulations.

“I wish to also use this opportunity to disabuse our minds from the belief that evil spirits are responsible for the increased crashes during this period of the year.

“This is unscientific, as crashes are caused by human, mechanical and environmental factors.

“Therefore, the essence of the Ember months campaign is to compliment other mechanisms that have been deployed to stamp-out overloading, speed and other attitudes that can hinder our goal of five per cent reduction of road traffic deaths and injuries,” he said.

On his part, Gov. Bassey Otu, who flagged off the campaign said speed was often exhilarating, but it came with a significant risk when it was not managed responsibly.

President Bola Tinubu on Thursday sacked the heads of some government agencies under the Ministry of Information.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, announced this in a statement.

Those newly-appointed are:

National Orientation Agency (NOA) — Director-General/CEO — Mr. Lanre Issa-Onilu

(2) Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) — Director-General / CEO — Mr. Salihu Abdulhamid Dembos

(3) Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) — Director-General / CEO — Dr. Muhammed Bulama

National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) — Director-General / CEO — Mr. Charles Ebuebu

(5) Voice of Nigeria (VON) — Director-General / CEO — Mr. Jibrin Baba Ndace

(6) Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) — Director-General / CEO — Dr. Lekan Fadolapo

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) — Managing Director / CEO — Mr. Ali Muhammed Ali

(8) Nigerian Press Council (NPC) — Executive Secretary / CEO — Mr. Dili Ezughah

According to the statement, the president tasks the newly entrusted leadership in these important sub-sectors to innovate and create new opportunities for Nigerians to leverage upon through the effective reform of these key institutions of government which function to unify our people, reshape mindsets, and showcase this great nation to the rest of the world.

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has rejected the Nigerian Customs Service’s request to reconsider its revoked land by the FCT Administration.

Leading reporters that the minister had ordered FCTA to revoke unused plots of land, leading to top politicians, organisations and government agencies losing lands.

Customs officers led by the Acting Comptroller-General, Adewale Adeniyi, on Wednesday visited Wike to request that the affected land be returned.

Adeniyi requested land to build primary and secondary schools for the children of the more than 2,000 customs officers residing in the FCT.

Wike, however, declined to return the land but offered to sell it to the customs service. He also warned that the land would be revoked if not developed within a specific period.

He said, “Schools, very important. It is not only the children of customs officers that will attend the schools.

“My policy now is that, before we give land to any agency, it must commit that it will develop the land within a certain number of years and if not developed, the FCT should take back the land.

“I will not allocate land that will lay to thy kingdom come. So, you must convince me that you are indeed really serious about building schools for the children of your staff and our children,” he said.

The minister said he was willing to support the customs service to achieve its aims and objectives but lamented how government agencies were allocated land in FCT and refused to develop them.

He said that his new policy was that before land is given to any agency, it must commit to developing it within a certain number of years.

Wike also said that the customs service must pay ground rent when due.

Residents of Owode Onirin in the Kosofe Local Government Area of Lagos State are counting their losses after the area was submerged by flood on Tuesday.

It was gathered that the flood was caused by the water released from the Oyan Dam last weekend.

The affected areas include Unity Estate, Jehovah Street, Elias Estate, and other adjoining sites in the community.

The flood also displaced some residents living in the lowland areas in Isheri-Olowoora and Alagbole.

Residents now turn to canoe riders who charge fares in the flooded communities.

Police Arrest School Owner For Defiling Four-Year-Old Girl In Delta

The Delta State Police Command has announced its intention to pursue legal action against the proprietor of a nursery and primary school for the alleged sexual abuse of a four-year-old girl.

The Delta Police spokesperson, DSP Bright Edafe, in a tweet on Thursday, assured the public that the appropriate authorities will carry out justice.

Edafe gave this assurance while responding to a user on X #EverythingMai who reported the incident.

“The Area Commander just called that this incident happened two weeks ago, though the owner of the school denied it, the Area Commander Agbor and not the Division is currently handling it,” he said.

“I will revert when I get the full update, but I assure us that justice will prevail.

“However, we should avoid settlement because these days parents especially from rural areas go behind the police and collect money from suspects thereby making prosecution very difficult.”

A previous post by the X user stated that the owner of Great Leaders International School in Delta State allegedly sexually assaulted a four-year-old girl, causing significant harm, and used scissors to tear her up so he could fit inside her.

The post further mentioned that the young girl had complained to her mother about experiencing pain upon returning from school.

According to her, the girl’s mother checked her and saw blood clots from the child’s vagina.

She added that the man’s lawyer is telling the mother they should settle the matter within themselves.

At least three people were reportedly killed while others were injured on Thursday when a Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) vehicle was involved in an accident at Isale-Oja Oba, Ilorin, Kwara State.

SaharaReporters gathered that the NCoS vehicle was conveying inmates to court from the prison facility at Okekura, Ilorin, when the fatal accident occurred.

The exact number of casualties and those injured during the accident has yet to be ascertained, likewise the cause.

Pictures from the accident scene uploaded by an eyewitness, Idris AbdulGaniy Yinka, show the NCoS vehicle was hugely damaged. Its windows and rear windshield were broken, along with some other visible body damage.

Giving more details on the incident, Yinka said at least four people were confirmed dead while others were injured.

He wrote: “This morning at Isale-oja, Ilorin, Nigerian Correctional Service vehicle involved in accident. Four reportedly dead, other injured. The place is crowded and scary for now. I am seriously scared to take pictures. The attached pictures were taken on Facebook.

“I was there not told, I just left the place for my program at GRA Area, Ilorin.

“May Allah forgive all the victims.”

The state police spokesman, SP Ajayi Okasanmi, confirmed the incident but said he could not ascertain the number of casualties yet.

The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, on Thursday, revealed his plan to facilitate the release of 4,000 inmates as part of efforts to decongest prisons nationwide.

Leading Reporters learnt that the interior ministry is working with the private sector to pay fines for inmates as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

The minister said several inmates were incarcerated over their inability to pay fines, promising that the interior ministry will ensure the fines are paid and inmates released within four weeks.

“Immediately I assumed office, the first thing I did was set up a small committee to be able to review the situation of our correctional centres vis-à-vis the inmates as they are, and we discovered that over 4,000 of these inmates are still in custody due to their inability to pay fines.

“We looked at how much the total fine is. It’s about five hundred and something million, and I can tell you we’ve gone very far dealing with the private sector in terms of CSR to put this money together, and I’m sure that in the next three weeks, or four weeks maximum, because I like to be held responsible for what I say, so in the next four weeks, by the grace of God, we would have been able to pay those fines for over 4,000 people. That will reduce from the present almost 79,000 inmates to about 75,000.

“I would say that we must also understand that when it comes to the congestion of prison, it’s not an entirely Ministry of Interior thing. Yes, the Ministry of Interior must take the lead, but obviously, we are going to work with the attorney general because you cannot just open your gates

“We must look at setting up that sort of interministerial relationship that we are already working on to be able to expedite cases based on the Administration of Criminal Justice System, so we are already looking in that particular direction and also to further decongest,” said the minister, who stressed that prisons across the country are holding more inmates than what they were designed for.

“The situation of the correctional service is very worrisome, for instance, in Lagos Command, all the correctional centres were built for like 4,800 inmates, but today we have over 9,000 inmates, so that’s like over 100 per cent in Lagos alone.

“We will definitely decongest our correctional centres by maybe 67 % which will be a very huge one, we have looked at the financial implication of it, we’re already working on that and I can tell you that in due course we’ll come back to Nigerians to tell you when exactly this will actually be actualized,” he added.

The national chairman of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Dr Major Agbo, loyal to the founder, Dr Boniface Aniebonam, has escaped an assassination attempt in his office in Abuja.

Addressing journalists in Abuja, Agbo said that he escaped the assassination attempt in the NNPP’s newly opened office, adding that the attempt was made on his life while he was in the office on Monday, 16th August 2023.

“I walked in here at about 2.45 pm, and shortly after that, two men walked in, ignoring the protocol advice from the desk boys in the front office.

“They walked in with weapons demanding to meet me; unknown to them, they were talking to me. It was evident that they never knew me physically, infact my saving grace was that I was not sitting on my chair.

“Pointing a short gun at me, they demanded that I produce ‘Major Agbo,’ who one of them claimed was his coursemate at Command and Staff College, Jaji.

“I asked him if he would identify his coursemate he was talking about if seen, and he replied ‘yes.’ I then told them Major Agbo was not around. They speedily withdrew, ran into their ash-coloured Toyota Corolla car parked by the express roadside (to aid escape) and sped away.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are all aware of the recent developments in the party as a result of attempts to hijack it by some ill-advised elements and political opportunists.

“Let me also confirm to you that I have received several threats through WhatsApp voice calls telling me I would pay with my life for standing in the way in their quest to take the party from its founder and its mother organisation – NAGAFF.

“They made real their threat on Monday but failed woefully as they could not identify me. The matter has been reported to the appropriate quarters for action.

“It is my sincere hope that you would lend your voices to this brazen attempt to take my life over what does not belong to them.

“It is my hope that you would let the whole world know that my life is presently in danger by usurpers who were not part of our party in its twenty-two years of existence but only joined us last year.”