How unscrupulous politicians undermine Nigeria’s democracy by Jide Ojo

Wealth Without Work Pleasure Without Conscience Knowledge Without Character Commerce (Business) Without Morality (Ethics) Science Without Humanity Religion Without Sacrifice Politics Without Principle – Seven Deadly Sins by former Prime Minster of India, Mahatma Ghandi Renowned Professor of Political Economy, Claude Ake, of the blessed memory, said Nigeria is running democracy without democrats. That has been the bane of the country’s democratic sojourn. From the First to this Fourth Republic, Nigerian politicians have shown undiluted egocentrism. That is the reason what happened last week at the National Assembly concerning electoral reform was not too surprising. Nigerians are too naïve to think that the country’s political elite will work only for public good. Section 4 (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, says, “The National Assembly shall have power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation…” That’s fair enough but who determines what those adjectives mean? Our lawmakers interpret for themselves and by themselves what peace, order and good government mean. The Ninth National Assembly raised our hopes to high heaven and decided to dash it at the last minute. They played us to believe they were serious with this electoral reform. They set up a joint committee comprising of the Senate Committee on INEC chaired by Senator Kabir Gaya, a former governor of Kano State and House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters, chaired by Aisha Dukku. For close to two years, they walked us through the process. They sponsored a Private Member Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill and several other electoral reform bills, about seven of them. The bill passed through the first and second reading and was sent to the committee on electoral reform for further legislative actions. The committee organised public hearings after receiving over 70 memoranda. The promise was that the bill would be passed by December 2020, then they said that was no longer realistic and pledged first quarter of 2021. When that was no longer feasible, they shifted the goalpost to the second quarter of 2021. That too was missed only for them to pass the bill on the last day of sitting before they proceeded on their two months’ annual vacation. This was done deliberately. I had it on good authority that the technical committee that comprised the joint NASS committee on electoral reform, Office of Attorney General and the representative of the Independent National Electoral Commission had finished with their task since March 2021 and that the report could have been laid by April. This was not to be. Because of the hatchet job they intended to do, they left the consideration of the bill till the last day of their sitting. For the uninitiated, what the Senate did by passing the controversial Section 52 (2) in the manner they did by asking INEC to get approval from the National Communications Commission and the National Assembly before the commission will deploy electronic transmission of results was not part of what was agreed to at the technical committee level. Why then did the Senate decide to insert it into the version of their own bill? The simple answer is that they had to do that in order to derail the electoral reform process so that the status quo of having manual election result collation will be sustained. Meanwhile, every election observer knows that collation of election result is the weakest link in the electoral process as that is the pressure point for manipulation of election results. The Senate that passed the controversial Section 52 (2) in the manner they did knew what they did is unconstitutional, ultra vires, null and void in the light of constitutional provisions in Sections 78, 160 and Paragraph 15 (a) of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution as amended. Many of them were aware that in 2018, when they introduced the controversial Clause 25 (1) which increased the number of election days from two to three and order sequence of elections for INEC, the President vetoed that bill on the grounds that the NASS has no such power to so influence INEC. Why would the senators repeat this same mistake with the controversial Clause 52 (2)? I say it without equivocation that it was done deliberately. Many of us who watched the House of Representatives deliberation on the bill saw how the Deputy Speaker who presided over the deliberation rigged the voice vote over the controversial Clause 52 (2) last Thursday. Even when the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, decided to invite the NCC to tell his members about Internet connectivity and security of our cyberspace for electronic transmission of results, it was an act with a predetermined outcome. Why should the NCC commissioner that came be given the members dated information. The man gave Internet connectivity as of 2018 when we are in 2021. NASS is talking of possibility of hacking but they forgot that INEC has been doing electronic (biometric) voter registration since 2006 without much hassles. Nigerian banks have been doing Internet banking for over a decade despite the fear of hackers. We have been registering National Identification Number registration, Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, passport and driving licence electronically without any considerable backlash. In order to expose the perfidious treachery of the National Assembly, INEC had come out to say that it had the capacity to transmit election results electronically from all parts of Nigeria. “We have uploaded results from very remote areas, even from areas where you have to use human carriers to access. We have made our own position very clear, that we have the capacity and we have the will to deepen the use of technology in the electoral process,” INEC’s National Chairman and Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Mr. Festus Okoye, said on Channels Television last Saturday. Away from the shenanigans of the National Assembly on electoral reform, it is on record that it is the unscrupulous and desperate politicians that engage in election violence. They recruit political thugs to foment trouble during party primaries, campaigns and elections. They engage in underage voter registration, multiple registration and multiple voting. Recall that there is a serving governor INEC had exposed as having registered twice, both in Abuja and his state capital. This same breed of politicians which cut across party lines engage in vote-buying and spend over and above legal campaign finance limit. It is these same desperate politicians who would put INEC Returning Officers under pressure to make a wrong declaration as happened in Imo State during the 2019 National Assembly elections. They also use all legal and extra legal means including inducing INEC staff in order to rig election for them. One of such instances was exposed when nemesis caught up with a professor in University of Calabar who aided and abetted a notable politician to rig election in Akwa Ibom State. On March 25, 2021, High Court in Akwa-Ibom State sentenced Peter Ogban to three years in prison, for election fraud. The court, which found Ogban guilty of fraudulent manipulation of election results, publishing and announcing of false results, also asked the professor to pay N100,000 fine. Ogban, a professor of soil science, and a returning officer in the 2019 elections in Akwa Ibom North-West District, was charged for manipulating the election results of two local government areas – Oruk Anam and Etim Ekpo. Unprincipled politicians stop at nothing to win elections. They kill, maim, rig, induce and do everything humanly possible to undermine the electoral process. They use the security agencies to harass and molest opposition candidates and parties in order to pave the way for election rigging. They chase away agents of opposition candidates and even buy out judges of election petitions tribunals in order to win elections. There are ample cases in point. It happened in the Ekiti State governorship election of 2014, Osun State governorship supplementary election of 2018, and Kogi State governorship election of 2019. Space will not allow me to recount the testimonies of some past political leaders on how they rig elections in Nigeria. First is the account of former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke, who in July 2010 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja gave a blow by blow account of the modus operandi of governors and Resident Electoral Commissioners to thwart the mandate of the electorate. Former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Mantu, eight years after the confession of Duke also informed the world on Channels Television that he helped his party — the Peoples Democratic Party — rig elections in the past. He said he helped the party to rig the elections by bribing officials of INEC as well as security agents. Until Nigeria is able to thwart the self-serving and egoistic efforts of these unscrupulous and unprincipled desperate politicians, our elections will continue to be a hollow ritual. It will continue to be the contest for the most violent, richest, and undesirable elements. Citizen action is needed to safeguard this democracy from being completely hijacked by political hawks who masquerade as democrats. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

How Sunday Igboho beat security at Benin Airport before his eventual arrest by Kayode Oyero

Facts have emerged on how Yoruba nation activist, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, initially escaped arrest at the Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou, Benin Republic before his eventual arrest around 8pm on Monday. A top security source told The PUNCH that Igboho and his wife, Ropo, at first, escaped arrest but a travel agent was used to lure them back to the airport. The source said, “He (Igboho) was arrested in Cotonou on Monday night while he tried to travel. He was already at the airport with a passport. The immigration officers suspected the passport and so they stopped him. In the process, they discovered he was the one. He was able to escape in the course of discussion and we were grateful to God for that. “But the travel agent called back saying the matter had been resolved. But on going back, he was arrested. He was trying to travel to Germany when he was apprehended.” Also, another security source present in Cotonou told The PUNCH that Nigeria’s Ambassador to the Benin Republic, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (retd.), was instrumental in the arrest of Igboho and his wife. The source confided in The PUNCH that the former Chief of Army Staff wrote the government of the small West African country and insisted on the arrest and extradition of Igboho. Buratai, Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff between July 2015 and January 2021, was deployed as Nigeria’s envoy in the Benin Republic in June 2021. Before then, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had presented Buratai’s nomination to the Senate and the upper chamber of the National Assembly had confirmed the ex-COAS’ nomination despite public outcry of some crimes against humanity allegedly committed by the Nigerian Army under Buratai’s leadership. The top security source in Benin Republic, who spoke to our correspondent, said that Buratai through the Nigerian Embassy in the small West African country, sent a secret letter to the Benin government to be on the lookout for Igboho. The PUNCH gathered that the letter was instrumental to the arrest of Igboho and his wife, Ropo, at the Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou, the largest city in the French-speaking country. Benin Republic is bordered by Togo to the west, Burkina Faso to the north-west, Niger Republic to the north-east, the Atlantic Ocean to the south and Nigeria to the east. Benin Republic shares a boundary with Oyo State in South-West Nigeria, where Igboho was based before the Nigerian Government through its Department of State Services raided his Soka residence in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital on July 1, 2021 around 1am. Though Igboho, an arrowhead in the separatist agitation for Yoruba Nation, narrowly escaped the bloody raid, about 12 of his associates were arrested and two others killed by the Nigerian secret police. Later, the DSS spokesman, Peter Afunanya, at a press briefing in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, on July 1, 2021, paraded Igboho’s associates and detained them thereafter, denying them access to their lawyers and not charging them to court. The DSS also paraded some passports, AK-47 rifles, rounds of ammunition, African bulletproof vests, amongst others as exhibits. The secret police claimed that the items were recovered from Igboho’s house during the bloody raid. It also declared Igboho wanted for allegedly stockpiling arms which he claimed the activist wanted to use to destabilise Nigeria under the guise of Yoruba Nation agitation. Igboho denied the allegations and went into hiding. Ladoja asks FG to declare amnesty for Sunday Igboho, Nnamdi Kanu Many Nigerians had condemned the Gestapo raid of the activist house and the treatment of the Federal Government of Nigeria on the matter but Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, had commended the DSS for the raid of the house of Igboho whom he labelled as “a militant ethnic secessionist, who has also been conducting acts of terror and disturbing the peace under the guise of protecting fellow ‘kinsmen’.” While in hiding, the Federal Government of Nigeria placed the Nigeria Immigration Service and the Nigeria Customs Service on alert to stop Igboho from leaving the country. It was gathered that the government beefed up security at Iwajowa, Saki West and Ibarapa local government areas of Oyo State which were adjoining areas to the Benin Republic. Igboho, who rose to prominence in January 2021 after he issued an ultimatum to ‘killer herders’ in parts of Ibarapaland, was said to have escaped the security apparatus in the areas to Benin Republic where he was scheduled to catch a flight to Germany. According to a top source familiar with the matter, the Nigerian government foresaw the possibility of Igboho flying to Europe through Benin Republic and planted a landmine for him there through Buratai. The source said after Igboho was eventually arrested, “A lot of people made effort to resolve the matter but we discovered that the Nigerian Ambassador to Benin Republic (Tukur Buratai) was already aware and he said that he (Igboho) must be extradited.” Another security source present in Benin Republic also told The PUNCH that the International Criminal Police Organisation, at the behest of the Nigerian Government, arrested Igboho and his wife at the airport saying the activist was a ‘wanted man’. The source said, “Interpol at the airport came and arrested him saying he was wanted in Nigeria. He was together with his wife.” When asked whether the ex-COAS and current Nigerian envoy in Benin Republic was aware of the development, the source said, “Of course, he (Buratai) knew about the case. On July 7, 2021, the Nigerian Government through the Ambassador sent a secret letter to Nigerian Embassy, Nigerian Embassy sent a letter to Ministry of External Affairs in Benin Republic, External Affairs sent to Internal Affairs, Internal Affairs sent to police to arrest Sunday Igboho.” The source added said Igboho and his wife had been detained in “Benin Republic Criminal Police cell”, adding that “Buratai should have gone to the police station because he was the one that told them to arrest him.” The source said though the German Embassy was intervening in the matter because Igboho’s wife is a German citizen, the Nigerian Government could have its way and extradite Igboho today (Wednesday). “I was told they are coming tomorrow. My prayer is that he should remain in Cotonou or be allowed to go to Germany because I don’t know what would happen to him in Abuja,” the source said.

Interpol arrested Igboho, wife in Benin Republic —Lawyer by Kayode Oyero

The International Criminal Police Organisation arrested Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo; with his wife, Ropo, in Cotonou, Benin Republic, the activist’s lead counsel, Yomi Alliyu (SAN), has said. Alliyu revealed this in a statement obtained by The PUNCH on Tuesday. According to him, the Federal Government of Nigeria through INTERPOL got Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho and his wife, who is a German citizen, arrested on Monday night at an airport in Benin Republic, one of Nigeria’s neighbouring countries in the West African sub-region. Igboho was arrested while he tried to catch a flight to Germany with his wife. Alliyu argued that “The Extradition Treaty of 1984 between Togo, Nigeria, Ghana and Republic of Benin excluded political fugitives. It also states that where the fugitive will not get justice because of discrimination and/or undue delay in prosecution the host country should not release the fugitive. “Now, Article 20 of African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights to which the four countries are signatories made agitation for self-determination a fundamental right to be protected by all countries. This made Chief Sunday Adeyemo a political offender who cannot be deported and/or extradited by the good people of the Republic of Benin for any reason.” The senior advocate, who described the arrest of his client as shocking, urged the government of Germany, Benin Republic and the international community “to rise up and curb the impunity of the Nigerian Government by refusing any application for extradition of our Client who already has application before the International Criminal Court duly acknowledged”. The Nigerian secret police had raided Igboho’s Ibadan residence in the Soka area on July 1, 2021, arrested about 12 of his aides and killed two of them in a gun duel. The Federal Government of Nigeria had placed the Nigeria Immigration Service and the Nigeria Customs Service on alert to stop Igboho from leaving the country.

Richard Branson Didn't Go To Space ByErik Shilling

He did, however, go very high in the sky in a rocket plane. Image for article titled Richard Branson Didn't Go To Space Photo: Getty Images (Getty Images) The billionaire Richard Branson went 53.5 miles into the sky on Sunday, short of the Kármán line, which is 62 miles above sea level and where it is generally agreed that space begins. Branson did surpass 50 miles above sea level, above which NASA gives out astronaut wings. But come on, man, Branson’s stunt only barely cleared that. There is, officially, no American government definition for when space begins, apparently in large part because the government does not want to define it, because it could possibly change with technological developments. But let’s accept the 50 mile rule for argument’s sake, anyway, and say that Branson was indeed in space, where he spent about a minute-and-a-half before falling back to earth, which is the functional equivalent of having a layover at JFK and then claiming you’ve been to New York City. That might technically be true but simultaneously be complete hogwash. Instead, I hereby propose a simple, achievable definition of “going to space,” which is that you must orbit the Earth at least once while you’re up there, something that Branson did not do. And, while Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom might be a little mad that their first flights will no longer count, in Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom’s day there weren’t weirdo billionaires engaged in pointless space races. Also, crucially, the U.S. and the Soviet Union weren’t trying to sell anything beyond their own superiority, whereas Branson would be very pleased if you got in line and paid him a quarter-of-a-million dollars or more to take his dumb amusement park ride. The best thing you can say about Branson or anyone else that takes his spaceplane to suborbital skies is that they have the courage to strap themselves to a rocket, which isn’t nothing. But you can’t say they’ve gone to space, any more than I can say I’ve been to Des Moines, even though I drove through it once. It seemed nice.

Benin Bronze Casters Protest Over Ownership Of Stolen Artefacts By 'Suyi Ayodele

The controversy over the proposed return of the Benin artefacts stolen during the invasion of the old Benin Empire in 1897 by the British military forces, got messier on Monday as the Igun Bronze Casters Guild, who claimed to be descendants of Igun Community, staged protests across Benin City and visited the palace of the Oba of Benin and the Edo State Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, over the claim by another group known as Igun-Igbesanmwan-Owina Descendants Cultural Movement to the ownership of the artefacts. The Igun-Igbesanmwan-Owina Descendants Cultural Movement, based in Europe and America, had in advertorials in some conventional and social media platforms last week, claimed part ownership of artefacts, insisting that they must be part of negotiations for their return. But the protesters led by the Ine of Igun, Chief Osarenren Inneh and other chiefs, the Igun Bronze Casters Guild called on security agencies including Interpol to help fish the signatories to the said advert insisting that from time immemorial, they cast the bronze artworks for the palace and they remain the property of the palace. “We have never in any way been the owners of the artefacts that we were ordered to do by the palace. There is no member of this Igun that will say that as at 3000 years ago, they can buy a kilo of manila so all the works that were done, were done inside the palace and were done for the monarch. We do works for the beautification of the palace, we do works to keep the history of this kingdom in form of plaques and art forms so we duplicate the history of the kingdom,” Chief Inneh explained. According to him, “We have never in any way been privileged to do these works for ourselves until when we were given our royal charter in 1280 AD by Oba Oguola. They gave us that charter for commercial purposes and these artefacts were long in existence even before the royal charter.” Pledging loyalty to the Benin Place, Chief Inneh said, “We see those publications as false and we want to disassociate ourselves from anything that has to do with that association because it did not come from us. We are servants to the palace, we are servants to the Omo N’Oba and nobody should pitch us against the palace because we cannot go against the palace. We are grateful to Omo N’Oba for all he has been doing for us over the years.” “Those who thrive in making mischief just for the fun of it had better be warned to look elsewhere for their game. For sure this new chapter will not end well with them,” he admonished. “And to sum up our submission, we wish to call on the security agencies, especially Interpol operatives, to spread their dragnet to get the real identities of the writers and sponsors of the letter who hide under what we equate to be false identities to perpetrate falsehood and character assassination their stock-in-trade,” he reiterated.

Anthony Oritseretserundede Okorodudu, PhD, MBA, has been Inducted into the Prestigious Marquis Who's Who Biographical Registry

Dr. Okorodudu celebrates professional excellence in the field of pathology GALVESTON, TX, June 28, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Anthony Oritseretserundede Okorodudu, PhD, MBA has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process. With a plethora of experience at his disposal, Dr. Okorodudu has found much success in the department of pathology of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where he serves as a professor of pathology as well as the director of the department's sample management division, clinical chemistry division, client services, correctional managed care laboratories and pathology outreach laboratories. He further contributes to the same academic institution as an associate member of the experimental pathology graduate faculty, the director of the postdoctoral training program in clinical chemistry and a member of the medical staff of the University of Texas Medical Branch Hospitals. Affiliated with the University of Texas Medical Branch for more than 30 years, Dr. Okorodudu previously excelled as a medical staff member of Medical Center Hospital of Bexar County from 1989 to 1990, a fellow and a clinical chemist in immunochemistry of the clinical chemistry division of Hartford Hospital from 1986 to 1988, a visiting scientist of the Dermatopathology Laboratory of New Jersey Medical School from 1984 to 1985 and a lecturer at the University of Benin in Benin City, Nigeria. Prior to embarking on his impressive career, Dr. Okorodudu pursued his education at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in biological sciences in 1977. Obtaining a Doctor of Philosophy degree in pathology from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 1982, he later earned a Master of Science in management, computing and systems from the Houston Baptist University in Houston, Texas in 1997. Following these accomplishments, Dr. Okorodudu garnered a Master of Business Administration from Jones Graduate School at Rice University in 2007. He is an accomplished and widely published author as indicated by publication of more than 250 peer-reviewed papers, chapters, and abstracts. He is actively involved in research for the advancement of clinical laboratory medicine. His research focus is on the elucidation of the pathophysiology and immunopathology of intracellular ions in the pathology of drug-drug interactions, preeclampsia, and type II diabetes. In light of his exceptional undertakings, Dr. Okorodudu was presented with a Distinguished Alumni Award from the Graduate School of Biomedical Science of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 2001, the Best Clinical Pathology Faculty Award from the pathology residents of the University of Texas Medical Branch, and Outstanding Leadership Awards from the board of directors of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry in 2006 and the board of directors of the Commission on Accreditation in Clinical Chemistry in 2009, among numerous other accolades. In 2011, he was appointed by the US Secretary of Health and Human Services to serve on the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee (2011-2014). A diplomate of the American Board of Clinical Chemistry and a specialist in chemistry through the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, he received a certificate in toxicological chemistry from the National Registry of Clinical Chemistry in 1993. Highly respected in his field, Dr. Okorodudu further flourished as a journal reviewer of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, The Journal of Pediatrics, Early Human Development, Health and Population in Developing Countries and Clinica Chimica Acta, as well as an editorial board member of the Journal of Point of Care Testing. Dr. Okorodudu and his wife, Osato, are blessed with four children – Anthony E. Okorodudu, PhD (software developer), Anthonette Ayitey-Adjin, JD (magistrate judge), Daniel E. Okorodudu, MD (endocrinologist), and Dale O. Okorodudu, MD (pulmonologist/critical care). About Marquis Who's Who® Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.

Close shave: Gallant pilot returns to base after bandits shot down military jet in Zamfara by Deji Lambo and Solomom Odeniyi

A pilot with the Nigerian Airforce, Flight Lieutenant Abayomi Dairo, has been rescued after intense gunfire by armed bandits grounded a Nigerian Airforce Alpha Jet aircraft in Zamfara State. The Director of Public Relations and Information, Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore, Edward Gabkwet, who confirmed the crash in a statement on Monday, said Dairo was returning from a successful air interdiction mission between the boundaries of Zamfara and Kaduna states when the aircraft came under attack and crashed. He stated that Dairo escaped when he ejected from the aircraft before it crashed, adding that when he landed, the armed bandits gave him a hot chase. Gabkwet said, “On July 18, 2021, around 12.45 pm, a Nigerian Air Force Alpha Jet aircraft, returning from a successful air interdiction mission between the boundaries of Zamfara and Kaduna states, came under intense enemy fire which led to its crash in Zamfara State. “Luckily, the gallant pilot of the aircraft, Flight Lieutenant Abayomi Dairo, successfully ejected from the aircraft. Using his survival instincts, the pilot, who came under intense ground fire from the bandits, was able to evade them and sought refuge in nearby settlements awaiting sunset. “Using the cover of darkness and his phone set for navigation, Flight Lieutenant Dairo was able to elude several bandits’ strongholds and maneuvered his way to a Nigerian Army Unit, where he was finally rescued. Gabkwet stated that the NAF Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance platforms and helicopter gunships provided close air support to NAF Special Forces and Nigerian Army troops who were able to locate the crash site and the pilot’s parachute, while also combing nearby locations for any sign of the pilot. He added, “It is gladdening to note that while in hiding, Flight Lieutenant Dairo confirmed that the presence of NAF aircraft within the vicinity of the crash site helped in scaring the bandits who were after him, thus enabling him to find refuge and escape to a safe location. “It is important to also recall that only recently, the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, had directed the Armed Forces of Nigeria to do all it takes to flush out criminal elements in Katsina, Zamfara and Kaduna states. “It is in fulfilment of this directive that the NAF, in conjunction with surface forces, has in the last 2 weeks mounted intensive day and night air interdiction operations against bandits and their hideouts, especially in these three states. Through these intensive air operations, hundreds of bandits have been neutralized and several of their hideouts destroyed. “Despite the setback of yesterday’s crash, the NAF remains committed to fulfilling Mr President’s mandate as well as other constitutional roles assigned to it. The willingness, readiness, and tested ability of the NAF remain unshaken and unwavering as it continues to carry out its assigned roles.”