FG replaces controversial RUGA with new scheme, begins camps in six states by Okechukwu Nnodim and Jesusegun Alagbe

Two years after the suspension of the controversial Rural Grazing Area scheme in July 2019, the Federal Government has introduced a replacement scheme called the Livestock Intervention Programme to address the lingering farmer-herder crisis across the country. This comes amid the Federal Government’s intensified efforts to revive colonial-era grazing routes in many states across the country as per the directive by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd). According to documents from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development sighted by one of our correspondents, the LIP scheme will see the Federal Government establishing eight large herders’ settlements in each of the six pilot states, namely Adamawa, Kwara, Niger, Bauchi, Kaduna and Gombe. The scheme is expected to be extended to other states, following a successful outing in the pilot states. The documents as well as interviews with some officials of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that the LIP is already being implemented in the six pilot states. The officials confirmed that the six states accepted the establishment of the large herders’ settlements and had already provided land for the purpose. Unlike the controversial RUGA settlements, which started with 12 pilot states, the ministry officials said the government chose to start the LIP settlements with six pilot states, pending the extension to other states. They said eight large LIP settlements would be built for herders in each of the states. Asked if the Federal Government would reactivate the suspended RUGA programme since the clashes between herders and farmers had yet to abate, the acting Director, Animal Husbandry Department, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Winnie Lai-Solarin, replied, “What we have now is the Livestock Intervention Project. And this intervention will take place in the settlements. It might also interest you to know that right now, the intervention has been reduced to six states.” According to the director, the six pilot states for the LIP are in the North because the region has large settlements and land to grow pasture. “The states are Adamawa, Kwara, Niger, Bauchi, Kaduna and Gombe,” she noted. Lai-Solarin confirmed that the Federal Government was establishing the livestock settlement in eight locations in each of the six states. On why the government reduced the intervention to six pilot states, unlike the RUGA settlements that started with 12 states, the FMARD official explained that the outcry against plans to establish RUGA settlements led to the cutdown. She, however, noted that some states were still showing interest, despite the initial widespread outcry in many parts of Nigeria. Lai-Solarin said, “When we started, the states were 12 in number. They included Taraba, Adamawa, Plateau, Niger, Nasarawa, Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi, and Kogi. They were 12 originally. “And all the states are in the North. The speculation and media reports made people start saying the government wanted to take people’s lands in the South-West, South-East and others.” She added, “There was never a time that we included states in the South. Rather, speculation and miscommunication gave rise to the concerns by the people that the government was coming to take their land. “The wrong information went out. Once they heard RUGA, they kicked against it. However, the concept of RUGA was to meet pastoralists where they are in their settlements and provide infrastructure for them there. “But when that information went out, and because you have settlements in the South and other regions too, it was easy for people to turn it around and say, ‘They (herders) are coming to our states to take our land.’ “But this was when there was no such plan ab initio. Never was such a plan made by the Federal Government.” Lai-Solarin added that the ministry had been carrying out diverse other interventions to mitigate the clashes between herders and farmers nationwide. The immediate past Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, had in May 2019 announced that Buhari approved the RUGA initiative to address the farmer-herder crisis. A month later, a former Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mohammed Umar, announced that the Federal Government was to commence the pilot phase of the RUGA project in 11 states for a start, including Sokoto, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Kogi, Taraba, Katsina, Plateau, Kebbi, Zamfara and Niger. “The RUGA settlement will attract a lot of investments to Nigeria and it is our belief that in the next five years, each RUGA settlement will provide nothing less than 2,000 employment opportunities. We are collaborating with the cattle breeders associations in Nigeria,” Umar said at the time. The scheme, however, met with stiff opposition by southern states whose people saw the move as a land-grabbing move by the Federal Government for Fulani herders. The Benue State House of Assembly, for instance, called for the removal of the signboards erected in the communities earmarked for RUGA settlements. Many southern states called for ranching, saying since cattle rearing was a private business, herders ought to buy land and graze their cattle on it, adding that the measure would stop the frequent clashes between herders and farmers. Also, many lawyers, including a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, kicked against the plan to establish RUGA settlements in parts of the country, describing it as “illegal.” Falana argued that the Supreme Court had held that the entire land in each state was vested in the governor. Amid the outcry that trailed the RUGA scheme, the Federal Government suspended the initiative in July 2019. The government said the reason RUGA was suspended was because it was inconsistent with the National Livestock Transformation Plan, an initiative to establish ranches across the states. The NLTP was approved by the National Council of Agriculture in conjunction with the National Economic Council. States that keyed into the NLTP are to receive 49 per cent funding from the Federal Government, while the remaining 51 per cent funding is to be sourced by the state, private sector and development partners. In February 2021, the Federal Government said it had mapped out 30 grazing reserves across the country for the NLTP implementation. Meanwhile, as of June 2021, of the over 20 states said to have assented to the NLTP, only four states – Nasarawa, Plateau, Adamawa, and Kaduna – were said to be ready for the scheme’s take-off, according to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agriculture, Dr Andrew Kwasari. While the scheme is awaiting full take-off, in a new twist recently, Buhari, in a move believed to challenge the ban on open grazing by southern governors, said in an interview with Arise News that the grazing routes across the country would be revived. Buhari said he had directed the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), to produce a gazette which delineated grazing routes in all parts of the country in the First Republic. The President stated, “What I did was to ask him (Malami) to go and dig out the gazette of the First Republic when people were obeying laws. “There were cattle routes and grazing areas. Cattle routes were for when they (herdsmen) were moving up-country, north to south or east to west. They had to go through there.” The President’s statement followed Malami’s criticism of southern governors for banning open grazing, saying their action was like banning the sale of spare parts in the North. However, several southern states and institutions like the Nigerian Bar Association and the Pan-Niger Delta Forum faulted the President for the revival of old grazing routes. Southern states, including Ondo, Delta, Cross River, Enugu, Benue, Akwa Ibom, and Oyo, said there was no existence of a gazette that marked out grazing routes for cattle across the country. The state governments also insisted on the ban on open grazing, despite the President’s opposition to it. Also, many lawyers, including the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Ajibola Basiru, insisted that there was no law on grazing routes in any part of Nigeria. PUNCH.

10 most iconic Olympic boxing bouts. Agency Report

OLYMPIC boxing has introduced some of the most legendary names ever to grace the sport. The Games is the ultimate prize for every amateur boxer and the perfect way to sign off before heading into the professional ranks. Over the years, dazzling performances, shock decisions and even history-making bouts have lit up the Olympics. Below are some of the most iconic moments and bouts in Olympic boxing history Cassius Clay, Rome 1960 The man who would be known as Muhammad Ali almost decided not make the Games in Italy, due to a fear of flying, and even strapped on a parachute on the plane. But The Greatest must have been thankful that he did make the trip as he went on to win the gold, beating Pole Zbigniew Pietrzykowski in the final. Ali travelled to the 1960 Rome Games to compete in the light heavyweight division. Despite being only 18, he won all four of his fights easily. Little did anyone know it would spark one of the most iconic careers ever, not only in boxing, but in all of sports. Clay turned professional and won the heavyweight World Championship for the first time in 1964, beating Sonny Liston in a legendary fight. Over the next four years he defended his title nine times, converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. Sugar Ray Leonard, Montreal 1976 Leonard goes down as one of the most technically gifted fighters of all time, blessed with speed, timing and magical footwork. And it was all on display in Canada, where he showed off his famous ‘shoeshine’ technique of throwing lots of fast combinations to catch the judges eye. Leonard beat Cuba’s Andres Aldama for gold and in the pros later became a five-weight world champion as part of the ‘Four Kings’ era, with classic fights against Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns and the late Marvin Hagler. Leonard now keeps his gold medal locked up tight in a safety deposit box, but he says he’s allowed it to grace other people’s necks on rare occasions. “When some friends or just individuals come over sometimes I’ll show it, let them take a picture of it around their neck, ‘Here you go. You get one around your neck,’” the former athlete told PEOPLE. Roy Jones Jr, Seoul 1988 In one of boxing’s darkest and most infamous hours, Jones was robbed of Olympic gold against Park Si-hun of South Korea. Years later it emerged the offending judges had been wined and dined by Korean organisers, but the International Olympic Committee stated “there is no evidence of corruption in the boxing events in Seoul.” The outcome drew instant criticism and disdain, even from South Koreans, who heckled Park at the podium and bombarded local TV stations with phone calls protesting that the country’s home advantage had gone too far. Jones went on to have a phenomenal professional career, becoming a four-weight champ in the pros – even winning a heavyweight belt – and retiring in 2018 with a 66-9 record that cemented him as one of the sport’s all-time greats. Park, the last South Korean boxer to win an Olympic gold, said last year he had spent the past 32 years wishing it was a silver. “There’s hardened resentment built up in me that I will probably carry for the rest of my life,” Park, 54, who now coaches the small municipal boxing team of Seogwipo City in the island province of Jeju, said. “I didn’t want my hand to be raised (after the fight with Jones), but it did go up, and my life became gloomy because of that.” Lennox Lewis, Seoul 1988 Lewis, who was born in London but moved to Ontario aged 12, represented Canada in Korea. At the age of 18, he represented Canada in the 1984 Summer Olympics as a super heavyweight but lost by decision in the quarter-finals to American, Tyrell Biggs, the eventual gold medalist. Lewis being a true competitor decided that he would return to the Olympic Games and win gold. In 1988 at the Seoul Olympics, he did as he said he would and brought home the Gold medal to Canada in the Super Heavyweight division. This set the stage for Lewis’s illustrious boxing career. It was American Riddick Bowe that he beat to win gold, sparking a heated rivalry with the heavyweight. It carried on into the pros but they never re-matched, with Bowe even binning his WBC belt to avoid fighting Lewis. Floyd Mayweather, Atlanta 1996 In another ugly night for boxing, Mayweather lost to Bulgarian Serafiv Todorov in the semi-finals – but had clearly been robbed. So much so, that the referee even raised his wrong hand in confusion as Todorov was announced the winner. Mayweather reached the semi-finals following a tight contest against future Olympic silver medalist Lorenzo Aragon of Cuba. Standing between him and a place for the gold medal bout was three-time world champion Todorov. Mayweather seemed the more dominant fighter of the two as he kept landing shots while avoiding ones thrown towards him. The referee raised his hand and it looked like the United States could add another gold to their medal tally. This is where drama struck. The judges announced Todorov as the winner with the score reading 10-9, much to the shock of the American team. Mayweather was inconsolable after the fight and left the interview in tears. Despite the heartbreak of winning only bronze, it was the last time Mayweather – who retired 50-0 after turning pro – ever tasted defeat. Wladimir Klitschko, Atlanta 1996 The younger Klitschko won gold against Tongan Paea Wolfgramm in America. It was not such an easy transformation into the paid ranks for the Ukrainian, though, who suffered three defeats in his early career. But under the guidance of legendary trainer Emanuel Steward, Klitschko went on to have a dominant nine-year reign as champ before losing to Tyson Fury in 2015. Deontay Wilder, Beijing 2008 American Wilder, then 22, was beaten by Italian ex-cop Clemente Russo in the semi-final in China to claim bronze. But it was the third-place prize which inspired his current nickname the ‘Bronze Bomber.’ Paying homage to the ‘Brown Bomber’ Joe Louis, also from Wilder’s home state of Alabama, the nickname has become synonymous with modern-day heavyweight boxing. Anthony Joshua, London 2012 Joshua went into the 2012 London Olympics as a novice on the international scene, despite being a world silver medalist. Only four years after taking up boxing, Joshua beat Italian legend and reigning Olympic champion and former two-time world champion Roberto Cammarelle in front of adoring fans in the capital. After conceding the first two rounds to Cammarelle, an adversary he had already beaten the previous year, Joshua grew into the fight and fought back to level the scores after the third round, before he was announced winner via count-back. It was the night Britain’s newest superstar was born and within a year of AJ’s pro debut he was a household name. Fast forward to the present and he is one of the biggest poster boys in boxing, a two-time unified champ and a mega commercial attraction. Nicola Adams, London 2012 The 2012 Games was a landmark for boxing as it was the first to involve women’s competiton. And it was Britain’s Adams who was the first to medal, brilliantly beating world No.1 Ren Cancan from China to win gold. She added a further flyweight gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and was victorious at the 2015 European Games in Baku. The following year was just as successful, with Leeds-born Adams winning her first World Championship gold before defending her flyweight title at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and turning professional in 2017. Adams followed it up with a pro world title and retired in 2019 unbeaten in six fights. PUNCH.

Igboho: People are working behind the scenes, says Sanwo-Olu by Victoria Edeme

The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has stated that people are ” working behind the scenes” concerning the arrest and trial of Yoruba Nation activist, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho. The governor made this known while addressing the Press at the Polling Unit 019 Ward 08, Ikoyi II, where he cast his vote during the Local Government/Council Areas election on Saturday. PUNCH Online was live at the venue and our correspondent on ground asked the governor about the presumed silence of South West governors on the arrest of Igboho. In response, the governor explained that “people” are working behind the scenes, stating that the case doesn’t have to be a public conversation. “These are very difficult times for all of us. I can assure you that people are working behind the scenes. “At occasions like this, it’s not by how many Press people you call. “I’m aware that a lot of people have responses that they are doing quietly and privately and it doesn’t have to be a public conversation.” The PUNCH earlier reported that the 48-year-old activist was arrested on Monday, July 19, 2021, by the International Criminal Police Organisation at the Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou, Republic of Benin. Igboho was arrested with his Germany-based wife, Ropo, at the airport while they reportedly tried to catch a flight to Germany around 8 pm on Monday. Five days after the arrest and planned extradition of Yoruba Nation agitator, the six governors in the South-West geopolitical zone of Nigeria have kept mum over the matter. The governors are Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), and Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos). Efforts to get the comments of Akeredolu, who is the Chairman of South-West Governors’ Forum, proved abortive as the Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, neither took several calls to his line nor replied a text message sent to his line by our correspondent.

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.