Gunmen have killed at least 12 people in an attack on a village in the northern Nigerian state of Plateau, residents and the state governor said on Wednesday, the latest deadly incident fuelled by growing pressure on land resources in the country. Violence between farmers and pastoralists has become increasingly common in recent years as population growth leads to an expansion of the area dedicated to farming, leaving less land available for open grazing by nomads' herds of cattle. A local resident, Bernard Matur, said the gunmen attacked Maikatako village, in Plateau state, on Monday evening, killing at least 12…

A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has arraigned 16 foreigners for offences bordering on conspiracy, stealing, attempt to deal in crude oil and false pretences. The foreign nationals were caught onboard a vessel, MT Heroic Idun. According to the charges, the foreigners had, in August 2022, at the Akpo Oilfield in Rivers State, conspired among themselves and committed maritime offences. The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges said to contravene Section 10 of the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences Act 2019. After listening to the application of the prosecutors on the amended charges,…

Some residents of Zamfara State on Monday expressed doubt that any progress would be made with the declaration of some terror kingpins in the state wanted by the military. They wondered why it took the military so long before declaring the terror kingpins wanted or even making a frantic effort to capture them alive. The Defence Headquarters had, earlier yesterday, released names and identities of 19 terrorists’ commanders who had been wrecking havocs in Northeast, Northwest and Northcentral. The Military High Command said it would give N5m to any Nigerian who had information on how the terrorists could be captured,…

Another damning report released last week confirms the Nigerian government’s institutional weakness and unfocused response to ‘hot money’, and terrorism, and its funding. In its latest global ranking on money laundering and terror financing risks, the Basel Institute of Governance, an international non-profit, Nigeria ranked 17th out of 128 countries, placing it firmly in the ranks of countries with “high risks of ML/TF” and susceptible to greater risks of environmental crime. Assailed by diverse terrorist groups across the country, the Federal Government should urgently strengthen and enforce anti-money laundering mechanisms and resolutely crush terrorism, the report says. It is another…