At least 14 people have been reportedly kidnapped by gunmen in Dogon Noma community, Kajuru LGA of Kaduna state.

The gunmen were said to have invaded the community early Saturday morning before abducting the locals.

Condemning the abduction on Sunday, Usman Stingo, lawmaker representing Kajuru at the Kaduna house of assembly, said the community has been under constant attacks by bandits.

“The bandits invaded the community on Saturday at about 5:45am and kidnapped 14 people while one person was seriously injured,” the legislator said.

“The attacks on our community have been persistent since 2019 and there seemed to be no end.”

The lawmaker said the government has not shown the political will to end gunmen attacks and abductions of villagers.

“If the government has the political will to end it, soldiers will clear the bandits from their hideouts in the bushes within a few days,” he said. 

“In 2019, the bandits killed 71 people in just one day. In 2022, they abducted 28 people in the community after killing 32 people in one day. We had to pay the ransom with difficulties.”

The north-west state has experienced frequent attacks and kidnappings by gunmen in recent times.

Last Monday, bandits abducted about 61 persons in Buda community under Kajuru LGA of Kaduna state.

On March 7, over 200 students and pupils were kidnapped after bandits attacked Government Secondary School Kuriga, Chikun LGA of the state.

In February, six people were killed when bandits invaded Kwasam community, Kauru LGA of Kaduna.

Zakariya Markus, a retired director of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was abducted in the attack.

 

The Cable

Netanyahu snaps back against growing US criticism after being accused of losing his way on Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed Sunday against growing criticism from top ally the United States against his leadership amid the devastating war with Hamas, describing calls for a new election as “wholly inappropriate.”

In recent days, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the country and a strong Israel supporter, called on Israel to hold a new election, saying Netanyahu had “lost his way.” President Joe Biden expressed supportfor Schumer’s “good speech,” and earlier accused Netanyahu of hurting Israel because of the huge civilian death toll in Gaza.

Netanyahu told Fox News that Israel never would have called for a new U.S. election after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, and denounced Schumer’s comments as inappropriate.

“We’re not a banana republic,” he said. “The people of Israel will choose when they will have elections, and who they’ll elect, and it’s not something that will be foisted on us.”

When asked by CNN whether he would commit to a new election after the war ends, Netanyahu said: “I think that’s something for the Israeli public to decide.”

The U.S., which has provided key military and diplomatic support to Israel, also has expressed concerns about a planned Israeli assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where about 1.4 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering. The spokesman for the National Security Council, John Kirby, told Fox the U.S. still hasn’t seen an Israeli plan for Rafah.

The U.S. supports a new round of talks aimed at securing a cease-fire in exchange for the return of Israeli hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.

The Israeli delegation to those talks was expected to leave for Qatar after Sunday evening meetings of the Security Cabinet and War Cabinet, which will give directions for negotiations.

Despite the talks, Netanyahu made it clear he would not back down from the fighting that has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials. More than five months have passed since Hamas attacked southern Israel, killed 1,200 people and took another 250 hostage.

Earlier Sunday, Netanyahu said calls for an election now — which polls show he would lose badly — would force Israel to stop fighting and paralyze the country for six months.

Netanyahu also reiterated his determination to attack Hamas in Rafah and said that his government approved military plans for such an operation.

“We will operate in Rafah. This will take several weeks, and it will happen,” he said. The operation is supposed to include the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of civilians, but it is not clear how Israel will do that.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi reiterated his warning that an Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would have “grave repercussions on the whole region.” Egypt says pushing Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula would jeopardize its peace treaty with Israel, a cornerstone of regional stability.

“We are also very concerned about the risks a full-scale offensive in Rafah would have on the vulnerable civilian population. This needs to be avoided at all costs,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after meeting with el-Sissi.

And German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, after meeting with Netanyahu on Sunday, warned that “the more desperate the situation of people in Gaza becomes, the more this begs the question: No matter how important the goal, can it justify such terribly high costs, or are there other ways to achieve your goal?”

Germany is one of Israel’s closest allies in Europe and, given memories of the Holocaust, often treads carefully when criticizing Israel.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, in Washington for St. Patrick’s Day, said during a White House reception that the Irish people were “deeply troubled” by what’s unfolding in Gaza. He said there was much to learn from Ireland’s peace process and the critical U.S. involvement in it.

Varadkar said he’s often asked why the Irish are so empathetic to the Palestinians.

“We see our history in their eyes. A story of displacement, dispossession, and national identity questioned and denied forced emigration, discrimination and now hunger,” he said.

Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul-general in New York and an outspoken critic of Netanyahu, said that the prime minister’s comments fit with his efforts to find someone else to blame if Israel doesn’t achieve its goal of destroying Hamas.

“He’s looking on purpose for a conflict with the U.S. so that he can blame Biden,” Pinkas said.

Both sides have something to gain politically from the dispute. The Biden administration is under increasing pressure from progressive Democrats and some Arab-American supporters to restrain Israel’s war against Hamas. Netanyahu, meanwhile, wants to show his nationalist base that he can withstand global pressure, even from Israel’s closest ally.

But pressure also comes from home, with thousands protesting again in Tel Aviv on Saturday night against Netanyahu’s government and calling for a new election and a deal for the release of hostages. Large parts of the Israeli public want a deal, fearing that hostages are held in poor conditions and time is running out to bring them home alive.

Israel’s offensive has driven most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes. A quarter of Gaza’s population is starving, according to the U.N.

Airdrops by the U.S. and other nationscontinue, while deliveries on a new sea route have begun, but aid groups say more ground routes and fewer Israeli restrictions on them are needed to meet humanitarian needs in any significant way.

“Of course we should be bringing humanitarian aid by road. Of course by now we should be having at least two, three other entry points into Gaza,” chef José Andrés with World Central Kitchen, which organized the tons of food delivered by sea, told NBC.

The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 31,645 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

Israel says Hamas is responsible for civilian deaths because it operates in dense residential areas.

The Health Ministry on Sunday said that the bodies of 92 people killed in Israel’s bombardment had been brought to hospitals in Gaza in the past 24 hours. Hospitals also received 130 wounded, it said.

At least 11 people from the Thabet family, including five children and one woman, were killed in an airstrike in Deir al-Balah city in central Gaza, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and an Associated Press journalist. The body of an infant lay among the dead.

 

AP

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

NATO has boots on the ground in Ukraine – Putin

It is no secret that NATO soldiers are present on the ground in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, noting that those service members are facing extremely grim prospects.

Speaking to his supporters and reporters on Sunday night after the end of the presidential election, which he won by a landslide, Putin stressed that Moscow was well aware of the US-led military bloc’s push to deploy troops in Ukraine.

“We hear both French and English speech there. There is nothing good in this, first of all for them, because they die there and in large numbers,” he said.

He also weighed in on a potential full-scale conflict between NATO and Russia, warning that it could not be ruled out. “Anything is possible in the modern world… But everyone knows that this would be one step shy of a full-scale World War III. I don’t think that anyone is interested in that.”

French President Emmanuel Macron suggested last month that the West “cannot exclude” the possibility of sending soldiers to aid Ukraine. Later, he also described Russia as an “adversary,” insisting, however, that Paris is not “waging war on” Moscow.

Commenting on Macron’s remarks, Putin noted that while NATO troops in Ukraine are expected to act as an auxiliary force, helping Kiev train its military, “this is not much different from what mercenaries are doing there now.” Russia, he added, wants France not to escalate the conflict but to help find a peaceful solution to hostilities.

 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says Russian missile attack kills one, injures 8 in Mykolaiv

A man was killed and at least eight people were wounded in a Russian missile attack on the Black Sea port city of Mykolaiv on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said, after an overnight strike on Odesa on the last day of Russia's presidential election.

Mykolaiv's regional governor, Vitaliy Kim, said on Telegram that said there had been two strikes on Mykolaiv from the same direction as the strike on Odesa, adding that a man born in 1974 died in hospital and the injured included a girl born in 2013.

Ukraine's ministry of internal affairs shared images of damaged houses, wrecked or burnt-out cars, including one with a pair of abandoned shoes and other damaged items strewn on the ground alongside its open driver's door, and rescue workers helping people leave the scene and dousing a blackened car.

"Police found an injured girl with shrapnel wounds who was given first aid on the spot and taken to hospital," the ministry said on its Telegram channel of the aftermath in Mykolaiv.

Separately, the Ukrainian military said Russian air attacks had damaged agricultural enterprises and destroyed several industrial buildings in the port city of Odesa.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 16 drones and seven missiles and 14 drones were destroyed over the Odesa region.

Moscow has accused Kyiv of election sabotagewith days of strikes on Russian infrastructure, one of the most sweeping air operations on Russian territory since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine two years ago.

 

RT/Reuters

Last week, we read how the signs are not looking good for a nation like ours that wants to be reckoned with internationally. We concluded by asking the federal government to look at ways to reduce the cost of governance and the unimaginable take-home pay of political leaders and redirect the excess towards production. And we emphasised that we must become a productive nation that eats, drives and wears what it produces.

We also exhorted anyone genuinely interested in the welfare of workers, and of Nigerians, to proffer solutions that would boost our economy and strengthen our currency and not suggestions that would bastardise our economy and drive the naira’s value further down. And that salary increase at the moment will not help the economy.

The federal and state governments must also, as a matter of urgency, resuscitate moribund industries dotted across the landscape so as not to only galvanise production but to improve locally generated revenue. And because millions will get direct and indirect jobs if the moribund industries dotting all over the country become alive, the production of local materials will be boosted as there will be more buyers, leading to more employment.

Government, and here I mean the federal and state governments, must always be truthful and fair to the citizens. They must also make their agencies work. The government must let government function. In almost all cases, it is the government that makes government fail because the actors do everything from a prism of personal gain. Nothing about service anymore. Then there is the Nigerian syndrome of “Do you know who I am?”

I will give you an example. Just recently there was a furore that the Presidential Villa owed the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company ₦923 million, the Nigerian Police owed ₦1.4 billion and the office of the Central Bank Governor, ₦1.6 billion. Put together, the federal government and its agencies were indebted to the tune of ₦47billion. And, you see, God save any AEDC official who tries to disconnect power from Villa, Police Headquarters or CBN.

But every year there is money for the payment of NEPA bills in the government and its agencies’ budgetary allocations, so why should the bills accumulate? If the power company has not been paid, where did the appropriated money go? Is the government here not strangulating the electricity company with its hand, yet every day we cry of epileptic power?

It is commendable that President Bola Tinubu ordered the immediate payment of the Villa bill; however, is it enough without instituting an investigation into the failure of the Villa bureaucracy to pay its electricity bills despite budgetary provisions? This is the sort of thing that would make Nigerians sit up and take note. Otherwise, it is just the old system: sweep the sleaze under the carpet and let sleeping dogs lie.

Perhaps, because citizens, rightly or wrongly, think those in authority would naturally dip their hands into the treasury, and also scramble (as the Europeans scramble for Africa) over state resources, that is why some of them scramble over any resources close to them. Maybe this is why any warehouse they see, any trailer load of food that enters their ‘trap’, they pounce on it. And do you blame them when they refuse to pay NEPA bills?

Every day something new is trending. Yesterday it was budget padding; today it is “each senator got ₦500 million.” Who knows what tomorrow will bring? The citizens must feel that their interests are also part of the mix. That sense of belonging would automatically bring down the crime rate substantially.

Governance must be accorded the seriousness it deserves. When you go through our budget and the imputed figures, like a template across the MDAs, one would be forgiven to think that governance is a joke and budget implementation is akin to sharing the national cake within an anointed group.

Justice and fairness must permeate the land. No nation can rid itself of crime as long as its leadership does not go out of its way to give the people a sense of belonging and fairness, and its judiciary fails to give protection to the oppressed.

Therefore, leaders at the centre must be exemplary, which will make those in charge of other tiers of government follow suit. It is not enough for a leader to be mouthing platitudes while his actions go contrariwise. This is what is meant by “Change must begin with the leader” where the Brazilian lyricist and author of The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho, said, “The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.”

I will never get tired of hammering it - to all who care to listen - what Usman Dan Fodiyo wrote in his book, Bayan Wujub al-Hijrah alal ibad: that “the death of a thousand good men is not as tragic as having an unfit man in a position of national leadership and that “a kingdom (nation) can endure with unbelief, but it cannot endure with injustice.”

To ensure that justice is served, we must strengthen our legal and judicial systems. We need to reform our laws and improve the capacity and independence of our judges and lawyers. This will earn the system more respect and bring back the trust of the people that has been heavily eroded.

These, and more along this line, are the things our leaders must do to make our country the great nation it is meant to be. Every leader will be proud that under his watch we became a united people and forged ahead to become an industrialised nation.

To stitch the “merely geographical expression” that we currently have, therefore, is a task that must involve all of us. We do not have any other country to call ours. And we cannot afford to see the country put together by God through the British rendered asunder.

Another reason I always look at some Nigerians from the south and north who shout “Let Nigeria be divided” and shudder. Do they know what they are saying? Do they think that that is feasible anymore? Would it be beneficial to all concerned? We will look at this next.

** Hassan Gimba is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Neptune Prime.

 

It's obvious that Ignorance competes with corruption in our arrested development since all major presidential candidates and the intelligentsia supported subsidies removal and floating the Naira that have turned out to be an economic disaster, because they overlooked the fact that every advanced industrialized economy was built on and continue to be stimulated with production and consumption subsidies. This reaffirms my November 22, 2022 article "2023: Neocolonial administrators or Economic revolutionaries” that the political class were just neocolonial administrators that couldn't uplift the masses from poverty.

The coloniality of knowledge sources mentally enslaves and robs them of knowledge of how to industrialize and economically advance our people out of poverty. Railways complex is the launchpad of industrialization, but stuck in the slave plantation mentality since independence, every regime promises advancing agriculture by returning unemployed to the farms to solve our poverty. They overlook that our urban population is 53.52% of Nigeria's population and the unemployment rates were not much different, 23.9% in rural and 21.2% in urban areas in 2018.

From the 1960s Marketing boards to 1970s Operation Feed The Nation to Eighties Green Revolution and all agriculture programs till date, agriculture should be facing diminishing returns by now. According to the World Bank, Nigeria has the world's fifth highest Agricultural Value Added at $111.97 billion, following Brazil ($130.82b), Indonesia ($163.56b), India ($571.63) topped by China ($1311.31b). Agriculture accounts for 38% of our employment and 24% of our national income compared to the mere 1.6% combined income of Iron and Steel, Plastic and Rubber, Electrical and Electronics that a railways-led industrialization can multiply tenfold to reduce both urban and rural unemployment and poverty issues.

From a comparative analysis of progressive nations and their sectoral contributions to GDP, it shows Nigeria agriculture has an unhealthy high percentage of GDP with agric 21.2%, industrial 22.5%, services 56.4%; compared to Brazil (Agric 6.6% industrial 20.7%, services 72.7%); India agric 15.4%, industrial 23%, service 70.9%; South Africa agric 2.8%, industrial 29.7%, services 67.5%; Egypt agric 11.7%, industrial 34.3%, services 54%; China agric 7.9%, industrial 40.5%, services 51.6%; USA agric 0.9%; industrial 19.1%; service 80%; EU agric 1.6%; industrial 25.1%, services 70.9%); UK agric 0.7%, industrial 20.2%, service 79.2%, Mexico agric 3.6%, industrial 31.9%, service 64.5% - all with agriculture being mere fractions of industry and service.

A structural analysis of the Nigerian economy reveals why we have high levels of unemployment and poverty. In 2022, the services sector accounted for 47.45% of total employment while it accounted for 54.8% of the rebased GDP, with the largest subsector contributors being wholesale and retail trade contributing 16.27%; Information and Communication 11.04% and Real Estate 8.37%. The largest contributor, Retail and Wholesale has low wages and even lower employment and income multiplier effects across the economy since 95% is conducted by the informal sector. Information and Communication has grown with telephone and data companies, which has had multiplier effects in online trading and transport services.

In advancing economies, their service sectors growth leaders are the productive subsectors of transport, information and communication, and business services, and also have higher contributions from government - health and education. Despite the Chinese economy much touted manufacturing, in 1978 at the beginning of its economic growth, agriculture sector accounted for 27.7%, manufacturing 47.7% and services 24.6% of GDP, compared to 2017 with agriculture 7.9% manufacturing 40.5% and services 51.6%, showing a significant change in its services sector from 24.6% to 51.6% due to massive investment in transport services (railways), as well as logistics, warehousing and other services. Initially like Nigeria with a retail trade based on agriculture and imports, with lower wages, and low income and employment multiplier effects, increased Chinese manufacturing and transport services increased retail profit margins.

When you examine our productive sectors such as manufacturing, only 3 subsectors (food &  beverage, cement and textile) account for 77% of manufacturing output. The food, beverages and tobacco are light processing industries that gave our agriculture value added a global high ranking, but the subsector has ten times lower the income and multiplier effects of railways. It is railways that can increase the 1.6% combined income of Iron and Steel, Plastic and Rubber, Electrical and Electronics subsectors of manufacturing. While foods have only a few byproducts, a car has minimum of 30,000 parts while a A380 Airbus plane has 3.8 million parts which are all sources of income and employment for the potential local suppliers.

This is not an attempt to diminish the significance of agriculture, but to show that there are better returns on social investment in railways, and even examine what could be done more to agriculture if anything. Our agriculture is made up of 91% of agriculture crop production, leaving just 9% for fishery, forestry and livestock. So additional investment into agriculture should be concentrated on fishery and livestock till they achieve the global average of 40% of agriculture production. Livestock and fishery must be elevated from cultural pursuits of Afro-Arabic herdsmen and waterside fishermen to modern business models with global best practices.

The modern agricultural sector is capital and technology intensive that can only be efficiently spurred by big business that can buy heavy machinery and fund research. Currently, our agriculture is like our transportation, handled by low income investors for sustenance. It is not only inefficient but dangerous since like Okada and Danfo drivers that are unregulated and could be used to commit crimes, peasant farmers could be used to sabotage our food security since they might take wrong genetically modified seeds unknowingly. We can no longer entrust our food and transport to uneducated poor citizens.

The psuedo elites that clamour for people to be returned to the farms don't advocate such for their children, and one wonders even if the rural conditions for farming are improved to Western levels whether it would attract the youth, otherwise why do the Nigerian youth that travel abroad stick to city jobs instead of agriculture in USA, Canada or UK? Rather than focusing on pumping more resources into peasant agriculture, the government should provide better incentives through direct and indirect subsidies for big businesses coming into agriculture to increase productivity and reduce production cost per unit.

The real income and employment growth driver that can solve Nigeria's income and employment problems is railway that will improve transportation services contribution, as well as its multiplier effects in logistics, freighting, distribution, which in turn improve agriculture and especially manufacturing subsectors of Iron and Steel, Plastic and Rubber, Electrical and Electronics, providing millions of jobs as manufacturing and the entire economy diversifies.

Three East-West mainlines (Lagos-Calabar, Ilorin-Yola and Sokoto-Maiduguri) to compliment the two North-South colonial lines will spark a railway boom by states and private sector that will increase income and employment in both urban and rural areas. Unfortunately the APC government sabotaged the $13b Lagos-Calabar railway line that was to be financed and built by the Chinese. Acting on Western Powers command they cancelled the project commissioned by President Jonathan and gave it to GE USA that neither had the financial nor technical capabilities, then afterwards went begging to Russia unsucessfully. The latest news is that a haphazard part of the railway was allocated to government cronies without any technical expertise and with a laughable share capital of a mere $1,000 to build a $6b project.

** Faloye is an Economist, author of The Blackworld: Evolution to Revolution and other books, media practicioner, President of ASHE Foundation and Deputy Publicity Secretary Afenifere

Whether or not you get hired by billionaire Mark Cuban comes down to two qualities: culture and  competency.

They’re the “two things that matter the most,” Cuban said during a MasterClass course released last month. “Are they competent enough to do the job? And do they fit in the culture of the organization? If they fail on either one, you’re going to be in trouble.”

Culture is more important than raw talent, Cuban said. Most of the workforce agrees: 56% of workers rank a strong workplace culture as more important than salary, with more than 75% of employees saying they’d consider a company’s culture before applying for a job there, according to a 2019 Glassdoor survey of more than 5,000 adults in the U.S., the U.K., France and Germany.

Young millennials and Gen Zers consider company culture a particular priority, the Glassdoor report noted — meaning Cuban’s observation many prove more true over time, as those workers increasingly rise through the ranks.

Cuban does value employees who complete tasks correctly and efficiently — that’s the competency part. But searching for the perfect worker to fix your company’s problems, a “home run hire,” without properly vetting their cultural fit is “probably the biggest mistake I’ve seen my portfolio companies [make],” he said.

To find employees who check both boxes, Cuban said he asks specific job interview questions like:

• What’s one thing you’ve failed at and one thing you’ve succeeded at?
• Tell me about a time you took a chance at work.
• Why did you leave your last job?
• What’s the best culture of a company that you’ve ever worked in?
• Who’s the best manager you’ve ever worked for?

“I want to get them talking about their positive or negative experiences, so I can understand whether or not they’re going to be a fit,” he said.

For Cuban, the right fit doesn’t mean a carbon copy of himself: He looks for employees and partners who “complement” his skill set, but are unafraid to speak up when they disagree with him, he noted.

“I think one of the biggest problems an entrepreneur [or] CEO can make is they hire people who are like them,” Cuban said. “You don’t need to hire people like you. You’ve got you.”

“I don’t need people to tell me yes,” he added. “I can tell myself yes ... I need people who are going to challenge conventional wisdom and challenge me, and when they think I’ve done something wrong, say, ‘I think you think you’re making a mistake here, and this is why.’”

 

CNBC

Some Nigerians have expressed displeasure over the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the ministry of transportation and MPH Rail Development Limited.

The company, registered in the UK, is expected to manage the design, construction, commissioning, operation, and eventual transfer of the Port Harcourt-Enugu-Calabar-Abuja standard gauge rail line.

“The Minister of Transportation, Said Alkali on behalf of @NigeriaGov has signed an MoU with Messrs MPH Rail Development (UK) Limited for the design, construction, operation & transfer of the Port Harcourt–Enugu –Calabar–Abuja SGR Line on a PPP basis,” the ministry wrote on its X page.

The ministry said the signing followed the approval of the outline business case and the issuance of a compliance certificate by the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC).

This clearance, the ministry said, enables the firm to focus on compiling the necessary documentation for the federal executive council’s (FEC) approval to advance the project.

In another statement, the ministry said vital documents required for the project’s progression include a comprehensive feasibility study report, a complete business case study, an environmental and social impact assessment, the development of a resettlement action plan, and the formulation of a financial model to facilitate project implementation.

The ministry said this would ensure the transfer of the project to the government under a PPP arrangement without incurring loans or debts for the Nigerian government.

However, social media users have knocked the agency for signing an MoU with a company that was only incorporated less than five years ago — September 26, 2019.

Others have described it as a “PI&D (sic) sagain the making”, adding that a project of such magnitude should not be entrusted to a young company of unknown history.

Checks by TheCable confirmed that the company was formed by one Andrew James, a British citizen, in 2019 and went on without any relationship with the Nigerian government or private sector untill August 24, 2023, when the company appointed Osinowo Rotimi as the first director with a Nigerian background.

Subsequently, Osinowo Sayeed was also appointed as a director in January 2024.

Further checks showed that the company had filed as a dormant organisation three times since its registration in 2019.

Other discrepancies pointed out by disgruntled Nigerians are that the company, since its incorporation in 2019, has no track record of engaging in any rail construction business and lacks a website.

Here are the reactions of some Nigerians to the deal.

That Naija Guy™

@IamThatNaijaGuy

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Follow

SCAM ALERT:

1.  MPH Rail Development Limited is a UK company incorporated in 2019, with 4 Nigerian directors added late 2023.

 

2. There are no records of past projects by this company.

 

3. This company has no website, and there are no records of any previous projects done.

 

4.… Show more

 

4:59 AM · Mar 16, 2024

 

A. Ayofe

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Mar 15

@abdullahayofel

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Follow

Dear Mr President @officialABAT some of your ministers may put this country in trouble.

 

This is the company the transport minister has signed MOU on Abuja to PH standard Guage rail line with.

 

This company has no website, neither can we trace any work done before.

 

This company…

 

 

Mal. Siraj Mashi

@SirajMashi

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Follow

This information is very vital indeed. It's therefore all Nigerians shall put their eyes on the contractors handling projects in their communities. This will no doubt reduce corruption and projects abandoning attitude of Nigeria Government and Contractors.

12:14 PM · Mar 16, 2024

2

Reply

Share

 

 

Federal Ministry of Transportation

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Mar 13

@MinTransportNG

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The Minister of Transportation, Sen. Said Alkali on behalf of @NigeriaGovhas signed an MoU with Messrs MPH Rail Development (UK) Limited for the design,construction,operation & transfer of the Port Harcourt–Enugu –Calabar–Abuja SGR Line on a PPP basis.

 

http://transportation.gov.ng/federal-ministry-of-transportation-signs-mou-for-portharcourt-enugu-calabar-abuja-standard-gauge-rail-line-on-ppp-basis/

 

 

 

 

Madam President (rtd) Iyabo Arinola Ifeoma Awokoya

@iyaboawokoya

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It is still an MOU, so I am guessing it will still go through FEC, BPE and ICRC due diligence

7:12 AM · Mar 16, 2024

KWiwa

@KenWiwa4

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THIS IS ANOTHER BIG FRAUDULENT CONTRACT. GOVT PURCHASE PROCEDURE WASN’T COMPLIED WITH. HOW CAN THE GOVT AWARD A CONTRACT OF SUCH MAGNITUDE WITHOUT FOLLOWING DUE PROCESS? WHEN WAS THE TENDER FOR THE CONTRACT RUN? WHO WERE THE OTHER BIDDERS ? THIS RAILWAY IS

10:06 PM · Mar 15, 2024

Bolaji

@bolsaid

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@CCECC8 has experience, visible track records in Nigeria and africa but this minister went to sign MOU with a UK coy for rail and not even a proper UK coy but one SPV. We barely survived P&ID what's this again ooo?

8:18 AM · Mar 16, 2024

ASIWAJU AKANBI ADEYEMI ®

@planetaby

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Follow

@officialABAT should matter of urgency arrest this purported SCAM that @saiduaalkali seems to be embarking on with the so-called MPH Rail Dev Ltd.

@officialEFCC and @icpcnigeria

should get involved as everything about the said Firm looks questionable.

 

This is a BIG SCAM...

 

 

Fear Kogi Politicians

@AndyHReal

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This is another railways am loading in Nigeria.@MinTransportNG I challenge you to name one railway project successfully completed by Messrs MPH Rail Development on this earth, in heaven or anywhere in the universe. How would they deliver?

Who does a railway project on PPP basis?

6:57 AM · Mar 16, 2024

 

 

Orelekan Runsewe

@OmoAdetilewa

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Follow

This right here, Nigerians, is what is known as an SVP (as used by @atiku ) to fliz Nigeria.

 

This Minister is going the same path? This company has no track records and very suspicious, why go through the UK when we've had wonderful records with other companies on ground!

8:30 AM · Mar 16, 2024

 

 

Mercator

@olumideajala

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Follow

My sixth sense tells me this is another PI&D in the making. @officialABAT@PBATMediaCentre  please scrutinize this MOU that's looking like a potential disaster.

11:06 AM · Mar 16, 2024

 

The Cable

Some residents of warring communities ambushed and killed 16 officers and personnel of the 181 Amphibious Battalion of the Nigerian Army on a peace mission to Okuoma community in Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta on Thursday.

Those killed were the commanding officer, two majors, one captain and 12 soldiers.

The Acting Director, Defence Information, Tukur Gusau, made this known on Saturday in Abuja.

He stated that the troops were ambushed and killed while responding to a distress call arising from a clash between Okuama and Okoloba communities in Delta.

Gusau, a brigadier general, stated that the Chief of Defence Staff, Christopher Musa, had directed immediate investigation and arrest of those involved in the heinous crime.

He added that the incident had been reported to the Delta State Government.

“The military, however, remains focused and committed to its mandate of maintaining peace and security in the country.

“So far, a few arrests have been made while steps have been taken to unravel the motive behind the attack,” he assured.

 

NAN

Cease-fire talks with Israel and Hamas are expected to resume on Sunday in Qatar

Stalled talks aimed at securing a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war are expected to resume in earnest in Qatar as soon as Sunday, according to Egyptian officials.

The talks would mark the first time both Israeli officials and Hamas leaders join the indirect negotiations since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. International mediators had hoped to secure a six-week truce before Ramadan started earlier this week, but Hamas refused any deal that wouldn’t lead to a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, a demand Israel rejected.

But both sides have made moves in recent days aimed at getting the talks, which never fully broke off, back on track.

Hamas gave mediators a new proposal for a three-stage plan that would end the fighting, according to two Egyptian officials, one who is involved in the talks and a second who was briefed on them. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to reveal the contents of the sensitive discussions.

The first stage would be a six-week cease-fire that would see the release of 35 hostages — women, those who are ill and older people — held by militants in Gaza in exchange for 350 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Hamas would also release at least five female soldiers in exchange for 50 prisoners, including some serving long sentences on terror charges, for each soldier. Israeli forces would withdraw from two main roads in Gaza, let displaced Palestinians return to northern Gaza, which has been devastated by the fighting, and allow the free flow of aid to the area, the officials said.

Nearly one in three children under 2 years old in the isolated north have acute malnutrition, the U.N. children’s agency said Friday.

In the second phase, the two sides would declare a permanent cease-fire and Hamas would free the remaining Israeli soldiers held hostage in exchange for more prisoners, the officials said.

In the third phase, Hamas would hand over the bodies it’s holding in exchange for Israel lifting the blockade of Gaza and allowing reconstruction to start, the officials said.

Talks were expected to resume Sunday afternoon, though they could get pushed to Monday, the Egyptian officials said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the proposal “unrealistic” but agreed to send Israeli negotiators to Qatar. His government has rejected calls for a permanent cease-fire, insisting it must first fulfill its stated goal of “annihilating Hamas.”

Thousands of people demonstrated Saturday night in Tel Aviv to show their impatience with Netanyahu’s government and demand a deal to free hostages. Some expressed support for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s sharp criticism of Netanyahu’s handling of the war and his call for a new election.

“I think that we are in a situation where they are completely right, that we have a war that is continuing well beyond what is necessary,” protester Yehuda Halper said.

Netanyahu’s office said Friday he approved military plans to attack Rafah, the southernmost town in Gaza where about 1.4 million displaced Palestinians — more than half the enclave’s population — are sheltering. Israel wants to target Hamas battalions stationed there.

Many fled to Rafah when Israel attacked Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and left another 250 hostage.

The United States and other countries have warned that a military operation in Rafah could be disastrous.

Netanyahu’s office didn’t give details or a timetable for the Rafah operation, but said that it would involve the evacuation of the civilian population. The military has said it planned to direct civilians to “humanitarian islands”in central Gaza.

“Many people are too fragile, hungry and sick to be moved again,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media, adding that there are no fully functional, safe health centers they can reach elsewhere in Gaza. “In the name of humanity, we appeal to Israel not to proceed.”

The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 31,553 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

An Israeli strike early Saturday flattened a house in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 19 people, including nine children, according to records at the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital. An Associated Press journalist there saw the bodies.

Israel’s offensive has driven most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people from their homes. A quarter of Gaza’s population is starving, according to the U.N.

As part of efforts to deliver desperately needed aid, a ship inaugurated a sea route from Cyprus on Friday and offloaded 200 tons of humanitarian supplies sent by the aid group World Central Kitchen destined for people in northern Gaza.

The group said it was preparing another vessel in Cyprus with hundreds of tons of aid.

Also on Saturday, Germany joined a group of countries, including the U.S. and Jordan, in conducting airdrops of aid over Gaza. The U.S. also has announced separate plans to construct a pierto get aid in.

Displaced Palestinians living in tents along the Mediterranean coast remained hungry and bleak.

“The situation is so bad that no one can imagine it, and the ship, even if it helps, will be a drop in the ocean,” said Zahr Saqr in Muwasi. “We run like dogs behind air drops.”

 

AP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Putin vows to punish Ukraine for attacks as Russians vote

Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine on Friday of trying to disrupt a Russian presidential election that is virtually certain to hand him six more years in the Kremlin, and said Moscow would punish Kyiv for its latest attacks.

The first of three days of voting was marked by disruptions including dye being poured into ballot boxes, a Molotov cocktail thrown at a polling station in Putin's home town, and reported cyber attacks.

Millions of Russians cast their ballots across the country's 11 time zones, with officials putting turnout on day one at more than 35%.

The Ukraine war cast a shadow over voting, with what Putin said was repeated shelling of Russia's western regions and an attempt by 2,500 Ukrainian proxies to cross into two Russian regions with tanks.

"These enemy strikes will not remain unpunished," a visibly angry Putin said at a meeting of Russia's Security Council.

Ukrainian officials said the attacks were carried out by Russian armed groups based in Ukraine who are opposed to the Kremlin.

A Russian ballistic missile attack hit a residential area in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odesa, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 70, in Moscow's deadliest attack in weeks, Ukrainian officials said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia would receive a "fair response" for what he said was a "vile" strike.

Amid the Ukraine war, the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, Putin, 71, dominates Russia's political landscape and none of the other three candidates on the ballot paper presents any credible challenge.

More than 114 million Russians are eligible to vote, including in what Moscow calls its "new territories" - four regions of Ukraine that its forces only partly control, but which it has claimed as part of Russia. Ukraine says the staging of elections there is illegal and void.

Video released by the Kremlin showed Putin casting his own vote online and waving briefly to the camera. Russians in about a third of the country are able to vote electronically for the first time in a presidential election - something critics say is impervious to scrutiny and open to abuse.

"These are the most closed, most secret elections in Russian history," Stanislav Andreichuk, co-chairman of the Golos vote-monitoring group that the state has branded a "foreign agent", told Reuters in a telephone interview.

DYE, CYBER ATTACKS

Dye was poured into ballot boxes in Moscow, Russian-annexed Crimea, and the Caucasus region of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, according to Russian media, in apparent anti-Kremlin protests.

CCTV footage of one dye-pouring incident showed a young woman depositing her voting slip before calmly pouring a green liquid into the ballot box. A policeman was seen detaining her immediately afterwards.

A Molotov cocktail was thrown at a polling station in St Petersburg, and a 21-year-old woman arrested, the Fontanka news site reported. Arson attempts were recorded at polling stations in Moscow and Siberia.

Russia's electoral commission chief, Ella Pamfilova, said perpetrators of such acts faced up to five years in prison, and suggested they had been paid for by those seeking to disrupt the vote.

"Listen carefully everyone," Pamfilova said, before setting out the article in the Criminal Code that addresses disrupting the work of electoral commissions.

The Kremlin says Putin, in power as president or prime minister since the last day of 1999, will win as he commands broad support for rescuing Russia from post-Soviet chaos and standing up to what it calls an arrogant, hostile West.

VETERAN RULER

Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Kyiv's forces on one side and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian proxies on the other.

If Putin completes a new six-year term, he will overtake Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to become Russia's longest-serving ruler since Empress Catherine the Great in the 18th century.

The West views Putin as an autocrat and a war criminal. U.S. President Joe Biden has called him a killer and a "crazy SOB".

But in Russia the war has helped Putin tighten his grip on power and boost his popularity with Russians, according to polls and interviews with senior Russian sources.

Russia's best known opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony last month and other Kremlin critics are exiled or in jail.

The opposition says the vote is a sham and have called on people across Russia to protest by turning out to vote all at the same time on Sunday, at noon in each of the country's 11 time zones.

** Russia accuses Kyiv of election sabotage, Medvedev warns 'traitors'

Russia accused Ukraine on Saturday of using "terrorist activities" to try to disrupt its presidential election and former President Dmitry Medvedev decried as "traitors" the scattered protesters who have tried to set fire to voting booths and pour dye into ballot boxes.

The Ukraine war has cast a shadow over voting in the election, which is all but certain to hand President Vladimir Putin six more years in the Kremlin but has been marked by sporadic acts of protest.

On the second of three days of voting, the Russian foreign ministry said Kyiv had "intensified its terrorist activities" in connection with the election "to demonstrate its activity to its Western handlers and to beg for even more financial assistance and lethal weapons".

It said that in one such incident, a Ukrainian drone had dropped a shell on a voting station in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region.

The state-run TASS news agency quoted a local election official as reporting no damage nor injuries when the explosive device landed five or six metres (yards) from a building housing a polling station before it had opened in a village about 20 km (12 miles) east of the city of Enerhodar.

Reuters could not independently verify the incident.

There was no immediate comment from officials in Ukraine, which regards the election taking place in parts of its territory controlled by Russia as illegal and void.

Meanwhile the head of the electoral commission, Ella Pamfilova, said that in the first two days of voting there had been 20 incidents of people trying to destroy voting sheets by pouring various liquids into ballot boxes, as well as eight cases of attempted arson and a smoke bomb.

Commenting on the incidents, Medvedev said those responsible could face treason sentences of 20 years.

"This is direct assistance to those degenerates who are shelling our cities today," he posted on social media, referring to Ukrainian attacks.

On Sunday's final day of voting, supporters of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny have called on people to turn out en masse at noon in a rolling protest against Putin in each of the country's 11 time zones.

UKRAINIAN ATTACKS

Russian media quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Putin had been receiving military reports in recent days of attempted attacks by saboteurs in the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk, including several incursion attempts overnight, all of which he was quoted as saying were thwarted.

A senior Ukrainian intelligence official said on Thursday that armed groups he described as Russians opposed to the Kremlin had turned the regions into "active combat zones".

On Saturday, Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's military intelligence directorate, said the groups, the Freedom of Russia Legion, the Siberian Battalion and the Russian Volunteer Corps, were "becoming a force" with unified principles.

The groups were fighting "quite well" and were not going to stop any time soon, he said in a Ukrainian television interview, adding, "We will try to help them to the best of our ability."

In the Belgorod region where cross-border attacks from Ukraine have become part of daily life, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported the deaths of a man and a woman in a missile attack, and later in the day, one injury, after he said Russian defences shot down 15 rockets approaching the regional capital.

Video obtained by Reuters showed fires ablaze and air raid sirens sounding on the empty streets of Belgorod city.

Dmitry Azarov, governor of the Samara region 850 km (530 miles) southeast of Moscow, said the Syzran refinery was on fire following a drone attack but an attack on a second refinery had been thwarted.

The fire was later brought under control, officials said, but the incidents highlighted Ukraine's ability to strike hundreds of miles (km) inside Russia to target its energy industry. Two other big refineries were set on fire this week.

In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it had become clear in recent weeks that Ukraine could use its weapons to exploit what he called vulnerabilities in the "Russian war machine."

Russia mounted its deadliest attack in weeks on Friday when its missiles hit a residential area in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odesa, killing at least 21 people and wounding more than 70.

PUTIN'S DOMINANCE

Putin's hold on power is not under threat in the election. Aged 71 and in office as president or prime minister since the last day of 1999, he dominates Russia's political landscape.

None of the other three candidates on the ballot paper - veteran Communist Nikolai Kharitonov, nationalist Leonid Slutsky or Vladislav Davankov, deputy chairman of the lower house of parliament - has mounted any credible challenge.

Overall turnout - an important indicator for Putin as he attempts to demonstrate the whole country is behind him - rose above 58% on the second day of voting.

The rate in Belgorod region was over 76%. Turnout was also high in Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine.

Russia's governing party, United Russia, said it was facing a widespread denial of service attack - a form of cyberattack aimed at paralysing web traffic - and had suspended non-essential services to repel it.

State news agency RIA quoted a senior telecoms official as blaming the cyberattacks on Ukraine and Western countries.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

NATO troops in Ukraine could trigger WWIII – Italy

Deploying troops of the US-led NATO bloc to battlefields in Ukraine might result in an all-out global conflict, effectively a Third World War, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has said. He has ruled out any possibility that his country’s forces will somehow end up deployed to support Kiev’s fight.

The minister made the remarks on Friday during an interview on the sidelines of the LetExpo show in Verona. Asked about the prospect of NATO troops ending up in such a deployment, Tajani spoke out against the idea.

“I think that NATO shouldn’t enter Ukraine. It would be a mistake. We need to help Ukraine defend itself, but entering the country to wage war against Russia means risking World War Three,” the diplomat stated.

Tajani ruled out any possibility of Italy’s own troops ending up in Ukraine. Asked about other NATO nations sending their troops to prop up Kiev in its fight against Moscow, particularly France, the minister said he hoped “it doesn’t happen.”

The statements from Tajani come after French President Emmanuel Macron again brought up the topic of sending Western soldiers to Ukraine, in a fresh interview with broadcasters TF2 and France 2.

Macron bluntly described Russia as France’s “adversary,” insisting, at the same time, that Paris has not been “waging war on Russia” but merely “supporting” Kiev in the conflict. Regarding the potential troop deployment, he refused to say anything concrete, insisting he wanted to maintain a “strategic ambiguity” and that he had his own “reasons not to be precise.”

The prospect of sending Western troops into Ukraine was first mulled by the French president in late February, when he said the idea could not be “excluded” entirely. The remarks prompted a wave of denials from fellow members of the US-led bloc, with its major participants repeatedly rejecting the idea. Minor states of the alliance, however, including new member Finland, backed Macron’s take on the issue.

 

Reuters/RT