Tuesday brief: She was 17, ready for University. Then a Police bullet found her.
Good morning,
We are covering a teenager’s death in Lagos, IPOB’s sit-at-home order in the South-East and the federal government’s Twitter ban, 100 days after. Please don’t forget to subscribe (if you haven’t) and share this briefing with your people.
She was 18, ready for University. Then a Police bullet found her.
Monsurat Ojuade scored 236 in JAMB and was confident of university admission, until last Sunday when policemen raided the Ijesha axis of Surulere in Lagos.
In the heat of the raid, she was shot in the thigh by a police officer and later died from the injury.
The police on Sunday said Monsurat had been hit by a stray bullet but her Family has refuted the claim.
According to them, Monsurat was “shot at close range execution-style by (a) killer police personnel.”
Although the police have identified the killer policeman and pledged to prosecute him, Monsurat’s death is another example of police brutality, a phenomenon that led to the #EndSARS protests last year.
Amid pushback, IPOB Insists On Sit-At-Home Order
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) insisted that people across the South-East must sit-at-home today even as the region’s Governors urged noncompliance.
IPOB, a proscribed group seeking secession of the South-East from Nigeria, had on July 30 ordered a sit-at-home in the region every Monday until its leader Nnamdi Kanu, is released from imprisonment by the Federal Government.
Today’s sit-at-home order is to honour the victims of the military attack on Kanu’s residence in 2017.
But South-East Governors have urged residents to ignore the order.
Quote: “The state must avoid giving urchins the chance to take over the helm of affairs. I chose to lead from the front to end this fear of molestation, harassment, intimidation,” Anambra State Governor Willie Obiano said while leading a protest against the IPOB order on Monday. “If markets don’t open, I will sack the leadership of the market. If the market and park leaders don’t comply, their leadership will be changed within two weeks.”
Related: On Monday, gunmen believed to be enforcing the IPOB order stopped students from taking their WAEC examinations at a secondary school in Imo State. The criminals also set ablaze some motorcycles belonging to staff and students of the school.
Interpol engaged as FG goes after escaping Kogi inmates
The Federal Government says it has put “Interpol on notice” after over 200 inmates escaped from a prison in Kabba, Kogi State on Sunday.
The prison had been attacked by heavily-armed persons who engaged the guards in a fierce gun battle, leading to the death of two security operatives.
Two officers of the Nigeria Correctional Service are also yet to be accounted for.
Some of the escaped inmates have returned voluntarily but most are still at large, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement.
According to TheCable, a security report had warned of the possibility of coordinated attacks in Kogi, which had been relatively peaceful compared to neigbouring state Benue.
What else is happening?
Zamfara State: The 75 students kidnapped from Government Day Secondary School, Kaya, in Maradun Local Government Area have regained freedom, 12 days after their abduction. It is not clear whether a ransom was paid.
Abuja: At least three people were killed in the capital after heavy rainfall led to flooding that submerged vehicles and destroyed properties worth millions.
Twitter ban: One hundred days after the federal government banned the social network, a coalition of civil society organisations say the move is a disservice to the people.
Covid: The federal government says it has removed India from the list of flagged countries after the “improved situation” in the South-East Asia nation.
Secession: A coalition of ethnic groups seeking the restructuring and possible breakup of Nigeria is set to begin a million-man freedom march at the United Nations headquarters in New York today.
Abdullahi Adamu: The Nasarawa State Senator has argued that a ban on open grazing will not solve the farmer-herders crisis. “The question is, has the government done what it ought to do to protect the people in that category or in that trade? The answer is no,” Adamu said at a press briefing on Monday.
APC: The ruling party says it has fixed October 2 to conduct state congresses across the country.
That’s all for this morning. Don’t forget to share this briefing with everyone you think will love it.