Nigerian Soldiers Retaliate, Burnt Ehime Mbano Imo State Over The Killing Of Its Officers

Nigerian Military has continued to attack and burn down business premises of civilian populace in Ehime Mbano in Imo state as a revenge for the killing of their men by Simon Ikpa led Biafra Liberation Forces. These dastardly and cowardly acts of brutal show of power on armless citizens and civilians of the state must be condemned by well meaning Nigerians.

The Nigerian military should know that the shops, drinking joints, markets and cartons of beer being burnt and destroyed are not the killers of their men. Those that killed the military men are displaying the guns they recovered from the dead security men and also told the military where to meet them if they are serious, why not go and meet the unknown gunmen that killed their members, why attacking innocent civilians?

Nigerian Military are good at venting their anger on civilians most especially in the south east. All the years Boko Haram has been killing them in the north, they never attacked civilians in the north instead they granted amnesty to Boko Haram and even gave Armed Fulani militias’ right of passage.

Make no mistake, the killing of security men by unknown gumen is highly condemnable and I urge the security men to go after the killers and fish them out, but attacking civilians is act of cowardice.

Meanwhile, a court in Delta state has granted ₦500k bail to 69 men accused of attending gay wedding in Delta state. According to reports, they were admitted to bail with the sum of ₦500,000 and two sureties each.

Counsel to the suspects, Ochuko Ohimor, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Warri that they were admitted to bail with the sum of ₦500,000 and two sureties each. According to  Ochuko Ohimor, the sureties must reside within the Effurun jurisdiction of the Court.

He added that the suspects must sign an undertaking at the State High Court of Justice, Effurun, in Uvwie Local Government Area, where they were earlier arraigned on September 4, 2023. According to his words; “The suspects were granted bail at a cost of ₦500,000 and two sureties each. The sureties must reside within the Effurun jurisdiction,” Ohimor told NAN.

Police prosecutor, Vincent Orarumen, had opposed the bail condition but the suspects’ lawyer argued otherwise, saying that the alleged crime was not a capital offence. News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the suspects were paraded before newsmen on August 29, 2023 at the Ekpan Police Station at the instance of the Delta State Commissioner of Police (CP), Wale Abass.

They were arrested by a crack team of police operatives attached to the Ekpan Division while conducting a gay wedding ceremony which they tagged, “all white party.” The CP, while parading the suspects, vowed to prosecute them in line with Nigeria’s Anti-Gay Law, which according to him, prohibits same-sex marriage in the country.

According to his words; “I can guarantee that they will be charged to court. We are not taking it lightly. It is a clear case, though, they are still presumed innocent until proven otherwise by the competent court,” he added.

Meanwhile, the recent appointed special adviser to Vice President Kashim Shettima on political matters, Hakeem Baba Ahmed has disclosed that the Labour Party (LP) has his support to challenge the electoral victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Supreme Court. Baba-Ahmed is the elder brother of the Labour Party Vice Presidential candidate, Yusuf Datti-Baba-Ahmed.

According to him, the Labour Party and its presidential candidate should go ahead and exhaust the entire option of the electoral and judicial process available to them in challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election. He made the submission in his column published in the Vanguard on Wednesday where he shed more light on the circumstances surrounding his acceptance of an appointment from the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu despite openly working for the Labour Party during the elections.

In his words, “My entire life had been about service to God, the community and the country. There has never been a time when the nation needed more hands on deck. My politics has never been the type that supports destroying the whole because my share is smaller. It has, on the contrary, been about insisting on equity and justice, and the belief that these have to be laboured for.

“This is what informs my support of political parties, including the Labour Party on whose ticket my brother, Dr Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed runs as Vice Presidential candidate, to exhaust the entire gamut of the electoral and judicial process available to them. There are no positions from which one cannot serve the country, and my grouse with many of those who lead us is that nothing has prepared them to lead, and those with some preparation and capacities to lead cannot do so because they lack the financial muscle to buy power or step up and protect the country from those who do.”