LAGOS SEPTEMBER 12TH (NEWSRANGERS)-In our series of letters from African journalists, Mannir Dan Ali, former editor-in-chief of Nigeria’s Daily Trust newspaper, considers the impact of the latest tactic to tackle Nigeria’s ruthless kidnapping gangs – cutting off access to mobile phones and the internet. For the last few years life in rural areas of north-western…
LAGOS SEPTEMBER 6TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Following the recent closure of schools in Zamfara State, the Vice Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the 2019 elections, Mr Peter Obi, has, again, called on political leaders, at all levels of government, not to be blinded by their quest for power, ahead of 2023 elections, when the…
LAGOS SEPTEMBER 4TH (NEWSRANGERS)-The Nigerian government has ordered all telecom operators to shut down their networks in Zamfara State. Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission in a letter to all telecom operators on Friday said the action was one of the strategies taken by security operatives…
LAGOS SEPTEMBER 2ND (NEWSRANGERS)-Gunmen suspected to be bandits have abducted many students of Kaya Junior Secondary School in Maradun Local Government Area of Zamfara State. Witness revealed that the gunmen who came on motorcycles stormed the school on Wednesday afternoon, shooting sporadically. “There was an abduction of students just now in Kaya town, Maradun Local…
LAGOS AUGUST 16TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Gunmen have killed three people at an agricultural college in Nigeria’s northwest Zamfara state and kidnapped 15 students among others, school officials and police said Monday, in the latest in a wave of mass abductions. Armed kidnappings for ransom now make almost daily headlines in Africa’s most populous country, seven years after…
LAGOS JULY 19TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Gov. Bello Matawalle of Zamfara, on Sunday in Gusau, expressed shock at the killing of 13 police officers by suspected bandits. The police personnel were gunned down at a mobile camp in Kurar Mota community in the Bagudu Local Government Area of the state. The governor’s reaction is contained in a statement…
LAGOS JULY 19TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Bandits abducted at least 60 people and killed one person in a raid of five villages in Shinkafi LGA of Zamfara on Friday night. The attackers rode on over 70 motorbikes into the villages and fired sporadically into the air, a police official and several residents said on Saturday. They killed a…
LAGOS JULY 13TH (NEWSRANGERS)-A new report claims that no fewer than 2,371 people were kidnapped in Nigeria between January and June 2021. The Monday July 12 report by geopolitical intelligence platform, SBM Intelligence says not only was this large number of people kidnapped within such a short frame but N10b was demanded as ransom, although…