Headlines
Please Resign for Spreading Fake News, Ex-NAN MD, Onanuga, Tells Lai Mohammed
The former Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr. Bayo Onanuga, has reviewed the report of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry into the Lekki toll gate shooting and killing of October 20, 2020 and called on the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, to resign from office.
The Panel chaired by Justice Doris Okuwobi, indicted Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Army and the Police over the roles they played in the saga.
The Panel found that soldiers were deployed to the toll gate on the invitation of Governor Sanwo-Olu and that there were fatalities in the aftermath of the soldiers’ and subsequent Police deployment.
Whereas Governor Sanwo-Olu had denied inviting the Army when the incident happened and Lai Mohammed claimed that youths were not killed, the Panel confirmed fatalities and likened what happened at the toll gate on October 20, 2020 to a massacre.
Onanuga who, until 2019 was the MD of NAN with Information Minister Lai Mohammed as supervising minister, asked his former boss to resign immediately for telling a lie, and spreading fake news.
Onanuga said: ”Nigeria is the only country in the world where public officials rarely resign, when they betray public trust egregiously or openly lie to the people.
“We now know the truth that there was indeed a massacre of defenceless young Nigerians by soldiers and policemen at the Lekki toll gate on 20-10-2020, contrary to the official lies that it didn’t happen.”
Onanuga stated: “The man who told the biggest lie and even embarrassed Nigeria by demanding an apology from CNN is still sitting pretty in office.
“Now that his lies have blown on his face, one expects that he should be honourable enough to resign and apologise to all those young Nigerians that he grossly offended.
“If he does not, one expects the President to demand his resignation letter. Nigeria deserves to be a country of honourable men and women.”
Onanuga admonished the Buhari administration, saying: ”Integrity should be our watchword. President Integrity, over to you.”
The first hostages freed from Gaza under a long-awaited ceasefire agreement are back in Israel. The news sparked jubilant scenes in Tel Aviv where large crowds gathered ahead of their release.
The three freed Israeli hostages – the first of 33 to be released over the next six weeks – are Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. They are said to be in good health and are receiving treatment at a medical center in Tel Aviv.
In exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are set to be released by Israel from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military withdrew from several locations in southern and northern Gaza after the truce began earlier on Sunday, an Israeli military official told CNN.
Displaced Gazans have started returning to their homes, while the aid trucks laden with much-needed supplies have crossed into Gaza. Here’s what we know about how the ceasefire deal will work.
Hamas, despite suffering devastating losses, is framing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a victory for itself, and a failure for Israel.
One of Hamas’ main goals for taking some 250 people during its brazen October 7, 2023, attack on Israel was to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. As Israel pounded Gaza in response, Hamas vowed not to return the hostages until Israel withdrew its forces from the enclave, permanently ended the war, and allowed for rebuilding.
Source: CNN
The leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she doesn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria that is plagued by “terrible governments.”
Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by Onward, a British think tank producing research on economic and social issues, Badenoch expressed fears that Britain may become like Nigeria if the system is not reformed.
“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” Badenoch told the audience.
“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.
“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.
“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.
“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”
Badenoch has been in the news of late after she dissociated herself from Nigeria, saying she has nothing to do with the Islamic northern region.
She also accused the Nigeria Police of robbing citizens instead of protecting them.
She said: “My experience with the Nigeria Police was very negative. Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive.
“The police in Nigeria will rob us (laughter). When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”
