News
Arms Dealers Openly Sell Machine Guns On Social Media
By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
Arms dealers in Yemen are brazenly utilizing the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to advertise and sell a range of weapons, including Kalashnikovs, pistols, grenades, and grenade launchers.
These traders are primarily operating in the capital city of Sana’a and other areas controlled by the Houthi rebels, a group supported by Iran and designated as a terrorist organization by the US and Australian governments
It is inconceivable that they [the weapons dealers] are not operating on the Houthis’ behalf,” said the former British Ambassador to Yemen, Edmund Fitton-Brown, who now works for the Counter Extremism Project.
“Purely private dealers who tried to profit from supplying, [for example] the government of Yemen, would be quickly shut down.”
An investigation by The Times uncovered that several Yemeni accounts on X, formerly Twitter, displayed the verified blue tick despite openly advertising weapons.
Both The Times and BBC have sought comment from X, but have yet to receive a response.
Notably, the platform’s content moderation team was significantly reduced following Elon Musk’s acquisition in 2022.
The advertisements, primarily in Arabic, target Yemeni customers in a country where firearms outnumber the population by a ratio of three to one.
The BBC has identified multiple online examples, with prices listed in both Yemeni and Saudi riyals.
“Premium craftsmanship and top-notch warranty,” says one advertisement. “The Yemeni-modified AK is your best choice.”
A shocking demonstration video, captured at night, depicts a seller firing a 30-round magazine on full automatic.
Meanwhile, another advertisement offers sand-colored Pakistani-manufactured Glock pistols for approximately $900 each.
Alarmingly, these postings are not concealed in the Dark Web’s hidden corners, where illicit goods are typically traded. Instead, they are openly displayed on X, readily accessible to millions of users.
News
Bury the thought, it’s not your destiny to be president – Wike’s Aide carpets Atiku
Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media to Federal Capital Territory FCT Minister, Lere Olayinka, has told former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar to jettison his ambition to govern the country in 2027, saying the 2023 Peoples Democratic Party PDP presidential candidate was not destined to rule the country.
Olayinka in a statement in Abuja yesterday, said “The PDP presidential ticket will no longer be available to be wasted by serial betrayals of the party, who are obviously suffering the consequences of their past sins against the party and its members”.
Insisting that Atiku should perish the thought of contesting the 2027 presidential election as candidate of the PDP, Olayinka said “Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and those egging him on for their benefits should let the PDP breathe.”
FCT Minister, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike had said during a live media parley in his office in Abuja on Wednesday that there would be no chance for Atiku, who was the 2023 Presidential candidate of the PDP to secure the party’s ticket in 2027.
Reacting through his Media Aide, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku had alluded to his defeat of Wike to pick the 2023 PDP presidential ticket as well as the former governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal, to emerge as the candidate in 2019.
However, in a statement yesterday, Olayinka, said Atiku’s “celebration of his narrow and fraudulent defeat of Wike in the 2022 PDP primary was funny and childish”, adding that “it is like Arsenal fans jumping to the rooftops to celebrate the club’s narrow defeat of Super Falcons.”
He said: “That Atiku is venerating himself for contesting PDP ticket with Wike and Tambuwal, people who were just a little above 25 as of 1993, when he contested the Social Democratic Party SDP presidential primary and came third, is the more reason he needs to go home and rest and stop acting like the proverbial cock that failed to realize that it is now elderly.”
Describing Atiku as someone not destined to be president of Nigeria, Olayinka said; “It is obvious that he (Atiku) is paying the price of betraying the PDP in 2003, 2007 and 2014. If not, the same presidency he has contested twice and lost, could have been his to just pick if he had avoided being inordinately ambitious while he was Vice President.”
“It was this desperation that made him to contest for president as candidate of Action Congress in 2007, while still serving as Vice President, elected under the platform of the PDP. A serving Vice President joining others to form another party and contesting as candidate of the new party against his own party.
That’s Alhaji Atiku Abubakar!
“Most importantly, Atiku’s conscience will continue to prick him on his roles in Lagos in 2023, and I am sure that even his apology to PDP members in 2018 can never remove from his body, that garment of betrayal.
“Therefore, it is again being sounded to his ears and those of the people lying to him that he is the only one who can win the presidency for the PDP that the ticket of the party will not be for someone like him, who will lose election and run to Dubai, only to come back two years to another election”, Olayinka added
CityNews
News
Confusion As ‘Baltasar Engonga’ was cornered and fl0gged by husbands of the women he sl3eps with
A man dubbed Zimbabwe’s own “Baltasar” faced violent retribution from a group of enraged husbands after being accused of having affairs with their wives.
In a video shared by Crimewatch Zimbabwe on X (formerly Twitter), several men from the Mapostori sect were seen beating the man, holding him down while others struck him with what appeared to be rubber sticks.
The video, recorded by a witness and later posted on social media, shows the men interrogating him. At one point, one of the attackers questions, “How many women have you slept with, and why did you do it?” Reports indicate that the man allegedly engaged in these relationships after some women claimed their husbands were not satisfying them.
Social media reactions were swift, with users tagging the police to intervene and arrest the men involved in the assault. Many viewers expressed shock, noting a recent rise in arrests related to assaults on cheating partners and their spouses.
News
SAD! Super Eagles goalkeeper, Stanley Nwabali, loses father
Super Eagles goalkeeper, Stanley Nwabali, has lost his father.
Nwabali took to Instagram on Friday to mourn his father, sharing a post accompanied by a tearful emoji.
Although the goalie did not reveal the cause of the death instead shared a heartfelt tribute with message, “Rest in peace, dad”.
Details later…
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