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Police Say 2 Officers Killed, Three Injured, Patrol Vehicles Burnt During Clash With Shi’ites In Abuja
By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
A violent clash between Nigerian police and members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) in the Federal Capital Territory on Sunday resulted in the deaths of two police operatives, according to the police force.
Additionally, three officers are currently hospitalised and unconscious due to injuries sustained during the confrontation, the police added.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that some armed policemen had fired teargas canisters and live ammunition at IMN members, popularly called Shi’ites, killing an unspecified number of persons and injuring several others during the Arbaeen Symbolic Trek in Abuja.
The event which started on Saturday, August 24, is to commemorate and mourn the killing of Imam Hussain (AS), who was beheaded at Karbala (in present-day Iraq) in 61 AH, equivalent to 680 CE.
Imam Hussain ibn Ali ibn Abi Ṭalib (AS) was the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) and son of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Sayyida Fatima bintu Muhammad (SAWA), as well as the younger brother of Imam Hassan ibn Ali (AS).
SaharaReporters gathered that the police violently descended on the IMN during their procession at the Wuse Market.
A squad of gun-wielding policemen fired teargas canisters and live bullets at the sect in an attempt to disperse the peaceful procession.
The situation led to commotion in the area as motorists and passersby scampered to safety with several members of the movement sustaining varying degrees of injury.
An unspecified number of the IMN members were reportedly killed but this could not be independently verified by SaharaReporters.
Confirming the incident on behalf of the movement, Sheikh Sidi Munir Mainasara Sokoto in a statement, said those who sustained gunshots injuries had been taken to an undisclosed hospital while they were still compiling the number of those who lost their lives.
“We wish to inform the public that police have attacked the ongoing Arba’een Symbolic Trek at Wuse District in Abuja and killed numerous mourners. While trying to disperse the Arbaeen Trek, the police killed and injured numerous mourners,” he said.
“Presently, security agents are busy arresting the Arbaeen Trek mourners.
“Medical practitioners are attending to those critically injured, and details of those killed, injured, and arrested will be made available to members of the press in due course.”
However, the FCT police command spokesperson, SP Josephine Adeh, in a statement on Sunday said two police personnel were killed, three others injured and, in the hospital, while three police patrol vehicles were burnt.
According to her, IMN members attacked a police checkpoint unprovoked. She claimed that they wielded machetes, improvised explosive devices (locally-made bombs in bottles with kerosene), and knives.
According to the police spokesperson, several arrests have been made.
The statement reads in part, “The FCT police command wishes to confirm an unprovoked attack by the proscribed Islamic Movement of Nigeria, popularly known as the ‘Shi’ite’ group, on some personnel of the Nigeria Police Force attached to FCT command at Wuse Junction by traffic light, where two (2) police personnel were killed, three left unconscious in the hospital, and three (3) Police patrol vehicles set ablaze.
“The proscribed organisation attacked the police checkpoint unprovoked, wielding machetes, improvised explosive devices (locally made bombs in bottles with kerosene), and knives.”
“The situation is presently under control and normalcy restored. Further development will be communicated in due course,” the statement added.
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
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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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