News
27 African migrants d!e, 83 r£scued in Tunisia shipwrecks
By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
Twenty-seven migrants, including women and children, died after two boats capsized off central Tunisia, with 83 people rescued, a civil defence official told AFP on Thursday
The rescued and dead passengers, who were found off the Kerkennah Islands, aimed to reach Europe and were all from sub-Saharan African countries, said Zied Sdiri, head of civil defence in the nearby city of Sfax.
Tunisia, as well as neighbouring Libya, is a key departure point for irregular migrants seeking to reach Europe for a better life. Italy’s island of Lampedusa is only 150 kilometres (90 miles) from Tunisia.
Totalling 110, the migrants were on board two makeshift boats that set sail off “the coast near Sfax on the night of December 31 to January 1,” a National Guard official said on condition of anonymity.
Searches were still underway for other possible missing passengers, said the official.
Sdiri said 15 out of the 83 rescued were taken to a hospital, without providing further details.
The National Guard, which oversees the coast guard, later confirmed the death toll in a statement, adding that a baby was among the dead.
It was the latest such tragedy off Tunisia over the past month.
On December 31, the National Guard said two Tunisian migrants, one of them a five-year-old, died after their boat broke down off Tunisia’s northern coast.
Days earlier on December 18, the National Guard said at least 20 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa died in a shipwreck off Sfax, with five rescued.
And on December 12, the coast guard rescued 27 African migrants near Jebeniana, north of Sfax, but 15 were reported dead or missing.
Each year, the perilous Mediterranean crossing is attempted by tens of thousands of people.
Among them are also thousands of Tunisians seeking to leave their country which is grappling with economic woes marked by high inflation, unemployment, and sluggish growth.
Under a 2023 agreement, Brussels has given 105 million euros ($108 million) to debt-ridden Tunisia to help it curb irregular migration, in addition to 150 million euros in budgetary support.
The deal, strongly supported by Italy’s hard-right government, aimed to bolster Tunisia’s capacity to prevent boats leaving its shore, with some money also going to United Nations agencies assisting migrants.
It has contributed to an increase in irregular migration interceptions off the North African country’s shores and a marked drop in arrivals in Europe.
The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES) had counted “between 600 and 700” migrants killed or missing in shipwrecks off Tunisia in 2024, compared with more than 1,300 in 2023.
Overall, the United Nations children’s fund, UNICEF, said in a statement on Wednesday that, “The death toll and number of missing persons in the Mediterranean in 2024 have now surpassed 2,200, with nearly 1,700 lives lost on the central Mediterranean route alone.”
It added that the tally included “hundreds of children, who make up one in five of all people migrating through the Mediterranean. The majority are fleeing violent conflict and poverty.”
Frontex, the EU’s border agency, has said that irregular border crossings were down 64 per cent last year through September for the central Mediterranean route.
AFP
By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, alongside former Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom, paid a condolence visit to Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde on Wednesday, following the passing of his elder brother, Sunday Makinde.
PUNCH Online reports that Sunday Makinde died on Friday, January 24, 2025, at 65.
Wike arrived at Makinde’s residence in the Ikolaba Government Reservation Area of Ibadan, the state capital, on Wednesday afternoon, accompanied by Ortom and other dignitaries.
By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has increased the proposed total budget size for 2025 from N49.7trillion he presented to the joint session of the National Assembly on December 18, 2024 to N54.2trillion .
President Tinubu announced an increase in the proposed budget size through separate letters forwarded to both the Senate and the House of Representatives .
The President in the letter read during plenary in Abuja the President of the Nigerian Senate Godswill Akpabio , said the increase arose from N1.4trilliion additional revenues made by the Federal Inland Revenue Service ( FIRS ) , N1.2trillion made by the Nigeria Customs Service , N1.8trilliion generated by some other Government Owned Agencies .
The President of the Senate consequently directed the request to the Senate Committee on Appropriations for expeditious consideration and declared that the budget consideration , would be concluded and passed before the end of this month.
By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
Ex- governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, has waded into the war of words between National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, and Hajia Naja’atu Muhammad, a former Commissioner at the Police Service Commission (PSC).
Ribadu had demanded public apology and retraction from Muhammad whom he accused of lying against him in a Tik Tok video.
In the Tiktok video, Hajia Muhammad accused the NSA of serving in President Bola Tinubu’s government, whom he castigated when he was the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
But in a letter through his lawyer, Dr Ahmed Raji, SAN, the NSA said publicly or privately, he has never maintained such viewpoint.
He said the damage that had been done as a result of the Tiktok video was unquantifiable.
“Clearly, in the text of your recording [reproduced and translated above] you stated that when our client served as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes, [EFCC] he allegedly named President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, alongside Sen. George Akume and Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu [all former Governors, and in that order] as the governors in Nigeria who stole the most from public treasury.
“You also stated that today, our client who once held the above odious view about President Tinubu has turned around to be his staunchest defender; especially, with regard to what you stated to be the government’s agenda to silence voices of dissent to the government, citing the alleged arrest of a certain Prof. Usman Yusuf as an example.
“You also stated that our client’s alleged attitudinal change towards President Tinubu means that he has either become a liar or that he lied when he allegedly described President Tinubu, Sen. Akume, Sen. Kalu and other governors as thieves,” read the letter dated February 4, 2025, and signed by Dr. Raji
Maintaining her stance, Muhammad said she had no reason to tender any apology as the records were there.
On his part, El-Rufai defended Muhammad, taunting Ribadu by saying, “Nuhu must have serious amnesia.”
Amnesia refers to the loss of memories, including facts, information and experiences.
“The record of proceedings in the Senate will confirm that Nuhu made those statements, sometime in 2006. The subsequent Daily Trust report below of February 2007, reconfirms the essence of the statements.
“The conclusions of the Federal Executive Council in 2006, which can be subpoenaed from the Cabinet Secretariat of the SGF’s office contain the allegations. In that Special FEC meeting in which I was a member, Nuhu’s EFCC made similar presentations accusing many sitting officials, sometime in 2006.
These Council Conclusions will further remove all doubts.
“This is for the record and to remind the morally-flexible that at some point in our national life, silence is no longer golden
FCT minister, Wike, Ortom, others on condolence visit to Makinde in Ibadan
Tik Tok crisis may linger longer
OF DUROSINMI MESEKO, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BOARDS, AND NATIONAL SERVICE
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