United States President Donald Trump is considering imposing a travel ban on Nigeria and a host of other countries, mostly from Africa.

The affected countries are expected to meet new requirements laid down by the State Department within 60 days.

“The new list includes Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

“The memo identified varied benchmarks that, in the administration’s estimation, these countries were failing to meet.

Some countries had “no competent or cooperative central government authority to produce reliable identity documents or other civil documents,” or they suffered from widespread government fraud.”

Others are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Bhutan, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

The countries on the new list are also expected to submit to the State Department, on Wednesday, an initial plan of action to meet the new requirements.

In March, Trump had considered imposing a travel ban on 43 countries, while Nigeria was not on the list.

The 43 countries were divided into three groups: red, orange, and yellow.
The red group consists of 11 countries whose nationals would be barred from entering the US.

The orange group comprises 10 countries whose visas would be sharply restricted.

The countries under yellow were given 60 days to address concerns.

Sad! Three days after the devastating Air India Crash in Ahmedabad, a Bell 407 helicopter has crashed in Gaurikund, Uttarakhand, early Sunday morning, killing all seven people on board, including the pilot.

The accident occurred at around 5:30 AM in a remote area of the Himalayan state. According to Indian media reports, the aircraft was carrying five adult passengers, one infant, and the pilot when it went down.

Authorities have not yet confirmed the cause of the crash, but rescue teams have been dispatched to the site for recovery operations. The identities of the victims have not been released pending notification of their families.

Uttarakhand, a region with challenging terrain, has seen previous aviation incidents due to unpredictable weather and difficult landing conditions. Investigations into the crash are ongoing.

. As NDLEA recovers tramadol consignments in winter jackets going to Europe at Lagos airport; intercepts N1.1billion opioids in Rivers; 2,687kg skunk in Cross River

Barely two weeks after operatives of the National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) Kano, intercepted a 60-year-old businessman Chinedu Leonard Okigbo heading to Iran with 65 pellets of cocaine in his stomach, their counterparts at the Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA) have arrested another businessman, 44-year-old Ezemokwe Chukwuebuka Christian for ingesting 53 wraps of the same class A drug while on his way to Tehran Khomeini, Islamic Republic of Iran.
Ezemokwe was arrested at the Port Harcourt airport on Saturday 7th June while trying to board Qatar Airways flight QR1434 flying to Tehran Khomeini in Iran via Doha. After a body scan proved positive to ingestion of illicit drug, he was placed on excretion observation during which he expelled 53 wraps of cocaine in six excretions with a total weight of 1.172kg. The suspect claimed to have gone into the criminal trade two years ago, moving between the West African sub-region and Iran.

Similarly, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja Lagos in the early hours of Saturday 14th June intercepted an Italy bound passenger Edobor Ambrose Ali on an Air France flight. The NDLEA officers in collaboration with the Aviation Security of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), discovered drug consignments hidden in the luggage of the suspect during baggage scanning at the tarmac.

The suspect was thereafter brought down from the aircraft for baggage identification after which a thorough search of the bag led to the discovery of 14, 410 pills of tramadol 225mg and 200mg concealed in winter jackets. In his statement, Ebodor said he lives in Italy where he was hired and sent on the all expense paid trip to Nigeria to courier the drug consignments to Milan, Italy for a fee of 2000 Euros.
At the Port Harcourt Ports in Onne, Rivers state, NDLEA operatives on Friday 13th June intercepted a shipment of 157,800 bottles of codeine-based syrup worth over N1.1 billion naira in street value, during a joint examination of a watch-listed container with men of Customs Service and other security agencies. The opioid consignments were hidden behind 257 cartons of ceramic sanitary wares.
At least, three suspects: Friday Achibong Joseph, 47; Abraham Anthony Willy, 21; and Utibe David Okon, 24, were arrested on Thursday 12th June when NDLEA operatives raided a warehouse in Obereakai, Odukpani LGA, Cross River state, where a total of 2,687kg skunk, a strain of cannabis, was recovered. Same day in Bauchi state, NDLEA officers acting on credible intelligence, arrested the duo of Iriemi Imonikhe, 49, and Sa’idu Ladan, 30, along Bauchi -Jos road after 195 blocks of skunk weighing 287kg were discovered in their Toyota Camry car marked AKL 201 GG.
While 14 jumbo sacks of skunk weighing 560kg were recovered from a wooden boat at Oniru beach in Lagos by operatives of the Marine Command of NDLEA on Thursday 12th June, officers of the Muhammadu Buhari International Airport Maiduguri (MBIAM) same day arrested two businessmen: Ishaku Abdullahi, 30; and Buba Usman, 32, at the arrival hall of the domestic wing of the airport with various quantities of ecstacy pills and skunk packaged in fanciful wraps labelled as ‘Lychee’ and ‘Porro Legal’
The War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, social advocacy activities by NDLEA Commands equally continued across the country in the past week. Some of them include: WADA sensitization lecture delivered to students and staff of Command Secondary School, Orba, Uden LGA, Enugu; Divine Gift International School, Abakaliki, Ebonyi; Baptist Primary School, Ago-Are, Oyo; and St. Vincent Secondary School, Oti-Oron Okobo, Akwa Ibom state, among others.
While commending the officers and men of MMIA, PHIA, MBIAM, PHPC, Marine, Cross River, and Bauchi Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) praised their compatriots in all the commands across the country for pursuing a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.