DAILY NEWSPAPER REVIEW SUNDAY JUNE 12, 2022

NIGERIA’S ABUJA TO KADUNA TRAIN ATTACK: GUNMEN FREE 11 HOSTAGES – THE NATION PG.12

The spokesman to the cleric acting as go-between for the government and the attackers, Tukur Mamu, told that 51 people were still captive. During the gruesome assault gunmen planted explosives on the rail line and shot at travellers. At least nine people died and the incident sparked outrage. The government blamed the attack on a jihadist group working in collaboration with local militia, known locally as bandits.

NAPTIP RESCUES 10 HUMAN TRAFFICKING VICTIMS – DAILYTRUST PG.45

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), North West Zonal Command in Kano, has rescued 10 victims of human trafficking on their way to the Niger Republic for labour exploitation. NAPTIP Northwest Zonal Coordinator, Barrister Abdullahi Babale, stated that the victims were recruited from Kogi, Delta, Kwara, Oyo, Ondo, Lagos, Ogun, and Osun states. “The agency, in collaboration with the Joint Border Task Force, rescued the 10 victims who were between the ages of 9 and 28 years. Two of them were males and 8 females,” he said.

UNENDING INSECURITY, PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES AND INJUSTICE: RESTRUCTURING OR SEPARATION AS A DESIDERATUM – THISDAY PG.64

Today is June 12, a date set aside in 2000 as ‘Abiola Day’, then as ‘Nigeria’s Democracy Day’ under President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) since 6 June 2018. Before then, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, made every May 29 the ‘Democracy Day.’ By Democracy Day, two points are intrinsic in it. First is to remember the very day Chief M.K.O. Abiola won the June 12, 1993 presidential election which was the fairest, freest, and most credible election devoid of ethno-religious bigotry and political chicanery ever organised in Nigeria’s election history. However, the election victory of Chief Abiola was unpatriotically jettisoned by the Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, under the pretext that some politico-military stakeholders were not ready to accommodate the election results.

OWO CARNAGE AND RED FLAG FOR NATIONAL INSTABILITY – THISDAY PG.84

The recent attack on St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State has not only reinforced the global concern over Nigeria’s gradual descent into anarchy and the inefficacy of the current national security architecture, but the need to allow the states exercise the policing powers within their territories in accordance with Section 4 (7) of the 1999 Constitution, Gboyega Akinsanmi writes. Owo, a sprawling ancient city of Ondo State with a chequered history of communal crisis, came under armed invasion last Sunday. Unlike when its princes were at war over who ascended to the throne of Owo Kingdom between. 1960s and 1990s, this time, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church was the target of the attack.