Gangs

Fifteen Nigerian hostages have escaped from their abductors as they slept, weeks after they were among more than 130 pupils and teachers snatched by gunmen from an Islamic seminary, the school's headteacher told AFP Tuesday.

Three days after the violent kidnap of more than 80 students, a majority of them girls, and five teachers at the Federal Government College, Birnin Yauri, Kebbi State, federal troops late yesterday night were believed to have rescued the rest of the kidnapped victims.

A child Group: Save the Children International, SCI, described as “horrific” news reports about the incessant abduction of College Students and the attendant’s disruption of academic activities by bandits in parts of Nigeria

One student from a group of dozens abducted from a school in northwest Nigeria this week has been found dead, the army said on Friday, adding it had rescued five students and two teachers.

The National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) has demanded for electoral reforms to deepen democracy in the country.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Authority (FCT) has said that the current situation in the country has plunged majority of Nigerians into hunger, poverty, frustration and despondency.

Armed cattle thieves have killed 53 people in northwest Nigeria's Zamfara state, police and local residents said Saturday, the latest violence to hit the restive region.

The governor of Kaduna, Nasir el-Rufai, has urged the Department of State Services (DSS) to boost intelligence gathering and sharing efforts with other security agencies to tackle insurgency in the country.

U.S. and Australian agencies hacked into an app used by criminals and read millions of encrypted messages, leading to hundreds of arrests of suspected organised crime figures in 18 countries, Australian officials said on Tuesday.

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that suggestions the Russian state was linked to high profile ransomware attacks in the United States were absurd and an attempt to stir trouble ahead of his summit this month with U.S. President Joe Biden.

People who promote insurrection in Nigeria face a "rude shock", its president warned on Tuesday, raising the possibility of a fierce crackdown on rising violence in the southeast that has included arson attacks on police station and electoral offices.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari appointed a new chief of army staff on Thursday after the previous top-ranking commander and 10 other officers died in a plane crash last week.

A large turnout of people from the Okun-Obadore Community in Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area of Lagos State, recently staged a protest over the alleged wrongful takeover of their farmland by the owners of Amen Estate and founders of Redbrick Homes Limited.

An appeal has gone to Nigerians to support the Armed Forces of Nigeria in its bid to restore peace in volatile areas of the country.

The military has managed to retake territory and dislodged the fighters from some of their hideouts. But a recent spike in deadly violence, focused in the north-east, where the Islamist group began its insurgency in 2009, has led many to ask what is at the root of the authorities’ failure.

Pan-Arewa socio-political organisation, Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), has outrightly rejected the ban on open grazing imposed by Northern governors, a decision intended to tame the impasse between cattle herders and farmers.

The United States Department of State, in its 2020 International Religious Freedom Report on Nigeria, noted that the constitution barred the federal and state governments from adopting a state religion, prohibits religious discrimination, and provides for individuals’ freedom to choose, practice, propagate, or change their religion.

Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Monday said that the government would continue to demolish shanties across the state.

An unknown number of university students have been kidnapped in the south-eastern Nigerian state of Abia.

Two of the Abia State University students who were abducted on Wednesday evening have escaped from their abductors, the Commissioner for Information in the state, John Kalu, has said.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has offered to assist the President Muhammadu Buhari administration tackle insecurity and other challenges facing the nation.

A gang trying to smuggle seven tonnes of hashish into Spain was intercepted in one of the country’s largest drugs busts this year, Spanish police said on Sunday.