Six governors from the North West and North Central geo-political zones on Saturday met behind closed doors in Kaduna to deliberate on ways to end the serial cases of cattle rustling affecting their states.

The deliberation which took place at the Kaduna State House had in attendance, governors of Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto and Niger States.

Also in attendance were top officials of various security outfits in the affected states.

Briefing reporters at the end of the meeting, Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, said the state governors were concerned about the security threat posed by castle rustling.

He said the meeting was held to fashion out ways in which the ugly trend could be curbed, adding that the various security outfits were equally invited to proffer solutions.

He added that subsequently, the participants agreed that security operations would be expanded to focus on the forest areas where the notorious rustlers and bandits usually operated from.

He said the governors agreed to provide the needed support to the law enforcement agencies so they could dislodge the cattle rustlers from their enclaves.

He said further that the governors would equally put in place measures to curb youth restiveness in the region by creating more empowerment opportunities for the teeming youths.

It is estimated that over 30,000 cows and other livestock have been stolen by armed bandits in the past one year.

Several meetings have been held in the past by Northern State governors to address the challenge but no solution has been found yet.

The Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, on Friday urged members of the public and health personnel to attend to accident victims whenever they come across such persons.

He said it was after such persons were assisted that members of the public can now inform the police on actions taken to help the victims.

According to a statement issued on behalf of the force by its spokesperson, Emmanuel Ojukwu, Arase also instructed police personnel not to harass members of the public who make moves to assist accident victims.

The police chief said he was concerned at the several incidents of needless deaths of accident victims who die as a result of the fear that people have in helping out such victims.

“Doctors on duty are equally duty-bound to treat victims of gunshot wounds and further inform police of relevant facts. The safety of Nigerians is a collaborative effort of all and sundry. Police therefore, enjoin citizens not to relent in their cooperative attitude in ensuring safety of all, while they are also to report any suspicious person or persons to the nearest police station” the release noted.

The United States government has said it would assist the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, achieve its goal of reforming the nation’s downstream sector and also curb corruption in the oil and gas sector.

This pledge was made on behalf of the US government by the American Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, when he visited management of the corporation.

Entwistle said it was the greatest desire of the American government to see Nigeria regain the path of economic buoyancy and national prosperity by exploiting the huge benefits accruable from the oil and gas sector.

Entwistle also acknowledged the noble gesture of the new Group Managing Director of NNPC, Emmanuel Kachikwu, aimed at resuscitating the sector, adding that the American government would offer him maximum support.

It would be recalled that Kachikwu on assumption of office had vowed not to continue with business as usual in the running of the agency.

He had also promised to throw open the accounts of the oil corporation for public scrutiny on a monthly basis.

The Americans, since the assumption of office of President Muhammadu Buhari have made moves to assist the nation in developing its critical sectors.

Officials of the US are currently training Nigerian security agents in the area of forensic investigations, trailing of illicit funds and curbing of financial crimes.

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday fired the executive chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Samuel Odugbesan.

He has subsequently appointed William Babatunde Fowler as acting chairman of the agency, according to a statement by the special adviser to the President, on media and Publicity, Femi Adesina.

The statement also added that Buhari has appointed Aliyu Yahaya Gusau as director-general, Budget Office of the Federation.

Odugbesan, a former director at the FIRS, was appointed to the position by former President Goodluck Jonathan in March, 2015 in acting capacity.

The FIRS has not had a substantive chairman since the exit of Ifueko Omogui-Okauru in 2012.

Before his appointment, Fowler, served as the chief executive officer/executive chairman of the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue between 2005 and 2014.

He had his higher education in the United States where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin and a Master of Business Administration degree from the California State University.

He has worked in the banking sector for about 20 years.

He holds an Honorary Doctorate Degree of the Irish International University and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria and the Business Management Association of the United Kingdom.

The Nigerian military is to work closely with the Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited, NIGCOMSAT, to build the necessary communication infrastructure that would aid its fight against insurgency in parts of the country.

The promise of partnership was made, when the chief executive officer of NIGCOMSAT, Abimbola Alale, paid a courtesy call to the Chief of Defence Staff, Gabriel Olonisakin, a General, in Abuja.

Olonishakin said that without the support of the agency, the fight against insurgency in the north would not succeed.

He explained that the need to have critical communications in place in any battle front was a vital avenue through which military success could be achieved.

He said that the military required such infrastructure in order to monitor the activities and movement of insurgents.

Also, according to him, the military needs the services of the agency in the areas of information dissemination, bandwidth and other facilities which the armed forces could rely on to achieve operational success.

“We have so much that we desire that we are not getting. The facility you have that you can give us and the ones you don’t have that you can source for us outside and the ones we need to source for elsewhere. We need to partner with you so that we can in all our operations get necessary communication infrastructure so that we can monitor and influence our activities,” the military chief noted.

In her response, Alale thanked the military authorities for its efforts so far in curbing insecurity.

She expressed the willingness of the agency to continually offer logistics support to the military.

The federal government has indicated its intention to set up a Tourism Development Fund to boost the nation’s growing tourism sector.

The disclosure was made by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Nkechi Ejele, after she briefed President Muhammadu Buhari on the activities of the ministry under her leadership.

She told State House correspondents that the president indicated his willingness to assist the ministry reach its full potentials by making sure that the funds budgeted for its operations get to it.

“We discussed about funding problem and the President has now advised that we should establish Tourism Development Fund to help in the growth of the sector. All over the world, tourism is not funded by the government. It has become unfashionable for tourism to depend on government for its funding, hence the need to develop the development fund,” she said.

She expressed hopes that the sector would record tremendous growth in the future when it receives the necessary attention from the government and the private sector.

By Jefferson Ibiwale, Benin

Operatives of the Department of State Service, DSS, have allegedly killed the father of a suspect, whom they attempted to arrest on fraud related charges.

The agents, who stormed the home of the suspect, Omozokpia Irabor, at midnight, reportedly opened fire on the suspect’s father, Christopher Irabor, when he could not produce his son.

He was reportedly shot inside his room when the DSS operatives stormed his residence at Uwene quarters, Illeh village in Ekpoma, Esan West local government area of the state.

The late Irabor, was said to be a potter in the School of Medicine of the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma.

The operatives were said to have trailed Omozokpia from Benin City to Ekpoma.

The wife of the victim, Faith Irabor, said the DSS officials broke into their home at midnight and when they could not find who they were looking for, they shot her husband.

She, however, explained that her husband tried to prevent the agents from entering their apartment.

She added that after her husband was killed, the rampaging agents arrested her younger son and took him away.

Our reporter could not get an official response from the DSS but a source at the service said the late Irabor was shot when he attempted to disarm an operative.

He was also said to have used a cutlass to threaten the agents, who then shot him in self defence.