Between January 1 and June 2025, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Kebbi State reported that it had seized 270.253 kilograms of illicit substances.
During the UN International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, Rabi ‘u Abdullahi-Sokoto, the agency’s commander in the state, revealed this on Thursday during the day’s grand finale in Birnin Kebi.
The arrest of 121 suspects, which total 224. 738 kg, and the seizure of 55.516 kg of psychotropic substances, bring the total to 270. 253 kg, according to him, “including the arrest of 116 males and five females.”
In addition, Abdullahi-Sokoto further revealed that the organization rehabilitated 27 people and secured convictions for 24 offenders in the same time.
He emphasized the urgent need for sustained action while describing the drug problem as a global challenge.
“We can’t afford to be complacent while watching this hydra-headed monster ravage our communities, our society as a whole.
There is a clear link between drug use and crime, he said, noting that many crimes are committed while on the verge of drug use.
READ MORE: Police Arrest Other Robbers in Kaduna, Gun Down Two Robbers in Kaduna.
Evidence is Clear, Invest in Prevention, the commander said, “it aligns with the ongoing War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign being implemented in schools and communities across the state.”
This well-known adage, “Prevention is better than cure,” is both appropriate and affordable. He argued that we must continue to support non-use as a strategy because it is much less expensive than rehabilitation and treatment.
He added that the command had carried out community outreach campaigns aimed at schools, faith-based organizations, workplaces, and community organizations in virtually every region of the state.
He stated that the purpose of this campaign is to educate and empower our youth to resist the pressure to use substances as a form of abuse, which is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society.
The commander also praised the state governor’s wife, Zainab-Nasare Idris, for assisting in the rehabilitation of the female rehabilitation center, and thanked NDLEA’s governor Nasir Idris for his constant support.
The desert is already deadly in the borderlands of Arizona. People who enter the country are subject to exhaustion, dehydration, and blistering heat. However, these routes have been threatened by additional threats for years: armed vigilante organizations that systematically patrol the border illegally and violently. They have long undermined humanitarian volunteer efforts to save lives.
A brand-new artificial intelligence platform is currently actively recruiting new members. ICERAID . Users who upload photos of “suspicious activity” along the border will receive cryptocurrency rewards from the recently launched US. It posits civilians as the front-line agents of intelligence, performing their duties without supervision.
A map of the United States, marked by red and green pins, appears on the website when user-submitted images are viewed. Visitors are asked to add their own. How to legally take pictures in public without a warrant is described in a “Surveillance Guidance” document. Updates and new partnerships are shared in a “Breaking News” section. Enrique Tarrio, a first-generation Cuban American, far-right activist, and self-declared “ICE Raid Czar,” who calls himself a “staunch defender of American values, dominates the platform.
Since 2017, I’ve been conducting research on border surveillance. I frequently travel to Arizona. I’ve accompanied search-and-rescue teams led by former US Marine James Holeman on missions to find the remains of those who died while crossing the border with NGOs. In addition, I’ve witnessed the region develop into a laboratory for high-tech enforcement: automated license plate readers track cars far inland, AI towers from an Israeli company scan the desert, and machine-learning algorithms feed data directly into immigration enforcement systems.
Not just the United States, though. In my book, The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, I describe how similar technologies are being used in Middle Eastern and European countries, including predictive border enforcement from Frontex, the EU’s border agency. These devices improve surveillance and control. They lack security or accountability.
These trends have grown more prominent since Donald Trump’s re-election in 2024. Investment in surveillance has increased significantly. Private businesses have grown rapidly. ICE now has more authority to carry out detention, unlawful raids, and deportations. The US-Mexico border has been manned by military units. By bringing enforcement to the public, ICERAID now adds a new layer.
Users who upload and verify photographic “evidence” from eight different alleged criminal activity categories will receive crypto rewards. The more tokens are earned, the more contributions and locations are made. The surveillance becomes gamified. Suspicion turns into a source of income.
This is particularly dangerous in Arizona, where vigilante violence has a long history. People who enter Mexico through the border have been detained by paramilitary-style groups without authorization. In these encounters, it is known that there have been at least one fatality. In addition to providing civilians with financial incentives and digital tools to act like enforcers,ICERAID does not monitor this behavior.
The use of resistance infrastructure is even more unsettling. www. iceraid . is nearly identical to www.us. iceraids . People Over Papers, a community-led initiative that monitors ICE raids and protects undocumented communities, is the website of us. The similarities are not accidental. It is a deliberate attempt to confuse and devalue grassroots resistance.
ICERAID is not unusual. It is a clear example of a more comprehensive system, one that promotes immigration, rewards suspicion, and expands enforcement through private technology and public fear. Public officials cause panic. The tools are created by corporations. To accomplish the task, citizens are enlisted.
Technology is never objective. It amplifies and mirrors existing power structures. In order to finance racialized suspicion, ICERAID creates a decentralized surveillance system where lives are lost and lives are lost. It is also necessary to protect people moving by recognising and opposing this system. It is crucial for the survival of democracy itself.
According to President Donald Trump, in an effort to end a trade war between the world’s largest economies, the US and China have signed a trade agreement.
Trump, who was speaking at a White House event late on Thursday, did not provide further information. “We just signed with China the other day.
According to a White House official, “China and the administration reached an additional understanding for a framework for a framework to implement the Geneva agreement” after talks took place between the two nations in the Swiss capital last month.
The official said the agreement is “about how we can implement expediting rare earths shipments to the US once more.”
The agreement comes in response to the Geneva agreement, which enabled China and the US to postpone significant tariff increases by 90 days as they sought a more expansive trade agreement.
The later discussions in London provided the framework for negotiations, and Trump’s mention of a formalized agreement appeared to have been reached.
The deal had been “signed and sealed,” according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who spoke to US media on Thursday. Lacking any further information, Lutnick declined to provide any details about the deal.
On Friday, China confirmed details of the agreement, saying it would approve export requests for controlled substances in accordance with the law but did not mention rare earths.
The teams from both sides have maintained close communication following the talks in London, according to a statement from China’s Ministry of Commerce.
Both sides recently confirmed the details of the framework, according to them, adding that China “will review and approve applications for the export control items that comply with the law” in accordance with the law.
A number of restrictive measures against China will also be lifted by the US side.
Beijing had agreed to end all non-tariff countermeasures against the US since April 2, despite it not knowing how some of those measures would be reversed during the Geneva discussions.
China had suspended exports of a wide range of crucial minerals and magnets as a result of its retaliation against the new US tariffs, putting in a wrench in the supply chains of global automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies, and military contractors.
The Trump administration instituted export controls in response to the export restrictions, which stopped China from exporting semiconductor design software, aircraft, and other products.
According to two people with knowledge of the situation, China reportedly gave temporary export licenses to the top three US automakers in early June as supply chain disruptions started to appear as a result of export restrictions on those materials.
As the 20-year-old starts for the British and Irish Lions for the first time, Henry Pollock must resurrect the energy and abrasiveness that have helped him so far in his meteoric rise, says head coach Andy Farrell.
In their first game of a tour of Australia on Saturday, Pollock will pack down at number eight.
Head coach Andy Farrell remarked, “You want people with belief and confidence because that helps when he takes the field.”
You don’t want a child to disappear under the radar and settle into a side in three weeks. You have a reason to choose him.
He resembles the eldest player in that regard. There is absolutely no difference. Everyone associates him with his charm. He is a fantastic lad.
He has been asked to continue with his try celebrations, and Farrell has given him permission to continue with them. He most famously checked his pulse while passing past Sam Prendergast in Northampton’s Champions Cup semi-final defeat of Leinster in the famous celebration.
He is undoubtedly not overawed. I mean, I adore that. He’s just being himself, and you want kids to be themselves. He “knows nothing about him,” Farrell remarked.
He has a real point of difference, and you can see that he is eager to learn.
He anticipates and takes action when he sees something. His line-running is decent. His physical prowess, his awareness of space, and his athletic prowess rank among the squad’s other talents.
He is “the whole time driven to change the world.” He also comprehends what areas of his game need to be improved on. He has a positive attitude.
In a Premiership defeat to Leicester, Pollock’s experience of senior top-flight rugby was limited to 30 minutes off the bench before the start of the season.
However, he was nominated for the Champions Cup player of the year, his barnstorming performances for Northampton this year, and his inclusion in the England senior squad, for which he scored two tries on his debut against Wales in March.
Getty Images
In another instance, Rugby Australia’s CEO, Phil Waugh, claimed that the Lions and the tourists are still negotiating a release date for more Wallabies stars from their Super Rugby teams.
Lions’ chief Ben Calveley claimed that if Australia prevented its Test players from playing in the pre-series matches, denying the visitors proper preparation, and lowering the building’s commercial value, they would violate the tour agreement.
Six of the nine Western Force players selected for a warm-up match against Fiji were ultimately allowed to show up against the Lions this weekend by Australia head coach Joe Schmidt.
We need to work together constructively to resolve the issue, Walsh told News Corp. newspapers.
Augustine Alugbala Nwazunku, the former leader of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ebonyi State, passed away.
Nwazunku, who contested the governorship in the 2023 general elections as a candidate for governor, served until his death as an associate professor and consultant on environmental health at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, Anambra State.
His death was confirmed by Channels Television’s (TV) obtained by Senator Paulinus Igwenwagu, the party’s Deputy Governorship candidate for the 2023 elections, in a statement released on Thursday.
In honor of our own, all meetings and any other activities are suspended on Saturday, June 28, 2025.
The statement read, “We are invited to assemble at the Aristocrat Hotel along Ezza Road for onward movement to pay a condolence visit to the family and pray for his soul.”
Anyanwu: The PDP Constitution forbids the NEC to elect and remove national officers and chieftains.
We hereby inform you that we have lost one of us, former caretaker chairman of our party in Ebonyi State, Professor Augustine Nwazunku, on behalf of our leader, H. E. Dr. Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii, and the entire Ebonyi PDP, “it added.
Four Black men were traveling from Port Elizabeth, now Gqeberha, to Cradock in South Africa on the night of June 27, 1985, in a car.
They had just finished doing community organising work on the outskirts of the city when apartheid police officials stopped them at a roadblock.
Fort Calata, 29, Matthew Goniwe, 38, Sicelo Mhlauli, 36, and Sparrow Mkonto, a railroad worker, were tortured and abducted.
Later, their bodies were discovered dumped in various neighborhoods of the city; they had been severely beaten, stabbed, and burned.
The police and apartheid government initially denied any involvement in the killings. The men were known to be under surveillance for their activism in response to the agonizing circumstances that Black South Africans faced at the time.
Soon afterward, it became clear that some of the group’s members had a death warrant, and that their murders had long been planned.
Though there were two inquests into the murders – both under the apartheid regime in 1987 and 1993 – neither resulted in any perpetrator being named or charged.
Early this month, Ford Calata’s son, Lukhanyo Calata, told Al Jazeera that “the first inquest was conducted entirely in Afrikaans.” The 43-year-old lamented that “my mother and the other mothers were never given any opportunity to make statements in that,” adding that.
“These were courts in apartheid South Africa. The courts said no one could be held accountable for the deaths of four people in a completely different time.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established shortly after apartheid ended in 1994. There, hearings confirmed the “Cradock Four” were indeed targeted for their political activism. Although a few former apartheid officers admitted to being involved, they refused to provide more information and received no amnesty.
A new inquest has been launched four decades after the killings. Although justice has never seemed closer, for families of the deceased, it has been a long wait.
This week, Lukhanyo told the local media, “We have waited for justice for 40 years.” He said while speaking outside the court in Gqeberha, where the hearings are taking place, “We hope this process will finally expose who gave the orders, who carried them out, and why.”
As a South African journalist, it’s almost impossible to cover the inquiry without thinking about the extent of crimes committed during apartheid – crimes by a regime so committed to propping up its criminal, racist agenda that it took it to its most violent and deadly end.
There are many more victims like the Cradock Four, many more victims like the Calatas, and many more families who are still waiting to find out what really happened to their loved ones.
On July 20, 1985, the Cradock Four’s funeral procession was held in the South African township of Lingelihle. [Greg English/Reuters]
Known victims
I was reminded of Nokhutula Simelane when I watched the Gqeberha court proceedings.
I visited Bethal in the Mpumalanga province more than ten years ago to visit her family after her 1983 disappearance. Simelane joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), which was the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC) – the liberation movement turned majority ruling party in South Africa.
She served as a courier for messages and packages between Swaziland and what was then Swaziland as an MK operative.
Simelane was lured to a meeting in Johannesburg, where she was abducted, tortured, and disappeared before being taken into police custody.
Her family says they still feel the pain of not being able to bury her.
Five white men from what the apartheid police’s special branch applied for amnesty at the TRC in connection with Simelane’s alleged murder.
Willem Coetzee, the security police unit’s former commander, denies that she was the one who carried out the murder. But that was countered by testimony from his colleague that she was brutally murdered and buried somewhere in what is now the North West province. According to Coetzee, Simelane was later re-enter Swaziland after being turned into an informant.
No one has yet accepted responsibility for her disappearance, neither the ANC nor the apartheid security forces.
The case of the Cradock Four also made me think of anti-apartheid activist and South African Communist Party member, Ahmed Timol, who was tortured and killed in 1971 but whose murder was also covered up.
The 29-year-old teacher was being held in Johannesburg’s notorious John Vorster Square police headquarters when he fell from a 10th-floor window. The apartheid government was renowned for its lies and cover-ups, so an inquest the year after his death came to a conclusion.
Decades later, a second inquest under the democratic government in 2018 found that Timol had been so badly tortured in custody that he would never have been able to jump out of a window.
Former security branch officer Joao Rodrigues was only charged with Timol’s murder at that time. Given the number of years since Timol’s death, the elderly Rodrigues objected to the charges and requested a permanent stay of prosecution. He claimed that he would not be given a fair trial because he was unable to properly recall events at the time of his death. Rodrigues died in 2021.
A crime against humanity, in my opinion.
brutal apartheid. And for the people left behind, unresolved trauma and unanswered questions are the salt in the deep wounds that remain.
Which is why families like those of the Cradock Four are still seeking resolutions in court.
Nombuyiselo Mhlauli, the wife of Sicelo Mhlauli, 73, described the state of his body in her testimony to the court this month. He had more than 25 stab wounds in the chest, seven in the back, a gash across his throat and a missing right hand, she said.
One day before Lukhanyo’s court appearance, he was scheduled to continue his testimony in the murder hearing.
He described how crucially important the process had been in terms of emotion. He also spoke about his work as a journalist, growing up without a father, and the impact it’s had on his life and outlook.
“Our humanity was targeted,” the statement read. On the sixth day of the inquest, Lukhanyo testified that the state in which my father’s body was discovered was a clear crime against humanity in all respects.
But his frustration and anger do not end with the apartheid government. He attributes too much time to the ANC, which has been in power since the end of apartheid, to failing to adequately address these crimes.
Lukhanyo claims that the ANC’s betrayal of the Cradock Four “cut the deepest” in its own opinion.
“Today we are sitting with a society that is completely lawless”, he said in court. This is because, at the beginning of this democracy, we did not establish proper procedures to inform the rest of society that you would be held accountable for what you had done wrong.
From 1939 to 1949, Fort Calata’s grandfather, Reverend Canon James Arthur Calata, served as the ANC secretary-general. The Calata family has a long history with the liberation movement, which makes it all the more difficult for someone like Lukhanyo to understand why it’s taken the party so long to deliver justice.
pursuing justice and peace
According to Mmamoloko Kubayi, the minister of justice and constitutional development in South Africa, the government has increased its efforts to provide families with long-awaited justice and closure.
“These efforts signal a renewed commitment to restorative justice and national healing”, the department said in a statement.
The Cradock Four, Simelane, and Timol are just a few of the horror stories and murders we are aware of.
But I frequently wonder about all the names, victims, and testimony that are still unidentified or buried.
The murders of countless mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters by the apartheid regime matter not only to those who cared for them but for the consciousness of South African society as a whole, no matter how normalised the tally of the dead has become.
How long will this new inquest take, it’s not certain. Former security officers, political figures, and forensic experts are expected to give testimony during the course of several weeks.
Initially, six police officers were implicated in the killings. Although all of them have since passed away, the Cradock Four’s family believes senior authorities should be held accountable for the orders they were given.
However, the state may be reluctant to foot the bill for the legal expenses of the apartheid police officers who are convicted of the murders, which could stifle the investigation.
Meanwhile, as the families wait for answers , about what happened to their loved ones and accountability for those responsible, they are trying to make peace with the past.
