Category Nigeria News

25 women have been saved from a human trafficking ring thanks to the work of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).

The women suspected of being victims of labor exploitation were traveling to Saudi Arabia before being intercepted in Abuja, Nigeria, according to NAPTIP spokesman Vincent Adekoye in a statement.

The victims had gathered in front of a well-known hotel in the opulent Wuse II, Abuja, and were waiting for their trafficker.

The victims, who range in age from 17 to 43 years old, claimed that some people had arranged for them to travel to Saudi Arabia to work as domestic workers, specifically house workers.

“Some people visited our village and promised to let me work as a housekeeper in Saudi Arabia abroad. They assured us that our employment there will provide for our families and that we will be able to visit and visit.

They requested that we wait for them here so they could give us the travel document and the necessary travel instructions. One of the victims reportedly claimed that neither of them is coming to our house as promised despite them not having provided any documents, including an international passport or a visa.

Many of the victims reportedly told authorities they were stranded in Abuja for the first time.

Binta Bello, the director general of NAPTIP, criticized the traffickers’ activities and warned that some trafficking gangs now coordinate trafficking in Abuja.

She continued, “The sad thing about this is that they (unsuspecting victims) jumped at the chance to work for the traffickers without understanding the agonizing circumstances and level of exploitation that lay ahead of them in the destination country.”

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has convicted three additional people who were detained at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) complex for internet fraud after a court found four of the four people guilty at a hotel in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The defendants each entered a guilty plea to the charge that was brought against them on Monday, according to the Federal High Court in Lagos, Justice Deinde Dipeolu, the judge’s temporary judge.

Adenekan Ayinde, Oyatokun Qudus, and Adisa Okikiade, three of the 93 suspected internet fraudsters detained on August 10, 2025, at a pool party held by the EFCC, make up the larger group of those detained.

The total number of people who have been found guilty by the court has now reached seven with the conviction of these three. At their arraignment on Friday, August 15, 2025, Justice Dipeolu had previously found four others guilty. The prosecution’s EFCC, which is in charge, announced that it would start a batch of the other suspects’ arraignments after they were arraigned at the OOPL.

Read more about police arresting eight suspects in Delta, Kaduna, and rescue a kidnapping victim.

Adenekan Ayinde was charged with one count of attempting to defraud himself of a white woman from the United States of America on his Google account on Monday, violating and punishable by Section 22 (2) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act. Act, 2015. “

He entered a guilty plea and confirmed to the court that the victim of his crime had already received money in the sum of N200,000. Saadatu Yabo, the prosecutor for the EFCC, also submitted an iPhone 14 Pro Max as an exhibit, which the defense attorneys were able to object to.

Adenekan was given a month’s imprisonment by Justice Dipeolu with the option of a N300,000 fine after reviewing the evidence.

Oyatokun Qudus, a second convict, was allegedly the one who allegedly falsely identified himself as white woman Eric Melissa on an Instagram account in an effort to gain unfair advantage. He was also found guilty and given a month in prison with the option of receiving a N300,000 fine.

After all their rice farms were destroyed by floodwaters from the River Niger, rice farmers in the Yauri, Ngaski, and Shanga Local Government Areas of Kebbi State, have urged the State Government to intervene.

Due to the devastating floods that ravaged their farmlands, hundreds of farmers lost their produce, which is thought to be worth millions of naira.

The farmers lamented how vulnerable their farms are because many of them had invested a lot of money into them in the hope of a good crop. That hope is now at risk.

One of the farmers who were affected described the situation as strange and unprecedented.

He claimed that the River Niger’s water first seized our farms before the rains completely wiped everything out.

“We have already lost everything because God has brought this challenge.” All I can say to the farmers of Shanga, Yauri, and Ngaski is, “Put God’s hand on our situation,” Shuaibu continued.

He fervently urged political leaders to intervene urgently, saying, “I’m urging our politicians to come to our aid.” Some farmers no longer have anything after bringing in more than 100 bags of rice. Everything is being taken over by the water.

We need genuine support, the statement states. “This is not about sympathizing with us.” Some of us invested the majority of our wealth in these farms. His plea was heard, “Please, Governor, your people are in desperate need of assistance.”

The Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9), which is scheduled to take place in Yokohama from August 20 to August 22, has President Bola Tinubu visiting Japan.

Due to the eight-hour difference, the President’s plane touched down at the Presidential Wing of Haneda International Airport in Tokyo on Tuesday, which was still Monday in Nigeria.

Ambassador Hideo Matsubara, the ambassador in charge of TICAD’s Haneda Airport, Yusuf Tuggar, the country’s foreign minister, and officials from the Nigerian Embassy, welcomed him.

After making a brief stopover in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, before heading to Japan, President Tinubu made a brief stopover there on Friday, August 15 with senior government officials, including ministers and special advisers.

President Tinubu will meet with the chief executive officers of some Japanese companies with investments in Nigeria, according to Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga.

READ ALSO: Tinubu Jets To Japan, Brazil For Tokyo Conference, State Visit

The theme of TICAD9, “Co-create Innovative Solutions with Africa,” will be “The Promotion of a Resilient and Sustainable African Society for Human Security, Peace, and Stability, and the Promotion of Improved Business Environment and Institutions through Private Investment and Innovation.

The Japanese government spearheaded the triennial conference, which is held in conjunction with the World Bank, UNDP, the African Union Commission, and UNDP. Tunisia will host the final edition in 2022, while Japan will host the other.

At the president’s request, President Tinubu will travel to Brasilia, Brazil’s capital, for a two-day state visit from Sunday, August 24 to Monday, August 25, according to Onanuga, who further disclosed that the president will make the announcement at the conclusion of the TICAD9 summit.

The top resident UN official was called “persona non grata” by the Burkinabe junta on Monday in response to a UN report that found that armed groups were recruiting children to fight in the nation’s jihadist conflict.

As the Sahel nation struggles with a widespread jihadist insurgency, the Burkinabe junta has increased pressure on international organizations and humanitarian organizations since a coup.

UN resident humanitarian coordinator Carol Flore-Smereczniak must leave, according to a statement from the military government, because of her “responsibility” in creating the March report, which it claimed contained “baseless” allegations that Burkinabe’s army and defense forces were also violating children’s human rights.

The report, which is titled “Children and armed conflict in Burkinabe,” identified violations against minors, including “the recruitment and use of children, the killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, attacks on schools, hospitals, and protected persons in relation to schools, hospitals, and the abduction of children, and the denial of humanitarian access.

The Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, or JNIM, was most frequently involved in child recruitment, with the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) group being one of the culprits.

However, the report also discovered that one-fifth of the grave crimes registered by UN investigators were committed by the defense and security forces, as well as its civilian affiliates, the Volunteers for the Defense of the Nation.

 ‘Falsehoods’

The government continued, “This report, which resembles a compilation of baseless assertions and falsehoods, contains no appendices with copies of investigation reports or court rulings to back up the alleged cases of violations against children attributed to the brave Burkinabe fighters.”

The investigation revealed that Volunteers for the Defense of the Nation members were responsible for the kidnapping of 23 children and four of the 20 rape counts that they successfully verified.

In July of this year, Mauritius native Flore-Smereczniak was appointed.

In December 2022, the junta declared one of her predecessors, Italian official Barbara Manzi, a similarly “persona non grata.”

Read more about Junta-Run Burkinabe to remove the electoral commission.

For the past ten years, Islamist fighters have attacked Burkinabe.

Although the junta has vowed to halt the unrest since launching a coup in September 2022, its military leaders have so far failed to do so.

Regularly accused of abusing civilians, the Burkinabe army and its civilian affiliates are they.

More than 26 000 people have died in Burkinabe as a result of the jihadist insurgency, including civilians and soldiers, since it started more than ten years ago.

In the last three years, more than half of those deaths occurred.

Mark Jacob, a former leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has criticised the manner of the by-elections and reruns on August 16, 2025, and compared them to a setback for Nigeria’s democratic process.

Jacob lamented that the country had reverted to “old days,” when elections were decided by the strength of the people in power and how much security agencies were under their control. He made the remarks on Monday on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.

He said, “We are back to the days of the stronger person in government and control of government agencies winning the election, no matter what.”

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A candidate and about 25 of her supporters were allegedly abducted during a strategy meeting in Kaduna State, according to Jacob.

“We witnessed a situation where the candidate and her main supporters, who were strategising, were prevented from participating in the election or from voting until later in the day. And because government agencies held them captive, elections were being held without the candidate’s consent, he claimed.

He added that just before the elections, PDP candidates in other states were purposefully targeted for arrest.

These actions, in his opinion, violate democratic principles.

“The electoral gains made by INEC and Nigeria have all been slowed down. We are now in a place where there was peace.

You are bound to win elections if you have political will and control over the government’s agencies. And that has no impact on the nation. No one should be hysterical when we use our power to win elections. Nobody should condone it because it is not appropriate.

He also expressed disappointment with the judiciary’s role, claiming that electoral law swore to be “a ruling party” in the courts.

He said, “It is a terrible testimony to those of us in the legal profession to declare the court the ruling party in the election.”

Given that the legislature’s ability to regulate its own internal affairs has been weakened, Jacob argued that Nigerians should not anticipate proper checks and balances from the arm.