Airstrikes by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) aircraft have killed two bandits kingpins, Gero (Alhaji) and Alhaji Riga, including 20 of their fighters in Zamfara State.

The bandits were killed in their hideouts at Unguwar Goga hillforest in Faskari Local Government Area of the state.

A statement by the Deputy Director of Public Relations and Information, Group Captain Kabiru Ali, said the “precision airstrikes were executed in early hours of March 13, after careful and actionable intelligence.”

The statement reads: “ The strike advancing purposeful lethality, destroyed the fortified camps of notorious bandit kingpins, Gero (Alhaji) and Alhaji Riga, neutralising over 20 criminals, with additional casualties reported in the surrounding rocky hills.

“The airstrike had a decisive impact on the criminals, assessment of the full extent of the damage is ongoing.”

Riga and Gero, according to the statement, were key enablers of banditry, sheltering terrorist elements responsible for relentless ambushes along the Funtua-Gusau Road, particularly between Yankara and Sheme villages.

“Their elimination marks a major breakthrough in the ongoing military campaign to restore peace in the North-West,” the statement said.

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike has said he will not stop the Rivers House of Assembly led by Speaker Martins Amaewhule from performing its constitutional functions.

Wike also blamed the Secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG), Dr. Tammy Danagogo, for instigating the main issue that led to the ongoing political crisis in the State.

The minister spoke at Abalama Town where a crowd of Kalabari Ijaw trooped out in their numbers to treat him to a grand civic reception and thanksgiving.

The event held despite protests by some women groups, who tried to block the road to stop people from accessing the venue of the programme.

Security operatives, especially the police fired teargas cannisters at the protesters to disperse them to avoid the disruption of the programme.

Wike, who was cheered by the crowd, said he came because some persons threatened him not to attend the event, noting that the occasion was an indication the opposition was a mere radio noise.

He said: “I heard some people say I won’t come here. Who are they and how many are they? What you have done today is to tell the world all these noise in the radio is not the real thing.

If you are of the Kalabari and of the Ijaw nation and you are receiving me today, God will continue to bless you. I will continue to stand by you and to support you.

”He explained some persons had misunderstood and misinterpreted his recent interview on Ijaw but clarified that he only meant that an Ijaw man becoming a governor in Rivers was made possible and agreement to work together.

He said at the final day of deciding who would be his successor, Fubara said he was not interested and urged them to give the position to his then Commissioner for Finance, Isaac Kamalu.

He recalled the process that led to Siminalayi Fubara becoming the Governor adding that Chief Alabraba, Chief Seargent Awuse and OCJ Okocha mounted pressure on him to allow Fubara in the principle of live and let live.

He said: “What I said on my interview people will want to misinterpret it. However they want to misinterpret it is their business. I want to repeat what I said. I said we are all working together if we don’t work together it would have been difficult to produce the governor.

That was what I said. Chief Alabraba did not allow me to rest; he nearly fainted when we were deciding who would be governor.

“Himself, OCJ Okocha and Seargent Awuse and this boy Celestine Omehia when we met, that day was the primary, this governor today said he was not going to run that my Commissioner for Finance, Isaac Kamalu, should be the one to run.

Celestine Omehia said it should be Isaac Kamalu that this governor cannot carry out effectively, the functions of the governor.

“OCJ Okocha and Chief Awuse said live and let live. Let us not do something that people will begin to say why must it be only one sided.

What I mean was that it was not because of the strength or the power of Ijaw. It was because we worked together.

“Nobody should associate anything evil to Ijaw. Ijaw people are not evil people. You cannot be saying I will blow pipeline. No.

Engage people intellectually and diplomatically and you get what you want. In the world we are in today we have passed the stage of threatening people.

”Wike said those around the Governor encouraged him to seize the salaries and allowances of the House of Assembly members for over a year telling the governor that nothing would happen.

He said: “They told you to seize Assembly members salaries and allowances for more than one year. They have no income to feed their families and pay their children school fees. And you were jubilating and people were encouraging you and telling you that nothing would happen.

“Now something has happened. I am not going to stop the assembly from performing their constitutional duties. The Assembly should be allowed to perform their duties. People who love peace don’t threaten people.

”I told you that the House of Assembly will not lose their seats. I told you that the shenanigans of local government would not stand. I don’t need to be a governor. I know what is illegal is illegal. We fight it constitutionally and by following due process. What did we do wrong?

“We said all these chairmen and the assembly members suffered, national Assembly members suffered for you to become governor. Therefore, don’t abandon them. But they said I was asking for money.

Has the money come? Those you are sharing the money, how far?

“Remember yesterday. A man is bad, a man is crook and a man is a criminal. But it was that same man that made you against all odds. If I hate Ijaw I wouldn’t have done that and nothing would have happened. I followed my principle of live and let live.

“If you watch all those around the governor are people who are natural ingrates. Nobody who is not an ingrates will associate himself with what is going on.

I told the governor to eat what God had given to him peacefully that it is not good for him to face this crisis. But they told him, you are governor you have money. I agree but money is not everything.

All these people have nothing to offer. See where we are. Now how far?

”Wike highlighted all the projects he initiated and handed over to Fubara to make him popular including the Port Harcourt Ring Road adding that whatever the governor’s team was parading were his initiatives.

Tracing the genesis of the crisis, the minister said: “Who started this problem? Danagogo SSG used his elder brother, who is a judge.

They sat down under ex parte order saying 27 members have defected; ex parte not on notice.

“SSG lured his brother judge to give ex parte order that the government can present budget to three or four people. Secretary is Danagogo, the judge who gave the order is Danagogo.

Look at how people can destroy a state. “That is the genesis of all this crisis; how a judge will sit down under ex parte order saying that people had defected and you can present budget to three people.

This is Danagogo who wanted to be governor.

He was so pained that he was not given.

“He is the one leading you and he will lead you to hellfire. You surround yourself with people who wanted to be governor; who I stopped because they don’t mean well for Rivers State.

They are the ones surrounding you giving you advice. Why do you think you will succeed?

“They will give you bad advice and see what the bad advice is doing to you. This is 2:0 and more will come. I haven’t seen this kind of politics where you surround yourself with those who want your seat.

Will it work? They come they and abuse me and you are happy. You don’t know they are destroying you”.

He remembered that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu invited them for peace but that while he and other leaders got the assembly members to withdraw the impeachment notice they issued to the governor, those around Fubara stopped him from implementing the decision.

Kano State Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Barrister Haruna Isa Dederi has cleared air that the ruling of the Court of Appeal, Abuja division, on the State Emirship tangle did not in anyway invalidate the reinstatement of Muhammadu Sanusi II as the 16th emir of Kano.

Dederi declared that, “having passed a landmark verdict on January 10, 2025, that reaffirmed the power of the Kano State government to reappoint Sanusi, it is impossible for the Court of Appeal to set aside or quash it’s own decision on the same matter.

”The Attorney General made the position known to journalists while reacting to Friday ruling of the Appellate Court on the application for stay of execution filed by Alh. Aminu Baba Dan Agundi, one of the kingmakers loyal to the 15th Emir of Kano, Alh. Aminu Ado Bayero, pending determination of the appeal at the apex court.

According to Dederi, the matter is “functua officio”, adding that only the Supreme Court has the power to set aside the decision of the Appeal Court handed by Justice Mohammad Mustapha on January 10, 2025.

“The Appeal Court today, after hearing their application for a stay of execution, ruled that the status quo should rather be maintained as it is now, until after the judgment of the Supreme Court. The have filed an appeal at the Supreme Court.

“It doesn’t mean that the judgment delivered on January 10, 2025, has been quashed. That judgment is still standing and still in place and subsisting.

The Court of Appeal cannot reverse its own decision. It is not possible. It is only a supreme Court that has the power to set aside the judgment given by a lower court,” Dederi noted.

Recall that on January 10, 2025, a three-member panel of Court of Appeal, Abuja division, led by Justice Mohammad Mustapha set aside the judgment of Justice A. Liman of the Federal High Court, Kano, which nullified the steps/actions taken by the Kano State Government pursuant to the Kano State Emirate Council (Repeal) Law 2024, including the appointment of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the 16th Emir of Kano.

Dissatisfied with the verdict, DanAgundi had since proceeded to the Supreme Court to upturn the lower court’s verdict.

Dan Agundi equally filed a motion for stay of execution of Justice Mustapha’s Judgment pending the hearing and determination of the Supreme Court judgment on the matter.