News
APC, Adeleke govt trade words over Osun Osogbo festival incident

The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Osun State has berated Governor Ademola Adeleke over his silence to the news of deaths recorded during this year’s Osun-Osogbo festival.
The Osun APC alleged that the State government had not deemed it fit to issue an official statement on the savoury development.
The party made this known in a statement signed by its chairman, Tajudeen Lawal on Saturday in Osogbo.
It was reported that three persons died and several others injured in a violent clash that erupted during the grand finale of the festival in Osogbo on Friday.
The party also condemned the militarisation of the festival by non-state actors which resulted in the casualties.
According to the statement, “A fact-check on the situation that led to the killing of the three persons who were suspected cultists loyal to the State Governor Ademola Adeleke-led administration indicated that it was a supremacy battle between two rival cultist groups on the entourage of the governor that brewed the ghastly violent attack.
“It was also discovered by a credible source close to the centre of the event that two other persons drowned during the celebration of the grand finale of the annual Osun Osogbo festival at the Osun River yesterday.
“It was, however, strange that 24 hours after the killing of the suspected cultists and the drowning of two other devotees in the Osun River, the Governor Adeleke-led administration has not deemed it fit to issue an official statement on the unsavoury development.
“I am not surprised that the Adeleke administration is sanguinary and violence-laden as the governor himself relishes in moving with armed notorious thugs across the State, mainly those who are on the Wanted List of the police.
“Adeleke could not condemn the brutal activities of the thugs as they were those who rigged the last series of elections for him and the other candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where no fewer than 30 members of the APC were mowed down through the bullets of the PDP political hoodlums.”
While asking the police and other security agencies in the State to investigate the killings, the Osun APC chairman maintained that the Adeleke administration owed the people of the State an explanation on why the government had refused to make any pronouncement on the development.
Reacting, the state Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Bankole Ojo advised the APC to shun petty politics while trying to warm themselves out of idleness.
Ojo also warned that playing politics with human life is the height of cruelty anyone could exhibit under whatever guise.
While asking the APC to get their facts right and stop playing politics with human life, he condemned what he described as a classless attempt by the opposition party to link pockets of confrontation among some cultural groups at the event to the Governor Ademola Adeleke-led PDP government.
“While His Excellency, Governor Ademola Adeleke did everything as acknowledged by several stakeholders in culture and tourism sector in the country and beyond, to make the annual festival exceptionally memorable, the tumultuous crowd that thronged this year’s event ensured a difficult time for security agencies to curtail the age long rivalry between some traditional groups resulting in some open confrontations.
“Preliminary reports available to the ministry which in turn will be forwarded to the His Excellency, the State Governor suggested that some groups of hunters and the Oodua Peoples Congress, most of whom are not residents in the State, took their traditional rivalry out of control just after successful completion of cultural rites at the festival groove. Both groups we would recall, usually form a significant number of devotees at the annual event.
“While the State government and security agencies are spreading proper nets of investigation into the matter, the blood spilling opposition elements are already in town with insane figures of casualties. This is instructive for all discerning minds as to what their intentions are and what they might have done to infiltrate the colourful festival which they stopped at nothing to destroy during their inglorious reign in the State,” he said.
The commissioner assured that the State government would continue to support and preserve the World Heritage Site as designated by UNESCO due to frantic effort put into the groove by the PDP government in 2005.
“This is a legacy the current government is committed to preserve, not just as a cultural heritage of the good people of Osogbo as an ancient city, but also as an enviable tourist site amongst its peers in Nigeria and across the globe,” he noted.
News
Akwa Ibom: Gov. Eno increases corps members’ allowance to N20,000

Gov. Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom has approved an increment in the monthly state allowance for corps members serving in the state from N5,000 to N20,000.
Mr Eno made the announcement on Friday during the state delivery meeting, held at the Banquet Hall of Government House, Uyo.The increment will take effect from Aug. 1st.
The governor said that the increment was to support the Federal Government’s N77,000 monthly allowance, toward helping corps members meet their basic needs.“
More than 10, 000 corps members are posted to Akwa Ibom annually. We must continue to encourage and support them,” Mr Eno said.
It would be recalled that the governor, last week, approved the reconstruction of the NYSC orientation camp at Ikot Itie Idung, as part of efforts to improve the welfare of corps members in the state.
(NAN)
Crime
Plateau: Military Operation Neutralizes Bandits

Troops of the 3 Division of the Nigerian Army in conjunction with the Operation Safe Haven (OPSH) under Operation Lafiyan Jama’a have neutralized several bandits during joint operations in Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State.
A statement issued on Friday by the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) stated that the clearance operation which took place on Thursday, July 3, led to the killing of scores of bandits.
The statement reads: “In continuation of ongoing efforts to rid the Joint Operations Area (JOA) of criminal elements, troops of 3 Division/Operation SAFE HAVEN under Operation LAFIYAN JAMA’A have sustained aggressive kinetic operations in Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State, yielding commendable outcomes.
“On 3 July, 2025, troops carried out a clearance operation in the rugged terrains of Tulus and Hokk Communities, located along the Plateau–Nasarawa State border.
“During the mission, contact was made with armed militias in Hokk, leading to a brief but decisive firefight. Several bandits were neutralised, while others fled into surrounding forests.
“Troops conducted a thorough exploitation of the area and, though no further contact was established, have maintained control through mobile and static patrols to disrupt any regrouping attempts.
“These successful actions reaffirm the resolve of security forces to dismantle criminal syndicates and prevent the proliferation of illicit weapons threatening peace and security within the Joint Operations Area.”
Crime
JUST IN: Kidnapped Bayelsa Judge, Umukoro, regains freedom

After 13 days in captivity, Justice Ebiyerin Omukoro, a Bayelsa State High Court Judge, who was kidnapped by gunmen, has been released.
The judge was abducted on June 21, 2025, around 7pm by gunmen dressed in combat fatigue in front of a popular eatery at the Ekeki suburb of Yenagoa.
It was gathered that Justice Omukoro was released on Thursday evening and is still with security operatives.
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