In Kakanfu, Pategi Local Government Area of Kwara State, Nigeria, hundreds of illegal miners with hard drugs, guns and explosives dig underground in a large-scale search for Lithium with no oversight and few safety measures. Security operatives and local authorities take bribes to turn a blind eye to – and also aid – this illegal activity, according to sources and evidence found by The Informant247 in this investigation by SALIHU Ayatullahi. Deaths and injuries are common and the mining activities expose local communities to several levels of toxic chemicals and severe environmental degradation. Children have withdrawn from school to join…
Author: Salihu Ayatullahi
Salihu Ayatullahi
Salihu Ayatullahi is a Nigerian journalist working at The Informant247 as Editor-in-Chief. He was part of the founding team of the news organization. He had previously worked in different newsrooms as a reporter and as an editor. He graduated with a Bachelor Degree from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. With a passion for investigative reporting and a commitment to journalistic integrity, Ayatullahi has led the team at The Informant247 in delivering critical coverage of government policies, corruption, and human rights abuses in Nigeria.
In 2015, the Nigerian Government placed a ban on the importation of rice through land borders and imposed a hefty 70% tariff on imports coming through the ports. However, despite these restrictions, numerous incidents of smuggling and seizures of this contraband by the Nigerian Customs Service have been reported. In this investigation, SALIHU, Ayatullahi uncovers the existence of an illegal border route in Baruteen Local Government Area of Kwara State, where about 250 smugglers collaborate with security operatives to smuggle an average of 5,000 bags of 50kg rice into Nigeria on a daily basis. Despite several other reported cases, the…
The United Nations on Thursday said the bodies of no fewer than 87 people allegedly killed by Sudanese paramilitary and allied militia have been uncovered in a mass grave in West Darfur. The bodies of the 87 people, some of whom belong to the ethnic African Masalit tribe, were dumped in a shallow grave just outside the West Darfur city of Geneina, according to “credible information” obtained by the U.N. Human Rights Office. The first 37 bodies were buried on June 20, the U.N. agency said in a statement from Geneva. The next day, another 50 bodies were dumped at…
Following the desecration of the Quran during a one-man anti-Islam protest that Swedish police authorized in Stockholm last month, the Kuwaiti government has announced this week that it will print thousands of copies of the holy book in Swedish to be distributed in the Nordic country, calling it an effort to educate the Swedish people on Islamic “values of coexistence”. Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said the Public Authority for Public Care would print and distribute 100,000 translated copies of the Muslim holy book in Sweden. According to the country’s state news agency Kuna, the county’s leader said…
No fewer than six people have been confirmed dead, and four wounded in a mass shooting in South Africa on Tuesday. According to the Police, three men entered the yard of a home in the township of Kwanobuhle near the town of Kariega in the Eastern Cape province and opened fire. The suspects have not been arrested and a search was underway, police added. “It is alleged that … three unknown males entered the yard and opened fire at people who were in the property or nearby to the house,” said police spokesperson Col. Priscilla Naidu. “Two females were shot…
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi was on Wednesday recieved by his Kenyan counterpart William Ruto on Wednesday as he began a three-country tour of Africa. Raisi’s trip to Africa, which will also take him to Uganda and Zimbabwe, is the first by an Iranian president in more than a decade after a 2013 trip by the country former leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The trip is bid at diversifying the Iranian economic ties in the face of crippling US sanctions. Kenya’s President Ruto said he held bilateral talks with President Ebrahim Raisi where “Iran agreed to boost Kenya’s pursuits in manufacturing, health and the blue…
North Korea has launched a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile off its east coast. This came days after it threatened the US with “shocking” response for conducting reconnaissance flights while violating the country’s airspace. The long-range missile was fired on Wednesday at around 10 am local time (01:00 GMT) from the Korean Peninsula hundreds of kilometers into the sea east of the land as the US-led NATO military alliance members took part in a Summit in Lithuania along with their Asia-Pacific allies, according to South Korea and Japan. “The ballistic missile was fired on a lofted trajectory and flew 1,000 km before…
In response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of plans to station tactical nuclear in weapons in Belarus, Ukraine has called for an extraordinary meeting of the United Nations Security Council. The Ukrainian foreign ministry said in a statement that Putin’s move was “provocative” and undermined international security. Russia can halt any action at the Security Council as one of the five veto-holding permanent members. Ukraine said it expects “effective measures” from the other four permanent members — Britain, China, France and the United States — saying those countries “bear primary responsibility for preventing threats of aggression with the use…
Following the reconciliation deal between Tehran and Riyadh, an Iranian official has disclosed that President Ebrahim Raisi has received an invitation from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman to visit the kingdom. “In a letter to President Raisi … the King of Saudi Arabia welcomed the deal between the two brotherly countries [and] invited him to Riyadh,” tweeted Mohammad Jamshidi, the Iranian president’s deputy chief of staff for political affairs, adding to this Sunday message that “Raisi welcomed the invitation”. The two regional heavyweights announced on March 10 a Chinese-brokered deal to restore ties seven years after they were severed. The deal…
November 1, 2021, etched itself into the collective memory of Nembe’s residents, an ordinary day turned extraordinary by a devastating blowout at the Santa Barbara South Well 01 near Oil Mining Lease 29 operated by Aiteo Exploration and Production Company. This catastrophe, like an invasive darkness, descended upon the ecosystem these communities called home, leaving indelible scars and despair in its wake. From Bounty to Devastation Nembe, a town nestled along the shores of Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta, had always been a symbol of resilience. The community thrived on the bounty of its pristine environment—pristine no more. A dark calamity…
The Kwara State Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Bar. Senior Ibrahim Sulyman has urged students of institutions in the state to be security-conscious and shun keeping late at night. He gave this advice on Tuesday while addressing new students of the Kwara State College of Nursing and Midwifery during the matriculation ceremony of the institution for 2019, 2020, and 2021 academic sessions. Reiterating AbdulRazaq administration’s commitment to making good health services available to average citizens, he noted that such efforts will be a colossal waste if adequate qualified personnel are not in place. Bar. Senior, who pointed out that the lives…
The crisis rocking the inner camp of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State took a new turn for the worse as chieftains of the All Progressive Congress (APC) loyal to him rejected his N1.5m Ramadan largesse, THE INFORMANT247 gathered. The monetary gift was delivered to the elders, under the aegis APC Elders Caucus, through one of his political aides from Kwara Central, an informed source who declined to be identified told this medium. The caucus, which comprises 27 elders from the three senatorial districts in the state, after meeting at the GRA residence of a former Kwara North senator, all…
Despite mgt’s threat, KWASU students protest fee hike Scores of students of the Kwara State University, Malete, staged a peaceful protest at the entrance of the school, on Monday morning, against the hike in the hostel exemption fees previously introduced by the management of the institution, among other issues. The protesting students, who brandished placards with various inscriptions rejecting the hike are mainly final year students of the institution. They described the increment as ‘unwarranted and unacceptable’, saying it is a manifestation of the insensitivity of the school management and the state government. It was also gathered that Student…
Kwara’s domestic debt profile as of December 31, 2020, stands at N63.63bn. The figure swelled from N63.04bn in 2019 to N63.63bn in 2020, THE INFORMANT247 has gathered. According to the Debt Management Office’s report, the figure rose by about N600 million from December 31, 2019, to December 31, 2020. Kwara now accounts for 63.63bn of Nigeria’s N4.2tn debt stock as of the end of 2020. Data obtained by this medium showed that the state’s domestic debt rose from N63.04bn in 2019 to N63.63bn within the one year period. Official documents obtained from the government source revealed that the state currently…
Iran’s foreign minister has once again categorically ruled out any renegotiation of the nuclear deal clinched by Iran and six world powers in 2015, urging all parties to get down to implementing the deal, instead of just posturing. “JCPOA cannot be renegotiated—period,” Mohammad Javad Zarif said via his Twitter account on Thursday, referring to the historic nuclear accord of 2015. “If 2021 is not 2015, it’s not 1945 either. So let’s change UN Charter & remove the veto—so often abused by US.” Zarif was responding to Wendy Sherman, US President Joe Biden’s nominee for deputy secretary of state, who said…
The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Russian individuals and entities over Russia’s attempt to kill opposition figure Alexey Navalny with a nerve agent, said senior officials from the administration of US President Joe Biden. According to AL-JAZEERA, the officials, speaking to reporters on a conference call, said the moves were being taken in coordination with the European Union. They reiterated Biden’s call for Russia to release Navalny from prison. The sanctions were a response to what the officials said was a Russian attempt to assassinate Navalny last year, an accusation Russia denies. Biden’s predecessor, former President Donald Trump,…
A meeting between the Kwara State Government and the organised labour on the implementation of minimum wage on Friday ended in deadlock as the labour leaders walked out of the parley in anger. The dialogue, which was meant to resolve pending issues on the implementation of minimum wage, ended abruptly barely 10 minutes after it commenced at the Ministry of Finance in Ilorin, the state capital. THE INFORMANT247 gathered that the meeting, believed to be an advance of Governor AbdulRazaq’s scheduled Tuesday discussion, started with the labour leaders demanding the government to withdraw a court case instituted against them in…
All Governor AbdulRazaq’s Men By: Soliu Ayatullahi “Who does this boy listen to?” this was the question said to have been asked by an influential figure in the Nigerian presidency, according to a report published by THE NATION NEWSPAPER on January 18th, 2020, when the Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, revoked and eventually demolished the infamous Saraki’s Ile Arugbo in Ilorin, the state capital, which stirred up hornet’s nest all over hell’s half acre. Ever since then, the question as to who the Governor’s people are continues to resurface. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq emerged as the chief executive of the state after…
The Kwara State Government will in 2021 spend the sum of N3.3bn on the maintenance of the State Government House, along Ahmadu Bello way in Ilorin. This is according to the 2021 appropriation law seen by THE INFORMANT247. According to the budget, N529, 944 would be spent on personnel costs while N3.3bn was earmarked for the overhead cost. A further breakdown showed that the sum of N40 million would be spent on Internet Access Charges. Also, N200 Million was set aside for Publicity and Advertisements. The items under the Government House expenses read, “Local Travel and Transport Others N20,000,000; International…
…workers groan over hardship, say government ‘insincere’ The Kwara State Government is yet to earmark any budgetary allocation yet for the new wages for workers which raise doubt about its readiness for the implementation, THE INFORMANT247 reports. The State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, while presenting the 2021 budget before the State Assembly late last year, said that his administration prioritised the implementation of the new minimum wage. However, as contained in the 2021 appropriation law, the ‘personnel cost’ for 2019 was N13.3bn, while that of 2020 as of September was N10.04bn excluding October, November and December. With N14.5bn for 2021, this…