Indian police have arrested the owner of a huge billboard that collapsed on a petrol station and killed 16 people in the financial capital Mumbai, media reports said.

Another 75 people were rescued from underneath the wreckage of Monday’s accident when the giant hoarding fell during fierce rain and dust storms that buffeted the coastal megacity.

Police opened a culpable homicide case against the billboard’s owner Bhavesh Bhinde who fled Mumbai in the aftermath of the collapse.

He was arrested late Thursday in the tourist city of Udaipur, around 800 kilometres (497 miles) to the north, police joint commissioner Lakhmi Gautam told The Indian Express.

“Bhinde has been nabbed from Udaipur where he was staying in a hotel under the name of his relative,” Gautam told the newspaper.

“Our teams had been trying to track him down and eventually found him on Thursday evening.”

Police could not be reached for comment by AFP on Friday.

The storm that hit Mumbai on Monday uprooted trees, caused brief power outages in various neighbourhoods around the city and disrupted the city’s train network.

Mumbai’s international airport also temporarily grounded flights with at least 15 planes diverted.

Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra state, earlier this week ordered an audit of all billboards in Mumbai to prevent any repeat of the accident elsewhere.

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has issued a stern warning to Nigerians on the dangers of purchasing pre-registered SIM cards.

The Commission emphasized that this practice was illegal and could lead to severe consequences, including imprisonment.

The NCC highlighted that individuals using such SIM cards might inadvertently become implicated in crimes such as identity theft, financial fraud, kidnapping, and armed robbery.

Moreover, the NCC pointed out that the use of pre-registered SIM cards compromises the accuracy of consumer information and hampers efforts to track criminals effectively.

By using such SIM cards, the reliability of data collected on consumers was undermined, making it challenging for authorities to identify and apprehend the actual perpetrators of crimes.

The NCC’s message aimed to educate the public on the risks associated with pre-registered SIM cards and encourage compliance with legal guidelines to enhance national security.

Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, has confirmed the death of seven persons in a road accident that occurred on Ibadan-Iseyin road on Thursday evening.

The Public Relations Officer, FRSC, Oyo Sector Command, Mr Mayowa Odewo, said the deceased were five male adults, one female adult and one female child.

Odewo said that 15 people also sustained varying degrees of injuries out of the 22 people involved in the crash.

He attributed the accident, involving a Nissan Urvan commercial bus, with registration number: SEY 254 ZY and a Mazda commercial bus, with registration number LGB 343 XA, to speed violations and fatigue.

Odewo stated that the 13 injured victims, including three male adults, nine female adults and one female child, had been taken to a nearby hospital for medical attention.

He said that four of the seven corpses of the victims had been claimed by their families, while the remaining three had been deposited at a morgue.

“The police from Motor Traffic Division, MTD Police Division, Moniya, Ibadan, have taken possession of the two crashed vehicles, including bags and other valuables recovered from the victims,” he said.

He urged motorists to always obey traffic rules and regulations as well as adhere to all traffic cautions on the road to prevent avoidable crashes, NAN reports.

The National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Lagos office unveiled digitalised documentaries of Nigerian heritage sites on Thursday.

NCMM, Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique, and the Centre for Democracy and Development unanimously carried out the project.

Speaking during the unveiling at the National Museum, Onikan, Babrabra Morovich, Director of INFRA-Nigeria, said the digitalised heritage sites encompass monuments and artefacts from Ibadan, Benin, and Ile-Ife.

She said the challenges encountered during the project related to disseminating the research work to all Nigerians, adding that this was the most important aspect of the project.

Ms Morovich said the project’s benefit was directed at the public, who had been provided with a platform for easy understanding of heritage.

Sa’eed Husaini, CDD acting director, said the project’s primary purpose was to preserve potentially endangered materials, disseminate them, and make them accessible. The project had six components, each of which currently had at least one website for the public to access information and archival materials that had been digitised and uploaded.

He said the public could now visit those sites and download their desired materials.

One of those engaged in the project, David Afolayan, CEO of GIS Konsult Ltd., identified emerging problems he encountered while executing the project.

Mr Afolayan said climate change threatened most heritage sites nationwide, citing the town of a thousand gullies in Auchi, Edo, and a series of floods at heritage sites in Ibadan.

He added that the analogue way of record-keeping had become obsolete and inadequate, making him embrace new technologies for the project.

Mr Afolayan said in digitalising the religious architectural heritage of Ibadan and urban archaeology mapping of the pavements of Ile-Ife, he had engaged the Geographic Information System as the best technological platform.

According to him, GIS integrates computer hardware, software, and humanware to collate, process, analyse, and display geographically referenced data to solve complex problems.

He said he had trained no fewer than 100 researchers, students and stakeholders during the project.

Femi Olanrewaju, an Architect, noted that 137 churches, I42 mosques, and 127 shrines had been digitalised, as well as two Egungun festivals, to provide resourceful materials for all. He said this was to encourage the promotion of religious tourism in Nigeria.

Nkechi Adedeji, the curator of the Lagos Museum, harped on the need for heritage conservators to be well-informed in the area of heritage preservation using the GIS. She encouraged them to consistently develop laudable ideas to protect the nation’s heritage resources for future generations.

Adisa Ogunfola of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) advised building a digital interpretation centre for all the urban archaeological heritages of Ile-Ife in partnership with the National Museum, Ile-Ife.

He said the successful medieval Ile-Ife recapturing had ensured future security for all.

A total of 11 worshippers have been confirmed dead in an attack on a local mosque in Kano state by a suspected arsonist identified as Shafiu Abubakar.

Mr Abubakar, 38, had allegedly sprayed the mosque with petrol after he locked the entrance door and set it on fire.

No less than 40 Muslim worshippers were, who were attending morning prayers were trapped in the process, the BBC reported.

A family dispute over the sharing of inheritance at a local settlement in the Gadan village, the outskirts of Gezwa in Kano, allegedly triggered the attack.

The arson occurred in the early hours of Wednesday.

Locals confirmed that flames engulfed the mosque after the attack, with the worshippers wailing as they struggled to open the locked doors.

Some of the locals initially thought it was a bomb, but rescue teams, including bomb experts deployed to the scene, proved otherwise.

The police confirmed the attack on the mosque, saying Mr Abubakar had been arrested while the injured victims are currently at the intensive care unit of the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital.

Umar Mamman Sanda, the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 1 Kano, confirmed the tragic incident during his visit to the hospital.

Mr Sanda, who was joined by a team of security personnel, including the police commissioner in Kano and the director of State Security Services (SSS), described the attack as “very unfortunate.”

“What happened is not associated with any act of terrorism, rather it was a skirmish that arose as a result of inheritance distribution. The suspect is presently with us and is giving out useful information,” he said.

Some students of Obafemi Awolowo University sustained injuries after torrential rainfall accompanied by a whirlwind on Thursday morning ripped off the ceiling of the Oduduwa hall while a lecture was ongoing.

Disclosing this in a statement, the university’s spokesman, Abiodun Olarewaju, said, “The torrential rainfall of early Thursday morning, accompanied with a whirlwind, which started as students of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, were having a lecture, SER to be precise, in the Amphitheatre of the Oduduwa Hall, affected the ceiling of the Amphitheatre as it fell off and injured a few of the students.”

The statement added, “The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Adebayo Simeon Bamire, led other principal officers to the medical and health centre of the university, and ensured that the injured students were given adequate medical attention.”

The statement noted that the vice-chancellor followed two other students, whose cases demanded more medical attention to the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex (OAUTHC), where the chief medical director, John Okeniyi, “physically supervised the proceedings.”

The vice-chancellor appealed for calm and urged students and staff to continue their academic and administrative activities.

He added that the university management had sealed off the amphitheatre, the venue of the unfortunate incident, until further notice.

Emirates Airlines has announced October 1, as the new date for its resumption of flights to Nigeria.

This was disclosed in a post via the airlines’official X handle, on Thursday.

The post reads, “We’re back, Nigeria! We’ll be resuming services to Lagos from 1 October 2024, and we can’t wait to offer unrivalled connectivity to Dubai and beyond to over 140 cities.”

The airline will be operating a daily service between Lagos State and Dubai and will offer customers more choices and connectivity from Nigeria’s largest city to, and through, Dubai.

This came after the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo visited the UAE Ambassador to Nigeria, Salem Saeed Al-S on Wednesday.

In October 2022, Emirates Airlines halted flight operations to Nigeria due to challenges in repatriating funds trapped in the country.

A Kaduna Chief Magistrates’ Court, on Thursday, ordered one Garba Aliyu to sweep the court premises for three weeks for stealing a woman’s purse.

The Prosecutor, Insp. Chidi Leo told the court that Aliyu criminally trespassed into the shop of one Adanna Ebuka pretending to buy a loaf of bread.

Leo said that the convict went into the complainant’s shop and stole her purse, adding that the purse was recovered during a police investigation.

The 30-year-old suspect was convicted and sentenced after pleading guilty to theft.

The Magistrate, Ibrahim Emmanuel said the convict’s plea had saved the court time, adding that the punishment would have been more severe if he had not pleaded guilty.

Emmanuel said the court took into consideration the fact that Aliyu was a first-time offender.

He advised the convict to desist from such acts in the future, stressing that the court frowned at acts of violence.

Residents of Azugwu, Abakaliki Local government Area of Ebonyi State, have shut down the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, EEDC, located at Awolowo Street, over three months of blackout.

The shutdown has led to the interruption of business activities at the EEDC office on Tuesday which lasted till Thursday morning.

It would be recalled that the residents had protested earlier to inform the power company of the lingering blackout, which has caused hardship and economic challenges to business owners in the area.

However, on Tuesday, the residents came out in large numbers both men, women, young and elderly to display their grievances over the lengthy period of blackout that has collapsed business activities in the area and caused hardship to the people.

A resident of the Area who gave his name as Paul Nwafor said “We’ve been passing through difficulties because of EEDC and their activities in Azugwu. In this regard, we wrote a letter to the commissioner of police and the DSS, which we copied to NERC. After meeting with the police authorities, we agreed to embark on this peaceful protest to display our anger over the total blackout for months.

When contacted on the development, EEDC Distribution Manager, Nwankwo Cyprian, stated that the company was aware of the situation, explaining that there have been a series of meetings with the management.

He, however, said he could not give a definite date as to when the light would be restored.

He appealed for calmness and assured them that on or before the end of May 2024, positive news would emerge.

The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, on Wednesday in Abuja arrested five persons for selling counterfeit cosmetics.

NAN reports that the arrest was made at the Garki and Wuse axis during an enforcement to curb substandard goods.

Speaking with newsmen after the enforcement, Mr Embugushiki-Musa Godiya, NAFDAC Head of Investigation and Enforcement, Federal Taskforce, said that the arrested persons would be investigated.

Godiya said that NAFDAC would work to ensure that fake cosmetics and other counterfeit products were completely wiped out of the country.

He said that the agency had been investigating some of the counterfeit cosmetics following intelligence reports, adding that some of those products were illegally imported into the country, despite security at the border.

“NAFDAC is present in all the ports of entry of the country, but with the nature of our borders, these smugglers will always find a way to beat the system that the government had put in place.

“That is why if they escape from the port or borders, we go to the market and to all the places, gather intelligence reports, go after them and confiscate these products for possible prosecution,” Godiya said.

He said that the market value of the seized cosmetics was N35 million, adding that NAFDAC would continue investigation into the issue to unravel the level of involvement of the suspects.

Godiya said that after investigation, the management of the agency would take its regulatory action, which probably may be prosecution of those suspects for the crime committed.

The Swedish government has said it will return 39 pieces of Benin artefacts in its museum to Oba of Benin, Ewuare II.

The Swedish Ambassador to Nigeria, Annika Hahn-Englund, conveyed the Swedish government’s decision on Tuesday night when she paid a courtesy visit to the Oba in his palace in Benin, Edo State.

Hahn-Englund also said the trade between Nigeria and Sweden is the second largest market in Sub-Sahara Africa.

She noted that the trade partnerships are in the areas of infrastructure, telecommunication, energy and other businesses that significantly support the economy of both countries.

She said, “I would like to convey the decision of the Swedish government to return 39 artefacts to the Benin kingdom. This is possible because of the cooperation between the two countries in the areas of culture, education and trade.

“So, Your Majesty, I am very honoured to be here tonight.”

Responding, the Oba, on behalf of the Edo people, welcomed the decision and expressed gratitude to the Swedish government.

The Benin monarch recalled how he made a request through the Swedish monarch, His Royal Majesty Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus, during his courtesy visit to him in 1998 in Sweden as the Nigerian ambassador to Scandinavian countries.

The Oba said that the Federal Government-backed Benin Royal Museum project is still on course, and commended partners for their support and devotion towards the project.

The Oba also commended the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, which is an agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria, responsible for the preservation, promotion, and development of Nigeria’s cultural heritage.

The traditional ruler, who prayed for members of the diplomatic mission, noted that the remarkable reign and enduring affection of the Swedish monarch remained indelible.

The Oba added, “The demand for the return of looted Benin artefacts has been on since the reign of Oba Akenzua II. I am elated to hear that the return of the artefacts has been approved by the Swedish government. This has been my request for a long time. God’s time is always the best.”

Ireland’s cabinet has approved a plan to raise the minimum age for purchasing cigarettes to 21.

The cabinet said in a statement on Tuesday that the plan would make Ireland the first country in the EU to take such a measure.

It said the move came 20 years after Ireland became the first country to ban smoking in workplaces, including pubs and restaurants. Currently, 18 per cent of the population over the age of 15 are smokers.

The new proposal is designed to reduce Ireland’s adult smoking rate to less than five per cent.

Smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke kills an estimated 4,500 people a year in Ireland.

The government said the evidence showed that people were at high risk of becoming smokers between the ages of 18 and 21.

It added that raising the minimum purchasing age would make it harder for young people to access tobacco products through direct and proxy buys, as well as social sources.

Health minister Stephen Donnelly said it was a “tough” measure, adding that “the health impacts of tobacco smoking are immense and require tough responses.”

According to health officials, smoking has caused 13 per cent of all cancers and contributed to many preventable illnesses, including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, eye diseases, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.

It is also responsible for five per cent of hospital inpatient admissions, while the financial loss caused by smoking was estimated at €10.6 billion annually.

“Our smoking rates are still unacceptably high, so I am delighted that we are progressing with a strong population protection measure. A measure that will help bring us closer to the goal of a tobacco-free Ireland,’’ chief medical officer Breda Smyth said.

The bill would provide that the prohibition on tobacco product sales will not apply to those who are currently between the ages of 18 and 20. The proposed legislation would not impact the minimum legal age of sale of nicotine-inhaling products or vapes.

Since December, the sale of vapes to fewer than 18s has been banned. There is currently no proposal to extend this ban to 21.

The government said preliminary legal advice suggests Ireland cannot pursue a “smokefree-generation” policy as suggested in other jurisdictions because of the EU’s single market rules and tobacco products directive.

China has accused U.S. President Joe Biden of slapping new tariffs on Beijing as part of his re-election campaign and threatened retaliation.

“The U.S. should immediately correct its wrong practices and cancel the additional tariffs imposed on China,’’ a statement from the Beijing Ministry of Commerce said.

China would “take resolute measures to defend its own rights and interests after the U.S. decided to take this step due to domestic political considerations.’’

The U.S. is increasing tariffs on electric cars from China from 25 per cent to 100 per cent as part of a crackdown on Chinese imports of solar cells and semiconductors.

Harbour cranes and certain medical products were also affected.

The official Chinese state news agency Xinhua added.

“The newly announced tariff increase is mainly a symbolic gesture by which the Biden administration is trying to play tough with China amid the increasingly fierce election campaign for the presidential candidacy,’’ it stated.

The current tariffs, first introduced by former U.S. president and current Biden challenger Donald Trump in 2018, have now been increased by the Biden administration.

The Biden administration effectively kept Chinese vehicles out of the U.S. car market.

The Chinese state broadcaster CCTV spoke of an abuse of trade protectionism measured by the U.S. which would seriously hinder the modernisation of the U.S. car industry.

CCTV said negative effects on consumers are also to be expected, adding that the moves would also undermine global efforts to combat climate change.

The U.S. presidential election is coming up in November.

Rescue crews in Mumbai, India’s financial epicentre, on Tuesday, deployed excavators to clear tangled metal debris in their desperate search for survivors trapped beneath a collapsed billboard.

The tragic incident claimed the lives of at least 14 individuals late Monday.

According to Reuters, the billboard, bigger than an Olympic-sized swimming pool, crushed a fuel station, homes and cars during a thunderstorm late Monday, trapping more than 100 people, according to authorities.

Rescuers worked through the night to pull people from the debris on the side of a busy arterial road in the Mumbai suburb of Ghatkopar.

Some 75 wounded were rescued and 14 bodies found, the city’s civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, said.

“The operation was very challenging due to the weight of the structure and the presence of flammable liquid and gas at the site,” Mohsen Shahedi, a senior National Disaster Response Force officer, told the agency.

Shahedi said the rescue operation was nearly over except for one last sweeping search.

“We believe there is no one else stuck under the debris,” he said.

Videos captured the towering billboard swaying in the wind before succumbing to a dust storm and rainfall, which besieged the city. The chaos brought traffic to a halt and caused flight disruptions at Mumbai airport.

BMC revealed that the agency responsible for the billboard lacked the necessary permit, as stated in their official announcement.

The billboard spanned approximately 1,338 square meters (14,400 square feet), a staggering nine times larger than the maximum allowable size.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has threatened a nationwide strike.

The union decried the failure of the Federal Government to appoint Governing Councils for Federal Universities.

The union also faulted what it described as the nonchalant attitude of the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government to matters pertaining to academics in Nigerian Federal Universities. The body of academics, during an ongoing press briefing at the University of Abuja, also faulted the 35 per cent salary increment for professors and the 25 per cent salary increment for other academics in the university system.

The body said it saw the increment as a wage award that could be withdrawn by the government anytime it deems fit.

Speaking during the ongoing briefing, the President of the union, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke noted that it has given the Tinubu-led government enough time to set things in motion.

Osodeke noted that the union was also concerned over the failure of the Federal Government to appoint members of Governing Councils for Federal owned universities.
Osodeke also noted that the dissolution of the governing councils was illegal as it was against the principles guiding the existing universities.

The National Universities Commission had, on June 22, 2023, announced the dissolution of governing councils of all federal universities and boards of other agencies and parastatals in the country.
The NUC directive was based on a similar one three days earlier by President Bola Tinubu ordering the dissolution of the boards of all government parastatals, agencies and companies.

A man who was arrested in Edo State for dressing his four-year-old girl in skimpy dresses to dance inappropriately on social media has revealed his motives.

According to him, he dressed her in skimpy dresses and posted the content on her Instagram page in anticipation of her upcoming birthday.

He said part of the strategy was to make his daughter a celebrity.

The father, simply identified as Suleiman, was arrested on Sunday after the controversial posts went viral, sparking outrage and concern for the child’s well-being.

In a video released by the state police command and sighted by PUNCH Online on Tuesday, the father said, “I am used to watching other people’s content creation; comedy, and those other people, so I think that she is too small, so she cannot be doing comedy, so I decided to bring her up in a model way, to be dressing like a model, and to look like a model.”

When pressed further about the appropriateness of his actions, the father revealed his intentions. “This month is her birthday, May 28. So, I wanted to mark her birthday bash on her Instagram.:

The police officer interrogating the father then questioned the morality of his actions, asking, “So, do you think you have done a good thing to the life of that young girl?”

The father responded, “To my understanding, I want her to become a celebrity.”

The incident sparked widespread concern and condemnation from child protection advocates and the public, raising questions about the exploitation of minors as the child, in many videos, has been seen with her father dancing inappropriately among many other things.

The police statement released after the father’s arrest read, “The Edo State Police Command is aware of the trending video of a child of about four years old conspicuously naked and used as adult content in an undisclosed hotel in Auchi, Edo State.

“The Commissioner of Police Edo State Command, CP Funsho Adegboye, immediately drafted a tactical team to go all out and arrest the suspect and his cohort.

“Within 12 hours, the father of the girl was arrested, investigation has commenced further revelation will be made known to the public.”

Gombe State High Court has convicted and sentenced the duo of Abdulwahab Magaji and Salihu Musa to nine years imprisonment for employment fraud and intent to defraud.

Magaji faced a one-count charge of employment scam while Musa was arraigned on two-count charges of intent to defraud and conspiracy by the Gombe Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The charge against Magaji reads: “That you Abdulwahab Adamu Magaji and Adamu Usman between January and December 2023 within the jurisdiction of this honourable court obtained the aggregate sum of Seven million and eight hundred thousand Naira, N7,800,000, only from one Hajia Hauwa Ali which you claimed was payment for the offer of an employment at the Ministry of Health in Gombe, Gombe State and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 320 of the Penal Code Law and Punishable under Section 322 of the same Law.”

One of the charges against Musa reads: “That you Salihu Musa sometime in January 2023 at Gombe, Gombe State within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, with intent to defraud, made false documents, to wit: Bank of America ATM card with card No 4658656032040012, Australia New Zealand Bank Debit card, etc, which you knew to be false document and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 362 of the penal code law and punishable under Section 364 of the same law.”

The EFCC in a statement on its official X handle said the defendants pleaded guilty when the charges were read to them, prompting prosecution counsel S.E Okemini to pray the court to convict and sentence them accordingly, while defence counsel, I.S Gadah and U.M Mojaji pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy, stating that the defendants were first-time offenders.

Delivering the judgement Justice Abdulhamid Yakubu convicted and sentenced Musa to six years imprisonment with an option to pay a N60,000 fine.

He also forfeited an iPhone S6 being the tool of his crime to the federal government while Magaji bagged three years imprisonment or a fine of N30,000.

The judge also ordered Magaji to pay N7,800,000 (Seven Million, Eight Hundred Thousand Naira, the proceeds of his crime to his victim within three months, beginning from May 2024.

The Plateau State Police Command has confirmed the arrest of a man caught with what looked like an Improvised Explosive Device inside a commercial Bank in Plateau State.

DAILY POST reported that a video on Monday surfaced of a young man caught attempting to detonate a bomb in a bank in Dadin Kowa town of Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State.

Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency expert and security analyst in Lake Chad, in a post on his X handle on Tuesday, said the yet-to-be-identified man wore belts packed with what appeared to be a Person Borne Improvised Explosive Device (SPBIED).

Makama had said the suspect was apprehended on Monday when he was found with an apparent bomb strapped to his body to detonate at the bank.

The security expert explained that the vigilante Security at the bank prevented the detonation after they spotted the suspect, arresting him before he could achieve his aim.

Confirming the incident on Tuesday, the State Police, DSP Alfred Alabo, said the command immediately deployed its officers to the Bank after an alarm was raised.

According to him, it was later discovered that the explosives seen on the young man were fake.

The Lagos State Police Command has announced the arrest of about 428 suspects from different black spots across the state.

The State Police Spokesperson, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, made this known in a statement on Monday.

According to him, the suspects were arrested at Fagba, Orile, Mile-2, Oshodi, Dopemu, Alausa, Ijora Badia, among other places.

He further stated that after screening, the suspects, who were found not culpable were released, while others would be charged to court.

No fewer than 2,500 suspected criminals have been arrested in the last four months through the massive raid of black spots in Lagos State.

The Kaduna State command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, said it confiscated 425,127kg of illicit drugs in April.

The state NDLEA Commander, Mr Samaila Danmalam, who revealed this, said the 71 suspects were arrested in connection with various drug crimes.

He listed the seized drugs to include cannabis sativa, cocaine, rohypnol, methamphetamine and heroin.

According to him, the agency dislodged 10 drug joints, secured seven convictions and arraigned six suspects within the period under review.

The commander said numerous enlightenment programmes against drug abuse were conducted under the agency’s non kinetic approach to combat drug crimes.

Danmalam attributed the success recorded to synergy with sister agencies, traditional rulers, community heads and the media, calling for more support and cooperation to make the state drug free.