Indonesian authorities on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, said they have arrested four foreigners including three Nigerians for allegedly trying to smuggle drugs into the country.

The Nigerian nationals were arrested separately between January and March at Soekarno-Hatta international airport in Jakarta and several apartments in the capital, police spokesperson Trunoyudo Wisnu Andika told a news conference in Jakarta.

One of the Nigerians arrested had allegedly swallowed dozens of capsules filled with more than a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of methamphetamine.

Indonesia is a major hub for drug trafficking in Southeast Asia and has strict drug laws, with convicted smugglers sometimes executed by firing squad.

Gatot Sugeng Wibowo, chief of customs at Soekarno-Hatta, said officers arrested Malachi Onyekachukwu Umanu, a Nigerian who arrived at the airport from Ethiopia on March 5 with no suitcase or bag.

His suspicious behavior prompted officers to check his body, and an X-ray turned up some 64 capsules inside his stomach.

Authorities managed to force all the capsules, which were filled with a total of 1.07 kilograms (2.3 pounds) of crystal methamphetamine, out of his stomach within three days, Wibowo said.

Customs officers at the airport also arrested a Brazilian man, Gustavo Pinto da Silveira, shortly after he arrived from Rio de Janeiro in early January, carrying a backpack, suitcase and surfboard.

He initially refused to let officers test the contents of liquids in his luggage.

His resistance led officers to further investigate the substance, which was stored in six toiletry bottles and had a strong odor.

Lab tests confirmed the fluid was 2 liters (67.6 ounces) of liquid cocaine. Police said it was $1.3 million.

Police also arrested two other Nigerian nationals along with an Indonesian man and woman who tried to smuggle 1.04 kilograms (2.2 pounds) of crystal meth from India wrapped in lace fabric through a post office in Jakarta.

Mukti Juharsa, the police director of drug investigations in the capital, He said the suspects would be punished according to Indonesia’s strict narcotics law, with a minimum of five years’ imprisonment and a potential death sentence.

The Nigeria Labour Congress has suspended its ongoing industrial action in Imo State. NLC National President, Joe Ajaero, who confirmed this, said the suspension of the strike was due to interventions made by “highly respected and well- meaning Nigerians from within and outside Imo state.”

The NLC who noted that suspension of the industrial action was to enable residents of the state vote candidates of their choice during this Saturday’s House of Assembly elections in the state, added that they’ll resume the industrial action if the state government fails to reverse its anti- Labour policies.

The statement read;

“Due to persistent interventions by highly respected and well-meaning Nigerians from within and outside Imo State; assurances by agents of the state government to make amends; and especially, in order to have an enabling environment for citizens in the state to perform their civic duty on Saturday, March 18 by way of voting for State House of Assembly candidates of their choice, on behalf of the Nigeria Labour Congress, I hereby announce the suspension of the ongoing strike action in Imo state.

“The suspension is expected to last two weeks during which the state government or its agencies are expected to meet up with the demands of the workers in the state.

“In the event this window of opportunity is not being utilized, the Nigeria Labour Congress will be left with no choice than to resume the suspended action with more ferocity.”

Nigerians applying for passports will henceforth be charged N1000 in the country for the verification of their National Identification Number.

The announcement was made on Monday, February 13, by the Head of Corporate Communications at the National Identity Management Commission, Kayode Adegoke.

According to the NIMC, the fee is to improve the quality of service, accuracy, and speed of passport services through timely verification of NIN.

In the new framework agreed upon with the Nigerian Immigration Service, Nigerians applying for passports in Nigeria will pay N1000 for NIN verification in Nigeria, $5 in other African countries, and $15 in other countries.

He said;

“This new arrangement is in furtherance of the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy’s directive to streamline passport application, renewal, and issuance processes.

“Consequently, a NIN Verification fee would be charged for each Nigerian passport application for this service.

“NIMC and NIS have agreed on a revised applicant journey that will significantly improve the speed of passport issuance /re-issuance and reduce the traffic visiting the NIS office(s). The NIN service, fees, and the new NIS process will go live on 1st April.

“The delay in the processing of passport applications could be as a result of the integration of data between NIS and the NIMC, which also, in turn, integrate with the BVN data of applicants.”

A yet-to-be-identified woman has expressed her displeasure with the inclusion of gender-changing and explicit sexual books in school libraries for children.

The woman is seen complaining to someone in an office about the books made available to children in the library, in a video shared on social media on Friday.

She described the books as atrocious and opened one of the books that taught children how to make a baby without a male and a female but with the same gender.

She also raised another book for children aged three that teaches them about being okay in the wrong body and a book for 10-year-old children that introduces them to homos*xuality.

Four electrical contractors were brutally murdered by community members after being mistaken for cable thieves in Ekurhuleni, South Africa.

Ekurhuleni MMC for Water, Sanitation and Energy, Senzi Sibeko, who confirmed the incident in a statement on Thursday, March 9, 2023, said an investigation is now underway into the murder of the four electrical contractors.

Sibeko said the incident happened last Monday when the four were responding to a power outage in Germiston area of Ekurhuleni.

“City of Ekurhuleni electricians requested assistance from city-approved electrical contractors to assist on the site of an electrical outage in Sarel Hattingh Street, Klippoortjie AH, Germiston.

These electrical contractors were attacked by an angry mob of community members who wrongfully assumed that these contractors were cable thieves, said Sibeko.

“Despite the contractors producing their paperwork in the form of wayleaves and other documentation, the community proceeded to attack them, which tragically resulted in the death of four contractors.”

Sibeko said the ongoing investigation is led by the South African Police Service and the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department.

“It has been brought to my attention that the details of this heinous crime have been circulated to the media by a political party represented in council. I want to implore leaders of political parties to refrain from sharing information that is still subject to investigation in order to not muddy the waters and prejudice investigations underway by law-enforcement agencies,” he said.

“Equally, it is insensitive to the families of the deceased that their rights to privacy and dignity in this painful period is infringed upon for political point scoring. I want to plead with our communities and ask that you refrain from engaging in acts of violence and vigilante justice and to allow city officials or contractors in the employ of the city to do their work to ensure that communities receive the services that they deserve.”

Sibeko sent “heartfelt condolence” to the families and loved ones of the contractors who were victims of “senseless acts of violence.”

Several people have been shot dead in a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hamburg, Germany.

According to DW, a German publication, the shooting also left several victims with gunshot wounds.German media reports said the shooting at the Kingdom Hall located in the Gross Borstel district occurred at about 9:00 p.m.

“The dead all have gunshot wounds,” stated a police spokesperson.The motive for the shooting was not immediately known, said the police, and the shooter(s) yet to be identified.The Hamburg Police tweeted that the situation had been brought under control without having to fire a shot.

“Our measures and investigations are running at full speed. As soon as there is reliable information about the use in #GroßBorstel, we will inform you immediately at this point,” said the police.

“We found a lifeless person in a community centre in #GroßBorstel, which we assume could be a perpetrator. In order to rule out the involvement of other perpetrators, we carry out checks and search comprehensively.”

The police noted that “based on the current state of affairs, we assume a perpetrator. The police measures in the area are gradually being discontinued.

Investigations into the background to the crime are ongoing” and that they “have set up a reference portal to which photos and videos of the crime or relevant events in this context can be uploaded.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission says it will approach the Appeal Court on Monday for an order to allow it to reconfigure its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the March 11 elections.

On Sunday, a credible source in the commission revealed that the order was significant following an order restraining it from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until the due inspection was conducted and certified true copies of them issued.

The source, who requested anonymity, said INEC would require sufficient time to reconfigure the BVAS needed to conduct the elections that would take place on Saturday.

“The commission’s legal department is actually preparing an application to be filled in the court on Monday to seek an order for it to reconfigure its BVAS for Saturday governorship and state houses of assembly elections,” the source said.

The source explained that considering the number of BVAS required to conduct the election across states, INEC needed to reconfigure the BVAS used for the March 25 elections and deploy them to polling units for the Saturday election.

The source added that INEC technical team have to be deployed on time to commence the re-configuration of the device, which has to be done one by one.

The source explained that the order was important if the Saturday governorship and state parliamentary elections must hold as scheduled, otherwise the postponement of the election became inevitable.

On Friday, the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal granted leave to the presidential candidates of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and his Peoples Democratic Party counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, to have access to all the sensitive materials used by INEC for the conduct of the February 25 presidential election.

A panel of the appellate court led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh made the order after it heard two separate ex parte applications the two aggrieved presidential candidates filed alongside their political parties.

Specifically, the applicants urged the court to compel INEC to allow them to obtain documents it used for the presidential election to aid their petitions against the outcome of the presidential election.

“An order granting the applicants’ permission to do electronic scanning and make photocopies of voter’s registration, ballot papers used in the conduct of the election for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria held on the February 25,” said the court document.

“An order granting leave to the applicants to carry out Digital Forensic Inspection of BVAS machines used for the conduct of the February 25 election for the Office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The plaintiffs also sought an order restraining INEC “from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until due inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies of them issued.”

The court, in its consideration, ordered INEC to allow the applicants to inspect all the electoral materials used in the conduct of the presidential election.

The court permitted the appellants to do electronic scanning and or make photocopies of the voter’s registration and ballot papers used in the presidential election.

“That leave is hereby granted to the applicants to carry out digital forensic inspection of BVAS machines used for the conduct of the February 25, 2023 Election for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the court had ordered.