Three children and three other persons were killed in a shooting that took place on Monday at the Covenant school, a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, according to local reports.

The shooter, described as a female who appeared to be in her teens, is also dead, said police spokesperson Don Aaron.

Local media outlets report that three of the students with gunshot wounds were pronounced dead after arrival at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the medical centre said. The shooting triggered a massive police and fire response.

All concerned parents gathered outside the school to wait for word from their loved ones. The Covenant school in Nashville, where the incident occurred, is a private Christian school for students in pre-school through the sixth grade when students are roughly 11 or 12 years old.

According to its website, the school has approximately 200 students and successfully adopted an “ active shooter “program in 2022.

Tennessee’s House Democratic caucus, in a statement, said its members are “ praying for the children and their families who were shooting victims at the Covenant School.”

The caucus chairman John Ray Clemmons said, “Our thoughts are with the families of the entire school community and surrounding neighbourhood.”

According to a CNN tally, the shooting is the 19th incident at a school or university so far this year that wounded at least one person. The Covenant school is a private Christian school founded in 2001 as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church.

The Seychelles Supreme Court has remanded a Nigerian woman arrested on conspiracy to import and traffic a controlled drug, the police said in a press release on Monday, March 27, 2023.

The police said the 52-year-old woman is being detained after she was arrested at the Seychelles International Airport on Thursday after her arrival on an Ethiopian Airline flight, SeychellesNewsAgency reported.

The arrest of the Nigerian followed a search, discovery, and seizure of 250 grammes of what is suspected to be cocaine.

The arrest comes a little less than a year after another foreign female national, Elsie Esther Vambe, 45, was sentenced to five years in prison for the importation of a controlled drug and another five years for trafficking a controlled drug.

The Zimbabwean female national was sentenced to five years in prison in April 2022 for the importation and trafficking of a controlled drug after she pleaded guilty to both offences. The sentences will run concurrently, which means Vambe will be imprisoned for five years.

Last Friday, the police said a 58-year-old businessman from Nigeria, Patrick Ikechukwu Uwaoma, was sentenced to 30 years after he was found guilty of the importation of cocaine.

Uwaoma, who was residing in the United States, was intercepted by the police and customs officers at the airport on November 20 last year. He arrived in Seychelles on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.

During a search of his luggage, the officers found a little more than 4.5 kg of cocaine. The Seychelles’ archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, has a zero-tolerance policy towards the trafficking and importation of illegal drugs. There is a maximum sentence of life in prison if found guilty.

The narcotics intelligence bureau of the CID has arrested a 32-year-old Nigerian man for smuggling Methamphetamine (crystal meth) in Chennai, India.

The accused, identified as Grant Victor Ikenna, was arrested for illegal trafficking under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, Times of India reported on Wednesday, March 22, 2023.

A special team led by AD Sakkaravarthy , DSP, nabbed the suspect near Chennai Central Railway Station entrance on Wall Tax Road on Monday and seized 59 gm of the drug worth ₹3.25 Lakh.

Preliminary investigation revealed that he had come to India on a tourist visa in 2014 that expired in 2015. However, he continued to stay here.

He had been arrested under the Foreigners Act by Perundurai police in Erode for overstaying his visa and was released on bail in October, 2022. It was further gathered that he was arrested in 2019 in connection with smuggling of drugs to Doha, Qatar which was seized at Andheri Mumbai.

Police registered a case under Sections 8(c) r/w 22(C) of the NDPS Act, 1985. Further investigation is being conducted.

Mahesh Kumar Agarwal, ADGP, said, the general public can share information of illegal sale and trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances through helpline 10581 and on Whatsapp number 9498410581 or through e-mail ID: spnibcid@gmail.com.

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett today sentenced Eric Fru Nji, age 42, of Fort Washington, Maryland, to 63 months in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for conspiracy, for transporting firearms with obliterated serial numbers, and for smuggling firearms and ammunition from the United States to Nigeria.

Judge Bennett also ordered Nji to pay a fine of $25,000. Nji was convicted of those charges on May 6, 2022, along with co-defendants Wilson Nuyila Tita, age 47, of Owings Mills, Maryland and Wilson Che Fonguh, age 41, of Bowie, Maryland, after a two-week trial.

The sentence was announced by Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland; Special Agent in Charge James C. Harris of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; and Special Agent in Charge Toni M. Crosby of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Baltimore Field Division.

According to the evidence presented at trial, from at least November 2017 through July 19, 2019, Nji and his co-defendants conspired with each other and with others to export firearms, ammunition and other military-typed items from the United States to Nigeria.

Specifically, the evidence at trial established that Nji and his co-conspirators secreted 38 firearms, 28 of which had the obliterated serial numbers in a shipping container that they sent out of the Port of Baltimore in January of 2019.

The guns included sniper rifles, SKS assault rifles (some with bayonets), other rifles and several handguns. There were 44 high-capacity magazines, two rifle scopes and over 35,000 rounds of ammunition.

As detailed in trial testimony, Nji and his co-conspirators contributed funds for the purchase of firearms, ammunition, reloading materials and other equipment for shipping overseas to separatists fighting against the Government of Cameroon.

The evidence proved that Nji and his co-conspirators concealed the firearms, ammunition, rifle scopes, and other items in duffle bags and heavily wrapped packages inside sealed compressor units, placing those items into a shipping container destined for Nigeria.

Nji and his co-conspirators communicated about their efforts and plans to ship weapons and ammunitions using an on-line encrypted messaging application and code words in order to conceal their activities.Fonguh, Tita and seven defendants charged in related cases are awaiting sentencing.

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended HSI and the ATF for their work in the investigation.

Mr. Barron recognized the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement; U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service; Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service; the Naval Criminal Investigative Service; and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service for their contributions to the investigation. U.S. Attorney Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen O. Gavin, who is prosecuting the case.

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.”