The Presidency, on Saturday, said President Muhammadu Buhari’s extended family was bereaved of two members in quick succession.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, announced this in a statement made available to journalists.

“President Muhammadu Buhari’s extended family has been struck by the loss of two senior members who died within a few hours of each other,” the presidential spokesman said.

Shehu identified one of the deceased as Hajiya Halima Dauda.

He said the deceased, who was buried in Daura on Saturday morning, was the President’s niece and younger sister to his close associate and nephew, Mamman Daura.

“She died at about the age of 56, leaving behind 10 children, four of them male and six female, including one of President Buhari’s Personal Assistants, Mohammed Sabi’u Tunde,” he added.

Shehu added that the Buhari family had, earlier on Friday, buried another relative, Hajiya Ai’sha Alhaji Mamman, who died same day.

He identified the second deceased as the wife of the President’s older brother, Alhaji Mamman.

He said the burial was attended by a Federal Government delegation led by the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari.

Meanwhile, former Vice President Abubakar Atiku, has commiserated with Buhari over the death of his sister-in-law, Hajiya Aisha Mamman.

In a statement on his Twitter handle on Saturday, Atiku also commiserated with the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, over the demise of his father and World War II Veteran, Malam Yusuf Buratai.

Source: Punch

Coordinator of the Benue State chapter of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), an umbrella body of Fulani herdsmen in Nigerian, Alhaji Garius Gololo, has revealed why his people worship cows.

Speaking in an interview with Saturday Sun, Gololo said apart from God, herdsmen also worship whatever is their major source of livelihood.

“Why won’t you worship what you are gaining from? They worship God, but they depend on their cow. If you want to marry, it’s from that cow; if you are going to the hospital, it’s from that cow, if you want to eat, it’s from that cow.

“So, for people to say Fulani worship cows, its clear; they must, because it’s from it they eke a living. Fulani does not need road, they don’t need electricity, and they don’t need a big house. They live with the cow. But now in Nigeria, not only Benue, people are against herdsmen.

“In a place like Zamfara, it’s not herdsmen; it is criminals versus criminals. Recently, I was in Zamfara when they fought. There are no more herdsmen in Zamfara because they all ran away with the cattle as a result of incessant attacks after the return of a notorious criminal and members of his gang who terrorized them.

“But whenever anything happens, they say it’s Fulani. The point is that they are against the Federal Government, not the ordinary Fulani. Because the president is a Fulani and most Nigerians are against him, anything that happens, they say it’s Fulani.” Gololo said.

Asked why they kill anybody who attacks their cows, Gololo said, “It is not easy for any human being to kill. Nobody wants to kill a fellow human being. But it is not even the Fulani that are involved in some of the killings they are accusing them.

“If what happened recently in Gboko was the other way round, the whole world would have heard it. I’m yet to see the human rights people; nobody is talking about it because Fulani do not have anybody to speak for them.”

The management of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, is yet to come to terms with an explanation by an official in the Makurdi, Benue office of the Board that proceeds from the sale of admission scratch cards in the state, totaling N36million have been swallowed from the cash vault by a mystery snake that comes in the night.

The mystery snake was said to have sneaked into the account office of the Board in Makurdi and made away with the N36 million cash a number of times. JAMB candidates hitherto purchased scratch cards from JAMB state offices and other designated centers, to gain access to the Board’s website for either registration or to check their admission status.

The witchdoctor steps in

But the reforms introduced by JAMB registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, when he assumed office in 2016, recommended an end to the use of scratch cards, replacing it with more efficient and effective platforms.

To streamline its operations, Saturday Sun learnt, a team of auditors was dispatched to different state offices of JAMB to take inventory of the sold and unsold scratch cards and recover whatever money that might have either been generated or mismanaged during the period of the sale of scratch cards.

As they hit the ground running, several incredible discoveries were made in different states visited. But the case of Makurdi office of JAMB revealed a shocker to all. A sales clerk, Philomina Chieshe, told JAMB registrar and his team that she could not account for N36 million she made in previous years before the abolition of scratch cards.

In the course of interrogation, Philomena denied the allegations that she stole the money. She however confessed that it was her housemaid that connived with another JAMB staff, Joan Asen, to “spiritually” steal the money from the vault in the account office.

She said: “I was one of the four sales clerks attached to JAMB office in Makurdi. My responsibility was to sell scratch cards to candidates and not involved in handling the revenues. It was the responsibility of Joan Asen and my other senior colleagues. I only remit money when am done selling the cards.

“Few months ago, there was issue of fraud in the Makurdi office. Auditors were sent from Abuja to carefully flip the record books of the office, to perhaps, ascertain the current state of affairs.

“The state Coordinator, Obilo, was not around when the audit team came. But in the course of the audit, N36 million was discovered to have been missing from the account. An investigation was launched. In the course of the investigation, it was discovered that Joan Asen, who is account staff and a lady outside JAMB have connived to steal the money.”

How the mystery snake swallowed millions

Philomina in her confessional statement said that Joan Asen and her accomplices confessed that they have been stealing the money “spiritually” through a mysterious snake that always sneak into the office to swallow the money from the vault.

According to her “It was a mystery to me too. I have been saving the money in the bank, but I found it difficult to account for it. So I started saving it in a vault in the office. But each time I open the vault, I will find nothing. I became worried and surprised how the millions of Naira could be disappearing from the vault. I began to interrogate everybody in the house and office, and no one could agree on what might have happened to the money. I continued to press until my housemaid confessed. She said that the money disappeared “spiritually”. She said that a “mysterious snake” sneaked into the house and swallowed the money in the vault.”

The Oyo State Police Command on February 8th, paraded four suspects, who were nabbed with human parts in the Ayegun area of Ibadan.

The suspects includes an Islamic cleric, (Alfa) Sulaiman Hamed, 35, Tope Akinyele, 45, who claimed to be the pastor of a church in Ojagbo, in the Oranyan area of Ibadan and and two other accomplices, Olapade Saheed, 32, and Olatunji Abiodun, 26.

While briefing newsmen at the Command headquarters, the state Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Odude, stated that the Alfa, participated in the Fidau prayers for a dead man but later paid Saheed and Abiodun N2,500, to exhume the corpse because he needed the body parts for making money charm for his clients.

Saheed and Abiodun were later caught with the deceased’s head and other body parts, leading to the arrest of Hamed and Akinyele.

“Someone introduced Saheed and Abiodun to me. I gave them N2,500 to help me find human flesh. We all met at Ayegun junction, Ibadan,” said the Alfa.

“Around 10 pm , I took them to a grave where a body that was brought from Warri , Delta State, was buried. I took part in the prayers for the deceased before he was buried. I left them ( Saheed and Abiodun) there, but they refused to let me go. They said they wanted to sleep in my house that night. I got them a place close to my house.

“In the early hours of the second day, they came to me with a cellophane bag. I did not check what was inside, but I hanged it on the wall of my house. I was on my way to my office in Ile-Tuntun when I saw them in the midst of a crowd with a human head.

“I use human flesh to make money ritual for people and I pay N2 ,500 for the flesh. In this case , the charm was for myself . I did not ask them to cut off the head and it was not in my possession when the police came.”

Saheed admitted that the Alfa paid them N1,500 to do the job and that he took them to the grave of the deceased.

“Alfa called us for a job at Ayegun. When we got there, he showed us a grave three houses away from his house. After we finished the job, he took what he needed from the remains of the dead man and asked us to dispose of the rest.

“We left early in the morning. But on our way , a local vigilance group stopped us and asked what was in the bag we carried. They beat us up after realising that there was a human head and other body parts in the bag. The police later came to arrest us,” he said.