Worried by the worsening herdsmen crisis in parts of the state, the Ogun State Government has commenced the recruitment of Amotekun operatives.

In a notice on Thursday, the government asked qualified individuals interested in joining the State Security Network to submit their applications.

It also called on local vigilantes, hunters, and ex-servicemen to be members of the corps, noting that the security outfit would fortify the existing security architecture.

Governments of Oyo, Ekiti, Ogun, Lagos, Osun, Ondo had last year agreed to float the Western Nigeria Security Network codenamed Amotekun to address the security challenges confronting the region.

The Amotekun Corps had also got the constitutional backing of the six-state assemblies in the region.

While Ondo, Oyo and Ekiti states have since commenced the operations of the security outfit, governments of Osun, Ogun and Lagos had yet to begin activities.

Following a recent United Kingdom’s Supreme Court ruling against Royal Dutch Shell activities in some Niger Delta communities in Ogoniland, the Amnesty International says that the oil giant and its subsidiaries are guilty of human rights violation in the area.

BBC reported on Friday, that “the UK Supreme Court has ruled that polluted Nigerian communities can sue oil giant Shell in English courts.”

The case was earlier filed by representatives of the Bille community and the Ogale people in Ogoniland.

They had argued that their environment and lives had been polluted by oil exploration activities of the oil giant, but it was dismissed by a Court of Appeal.

Reacting to the development, Amnesty International’s director, Global Issues Programme, Mark Dummett, said that the apex court’s verdict was a welcome development and served as a moral boost for marginalized communities to seek justice.

On its part, Shell described the ruling as “a disappointing decision” while adding that the “the spills at issue happened in communities that are heavily impacted by oil theft, illegal oil refining, and the sabotage of pipelines.”

It also argued that based on its corporate social responsibility, it had played a great role in the cleaning up the area.

But countering Shell’s position, Human Rights Activist and Executive Director,Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC), Rivers State, Fyneface Dumnamene, told THE WHISTLER on Friday, that the oil giant was merely denying it is to be blamed for the pollution in the land.

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Friday asked foreign embassies in Nigeria to discountenance allegations of human rights violations made against the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai by a group known as the Eastern Rights and Intelligentsia Coalition.

HURIWA informed the foreign embassies in Nigeria that General Buratai as well as other immediate past Service Chiefs recently named as envoys by President Muhammadu Buhari, are reputable Nigerian statesmen with unblemished records of professional services rendered to Nigeria and have no case in any local or international judicial fora.

The letters to the 31 foreign embassies in Nigeria by HURIWA and AFRIRIGHTS were sent against the backdrop of earlier letters to same embassies by the Eastern Rights and intelligentsia coalition in which they reportedly canvassed the prosecution of the former Service Chiefs at the international criminal court (ICC) in the Hague, Netherlands for crimes against humanity and human rights breaches.

A statement jointly signed by the National Coordinator of HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss. Zainab Yusuf, stated that rather than recrimination and casting undue aspersions in a bid to ridicule the public standing and assassinate the character of Buratai and other former military chiefs, they deserve accolades and National awards for their undiluted services to Nigeria.

The names of the petitioned 31 key foreign missions are the Head of Delegation of EU and the Ambassadors of Netherlands, Finland, Poland, Federal Republic of Germany, France, Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Sweden.

Others are the High Commissioners of the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada and the Ambassadors of the United States, Israel, Norway, Ireland, Switzerland, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Mexico and the Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria.

Commissioner of Police, Lagos Police Command, CP Hakeem Odumosu, has said that the command would resist any gathering that would threaten the peace and lives of Lagosians.

His assertion came on the heels of the planned second wave protest tagged ‘OccupyLekkiTollGate’ at the Lekki Toll Gate, Saturday, by the Endsars agitators.

He said that the command would not tolerate a repeat of such protests in the state, noting that the country was still smarting from the impact of the last #Endsars protests.

Premised on the available intelligence and due threat analyses carried out on the planned protest, the command, according to him, perceived the proposed protest as a calculated attempt to cause pandemonium and massive destruction of lives and properties.

He said, such will not be allowed in Lagos. The Lagos State, its people and the Nigerian nation at large are still groaning in pains from the aftermath of the last Endsars violence that left many lives and properties lost. It is therefore not reasonable to allow same to repeat itself in the state’’

He also cited the Covid-19 pandemic as another reason why the planned protest would not be allowed to hold, recalling that “ four days ago, the Federal Government Task Force on Covid-19 declared that the country now has 13 variants of Covid-19 virus which makes it more deadly.

Rinu Oduala, a youth representative on the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry probing alleged killing of #EndSARS protesters by soldiers at the Lekki toll gate last October has stepped down from the panel.

She made the disclosure on Friday in a piece, ‘Let’s stay the course of justice, partial wins are not enough’.

The activist, who faulted the planned reopening of the Lekki toll gate, maintained that justice has not been served to victims of the Lekki shootings of October 20, 2020.

Correspondents had reported that the panel, last Saturday, decided to hand over the tollgate back to its operators, Lekki Concession Company, after forensic experts submitted their report on the October 20, 2020 incident.

Four members of the panel including Oduala faulted the decision of the panel but the chairman of the panel, retired Justice Doris Okuwobi, and four other members of the panel acceded to LCC’s request to repossess the toll gate.