Author: Platform Times Newspaper

…Child Labour, Abuse, Poverty Push  Millions Out Of School … World Children’s Day Exposes Nation Failing Its Young Daud Olatunji Thirteen-year-old Temitope Adebayo should have been in school on the morning she was found hawking around Panseke, Abeokuta. Instead, she balanced a tray of soft drinks on her head, sweating under the scorching sun, when she narrated the tragedy that pushed her out of the classroom. “I lost my mother when I was in JSS1,” she said quietly, shifting her weight as if trying to shrink from the memory. “After her death, my father could not help with my schooling.…

Hundreds of Nigerian police retirees on Wednesday staged a protest at the National Assembly complex, calling on lawmakers to remove them from the controversial Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), which they said had subjected them to years of financial hardship. The former officers, many of whom wore their old police uniforms, gathered at the main entrance of the complex, chanting solidarity songs and waving placards. Some of the messages read: “NASS: Save us and the future of our children. Exit us from CPS” and “We demand total removal from the police contributory pension.” Addressing journalists, one of the retirees said, “Today,…

The Nigerian Army has dismissed four frontline soldiers engaged in counter-insurgency operations in the North-East for allegedly disobeying standing orders. The dismissed personnel are Mukaila Mutari (22NA/88/10253), Isah Emmanuel (22NA/83/7262), Kolomo Alex (24NA/86/5151), and Ibrahim Musa (24NA/86/0885). Their dismissal, dated Monday, 17 November 2025, was  said to have been confirmed through official military channels. Photographs sighted  show the soldiers in their desert camouflage uniforms. The Army, however, has yet to disclose the specific “standing order” they reportedly flouted. A standing order in military parlance is a permanent directive issued by superior officers, remaining in effect until formally canceled or modified.…

The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA) has recorded 920 cases of gender-based violence involving male victims between November 2024 and November 2025, highlighting an increasing willingness among men to report abuse. Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, executive secretary of DSVA, disclosed this on Wednesday during the International Men’s Day celebration at the University of Lagos, Yaba, where she was represented by Damilare Adewusi, head of community engagement. She said the rise in reported cases reflects growing confidence in the state’s support systems for victims of domestic and sexual violence. “Statistics often portray men as perpetrators, yet men can also be…

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested Angel Oyeghe, the self-proclaimed archbishop and founder of Faith Healing Ministry in Warri, Delta State, over a controversial church ritual that involved spraying naira notes on a live cow. The arrest, confirmed in a statement by the EFCC on Wednesday, followed the circulation of a viral video showing several individuals under Oyeghe’s supervision engaging in the act during a church service. “The Commission is on the trail of other suspects involved, as their actions contravene Section 21 of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007,” the statement read. “Archbishop Oyeghe has…

Authorities have located the hideout of the schoolgirls abducted from Government Girls’ Comprehensive Senior Secondary School, Maga, in Kebbi State, and are closing in on the kidnappers, Senator Garba Maidoki has revealed. Maidoki, who represents Kebbi South, said on Wednesday that intelligence reports indicate the abductors are still within the district where the attack occurred. Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, he said:“We have a fair idea where the girls are, and we are sure they have not moved outside the Kebbi South Senatorial District.” The lawmaker expressed confidence that the students, believed to be about 25 in number, could…

The Ogun State Government has restated its resolve to build a cleaner, safer and more sustainable industrial ecosystem, declaring that the era of lax industrial waste practices in the state is drawing to an end. The Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Oladimeji Oresanya, said this at a two-day capacity workshop for HSE officers, waste vendors and Private Sector Participants (PSPs) in waste collection, tagged “Synergy, Standards, Solutions: Forging a New Era of Waste Management in Ogun State.” Represented by the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, Mr. Akinbode Shofela, Oresanya said effective collaboration among stakeholders, strict adherence to standards and the…

Former Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, on Wednesday declared that mass defections by governors into the All Progressives Congress (APC) will not stop what he described as an impending nationwide revolt by voters in 2027. Speaking in Jos at the unveiling of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) National Contact and Mobilisation Office, el-Rufai said Nigerians were tired of both the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), insisting that ordinary citizens—not governors—would determine the direction of the next general elections. He insisted that despite high-profile defections from the PDP to the APC, “Nigerians themselves are defecting to ADC,” adding…

Daud Olatunji Tears, fear and anger swept through Government Comprehensive Girls Secondary School, Maga in Danga Wasagu Local Government Area of Kebbi State on Wednesday as victims, grieving parents and widows relived the horror of Monday’s dawn attack in which bandits killed two staff members and abducted 26 students — 24 of whom are still missing. One of the survivors, 17-year-old SS3 student, Khadijat Lawal, narrated how she watched her two younger sisters marched away by gun-wielding attackers while she hid alone inside a dark toilet cubicle. “It was a few minutes before 5am when we heard voices trying to…

A Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced a notorious Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) commander, Hussaini Ismaila, popularly known as Mai Tangaran, to 20 years in prison after he confessed to coordinating multiple deadly attacks across Kano State. Justice Emeka Nwite, who delivered the judgment on Tuesday, said the sentence would run concurrently and would be calculated from August 31, 2017, the day Ismaila was arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS). The conviction brings closure to a case that dragged for years, following several interlocutory appeals and a trial-within-trial on the voluntariness of the…