The Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS has announced that Heads of State of its member states have agreed to raise $2.4 billion to establish a standby counter-terrorism force to address security threats within the sub-region. Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, Commissioner of Political Affairs, Peace, and Security of ECOWAS, disclosed this during the opening of a three-day consultative meeting of commandants from the three designated ECOWAS Training Centres of Excellence. Musah claimed that ECOWAS has already devised the operational protocols and idea for the force, which will be a rapid response battalion that can assault terrorist bases. The ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State has directed member nations to contribute $1 billion to launch the standby force. Ministers of Defense and Finance will meet to finalize financial arrangements. Musah applauded Nigeria’s efforts to degrade the Boko Haram terrorist group, claiming they no longer pose a threat to the country’s peace and security. Mali, which hosts one of the ECOWAS training centers, was absent from the conference, possibly due to its recent decision to leave the regional bloc. The counter-terrorism standby force was established after ECOWAS leaders, particularly Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, requested a rapid deployment mechanism to address the growing terrorist threat in West Africa.

Ukraine’s security services said Tuesday that they had foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top military and political figures. Two Ukrainian colonels accused of participating in the plot have been arrested on suspicion of treason. The Ukrainian domestic intelligence agency, the S.B.U., said in a statement that the plot had involved a network of agents — including the two colonels — that was run by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., the main successor to the K.G.B. According to the S.B.U., the agents working at Russia’s direction were tasked with identifying people close to Mr. Zelensky’s security detail who could take him hostage and later kill him.  According to the prosecutor’s office, one of the suspects acquired two drones and ammunition from Russia’s State Security Service (FSB) to pass them on to another accomplice to carry out an explosion. The SBU stated it had “foiled” the “actively developing plans” to assassinate Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian officials, including the SBU’s head, Vasyl Maliuk, and the head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov. “One of the tasks of the FSB’s agent network was to find perpetrators among the military close to the President’s security who could take the Head of State hostage and then kill him,” claimed the SBU. Zelensky has apparently endured many assassination attempts since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. A lady from the southern Ukrainian region of Mykolaiv was detained in August 2023 as part of a plot to assassinate Zelensky. She was accused of gathering intelligence about Zelensky’s upcoming visit to Mykolaiv to prepare a Russian attack to assassinate him. The SBU stated that it captured the woman “red-handed” as she attempted “to pass intelligence to the invaders.”

Activists, media stakeholders, and Nigerians have expressed outrage over the prolonged detention of Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) reporter Daniel Ojukwu. According to reports, the Director of the Nigeria Police Force-National Cyber Crime Centre, Uche Ifeanyi, Tuesday, said the bail conditions for the detained journalist had not been met. The journalist was reportedly detained following a petition related to FIJ’s coverage of alleged financial mismanagement in the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals, OSSAP-SDGs , Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire.  In one of its investigative pieces on the office, FIJ had reported how a sum of N147.1m reportedly meant for the building of classrooms and skills acquisition centre was allegedly sent to the account of a restaurant. But in an official statement on its X handle on Monday, the OSSAP-SDGs denied the allegations as “false”. FIJ’s founder, Fisayo Soyombo, criticized the prolonged detention, calling it “insane”. He reiterated the need to follow due process, stating that false publications should be addressed through legal means.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has engaged security agencies and other industry stakeholders to dismantle cartels suspected to be hoarding petrol across the country. The company said that as the nationwide supply and distribution of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, continue to improve, it has products that can last for 30 days. The Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPCL, Olufemi Soneye, therefore called on motorists to shun panic buying of the product. Soneye said the NNPC Ltd was also collaborating with relevant downstream agencies, such as the Nigeran Midstream & Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), labour unions in the sector, and security operatives to address hoarding and other unwholesome practices.  

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC is investigating 10 senior officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps NSCDC over an alleged N7.5 billion fraud. The anti-graft agency has also invited 10 contractors linked with the alleged fraud, which is reported to have involved laundering money through Bureau de Change operators. According to the Punch, EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, had on April 26, 2024, written a letter to the NSCDC CG, inviting the 10 indicted NSCDC officers for questioning. It added that the document disclosed the officers involved were scheduled to be questioned by the EFCC from May 2, 2024, onwards. The EFCC is investigating the alleged diversion of N7.5bn by contractors working with the Commandant General of the NSCDC, Ahmed Audit. The funds reportedly shared to contractors’ accounts have been identified and linked to BDC operators. During the interrogation, the contractors gave  useful statements that led to the recovery of approximately N1bn by the EFCC.

Rescue crews searched all night for scores of construction workers who had been buried in the concrete debris for almost 12 hours after a multi-story apartment complex collapsed in a South African seaside city under development. With 49 workers still buried beneath the twisted ruins of the building that collapsed on Monday afternoon, authorities announced early on Tuesday, May 7, that the number of fatalities had increased to five.  More than 100 emergency personnel and other responders were on the scene, using sniffer dogs to try to locate workers, some of whom were trapped under huge slabs of concrete that fell on them when the five-story building came down.