EU Proposes Five Billion Euros In Financial Aid To Ukraine

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed financial aid to Ukraine,to the sum of five billion euros in the latest instalment of a promised nine-billion-euro rescue package wgich was agreed upon by EU leaders in May.

“The situation in Ukraine requires our full support,” the commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a tweet announcing the emergency loans to Kyiv.

A European diplomat said the rescue was part of the $39 billion in aid promised by the G7 group of nations to prop up Ukraine’s battered public coffers.

Firefighters search in the rubble after an apartment was hit by a missile strike in Kharkiv, on September 6, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by SERGEY BOBOK / AFP)

Firefighters extinguish a fire after an apartment was hit

The operatives came in about 20 vehicles in what a witness described as a commando-styled operation.

“They ransacked the house and carted away documents, phones and laptops. Those in the house were ordered to sign a document which they did not read before the officers took it back,” the witness said.

Daily Trust gathered that after raiding his house, they also went to his office in Kaduna.

Freed victims of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack converged on Mamu’s office before reuniting with their families.

Security sources said Mamu was arrested for his alleged involvement in collecting ransom and taking same to terrorists in exchange for kidnapped victims.

Daily Trust had reported how Mamu was arrested at Malam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano on Wednesday afternoon.

The Kaduna-based published who was first arrested in Egypt was detained for 24 hours before he was flown back to Nigeria.

Daily Trust observed that while the Egypt Air aircraft, which conveyed him and his family members, touched down in Kano around 1:55pm, he was immediately picked up.

DSS operatives were stationed at the entrance of the international wing of the airport several minutes before the aircraft landed.

Heavily armed operatives who were also in company of others dressed in mufti, were on guard at the entrance of the arrival section of the international wing of the airport where three vehicles – two hilux and one hiace- with Kano number plates parked by the entrance.

As passengers began to file out from the arrival section, one of the hilux moved forward while the luggage, presumably of Mamu and his family members. The luggage were loaded in one of the vehicles while the one which picked Mamu zoomed off.

In a statement, DSS Spokesman, Peter Afunanya, confirmed Mamu’s arrest, saying the agency was grilling him over security issues.

“The Department of State Services (DSS) has been inundated with enquires in respect of the arrest or otherwise of Tukur Mamu, the self-acclaimed Kaduna Train hostage negotiator. This is to confirm that Manu, as a person of interest, was intercepted by Nigeria’s foreign partners at Cairo, Egypt on 6th September, 2022 while on his way to Saudi Arabia.“He has since been returned to the country, today, 7th September, 2022 and taken into the Service’s custody. The act followed a request by Nigeria’s Military, Law Enforcement and Intelligence Community to their foreign partners to bring back Mamu to the country to answer critical questions on ongoing investigations relating to some security matters in parts of the country. The public may wish to note that the law will appropriately take its course.”

(Daily Trust)