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Top US General Says Afghan Collapse Can Be Traced To Trump-Taliban Deal
Top US general says Afghan collapse can be traced to Trump-Taliban deal
The collapse of the Afghan government and its security forces can be traced to a 2020 agreement between the Taliban and the Trump administration that promised a complete US troop withdrawal, senior Pentagon officials have told Congress.
Gen Frank McKenzie, the head of central command, told the House armed services committee that once the US troop presence was pushed below 2,500 as part of President Joe Biden’s decision in April to complete a total withdrawal by September, the unraveling of the US-backed Afghan government accelerated.
“The signing of the Doha agreement had a really pernicious effect on the government of Afghanistan and on its military, psychological more than anything else, but we set a date – certain for when we were going to leave and when they could expect all assistance to end,” McKenzie said.
He was referring to a 29 February 2020, agreement that the Trump administration signed with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, in which the US promised to fully withdraw its troops by May 2021 and the Taliban committed to several conditions, including stopping attacks on American and coalition forces. The stated objective was to promote a peace negotiation between the Taliban and the Afghan government, but that diplomatic effort never gained traction before Biden took office in January.
McKenzie said he also had believed “for quite a while” that if the United States reduced the number of its military advisers in Afghanistan below 2,500, the Kabul government inevitably would collapse and that “the military would follow”. He said in addition to the morale-depleting effects of the Doha agreement, the troop reduction ordered by Biden in April was “the other nail in the coffin” for the 20-year war effort because it blinded the US military to conditions inside the Afghan army, “because our advisers were no longer down there with those units”.
Defense secretary Lloyd Austin, testifying alongside McKenzie, said he agreed with McKenzie’s analysis. He added that the Doha agreement also committed the United States to ending airstrikes against the Taliban, “so the Taliban got stronger, they increased their offensive operations against the Afghan security forces, and the Afghans were losing a lot of people on a weekly basis”.
Wednesday’s hearing was politically charged, with Republicans seeking to cast Biden as wrongheaded on Afghanistan, and Democrats pointing to what they called ill-advised decisions during the Trump years.
Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, had said a day earlier in a similar hearing in the Senate that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was a “strategic failure”, and he repeated that on Wednesday.
Milley told the Senate committee, when pressed Tuesday, that it had been his personal opinion that at least 2,500 US troops were needed to guard against a collapse of the Kabul government and a return to Taliban rule.
Defying US intelligence assessments, the Afghan government and its US-trained army collapsed in mid-August, allowing the Taliban, which had ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, to capture Kabul with as a couple of hundred men on motorcycles, without a shot being fired, as Milley described it. That triggered a frantic US effort to evacuate American civilians, Afghan allies and others from Kabul airport.
This week’s House and Senate hearings marked the start of what is likely to be an extended congressional review of the US failures in Afghanistan, after years of limited congressional oversight of the war and the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars it consumed.
“The Republicans’ sudden interest in Afghanistan is plain old politics,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, who supported Biden’s decision to end US involvement there.
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Police foil N14m ransom payment, rescue kidnap victim, arrest suspects

A kidnap victim, Semiu Ogunniyi, who was abducted from a hotel in Ikare-Akoko, Akoko North-East Local Government Area of Ondo State, has been rescued by police operatives and local hunters.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Wilfred Afolabi, who disclosed this, revealed that one of the suspected kidnappers involved in the abduction of Ogunniyi, Muhammed Babuga, was arrested in the course of the rescue operation.
According to Afolabi, the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of N14 million for the release of the victim, after which the movement of the suspects was trailed through actionable intelligence.
The police boss disclosed that during the interception, the suspects engaged the operatives in a fierce gun duel, with several suspects sustaining gunshot injuries during the exchange of gunfire.
While speaking with newsmen at the headquarters of the state police command, Afolabi added that two suspected kidnappers, Ibrahim Umar, 25, and Paul Osanyinduro, 38, were arrested in Owo, headquarters of Owo Local Council Area of the state. Abubakar Bamoh, 30, a logistics provider for the kidnappers terrorising various parts of the South-West, was also arrested.
He said, “Command also arrested 3 suspected kidnappers who have confessed to their involvement in various kidnapping cases across the state. This operation marks yet another success in the Command’s ongoing offensive against kidnapping and violent crime in the state.
“Acting on credible intelligence regarding the activities of one Abubakar Bamoh, male, aged 30 years, an indigene of Bunza Local Government Area of Kebbi State, operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of the Command swung into action and successfully apprehended the suspect at one of the Fulani camps in Igbara-Oke, Ondo State.”
(Daily post)
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SERAP demands explanation over missing N500bn oil revenue from NNPCL

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has asked the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mr Bayo Ojulari, to immediately account for and explain the whereabouts of the N500 billion oil revenue the company allegedly failed to remit to the Federation Account between October and December 2024.
In a letter dated May 17, 2025, and signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP cited recent revelations by the World Bank which showed that out of N1.1 trillion earned from crude oil sales and other income in 2024, only N600 billion was remitted by the NNPCL, leaving a staggering N500 billion unaccounted for.
The organisation is demanding full disclosure and recovery of the missing funds, and has threatened legal action should the company fail to act within seven days.
“SERAP is writing to request you to use your good offices and leadership position to promptly account for and explain the whereabouts of the missing N500 billion, which the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited failed to remit to the Federation Account,” the letter stated.JAMB’s
SERAP also urged Ojulari to identify and surcharge those responsible for the missing funds and hand them over to anti-graft agencies for investigation and prosecution.
“SERAP urges you to promptly identify those suspected to be responsible for the alleged missing oil money, surcharge them for the full amount involved, and hand them over to the ICPC and the EFCC,” the group wrote.
Citing the World Bank report, the group noted that revenue from oil sales and other sources was expected to be fully paid into the Federation Account and shared by all tiers of government, but the NNPCL failed to comply.
“Nigerians have the right to know why the NNPCL is remitting only 50 per cent of the gains generated from the removal of petrol subsidies to the Federation Account,” SERAP said.
“The failure by the NNPCL to remit the money is a grave violation of the public trust and the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution, national anti-corruption laws, and international obligations under the UN Convention against Corruption.”
SERAP warned that the alleged disappearance of such a large sum has serious implications for economic development, poverty alleviation, and the provision of basic public services at a time of national hardship.
“Despite the country’s enormous oil wealth, ordinary Nigerians have derived very little benefit from oil money primarily because of widespread grand corruption, and the entrenched culture of impunity of perpetrators,” the group added.
It stressed that the failure of the NNPCL to uphold transparency and accountability standards has worsened the country’s fiscal crisis.
“The missing oil revenue reflects a failure of NNPCL accountability more generally and is directly linked to the institution’s continuing failure to uphold the principles of transparency,” SERAP noted.
Citing paragraph 3112(ii) of the Financial Regulations 2009, the group said any public officer who fails to account for government revenue “shall be surcharged for the full amount involved and handed over to either the EFCC or the ICPC.”
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Security Operatives Nab ‘Wanted’ Kidnapper In Abuja Hajj Camp

Security operatives have reportedly arrested a wanted kidnapper at the hajj camp in Abuja.
A security source at the camp confirmed the arrest to our correspondent, on Sunday.
He said the suspect was nabbed during screening of pilgrims who were preparing to be airlifted to Saudi Arabia. He disclosed that the suspect identified as Yahaya Zango resided at Paikon -Kore in Gwagwalada area council of the FCT.
The source said security agencies had declared him wanted, following his alleged involvement in some kidnappings.
He said the suspect presented his passport alongside other Muslim contingent from Abuja who were on their way to observe this year’s hajj. “It was this afternoon during the screening at the hajj camp in airport when the DSS operatives apprehended him and whisked him away,” he said
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