Author: The Nation

By Frank Ikpefan

Coalition of Benue State Civil Society for Peace and Good Governance has faulted the claim that over 70 people were killed in the Konshisha Local Government Area of the state by men of the Nigerian Army.

While exonerating the Nigerian Army of any wrongdoings in the area, the CSOs insisted that contrary to claims by a faceless group, the Army had carried out its operation in line with its rules of engagement.

The group said its position came after it carried out an independent on-the-spot and fact-finding assessment of the troubled area.

The army is currently undergoing operation in the area to recover arms carted away by some criminal elements that killed 11 of its personnel on lawful duty last week.

The group, in a statement by its National Chairman, Dr Elijah Shima and National Secretary, Rev Tergnu Nyamvia, urged the Army to sustain the onslaught and recover the missing arms.

The coalition described the group, Shangev-Tiv Assembly Club House, Gungul which it noted had raised the alarm of killings of 70 locals by men of the Nigerian Army in Konshisha as not only faceless but also a mouthpiece of the late militia leader, Gana’s group.

“As civil society organisations working for peace in Benue State and other parts of the North Central states we are worried about the reports circulating on social media and other media platforms by one group under the name-Shangev-Tiv Assembly (STA) Club House, Gungula group which claimed to be in Konshisha Local Government Area of the state,” it said.

The coalition added: “This faceless and unpatriotic group made several spurious and wide allegations of human rights violations against the Nigerian Army. They went further to claim that 70 people were killed.

“In line with our mandate, we proceeded to the local government area and visited most of the affected villages to ascertain the veracity of this information before making our findings known to the general public.

“Surprisingly, after several enquiries from locals and elites in the affected local government, we discovered that there is no group with such a name.

“We  suspect that the so-called Shangev-Tiv Assembly (STA) Club House, Gungul, is the media department of the late Gana-led militia group, whose foot soldiers killed 11 of our gallant troops in cold blood.

“Having gone round the troubled area to ascertain things for ourselves,  we can state that apart from bad elements that were killed during engagement with the troops, no innocent person was killed.

“We appeal to the Nigerian Army to sustain the onslaught against these criminal elements.”

By Frank Ikpefan, Abuja

Without the presence of corps members, the health and education sectors would have collapsed, Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig-Gen. Shuaibu Ibrahim has said.

Ibrahim said corps members posted to rural areas are holding the schools and hospitals in the country.

The D-G spoke at the opening ceremony of the 2021 NYSC management’s meeting with representatives of state governments, FCT administration and local government councils in Abuja.

Ibrahim appealed to Nigerians to shun conflicts and crisis and embrace unity for the sake of the country.

Ibrahim said corps members would soon commence a sensitisation programme to enlighten Nigerians on the need to embrace unity.

He said the essence of the meeting was to identify challenges affecting the scheme and chart ways to sort them out, stressing that every sector needs the presence of corps members.

Ibrahim said: “Without the NYSC and corps members, the education and health systems would collapse. In the rural areas, they are the ones holding the schools and hospitals.”

Appreciating state governments and other stakeholders for the impact they have made in upgrading the facilities in orientation camps among others, he also called on those who are yet to assist the scheme to rise up to their responsibilities.

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Muhammad Bello called on stakeholders to continue to support the scheme for the successful discharge of its mandate.

Bello said the FCT administration would not relent in carrying out its responsibilities by upgrading the facilities of the FCT Camp in Kubwa through the provision of security and welfare for the corps members.

Speaking through the Acting Secretary, Area Council Secretariat, Mrs Omolola Olanikpekun commended the corps members for their interventions in various sectors in the FCT.

By Fanen Ihyongo, Kano

The Kano State government yesterday accused the former governor of the state, Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso of leaving behind a liability of N54.4 billion for the five kilometre road projects across the 44 local government areas of the state.

This was disclosed by the Commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba, while briefing reporters on the outcome of the State Executive Council (SEC) meeting at Africa House, Kano.

Garba revealed that the council has received the report of the Technical Committee to assess the five km road projects which were awarded by the Kwankwaso administration.

It was gathered that the local government road projects were awarded under the defunct Ministry of Land and Physical Planning, with the state Urban Planning and Development Authority (KNUPDA) as a supervising agency.

The Information Commissioner said five km road projects in three local government areas were revoked and re-awarded in Warawa, Ungogo and Dawakin Tofa due to non-performance.

“Some portions of the projects in Tsanyawa and Bichi along Kano-Katsina Road were released to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing based on a request from the Federal Government.

“The metropolitan local government areas of Dala, Nassarawa, Gwale, Municipal and Tarauni were allotted various projects within the municipality as five km projects,” Garba said.

He added that the Council has approved the release of N607.1 million for the rehabilitation of Rimin Gado-Sabon Fegi-Jilli-Gulu Road in Rimin Gado Local Government  Area.

By AbdulGafar Alabelewe, Kaduna

Action Alliance Party (AAP) has washed its hand of any plan to inaugurate what it called ‘a non-existent EXCO’ of the party by expelled National Chairman of the Party, Kenneth Udeze.

The National Chairman of Action Alliance, Adekunle Rufai OmoAje stated this in a statement made available to reporters in Kaduna yesterday.

The statement said the expelled Chairman’s odyssey is futile for the reason that he has been suspended from the party since August 2019 and expelled from the party in 2020. Hence, he is not a member of the Action Alliance.

The statement further said the kangaroo executive, he latched on to commit all sorts of atrocities seized to exist since his suspension and expulsion from the party.

“In his desperation, he sued the party in 13 different courts all over Nigeria. He lost nine while all the rest has become an academic exercise.

“He continues to try and correspond with  the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for which he meets a resounding no because he has no such authority as he has no official status with the umpire who knows those in charge of each political parties in Nigeria and Kenneth Udeze is not one of them.

“We, therefore, wish to inform the public that Kenneth Udeze is not a member of Action Alliance, let alone being the chairman.

“Members of the public are hereby warned that they should not allow Kenneth Udeze to scam them as that is his modus operandi.  Anyone paying monies to Kenneth Udeze to contest any election, does so at his or her own risk,” the statement said.

Displaced Ebira farmers in Ekiti State have appealed to President Mohammed Buhari, Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello and well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on Governor Kayode Fayemi to have a rethink over their exclusion from those to be compensated following the acquisition of their lands for the Ekiti airport project.

The Kogi farmers of Ebira descent, who, for generations, have lived in neighbouring Ekiti State, made the appeal following the alleged demolition of their residences and destruction of the farms by the company handling the airport project.

While the Ekiti airport project predates the current government, the Dr Kayode Fayemi-led administration in 2020 commenced with the fencing of the land acquired for the project.

One of the aggrieved Ebira farmers and Youth Leader in Bolorunduro, Ado-Ekiti Local Government Area Isa Sa’ed claimed that their farmlands formed part of the 40,000 acres acquired by the government for the airport project.

He said: “The government acquired over 40,000 acres of land and our farmlands were within the area the government acquired for the project.

“When they started fencing the land last year, we asked them what will be the fate of farmers using the land and they told us that there will be no problem and that whenever it is time to commence work on the construction of the airport, the farmers will be given prior notice and we stood by that assurance and started cultivating our portion of the land, and we have planted yams, cassava, cocoa yam and even pepper.

“But, to our surprise, just last month, the company handling the project rolled out their earth moving equipment, and started demolishing our houses and destroying our crops.

“The Ebira people farming in this community have lived here for over 100 years. Our great grandfathers settled in this community to earn a living through farming, and many of us were born and brought up in this community.

“We are aware that if the government is embarking on such project, the occupants of the land will be compensated and relocated, and to that effect, we heard over the radio that the state government has released N500 million for compensation to the affected farmers in the community.

“But to our surprise, when the Ekiti State Deputy Governor came to the community a few months ago to inspect the location of the airport, we tried to tender our complaint but he did not give us attention, because the compensation was limited to economic trees such as cocoa, palm trees, banana, kola nut and orange farmers.

“The Ebira people who farm yam, cassava, cocoyam and other cash crops were not part of the compensation and relocation.

“Some of our houses have been demolished without compensation. Already, we are in a state of confusion because we have families to cater for and our means of livelihood have been destroyed, while we watch helplessly because we don’t have anybody to assist us to talk to the state government.

“As farmers, we contribute to the economic growth of the state. We pay tax regularly and we give an honorarium to the traditional institutions in the state yearly.

“Therefore, we are appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, to prevail on Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi to compensate us for what we have lost as a result of the construction of the airport at Bolorunduro community where we have lived for many decades, to contribute our quota to food availability in the country.

“I met the traditional rulers in the local government, but nothing good resulted from the meeting.

“Many of our people affected by the construction work are now in precarious situations, as we don’t know where to go and what to do. That is why we are pleading and appealing to appropriate authorities to come to our aid.”

A group known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (Doctors without Borders) has disclosed that it is taking care of patients suffering from measles in and around Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

It noted that the first child affected by measles was admitted to Gwange Paediatric Hospital on December 3, 2020, adding that since then, the number of patients has been increasing in Maiduguri hospitals. This was disclosed by MSF Head of Mission David Thérond.

“A vaccination campaign is required to see the number of cases decrease,” he said.

Continuing, Thérond said: “So far, a total of 1,158 children with measles have been received in Gwange Paediatric Hospital in Maiduguri from January 1 to April 3, 2021 out of which figure 58 per cent has come from Zabarmari, a small town located about 20 km from Maiduguri.

“In response, MSF strengthened the hospitalisation capacity in both Gwange and Fori health facilities, increasing the number of beds from 65 to 105 in Gwange.

“MSF has also launched activities in partnership with the health authorities in the town of Zabarmari, one of the most affected areas which have an estimated population of over 45,000 people, including displaced families in host community.

“Given that access to Zabarmari remains a challenge, due to the volatile context, MSF has set up a local team comprising 10 community health workers and nurses.”

Borno State has had incidents of the measles epidemic every two years over the past decade. During the measles outbreak in 2019, eight local government areas of Borno State were affected and MSF provided care to 4,000 children in Gwange and Bama hospitals.

On what contributed to the outbreak, the group noted that “several factors contributed to the epidemic. This included the fact that the routine vaccination was not carried out in many locations because over 60 per cent of health centres, according to health authorities, are closed or unable to function properly because of the conflict.”

Kubura Mohammed, a mother of seven children, is from Zabarmari. She is in the paediatric hospital with her four-year-old daughter, Kaltume Hafisu, who has been diagnosed of measles.

“My daughter has been ill for six days before I brought her to the hospital. The medical team was all around my daughter throughout our first night because her condition was critical. Her treatment commenced from the moment she was admitted and this included blood transfusion and the administration of intravenous fluids.

“The care we are receiving here is completely free. We appreciate what MSF is doing in our community. About two weeks ago, one of my daughters was also treated of measles in this hospital,” she said,” Thérond said.