Category: Northern Reports

The Project Director, Momentum Country and Global Leadership (MCGL), Chioma Oduenyi, has hailed the progress being made in the fight against gender-based violence.

Oduenyi said many states are now putting in place measures to curb violence against women.

She said this during an interview at the end of a one-day interactive session with key government stakeholders and other USAID members to commemorate the 2023 International Women’s Day.

The one-day interactive discussion with the theme: “The Woman – Her future in the face of a technology fast-paced world,” was organised in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs.

Oduenyi said: “During Covid-19, when GBV was declared a shadow pandemic, there was a state of emergency declared by several states which led them to take a lot of action and I think those actions are yielding results because there has been a lot of attention to GBV issues.”

She also said there was a need for women to be key players in the technology space.

She said: “The tech industry is soaring but women are not embracing the space as they should. We talk about social and financial inclusion for women; if women don’t get involved they will be left behind.

“In a bid to ensure that women are carried along, they need to move with the time, and ensure that they are not left behind.”

A northern political organisation, North Central Patriotic Democrat, has thrown its weight behind the South-South geo-political zone to produce the next Senate President under the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu presidency.

The group particularly backed the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio to emerge the next senate president.

Akpabio was in the senate between 2015 and 2019, where he served as Senate Minority Leader.

Speaking during a press conference yesterday in Lafia, leader of the group, Musa Yahaya Azara, said the 10th Senate comprises of many opposition senators and Asiwaju needs a trusted ally as Senate President to help him stabilise the legislative arm of the government.

The group warned against a repeat of the 8th Senate, where Bukola Saraki’s senate leadership gave the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari headache in the presidency.

He said that Senator Godswill Akpabio who was Senate Minority Leader in the 8th Senate shared Tinubu’s vision of renewed hope and remains the only ranking senator from the South South who can lead the senate under Asiwaju’s presidency to take the country to greater heights.

“Akpabio, who holds the title of Dam Amana Azara, believes in Asiwaju’s vision; that is why he willingly stepped down his presidential ambition for him. It is time for him to reciprocate that gesture for the stability of the nation’s democracy.”

Musa Yahaya Azara noted that the South-South where Akpabio comes from equally gave Tinubu a good number of votes that assisted him in winning the presidential election.

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has alerted residents on the proliferation of illegal housing estates and other developments along Idu Train Station, Apo Tapi and Lugbe areas within the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).

To this end, the FCTA through the Department of Development Control (DDC) said it has already served all relevant notices and has marked the structures, which at the appropriate time; its officials are going to embark on a massive removal exercise.

DDC Director, Mukhtar Galadima, who disclosed this on Friday while briefing reporters, said the alarm became necessary, due to the rising adverts on social media by land grabbers and illegal developers of housing estates.

Galadima explained that these areas have not yet being detailed with design layout, but people are carrying fake title document that it is being allocated by AMAC.

He added that it is against the development rules and regulations for anybody, in the course of implementing his or her plan, to change it without recourse to seeking approval for the modified plan.

Galadima noted that with constitution of FCT Urban and Planning Tribunal, land grabbing and other menace will be reduced, as there would be prosecution of defaulters.

He also revealed that developers of illegal structures and land grabbers will be made to pay for the cost of demolition and afterwards be handed over to police for diligent prosecution.

“As the department of Development Control in FCT, we found it expedient to adequately inform the citizens on the need to secure building plan and approval, to enable them develop in line with what is being approved.

“We know that in the course of implementing development proposals, there are rooms for modifications and adjustments and the wisest thing to do is to resubmit the design and seek for approval before changing any aspect of the approved plan. Failure to do so is an apparition of what was really approved for the developer.

“But I would like to reiterate that all illegal developments along the Idu Train Station, Apo Tapi and Lugbe Areas, where people are busy spending money and unsuspecting Nigerians are subscribing to these housing estates, are illegal, and we have served all relevant notices. So at an appropriate time, we are going to remove them”.

David Adenuga Bauchi

MINISTER of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouk has inspected the level of work on the 54-kilometer Kirfi – Gombe – Abba road.

The Nation reports that the Federal Government had, on August 21, 2022, approved N11.6 billion for the North East Development Commission (NEDC) to execute the road.

The minister, who paid an unscheduled visit to the project site, expressed optimism that when completed, the road will become an instrument for developing the rural dwellers in the area.

She explained that the construction will open up the communities along the road, thereby boosting economic growth and enhancing social development.

According to her, the present APC federal administration is committed to the project which is expected to be completed and commissioned within the next twelve months.

She said the visit was unscheduled to enable her see the level of the work progress and give necessary advice to ensure quality delivery, adding that the road is a federal government project under the intervention of the NEDC.

APC, PDP trade words in Bauchi over alleged plot to assassinate guber candidate

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bauchi State of plotting to assassinate its gubernatorial candidate, Air Marshal Saddique Abubakar (rtrd).

The allegation comes after suspected thugs attacked the convoy of the APC’s candidate on Wednesday at Duguri village in Alkaleri Local Government Area, the hometown of the state governor, Bala Mohammed, during the continuation of his campaign rally.

One person was reportedly killed and 14 others injured in the violence that broke out when supporters of both parties clashed.

The APC made the allegation through its Director, Media, and Publicity of the Gubernatorial Campaign Council, Salisu Ahmed Barau, during a press briefing held at the NUJ Secretariat, Bauchi on Friday

It alleged that some high-profile PDP politicians in the state were behind the attacks.

Barau said, “Air Marshal Saddique Abubakar’s convoy was attacked last night (March 8, 2023) by armed thugs in Duguri, Sen. Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir’s town, during which three persons in our team were shot and wounded.”

According to him, “This is not the first time that our candidate came under gun attacks by hoodlums suspected to be sponsored by the PDP Government in Bauchi State.”

Barau added, “For instance, last month, two similar attempts were made on the life of the Air Marshal at Akuyam, the home village of PDP State Chairman when the APC visited the area on the campaign.”

Barau further alleged that the governor had at different fora, openly made public outbursts “that he was going to show his true colours to the APC leaders who are plotting his defeat, including those in Abuja.”

The Director of Media further claimed that the governor’s utterances were a “clear manifestation of their negative plans against the APC candidate”

He accused the governor of inciting youths with his public addresses, which were heard in most of his campaign tours, “notably at Dass where he publicly charged the supporters to be violent against whosoever constitutes a threat to his re-election bid.”

 “We wish to use this opportunity to tell the world that we are aware of the PDP government’s nefarious activities and desperation to cling to power at all costs by inducing electoral officers, manipulations, and violence, which we are ever ready to resist without apology.”

However, reacting, the PDP campaign council described the allegation as “spurious, unfortunate, and baffling,” adding that the party (APC) is crying Wolf where there is none.

The Director, Media and Publicity of the PDP, Yayanuwa Zainabari, who spoke to journalists, said the APC was fond of raising unnecessary alarm to attract the sympathy of the general public, adding that it has failed.

According to him, “The PDP and its gubernatorial candidate, Sen Bala Mohammed traversed all the nooks and crannies of Bauchi State on a campaign tour; throughout the tour, not a goat was killed not to talk of human beings.

“In just a few places the APC and its gubernatorial candidate, Saddique Abubakar went to; five people have been killed by their thugs. Who is trying to kill who now? We are a peaceful people and we want peace in Bauchi state.”

Civil society Organisations and Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) in Ebonyi State have raised the alarm over alleged human right abuses in the state.

The groups alleged that the state was one of the few states of the federation that has witnessed the highest cases of serial abuses of human rights, authoritarian dictatorship and downright disregard for human dignity perpetrated in virtually most cases by the government in power.

The leaders, Oko Sampson Nweke of Human Right Defenders, Chinedum Enekwachi of Coalition of United Political Parties and Monday Eze of Ebonyi First Vanguard made the accusations in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.

They noted with dismay the rising cases of killings, abductions, intimidations, harassments and flagrant suppression of the rights of Ebonyi citizens especially those in opposition political Parties.

They said: “among several others, most recent cases in point are: “the recent gruesome murder of HRH Ezeogo Christopher Igboke Ewa in his Umuezeokoha palace by unknown assailants.

“The ongoing persecution of Professor Benard Odoh, the APGA gubernatorial candidate for the 2023 elections by the State government and the harassment and intimidation of Mark Onu (a.k.a Chopper) who recently resigned his appointment as Senior Special Assistant to the governor and defected to the PDP.

“The abduction the youth leader of PDP in Nkomoro ward Ezza North LGA, Mr. Nwokpoku Sunday on the 7th March 2023.The attacks on Dr. Sunday Adol Awam, the NNPP gubernatorial candidate in Ebonyi State.”

However, the Media Aide to Governor David Umahi, Chooks Oko dismissed the group’s statement.

Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Fintiri has dismissed a rumour that he will on Thursday (today) ban operations of commercial tricycles in the state.

The rumour has created much anxiety as commercial tricycles, better known as Keke NAPEP, are currently the only means of commercial transportation within the state capital, Yola, and other major towns.

The governor who described the rumour as baseless, warned ‘mischief makers’ to desist from peddling rumour capable of disrupting peace.

The Governor said in a statement signed by his Press Secretary, Mr Humwashi Wonosikou, “The rumour making the rounds that the government intends to ban their operations from Thursday is a figment of some people’s imagination. At no time did the government contemplate the idea, but the work of mischief makers.

“Contrary to news making the rounds in certain quarters, the Adamawa State government has not banned commercial tricycles (Keke) from plying major roads either in the state capital or other cities across the state.

“I therefore urge all tricycle operators and other business owners to go about their normal businesses unhindered as no ban has been placed on Keke NAPEP riders in the State.

“We have equally directed security operatives to guard against the molestation of our citizens by hoodlums who peddle such dangerous rumour with a view to unleashing mayhem on innocent people.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Yobe State has begun the distribution of sensitive materials in the state.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner for the State, Ibrahim Abdullahi while briefing the press at the headquarters of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Damaturu yesterday said the distribution has commenced with the furthest local governments in the state.

Alhaji Abdullahi said: “the northern local governments in the state are always our priority first in the distribution of the materials because of distance.”

He also added that, all logistic arrangements for the distribution of the materials are in place for a hitch free exercise.

Speaking on the experiences in the last election, the Resident Electoral Commissioner said the commission has since observed all the errors and they will be addressed in the next election.

He urged stakeholders in the process especially, the political parties to play their constitutional role and play by the rules.

Alhaji Abdullahi commended the media for their role in the last election and urged them to keep up the spirit.