Category: Northern Reports

The wife of former Vice-President, Mrs. Titi Atiku has called on the Federal Government to end the menace of sex-for-marks affecting female students across higher institutions.

She called on members of the public to end the stigmatisation of girls who are victims of different forms of abuse in tertiary institutions.

Mrs Atiku made the call during the 2022 Queen of Nigerian Institutions Beauty Pageant in Abuja for students in tertiary institutions.

Mrs Atiku, who is the President of the Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation in Nigeria (WOTCLEF), appealed to students’ unions to support female students to speak out on the scourge of sex-for-marks, while equally protecting them from suspected lecturers.

She said: “It is very disheartening to see and know how much our female students are harassed in universities. Ladies need to learn to speak out and they cannot do this alone unless and until they get the support of fellow students who are males and union leaders to support them against these randy lecturers.

“Most importantly, our girls need to dress properly, they need to mind the way they dress.”

Deborah Omale, the keynote speaker, blamed some victims of the scourge for their woes, saying the sex-for-marks issue was triggered by lobbying for grades and quest for societal status by some female students.

Omale also blamed the quest to catch up with trends of society and needless financial pressure as factors responsible for some female students offering their bodies for marks.

“Sometimes, advantages are taken of these female students just because they ask for one or other financial assistance from the lecturers. A lot of these issues on sex-for-marks start with the ladies themselves. Most times they see themselves lobbying, they want to be financially independent through the wrong means.

“Many of them travel out of school campus to sleep with other men across other states to display wealth on campus through latest phones, wears and others. So, they don’t have time to read nor sit for tests or even exams, and in turn, they are willing and ready to offer their body for marks,” she said.

She called on the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to work with unions of female students across campuses to end the menace of sex-for-grades in universities.

Nollywood actor, Rita Edochie said the programme was instituted to crown a queen of Nigerian institutions who will stand up as a beacon of hope and voice to the voiceless in universities across Nigeria.

The Convener of the project, Mbanefo Xender said the 2022 Queen of the institutions beauty pageant was organised to fight against the sexual exploitation of vulnerable young ladies in higher institutions.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, on Saturday donated the sum of 200 Million as start-up to traders.

This is even as the Yobe State government has named the Gashua Ultra-Modern Market after him.

The governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, made the announcement at the commissioning of the market project on Saturday, according to a statement by the Special Assistant (Press) to President of the Senate, Ezrel Tabiowo, in Abuja.

Buni said, “I have the pleasure to announce to you that the Gashau modern market has been named after Distinguished Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan. The first ever President of the Senate from Yobe State and, indeed, the entire North East geo-political zone; and in recognition of his invaluable contributions to the state, and as well the exemplary working relationship he established between the executive and legislative arms of government for a developmental democracy to thrive.”

Governor Buni added that, “the Gashua ultra-modern market is 505 shops of different sizes, administrative blocks, mosques, drainage water facilities, provision for banks, fire station, and police outpost.

“The market is expected to stimulate increased economic activities that will enhance job opportunities and income generation for our people and promote internally generated revenues.”

He said the market was registered as a limited liability company with a full-fledged board of directors to be supported by management staff.

He, therefore, enjoined the board and management of the market to work to ensure good utilisation of all facilities towards the realisation of collective goals.

The Senate President, who commissioned the project, announced on behalf of his SAIL (Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan) Foundation, a donation of N200 million to traders in Bade Local Government Area.

According to him, a total of 400 traders are to benefit the sum of N500,000 each as start-up capital.

He announced that the foundation under his leadership will oversee the disbursement of the funds to local traders.

Reacting to the governor’s speech, Lawan said, “Today, we are celebrating one of those development strides you have brought to our state.

“In particular, the ultra-modern markets in the four local governments are signs of efforts by your administration to create employment opportunities, generate wealth and, of course, ensure sustainable economic development for our state.

“I commend you for this foresight; I commend you for what you have been able to do in the line of developing our state in the last three and half years.

“Your Excellency, I want to assure you that those of us representing Yobe State in the National Assembly will continue to give our maximum support to you and our administration in this state, and nothing less is expected of us.”

The Jigawa State government has denied disbursement of N193 billion in seven months to the state’s lactating women, saying the reports was a misrepresentation.

The Executive Secretary of the state Rehabilitation Board, Dr Ibrahim Rabakaya debunked the report (not The Nation) which said the state has shared over N192 billion to pregnant women and lactating mothers in the state, describing it as “distorted and misinformed”.

Rabakaya explained that “The whole annual budget of the “Cash Transfer to Pregnant Women programme” is N600 million. So I don’t know where the reporter got his story with that outrageous figure, which is higher than the state’s annual budget”.

According to him, he was misquoted by the reporter during his presentation made at a learning workshop with the Kaduna State team held in Kano State.

The ES narrated that, the “Cash Transfer” to pregnant women was initiated under the state Social Security programme aimed at tackling child malnutrition and higher rate of maternal and child mortality in the state.

He added that 20 pregnant women were selected from each of 287 political wards in the state, making a total of 5,740 beneficiaries who are receiving N4,000 monthly.

“We commenced the cash transfer in November last year 2021 and to date, we have distributed N226,740,800.00 to the beneficiaries”.

He said the state copied the cash transfer to pregnant women from the pilot project executed in three local government areas of the state by Action Against Hunger (ACF) and scaled it to all 27 LGAs.

In its determination to bring criminal trans-border trade actors to their knees in the state, the Nigeria Customs Service, Kebbi Area Command, said it seized contraband worth N61.55 million from suspected smugglers in Kebbi in the month of August.

The Customs Area Comptroller in the state, Mr Joseph Attah, made this known while addressing newsmen on the activities of the command for the month of August in Birnin Kebbi.

He said the seizure was made possible as a result of the command’s determination to bring criminal trans-border trade actors to their knees.

“The month of August was quite eventful and revealing, as the command heightened its anti-smuggling offensive against smugglers.

“We engaged in strategic meetings with traditional, political and youth leaders, with a view to gaining mutual understanding and compliance.

“While anti-smuggling operations resulted in seizures and arrests, stakeholders engagement resulted in some modest achievements in revenue generation,” he said.

Attah said the enforcement activities resulted in the seizure of 824 jerry cans of Petroleum Motor Spirit amounting to 20,600 liters and 75 bags of fertilizer.

Others are 22 bags of parboiled rice, 128 bales of second-hand clothing, 22 jerry cans of vegetable oil, one used vehicle, 54 bags of sugar and eight local canoe engines.

According to Attah, the items have a total duty paid value of N 61.5 million.

He said one suspect was arrested and later granted administrative bail.

In the area of revenue generation, Attah said the command raked in the sum of N38.2 million in August following the re-opening of Kamba border.

He called on the business community to take advantage of the re-opened Kamba border to do their trans-border businesses.

“Passing or attempt to pass goods through any other border in Kebbi apart from Kamba is still illegal as the Federal Government’s policy on border closure remains in force,” he said.

About 77 per cent of Nigerian women lack access to government credits like those in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other financial institutions, Action Aid Nigeria has said.

It said only 23 per cent of women have access to such interventions, which is low.

The organisation said its data shows that in terms of processing facilities across the 36 states and FCT, smallholder women farmers have access to only about 18 per cent and 16 per cent in terms of storage facilities.

Azubike Nwokoye, Food and Agriculture Programmes coordinator, Action Aid Nigeria and Chairman National Gender Steering Committee for the implementation of the National Gender Policy in Agriculture for Nigeria, said this in Abuja.

He made the statement when the committee paid a working visit to the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF).

He said, “For the first time in Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had come up with a gender policy in agriculture because of the large gap in terms of the variability of women across Nigeria, especially in the agricultural sector.

“Recent data by Action Aid Nigeria shows in terms of processing facilities across the 36 states and FCT, Small holder women farmers have access to only about 18%; in terms of storage facilities 16%; market access is quite low, transportation is less than 10%; 50% in terms of access to land and the access is not control. It could be leasing or renting. Ownership is just about twenty something per cent.

The Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Anthony Ojukwu SAN, said the commission will be engaging presidential aspirants on their agendas for human rights.

Ojukwu said the commission would equally be engaging governorship aspirants, aspirants to National Assembly and the States Assemblies on making human rights an election issue.

He said the rights of Nigerians are being violated everyday and Nigerians need to know how the succeeding government would provide the platform that can help human rights.

The Executive Secretary said this in Abuja during an advocacy visit to NHRC by OXFAM and Connected Development (CODE) to discuss some of the challenges witnessed in oil-bearing communities and how NHRC is working to domesticate the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights in Nigeria (NAP) as a tool to supporting the implementation of the UNGPs at the federal and state levels.

He said, “We are taking it as a major issue now, not only about registering to vote; we must mobilise people to collect their PVCs. We are going to work with INEC for this and also mobilse for people to come out and exercise their rights to vote.

“The commission wants to also engage our presidential, governorship and national assembly and members of the legislature at the state level on making human rights an election issue. We need to know; people’s rights are being violated every day. How will the succeeding government provide the platform that can help human rights?

“Imagine when we did the International Day for the Disappeared yesterday, figures coming out shows that Nigeria has one of the highest number of disappeared persons in Africa – about 25,000. And these are human rights issues arising from conflicts, violence and activities of law enforcement agents.”

On his part, the founder, Connected Development, Hamzat Lawal said a collaboration needs to be made between the commission, CODE and Oxfam to document lessons, share, engage government and hold to account agencies created to ensure proper regulation in places like the Niger Delta region where environmental degradation is hampering the right of people to clean air.

By Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse and Faith Yahaya, Abuja

The Jigawa State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has said that the death toll in the flood that ravaged the state has risen to 60. It also said that 16 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps have been established to take care of those displaced by the flood.

The Executive Secretary of the agency, Alhaji Yusuf Sani Babura stated this in a chat with reporters in Dutse, the state capital.

He said: “As of last week, 50 people have been confirmed dead. This week, six people were also confirmed dead; bringing the total to 56 who lost their lives in the flood disaster.”

He also said: “I also heard that a local canoe capsised and four people died in the incident, though we are yet to receive an official report on the occurrence.”

He said the agency has 11 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Jigawa (Hadejia area) two in Miga, two in Dutse and one in Birninkudu local government areas.

The executive secretary, who stated that the agency is running all its operations on credit, said: “This is an emergency we cannot wait for long processes before we reach victims of the disaster.”

Alhaji Babura maintained that “all that we are doing is on credit. The state government is yet to release any money. But we do not doubt that the government will settle it when we submitted.”

He added that the agency has made a proposal to assist the families of the victims of the deceased as a result of a flood, canoe capsised and collapsed buildings, but the governor is yet to approve it.

Also, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq has directed the officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to immediately assess and deploy relief items to 2,051 victims affected by the flood.

The minister stated that the items would help to reduce the impact of the floods on the victims of the disaster.

At least 2,051 people were reportedly displaced in Karnaya Community while 2,000 homes were destroyed across the state due to the downpour on Sunday.

The directive was contained in a statement by the Media aide to the minister, Nneka Anibeze in Abuja.

Other affected communities are Sankara, Birnin Kudu and Gwaram communities in Ringim and Dutse local government areas.

The minister also sympathised with the government and people of Kano State following the collapse of a three-storey building.

She also directed that search-and-rescue operations should continue to ensure that all those trapped in the rubble are rescued.

Eight people have so far been rescued and taken to Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital for treatment while one person was confirmed dead.

Six others with minor injuries have been treated and discharged.