The Women and Youths Empowerment Initiative (WOYEIN) in partnership with the United Nations (UNWOMEN) with support from the Japanese Government, has commenced the training of 200 women gender-based violence (GBV) survivors in Yobe State.

The 200 beneficiaries of different sorts of GBV experiences consisted of 50 each from various communities in Potiskum, Damaturu, Gaidam and Gujba.

The training was aimed at equipping the survivors with skills in peace building and other crafts that will help them to become self-reliant.

At the training of the first 50 batches of beneficiaries at Potiskum, the Programme Lead, Hajiya Husna Ibrahim said the objective of the project was to train the survivors by building their capacities to be able to be actively involved in their various community peace-building processes.

She called on society to take advantage of the added advantage that women possess as homemakers which, if properly utilised, will be a big asset to society.

“The women, as we have been monitoring, are becoming change agents and have become courageous to participate in decisions that affect them. They have been mobilising and sensitising their peers to the dangers of GBV, while also encouraging other women on the importance of self-reliance and economic empowerment for protection against GBV,” she said.

Hajiya Ibrahim also stressed the need for early detection of problems in society which, according to her, will bring early solutions.

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“One important take-home of this training is that conflict is inevitable where people exist, but the important thing is to know how to prepare for its prevention, report early warnings, respond and manage conflict well and take it to a transformational level which has peace and development for all,” she said.

Some of the participants that spoke to reporters at the workshop were enthusiastic that the training will add to the building of their communities.

The Nation’s findings showed that some of the women have already formed groups and transformed into ambassadors in their various communities; championing the course of the eradication of Gender-based Violence against women in the state.

“This workshop will boost our effort to use even the little we have in building peace in our communities and creating avenues for sustainable development. There are some of our women that are already campaigning against this trend and, with this training, the sky will become our limit,” Fatima Abubakar, one of the participants said.

The participants appreciated WOYEIN, the Government of Japan that, through UNWOMEN, has given them the opportunity to take part in the training.

Recall that these women have undergone training in GBV, trauma healing, skills training and apprenticeship, and given starter kits for their economic empowerment and self-reliance.

Some of the women, The Nation learnt, are now producing reusable sanitary pads and diapers for sales in their communities, while cosmetics and snacks produced by other women can easily be found in stalls and shops in Potiskum.

More than 200,000 Nigerians, displaced from their homes in the Northeast by the Boko Haram terrorists, are yet to be repatriated back from neighbouring countries such as Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum, who told reporters in Abuja at the weekend, also urged the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on the Repatriation, Returns and Resettlement of Displaced Persons in the Northeast, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to do the needful by ensuring that President Muhammadu Buhari gives immediate approval in terms of funding and other logistics required for the re-establishment of the destroyed communities in Borno State.

The Vice-President has assured that Nigerians displaced in the Northeast who are still in Cameroon would be coming home soon as the Presidential Committee on the Repatriation, Returns and Resettlement of Displaced Persons in the Northeast has ordered the immediate resumption of their repatriation.

When he presented the report of the Technical Working Group (TWG) to the Vice-President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Prof. Zulum, who is also the Vice-Chairman of the committee, said within the past few years, about 50,000 people have been repatriated.

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“Mr President had inaugurated a committee a few months ago that will look into the repatriation of those indigenous to Borno State and other states of the Northeast that are living in the Republic of Chad, Cameroon as well as Niger.

“We presented the report to the Vice-President with a view to ensuring that the repatriation exercise from Cameroon will continue immediately while the repatriation of Nigerians that are living in the Republic of Niger and the Republic of Chad will resume very soon.”

On the number of displaced people that have been repatriated, the Borno State governor said: “Within the last few years, we have repatriated no fewer than 50, 000 people but we still have more than 200,000.

“We also have those who are indigenous to Kukawa and Marte local government areas that are living in Chad.

“So, I think the Vice-President will do the needful to ensure that the President gives immediate approval in terms of funding and other logistics required for the re-establishment of these communities in Borno State.

On the present security situation in the state, the governor said: “The security situation has greatly improved.”

The Commander of the Vigilantes in Kpada Community in Lapai Local Government Area of Niger State, Danladi Dobbo and two other vigilante members have been killed by terrorists during an attack on the community.

The incident, which occurred Friday afternoon, had several others injured while a tractor being used for farm activities was burnt by the terrorists.

It was learnt that the vigilantes had embarked on a rescue mission and were ambushed by the terrorists.

While the three vigilante members have been confirmed dead, there are indications that others have been killed in the bush but their bodies are yet to be evacuated.

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A source in Lapai said the government needs to act fast to evacuate the bodies of the vigilante members from the bush while also calling on the government to secure the Kpada forest so that it does not become another habitat for the terrorists.

The Source said the incident poses a very dangerous threat to the peace and security of Lapai and Niger State as a whole

The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRP) DSP Wasiu Abiodun could not be reached at the time of filing this report.

The Niger State Commissioner for Internal Security, Emmanuel Umar, confirmed the attack but urged the community not to go after the bandits in the forest, adding that security personnel have been drafted to the forest to help recover the bodies of those killed in the attack.

He said security personnel are on the trail of the terrorists, adding that some of them have been apprehended by the Joint Security Force while some kidnapped victims have been rescued unhurt.

Two lecturers in the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy, Veritas University, Bwari, Abuja, Dr ObodoIjie and Dr Isaac Otegwu, have linked the unending conflicts between herders and farmers in the North Central to economic interests.

Dr Obodo stated this while reviewing the book: The Root Cause of Farmers-Herders Crisis in North Central Nigeria written by Plangshak Suchi and Sallek Musa of the Department of Sociology, the University of Jos.

In the book, published by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, the authors noted that recent drought and desertification occasioned by the impact of global warming and its consequent resource drought had culminated in an increase in movement of herders southward in search of pasture for their herds.

This southward movement, according to studies identified by the authors, engendered farmland encroachment and inevitably generated conflicts.

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The authors also mentioned population growth and poor town planning, porous borders and ineffective border control among others, as possible factors in the escalation of conflicts between farming communities and herders.

While reviewing the book, Obodo noted that the conflicts, which have reduced access to farms, spiked theft, destruction of farms, killing of animals and reduction in sales of farm produce negatively impacted on the economic activities and livelihood of women especially.

He said: “Women have a weak capacity for economic resilience, as women and children who they depend on for labour are forced to find alternative means of livelihood like begging for alms, domestic help while children are made to hawk or work as labourers on farms with others doing menial jobs.

“This in turn has increased the level of vulnerability of children, as some are maltreated, and some are used for transactional sex and drug abuse. This results in some of these women and children incurring sexually transmitted diseases. Thus, women and children were badly affected. Women also involved themselves in prostitution to feed themselves and their children.”

On his part, Dr Otegwu said the research effort was useful as veritable reference material for further research by scholars.

He stated: “It is a must-read for policymakers in their search for lasting solutions to the recurrent clashes between farming communities and herders.”

According to Otegwu, other groups that would find the work useful are security agencies and traditional rulers in their quest to foster peaceful co-existence between the aggrieved groups.

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Jigawa State Command, said six persons died in a lone fatal auto crash on Saturday in Malamadori Local Government Area of the state.

The command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Ibrahim Gambo, confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dutse on Saturday.

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Gambo said four others sustained various degrees of injury in the accident that occurred at about 3:45 p.m., at Yadi area, along Malammadori road. He explained that 10 people (male adults) were involved in the accident caused a burst tyre and loss of control of a commercial vehicle (Sharon Wagon) with registration number GMB 11 XA, driven by Abba Abdullahi.

The spokesperson added that the deceased, and the injured victims were taken to Malammadori Primary Healthcare Centre for medical attention.

According to him, two of the injured victims were later referred to Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Nguro, in neighbouring Yobe State.

The Kebbi State government has allocated two hundred hectares of land to a private investor for the establishment of an independent solar power project that will generate five thousand, six hundred megawatts of electricity to the state.

A team of thirty Canadian technicians are due in the state soon to commence work on the project for an entity known as Equity Electricity.

Former Chief of Staff to the governor, who is the incumbent National Organisation Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Suleiman Muhammad Argungu who is also the Jarman Kabi, announced this at a news briefing in Government House, Birnin Kebbi, yesterday while highlighting the achievements of the administration of Governor Atiku Bagudu.

Suleiman Argungu indicated that the project would be located at Fakon Sarki in Argungu, which has been designed to improve and stabilise electricity supply to all communities in Kebbi State, as well as create job opportunities.

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The former Chief of Staff who is very keen about the success of the solar power scheme, made it clear that the gesture was in furtherance of the monumental effort of Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu towards ensuring uninterrupted power supply day and night to all nooks and crannies of the state.

Already he said the governor has secured the consent of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, to set up another transmission station in Kebbi State to be sited between Argungu and Fakon Sarki.

The APC National Organising Secretary also spoke about the development of air transportation by Governor Bagudu aimed at hastening economic growth of the state.

He explained that the governor has since flagged-off the construction of a private Aviation College at the Sir Ahmadu Bello International Airport, Birnin Kebbi, to train pilots and aeronautical engineers, paving way for daily commercial flights from the state to other parts of Nigeria and African countries.

On politics, Argungu was emphatic that in the interest of political expediency and election victory, the party would consider Muslim-Muslim ticket to triumph at the polls.

He rated the APC Presidential flag bearer, Asiwaju Bola Ahmad Tinubu as the best candidate to govern Nigeria in recognition of his antecedents and appealed to eligible voters to get their Permanent Voters’ Card in other to

The Nasarawa State government says it has given malaria prevention drugs to 775,905 children in Nasarawa State.

The State Commissioner for Health, Pharm Ahmed Yahaya, stated this, weekend, in Lafia, at a press briefing to mark the Round Two Seasonal Malaria Chemo-prevention in Lafia.

He said about 816,532 children between the ages of 3-59 months were targeted in the 2nd year of the SMC intervention programme being implemented in the state.

The commissioner explained further that in the first year of implementation, over 10,000 personnel were involved while a total of 775,905 children between the ages of  3-59 months across the 13 LGAs were administered the preventive drugs in the state.

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He stressed that in the year 2022, of SMC implementation, 816,532 children have been targeted, and over 9,000 personnel have been engaged, adding that the state has keyed into the SMC intervention strategy on-going in the Sahel and Savannah regions of the country in the last 10 years, aimed at reducing the prevalence of Malaria, particularly amongst children less than 5 years.

“The burden of malaria has drop from 60 percent since the creation of the State to 30 percent in 2010 and to 14.6% in the 2018 survey. This achievements is as a result of the consistent effort put in by the leadership of the state, the state Ministry of Health, healthcare workers as well as support from implementing partners, through various strategies.”

He attributed the success to support from partners and enhanced environmental and vector control activities, improved utilisation of insecticide treated bed nets (ITNs) while noting that the state government was doing everything possible to eliminate malaria completely from the state.

Speaking earlier, Director of Public Health in the ministry, Dr Ibrahim Alhasan, disclosed that the essence of the media parley was to create awareness on how to reduce the burden of malaria in the state.

A female senatorial aspirant for Kaduna South Senatorial District on the platform of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Tinok Andrew Nok, has alleged that there was no primary election for the position she was contesting in her party, stressing that she was disenfranchised as a woman even after purchasing the form as the sole aspirant.

Addressing a press conference in Kaduna, Nok expressed her anger over what transpired, stating that the date initially fixed for her affirmation was all of a sudden shifted only for another person’s name to be presented from nowhere.

In her address, she said, “It is with deep and saddened heart that I have to draw the attention of the national leadership of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and the general public on the recently concluded primaries election that took place on the 5th of June, 2022, in Kafanchan, Kaduna State.

“I regret to state in strong terms that there was no election but selection, there was brazen intimidation of delegates, arm twisting them to vote the candidate of choice for the party. The party officials were seen with delegates and, local government chairmen with cash to settle them.

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“A party official confidentially told an ally of mine without his knowledge of our relationship that there was a directive from the state to ensure that the result is in their favour.

“Delegates who voted in my favour were sacked from the party. It is clear that a few undesirable elements within the state party are bent on soiling the image of our great party, whose goodwill His Excellency Engr. Mohammed Rabiu Kwankwaso has worked assiduously to build.

“I call on the national party leader to call these people to order not for personal interest, but in the interest of the party as a whole. I hope that his Excellency will exercise his authority and apply wisdom as he calls to order the irregularities going on within the party, especially at the state level.

“At this point it is expedient to state that when no Southern Kaduna elite saw nothing good about the party, I did. I believed in its potentials especially because I was in sync with the ideological views of the national party leader who believes in bettering the lives of the common man.”

She frowned at the fact that Southern Kaduna was being denied an opportunity of making a political statement, which include demonetisation of politics, adding that it is her fundamental right first as a human being then as a woman to participate in governance.

The police have launched an operation to rescue 22 farmers who were abducted by armed bandits on Thursday in RafinDadi Community, which lies on the border between the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Niger State.

It was gathered that the gunmen attacked Thursday afternoon when the farmers were working on their farm, burning two tractors in the process.

Deputy Public Relations Officer of the FCT Police Command, ASP Oduniyi Omotayo said a team of anti-kidnapping and counter-terrorists Units have been deployed to comb the surrounding forests and rescue the abducted farmers.

Omotayo in a WhatsApp message to The Nation said, “The incident happened in RafinDaji, a boundary community between Niger and the FCT . The farmers were on their farmland working when gunmen outnumbered and kidnapped them. Upon receipt of this information, a combined team of Police officers from various tactical and intelligence units of the command, Destiny Hunters, vigilantes, and Local hunters stormed the forest, combing it aggressively even as I speak for the rescue of the victims and to bring perpetrators to book. Monitoring and surveillance of the community also continues.”

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One of the farmers, who escaped, told reporters that the incident happened around 2pm on Thursday.

He said the attackers wielded AK -47 rifles and shot sporadically into the air before abducting the farmers and burning down the two tractors on a large farm land.

The farmer said 13 family members were among the 22 abducted victims.

He gave their names as Ismaila Barde, Mustapha Barde, Nasiru Barde, Abdulkarim Barde, Sanusi Barde, Usman Barde, Nura Barde, Abdullahi Barde, Babawo Barde, Farida Ayuba, Hauwa Ayuba and Hussaini Abdullahi.

On how he managed to escape, he said, “It was only God that saved me as I managed to escape when the bandits were shooting into the air.”

The District Head of Gurdi Chiefdom, Alhaji Bala Mohammed told reporters that bandits usually invade his chiefdom through Niger State.

He said he had reported the latest kidnap incident to the police and also the authorities of Abaji Area Council.