Category: Northern Reports

Gombe State has been listed, yesterday, as one of the most peaceful states in the country, amid critical security indices.

A report by Eons Intelligence, a media, strategic intelligence and advisory group, disclosed this in its January analysis of crimes, political, economic risk and opportunities in Nigeria.

The report analyses the crime incidences, including kidnapping, banditry, terrorism and other heinous offences that resulted in the death of people for the month of January 2022.

In the report, Niger State had the highest crime rate in the month under review. According to the report, it recorded a total of 396 kidnap victims and 267 death cases, followed by the Northwestern states of Zamfara and Kaduna respectively.

Despite sharing borders with the insurgency-stricken Northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, Gombe State was relatively peaceful, as it recorded zero-death and zero-kidnapping incidences last month.

The Grace of God Mission International yesterday protested in Onitsha and its environs in Anambra State, over increasing rate of killings for money rituals.

It also held prayer rallies around the commercial city against cultism and drug consumption.

The Nation learnt that there has been upsurge in the number of ritual killings for wealth by youths in the state, using young girls as victims.

The protest led by the General Superintendent and Presiding Bishop of the church, Dr. Paul Nwachukwu, covered streets in the city. The protesters intermittently stopped at popular junctions for prayers and sprinkling of anointing oil.

They moved from Upper Iweka Road to Owerri-Onitsha Expressway, Enugu-Onitsha Expressway and other streets in the city.

The leadership of Atyap Community Development Association (ACDA) in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State yesterday expressed dissatisfaction with the efforts of the state government to end the spate of killings and destruction of property by terrorists.

President of the association, Samuel T. Achie in a statement entitled: “The Ongoing Carnage in Atyap Land since the early hours of Sunday, January 30, 2022” noted that peace truce among the diverse inhabitants of the local government appears not yielding the expected result as killings and destruction of property usually recorded after such peace meeting.

“With the deliberate perpetuation of violence against the Atyap Chiefdom and communities in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State, the lives of citizens have been reduced to nothing in the land, and the lives and properties of our people are being obliterated at will by those that feel they are protected and can do whatever they want with human lives and go free.

“Since July 17, 2021, many lives and innumerable properties have been destroyed in villages like Abuyab, Mazaki, Mawakili, Takjei, Matache, Matagama, Gora Gan, Kurmin Masara and Atisa. On Sunday, January 30, 2022, 11 people were brutally murdered by Fulani terrorist militia forces; many were wounded, over 30 houses burnt and over 100 people displaced.

On Monday, January 31, 2022, Atisa Village in (Kurmin Masara) was attacked and five lives lost and eight houses burnt down too. Even in the presence of the security checkpoints in Bakin Kogi and Ashaawuce less than a kilometre from the scene, some people from the area are still missing and unaccounted for,” he narrated.

He further noted that in several meetings and in particular during one of the association’s visits at the invitation of Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, the governor applauded the efforts of the Agwatyap on the efforts to sustain the peace initiative and the high respect he had for the paramount ruler.

He, however, expressed worry that despite El-Rufai’s commendation of a peace initiative by the traditional leader, the Atyap nation have been left alone to carry her cross for reasons best known to the government.

Plateau State Governor Simon Bako Lalong has called on citizens of the state to embrace peaceful co-existence, saying with 53 ethnic groups, diversity should be a source of strength and everyone must learn how to stay in peace.

He acknowledged that repeated violence has damaged the collective psyche of the people, even as he urged that there must be room for forgiveness as such is a character of the strong.

He reiterated his commitment to return displaced people to their ancestral homes. He warned those plotting to takeover displaced people’s land to beware of the Anti-Land Grabbing Law which ensured that nobody claims the land of those who temporarily relocated from their ancestral lands due to insecurity.

He spoke yesterday at the Garden of Peace and Forgiveness in Jos during the 2022 “Forgiveness Day” with the theme: “Forgive the Past to Reconcile the Future” organised by the state government, in collaboration with the Plateau Peacebuilding Agency (PPBA) with support from Inter-Faith Mediation Centre, Kaduna.

This resulted in deep-seated mutual distrust, suspicion, and hatred that characterised social relations among people of different ethnoreligious groups across Plateau State.

The Director-General, Plateau Peace-building Agency, Joseph Lengmang said: “Our history in the last 20 years has been checkered with very ugly occurrences in the form of ethnoreligious and inter-communal conflicts and some cases terrorism.  The consequences in terms of the destruction of human lives and property and also the breakdown of hitherto healthy inter-communal relationships can only be better imagined.”

The  essence of the day is “to reflect and talk to ourselves in an honest and open-minded manner; identifying points of differences and also points of convergence.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has cautioned the Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, for allegedly stoking and inducing violence in the state by orchestrating and manipulating the State House of Assembly to commence an illegal and undemocratic process of impeachment against elected Deputy Governor, Mahdi Aliyu Mohammed Gusau.

The PDP maintained that “this illegal process of impeachment despite a subsisting order of the Federal High Court, Abuja in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/ 650/2021 portends grave implication for peace and security not only in Zamfara State but the entire Northwest region as well as the continued sustenance of democracy in our country.”

The party, through its spokesman, Debo Ologunagba said it is clear that this panic move by Governor Matawalle is induced by his realisation that the mandate of the PDP, which he stole away into the APC, is on the verge of being recovered through the legal processes of the court and restored to the deputy governor.

According to Ologunagba’s statement, Matawalle violated the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) is recklessly moving to the APC when there is no division in the PDP.

It added that any action against the deputy governor amounts to a direct assault on the will of the people which they will firmly resist.

“The State House of Assembly is, therefore, cautioned not to allow itself to be pitched against the people and destroy the State because of the bloated ego of Governor Matawalle whose political career is at its twilight.

“Governor Matawalle must know that the people of Zamfara State cannot allow his personal frustration and ego to be exchanged for their mandate which is now embodied in the Deputy Governor,” the PDP stated.

The party called on the Inspector-General of Police to “note how Governor Matawalle, out of frustration, has constituted himself into a security threat in Zamfara State and the entire Northwest, where he is now threatening the lives of members of the PDP and other well-meaning citizens of Zamfara State.”

PDP further alerted Nigerians of how Governor Matawalle has allegedly been hounding members of the Zamfara State Working Committee of the PDP particularly, the State Deputy Chairman, Prof. Kabiru Jabaka, who the opposition party claims have been forced to relocate out of the state over threats to his life.

The PDP also stressed with consternation, that “Governor Matawalle’s well-known connections and negotiations with bandits and terrorists and calls on Nigerians to hold him responsible should any harm befall our party members in the State.”

The party called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC to immediately call Governor Matawalle to order and ensure that the action which the PDP terms a great assault on democracy especially the principle of separation of powers and peaceful co-existence in Zamfara State is halted forthwith.

PDP through its spokesman further asserted that Governor Matawalle must be held responsible for any breakdown of law and order which can result in bloodshed in Zamfara State for which he can also be personally held liable even beyond the shores of Nigeria.

Yiaga Africa has urged residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to vote for candidates that will account for resources allocated to the council on a monthly basis in this Saturday’s Area Council Election.

The Programme Director for Yiaga Africa Cynthia Mbamalu said this in Abuja during a community outreach to mobilise residents to participate in the FCT area council election.

Mbamalu, who advised women within the FCT to reward candidates capable of ending multiple taxations in markets, insisted that any responsible government at the local level must look into the issues of multiple taxations on average citizens.

Noting that democracy is determined by those who show up and make the system work, Mbamalu insisted that nobody can talk about democracy without the local government, urging citizens of Abuja not to sit down at home lamenting about bad governance.

She urged the residents to get their Permanent Voters Card (PVC), adding: “first message to Nigeria and women is that there is power in our permanent voter’s card. The politicians want us to believe that the system will not work; they want us to continually stay away from participation so that they will always tell us votes don’t count.

Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo who said the event was part of the activities to celebrate the organisation’s 15th anniversary, stressed the need to mobilise and enlighten the market women on the procedure to vote as well as the collection of PVCs.

The Borno State Government said it spends N130 million monthly as allowances for the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) and hunters, who are assisting the military and other security agencies in the fight against insurgents.

The Commissioner for Local Government and Emirates Affairs, Alhaji Sugun Mai-Mele made this known on Monday in Maiduguri when a national delegation of the All Local Government Association of Nigeria (ALGON) visited him in his office.

Mai-Mele said the government also provided vehicles and other work tools to the groups, whose knowledge of the terrain had helped the military to recover and maintain security in affected areas, in addition to the resettlement of displaced people and restoration of civil authorities in local government areas.

According to Mai-Mele, when the present administration came into office in 2019, many local government areas were inaccessible, while the few that were accessible had no functional local government administration.

Mai-Mele said the state government, had within the past two years rehabilitated burnt and vandalized public infrastructures, and conducted local government elections so as to have functional administrations at the third tier of government.

He explained that resettlement had begun in earnest in all affected local government areas, with the exception of Abadam and Guzamala, adding that the delay was because of ongoing military operations on the fringes of the Lake Chad areas.

The commissioners said that all those who voluntarily resettled in their recovered communities were given food items with an empowerment package of N100, 000 for each head of household and N50, 000 for married women.

He explained that the resumption of farming activities by the returnees, who recorded bumper harvests, had reduced cases of dependency on the government and NGOs for handouts.

The National President of ALGON, Mr Kolade Alabi, represented by his Chief of Staff, Mr Itiako Ikpokpo said they were in Borno as part of a nationwide tour to assess the situation of contracts on primary healthcare facilities, the association awarded in 2005.

“This is a national assignment to go round to do an audit of primary healthcare facilities that were awarded in 2005. There is need to know their current situation,” Alabi said.

He praised the Zulum administration for conducting local government elections, for the first time in 13 years, and the level of development recorded in all sectors in the state.

Alabi urged the ministry for local government in Borno to intervene in facilitating the payment of N500, 000 monthly dues of local governments, to ALGON to sustain its operations.

In a bid to provide succour for displaced victims of insecurity in some parts of Niger State, the Victims Support Fund (VSF) has donated food items to 7,057 displaced households in four local government areas affected by insecurity.

The donation, according to VSF, are expected to be extended to 49,399 individuals in the security-challenged areas of Munya, Shiroro, Kontagora, and Rafi local government areas.

Presenting the food items to the beneficiaries at the Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp in Gwada located inside the Local Education Authority (LEA) Primary School Gwada in Shiroro Local Government Area, the Executive Director of the Victims Support Fund, Prof. Nana Tanko explained that the intervention was aimed at supporting the government in catering for the welfare of displaced people.

She said the IDPs had been profiled by the organisation last year, adding that those who are new to the camp will be given the remaining items after the profiled IDPs had received their donations.

“The last time we came here, we found the women going to the market to pick grains from the ground and then separate it for consumption. We had to go back and decide what to do. This is why we are here with the items for donation.

“Those who were captured during the exercise will be given the food items while those who recently came to the camp will get what remains of the items.”

The Niger State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Muhammed Ketso received the donations on behalf of the state government, praising the Victims Support Fund for the donation.

He said the donations will go a long way in alleviating the sufferings of the IDPs who were in dire need of the items being donated to them.

Ketso appealed to other individuals and organisations to come to the aid of the government as the government needs urgent support for the communities who are being displaced almost on a daily basis due to the increasing activities of terrorists in the state.

He added that the state government is working tirelessly to address the insecurity in some parts of the state calling on the people to always provide information to the security about any suspicious movement.

The items donated included maize flour, millet, beans, salt, vegetable oil, tomato paste, pepper and onion paste, and seasoning cubes.