Category: Northern Reports

Plateau State Government is to partner with Sightsavers, an international organisation in establishing a comprehensive eye health programme throughout the State.

Governor Simon Bako Lalong stated this while receiving the Country Director of Sightsavers Nigeria and Ghana, Dr. Sunday Isiyaku at the Government House, Jos.

He said the partnership is based on his earlier visit to the United Kingdom, where he interacted with the global leaders of the organisation and a subsequent request for the partnership which is aimed at addressing the challenges of eye health in Plateau State, particularly in the rural areas.

Lalong said one of his passions is to see that people who are living with disabilities in any form get assistance and reprieve through deliberate steps such as the one being taken in the partnership with Sightsavers.

He thanked the team for the visit and assured them that the Plateau State Government is ready to play its part in the partnership by paying its counterpart funding and also making facilities and personnel available for training and actual operation.

Earlier, Dr. Isiyaku said Sightsavers were in Plateau on the directive of the global office, which responded to the communication sent to it by the Governor for partnership.

He said a three-year partnership is being proposed and will support the establishment of a state-owned comprehensive eye health programme that is well coordinated, accessible, affordable and sustainable based on national policies and guidelines for the over 4 million people of Plateau State.

Dr. Isiyaku said in 2021, a survey was carried out, which showed that there was a significant gap in eye health in Plateau State which needs to be addressed immediately to save many citizens from going blind. This he said will involve manpower training, improvement of infrastructure and advocacy.

The Country Director asked the Governor to approve health facilities in the Central and Southern Zones; commit to pay counterpart funds; fund budget lines for eye health; and work towards improving the human resource in the eye health sector.

Head of the Christoffel Blinden Mission (CBM) also assured the governor that they will partner together with Sightsavers to achieve the mission.

The Police Command in Niger State has taken delivery of five operational vehicles, two gun trucks and other security gadgets from the force headquarters, Abuja, to tackle banditry in the state.

The Commissioner of Police in Niger State, Mr Monday Kuryas, disclosed this while inspecting the facilities at the command headquarters in Minna on Friday. Kuryas said the gun trucks would be strategically deployed to communities mostly affected by banditry to boost the ongoing onslaught against banditry and other criminality.

He said three additional pick-up vans would be deployed to intensify patrols and visibility policing in the state.

“We will restrategise our operations to end banditry, kidnapping and cattle rustling through well coordinated security approaches,” he said.

The police commissioner added that the command was working with other security agencies to ensure peace and harmony across the state.

He solicited the support of stakeholders in mobilising residents to volunteer information that would help the command arrest and prosecute criminals.

“We appeal to residents to cooperate with security personnel deployed with vital information about miscreants in their midst for prompt security action,” the commissioner added.

The Police Command in Katsina State on Friday said it has rescued seven victims of human trafficking at Yankara village in Mai’adua Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Gambo Isah said in a statement on Friday in Katsina that the rescue was made possible following a raid on a criminal hideout in Yankara village.

He said the command had also repelled a bandit attack at Fadimawa village in Kurfi LGA of the state and recovered rustled animals.

“On January 20, 2022, based on credible intelligence, the command raided a criminal hideout at Yankara village, Koza District, Mai’adua LGA, and rescued seven victims of human trafficking.

“The victims include: Success Oshoopkeme, from Akoko – Edo LGA of Edo State, 20; Isaac Debora of Ugunagbo LGA, Abia state, 20 and 28-year-old Amoruwa Ade of Irede LGA, Ondo State.

“Others are 20-year-old James Rebecca of Minna LGA of Niger State, Emmanuel Godwin, 23, of Eka North LGA of Delta State, Zainab Tijjani, 21, of Ibadan LGA of Oyo State, and 27-year-old Taofik Olawale, also of Ibadan LGA of Oyo state,” Isah said.

Isah said in the course of the investigation, the victims explained that they were brought to the village by their agent, who on sighting the police took to their heels and escaped with their phones.

The police spokesperson said the victims told the police that they were on their way to Libya through Niger Republic border.

“Investigation is ongoing. They will be handed over to the NAPTIP office in Kano for further investigation and arrest of the traffickers,” he said.

“Also, on Jan. 27, bandits attacked Fadimawa village, Kurfi LGA and rustled an unspecified number of domestic animals.

“The DPO Kurfi led a team of policemen to the scene and engaged the bandits in a fierce gun duel.

“The operational strategy and gallantry displayed by the police overpowered the hoodlums, thereby, leading to the recovery of all the stolen animals.

“Many of the bandits escaped with bullet injuries, search parties are still combing the nearby bushes with a view to arresting the hoodlums,” Isah said.

Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) on Friday urged Federal Government pensioners in the North East zone of the country to embrace the new web-based Am Alive solution to keep track of pensioners.

Addressing the pensioners at the end of a two-day stakeholders’ forum in Gombe, PTAD Executive Secretary, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme, said the web-based confirmation exercise is to ease the burden of verification on retired federal civil servants who have had to cope with the stress of previous manual exercise.

“Many of our pensioners have suffered so much in all the previous manual verification exercises across different zones of the country. Some of them have even lost their lives and even suffered serious health complications in the process of doing this. This is why PTAD has designed a new digitalised system which can easily be accessed via their computer system or even their Android phones just to say I’m alive,” she said.

Ejikeme, while addressing journalists, acknowledged that the commencement of the new confirmation programme does not however mean an outright cancellation of the old process for now, as it will take some time before the new web-based exercise is extended across board.

According to her, the Am Alive confirmation solution is a web based solution to enable the pensioners to be able to verify or confirm he is alive in the comfort of his home or his neighbourhood and take away the field verification that government has been carrying out over the years.

He said the new system take away the field verification, which is “not only stressful for pensioners, it is also not very safe because a lot of them have to travel long distances before they get to the centres. It is also expensive both for pensioners and the government. So we are looking at something convenient. Literally, almost everybody in Nigeria now has a mobile telephone even though not all of them have smart phones or are computer literate but it is difficult to get into any neighbourhood in the country now and not find one chap who has a smartphone and who is computer literate. It is literally impossible,” she said.

She sought the cooperation of the pensioners and pension unions to ensure the success of the new web based exercise.

She however explained that some people are yet to understand that the contributory pension scheme is the way to go in Nigeria, adding that it will take some people a little time to understand the dynamics.

Nasarawa State chapter of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has complied with the directive from the national headquarters to suspend today’s protest.

Organised labour had directed state chapters to mobilise members for a protest should the Federal Government went ahead on fuel subsidy removal.

Chairman of the state Yusuf Iya told reporters yesterday  that the suspension followed the decision by the Federal Government not to remove fuel subsidy.

He assured workers that the leadership of the union would continue to stand for them by prioritising their welfare.

Iya explained that the union only suspended the action and would resume if the Federal Government did anything otherwise.

He said the union opposed removal of the subsidy because it would push the pump price of petrol to between N320 and N340 per litre.

Iya noted that the leadership would continue to engage the government to ensure local refining of petroleum, creation of sustainable jobs and provision of petrol at affordable price.

Malam Bala Kukwa, the Mai-Angwa, Chamba-Bisaula yesterday called on Taraba State to set up a commission of inquiry into the crisis between Ichen and Chamba in Bisaula.

Kukwa spoke in a statement in Jalingo, the state capital.

He said such a commission would unravel the remote and immediate causes of the unrest to pave the way for peace and development.

The statement urged the governments to deploy more personnel to the areas, such as Gateri, Bisaula, Agabi and Sunkuru.

He noted that this followed by a visit from the council chairman to affected families with relief materials would help in dousing tension.

“We, the Chamba Community in Bisaula, call on Taraba State to set up a commission of inquiry to unravel the remote and immediate causes of the crisis and recommend measures to avert recurrence.

“We also appeal for the deployment of more security personnel to the troubled communities to save lives.

“The security operatives should release our youths unjustly arrested and detained in the wake of the attacks by the Ichen people,” it said.

The statement expressed concern over the recent briefing on the matter by Dr Ahmed Bibinu, the President of Ichen Cultural and Development Association (ICADA) where he alleged that Dakka-Chamba people were only settlers in Bisaula.

“According to Bibinu, Chamba migrated to Bisaula ‘in 1930 or thereabout.’ If it is so, then what about the Ichen people that migrated to Bisaula only after the 1961 plebiscite?

“The ICADA President will do well to provide proofs of his claims and assertions,” it stated.

The crisis which broke out in Bisaula on December 31, 2021, between Ichen and Dakka-Chamba claimed eight lives on both sides and left thousands of people displaced with property worth millions of naira destroyed.