Category: Northern Reports

As a result of the month-old strike embarked upon by the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) of Plateau State University, Bokkos branch, Governor Simon Bako Lalong has been advised to address some of the grievances that led to the declaration of strike in January last year.

The advice was contained in a communique by the President of SSANU, Comrade Mohammed Haruna Ibrahim, at the end of the union’s 41st regular meeting.

The National Executive Council of SSANU appealed to the state government to release the sum of N310 million for the payment of earned allowances owned SSANU members of the University from 2010 to 2020.

The communique also urged the Vice-Chancellor Prof. Yohanna Izam, to mainstream Hazard Allowances to SSANU members’ salaries in the university at the Governing Council’s approved rate of N30,000 since the state government has released funds for the full implementation of the allowance.

The Chairman, Comrade Timnan Rimdap and Secretary, Comrade Fom Dakwak, in the strike declaration letter dated December 21, 2021, highlighted some of the union’s demands to include mainstreaming of hazard allowance at the Council-approved rate, payment of arrears of earned allowances, payment of arrears of the New Minimum Wage from April 2019 to December 2020.

It also includes addressing the issue of haphazard payment of salaries, the constitution of a Board to manage members of staff gratuity fund, implementation of the CONTISS 15 salary grade level, calculation of annual leave based on working days and compliance with SSANU NEC decision on the correct payment of check-off dues to the union.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Adamawa State has shut down activities in the Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC) over alleged wrongful disengagement of some members of staff.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Adamawa State chapter, and the state chapter of the National Union of Electricity and Allied Employee (NUEE) mobilised members to the YEDC headquarters in Yola yesterday to register their grievances.

The YEDC, previously run by the Federal Government, is now in the hands of a new owner who has laid off members of staff and raised electricity tariffs.

The chairman of the NLC, Comrade Emmanuel Fashe, said the organised labour could not go to sleep where injustice is perpetuated.

Fashe said: “As a labour movement, we will not fold our hands while some people take the laws into their own hands, the purported new owner must follow due process.”

The YEDC is now managed by a company named Quest Electricity Nigeria Limited, after it was said to have taken over the management from the Federal Government on December 31.

“We have written letters to them (new management) which as of today they have not responded to, only to start issuing termination letters and re-engaging some back,” the NLC chairman said.

Workers said to have constituted over 80 per cent of the YEDC workforce were laid off in a massive retrenchment as the new management took over.

The NLC Chairman said the organised labour also took exception to how the new management raised tariffs.

“Besides the over 80 per cent workers relieved of their jobs at this crucial time, they also went ahead to increase the tariff for consumers by over 200 per cent,” Fashe said.

While the sacked workers were trying to recover from the shock of their retrenchment, Quest Electricity Nigeria Limited embarked on what Yola residents termed crazy electricity bills.

Residents of Yola, the state capital, protested, with many community mobilisers going from house to house to collectg the bills served them with the intent of returning them to the company.

It was gathered that the Federal Government which had been running the YEDC, sold it,  through the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE)  to Quest Electricity  Nigeria Limited at a cost of N19 billion.

The Northeast Development Commission (NEDC) has unfolded plans to reduce the number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the region to zero by 2030.

The commission also said it plans to reduce the number of attacks and insurgencies in the region by 60 per cent in the next eight years.

While acknowledging that it was ranked low in terms of its internally generated revenue and other developmental issues, the region expressed hope to be at par with the rest of the country by 2030.

According to the draft master plan, it is expected that 70 per cent of the population within the school-age will be enrolled in school while those in employment age will be in economically-productive activity.

These are some of the targets of the 10-year plan of the region entitled “Northeast Stability and Development Master Plan.”

The plan is aimed at rebuilding the region that was destroyed by the activities of insurgents.

A 2016 report on the recovery and peacebuilding assessment on the crisis in the Northeast region produced by the Nigerian Government, World Bank, United Nations and European Union had indicated that property worth $9 billion were destroyed in the region.

About $6.7 billion was also estimated as the cost of recovery and peacebuilding across the six affected states in the region for four years only.

To, however, rebuild the region, the Federal Government is currently drafting a 10-year plan entitled; “Northeast Stability and Development Master Plan.

At the stakeholders’ engagement forum on the master plan in Abuja, the Borno State Governor Prof. Babagana Zulum urged state governors in the region to work together towards the actualisation of the plan.

Zulum said: “To address the challenge of increasing poverty, infrastructural deficit and that of climate vulnerabilities, we have to have a strong master plan that will be sustainable.

He also urged other governors of the states to be interested in the implementation of the plan.

Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq said though the master plan is still at the implementation stage, different projects have commenced in the region towards rebuilding the region.

She said: “Despite being in the process of developing the Master Plan, I am pleased to state the NEDC has not been static and continues to leave its footprints across all the North East states with life-changing projects and programmes for our citizens.”

The minister also urged stakeholders to speed up action towards the actualisation of the master plan.

The National Security Adviser, Babagana Munguno stated the commitment of the executive arm of government to achieve the master plan.

He also said despite the obvious challenges, the security agencies are up to the task of restoring peace in the region.

He assured the people that efforts made so far would not be hijacked by terrorists and other criminal elements.

Borno State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum has visited the families of 24 people that were recently abducted by Boko Haram across some Chibok communities.

The governor, who was in Chibok on Monday invited relatives of the family members from the three communities of Kawtakare, Korohuma and Pemi all in Chibok Local Government Area where they met at the Local Government Lodge in Chibok Town.

The Nation checks revealed that 22 women and two men abducted were kidnapped by Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) during the attack.

“We are here in Chibok to commiserate with you, immediate families of our sisters and brothers abducted as well as four of our brothers killed by the Boko Haram terrorists in these unfortunate incidents. We share your pain and we pray this act will not happen again,” Zulum said.

Governor Zulum also met with the heads of security agencies in the area in order to understand their challenges and proffering proper ways to secure the communities.

The Governor observed that four local government areas, namely Biu, Askira, Chibok and Damboa were faced with serial attacks from the members of Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists in recent times, assuring that his administration will not relent in providing additional support to security operatives, to contain the challenges.

While briefing reporters, the Chairman of Chibok Local Government Area Umar Ibrahim said “in addition to the 24 people abducted, three people were killed by the terrorists during separate attacks on three communities.

The Chairman disclosed that 110 buildings made up of 73 houses, 33 shops and four churches were burnt alongside eight vehicles and three tricycles.

Zulum directed that an assessment report containing all destructions perpetrated by the terrorists in the three communities be submitted to him.

He commended the council chief for his responsive leadership.

The governor was accompanied to Chibok by the member representing Chibok at the State Assembly of Assembly Aimu Foni, Commissioner for Poverty Alleviation, Nuhu Clark who also hails from Chibok, and Commissioner for Local Government and Emirate Affairs, Segun Mai Mele.

Two non-governmental organisations, the Coalition for Good Governance and Economic Justice in Africa and the Unity Project Nigeria have, this weekend, jointly condemned the gruesome murder of Hanifa, a five-year-old pupil who was abducted and eventually murdered by the proprietor of the primary school she attended in Kano.

Describing the incident as a “harrowing tragedy,” the NGOs demanded that the accused, and others who abetted him, be made to answer for the “heinous crime” which callously terminated the life of an innocent and promising child placed in his care for academic development.

The groups, in a statement jointly signed by the Executive Director, Coalition for Good Governance and Economic Justice in Africa, Mr. John Mayaki and National Chairman, the Unity Project Nigeria, Jennifer Serrano respectively said: “It is most unfortunate that Nigerians are once again made to experience the painful grief of the loss of another child in an environment where children ought to receive the most protection and be guaranteed safe expression.

“From all accounts, it appears that the accused Proprietor, Mr. Tanko, is a remorseless murderer who must be made to answer for the heinous crime of brutally terminating the life of an innocent and promising child.

“The death of Hanifa is one too many. Our children, being the most vulnerable in society, rely on our responsible actions as adults for their protection and safe development. A situation where schools, an environment that should ordinarily serve the purpose of intellectually stimulating pupils, become a death scene and hunting ground for predators is certainly unsustainable and calls for urgent actions.

“The government across all levels must immediately embark on a country-wide assessment of schools to ensure that they remain conducive and safe for learning. Furthermore, they must intensify efforts to curb the spate of insecurity which, perversely, has encouraged opportunistic crimes such as local kidnapping for ransom that endangers the most vulnerable in the society.

“The measure of any society lies in how it cares for the weak and protects the vulnerable. If our children cannot learn peacefully in school, without safeguards in place to protect them against the criminal tendencies of perverse reprobates like Mr. Tanko, then all hope is truly lost.

“We must secure justice for Hanifa and lay down a marker that no parent or family will be thrown into such painful sorrow or made to question the decision of enrolling their ward in a school to obtain an education and attain skills necessary for social progress and self-development.

“The groups also condoled with the family of the late Hanifa, offering prayers that the Lord should grant them strength and fortitude in “what is truly a dark, troubling, and traumatising episode.”

Kebbi State Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu said he has forgiven all those who ganged up against him.

Bagudu stated this during the launch of the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign for the party’s chairmanship and councillorship candidates in the forthcoming local government election scheduled for February 5.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Chika Malami, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, the former governor of the state, Alhaji Saidu Nasamu Dakingari, Major-General Muhammad Magoro (retd) and other stakeholders attended the ceremony at Kamba Town in Dandi Local Government Area.

Addressing members, Governor Bagudu recalled how Malami stepped down for him during the party’s primary which enabled him to clinch the governorship ticket of the party without any rancour.

Bagudu described ascension to leadership as an act of God, advising all the candidates to be magnanimous, and mandated them to strive to pacify aggrieved members of the APC to return to the fold.

He, however, told the crowd at the event that he has “forgiven those who have been throwing tantrums at him for whatever reason.”

“Our government is one that is engaging our youths for the development of the state. Our state is blessed with many rice processing companies which is the outcome of President Muhammad Buhari administration commitment to the agriculture revolution,” the governor said.

“Once again, I have forgiven those who ganged up against me,” he added.

The governor urged members of the party to continue to live peacefully with others in the state and charged them to work hard for the success of the APC in the local government election.

The Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), who cited a Qur’an verse during his remarks, noted that, no matter how long falsehood flies, the truth will overcome it one day.

He described Bagudu as a man with good character, stressing that his leadership quality made his colleagues at the Progressive Governors’ Forum to elect him as their chairman.

Malami urged all members of the party to team up for the total victory of their candidates in the forthcoming local government election.

The former governor of the state, Alhaji Dakingari described the successful hosting of the flag off of the party local government election campaign in Kamba as a testimony that Kebbi is an APC state.

Dakingari, who appealed to party members to continue to embrace dialogue, peace, said the doors of the APC are still open for dialogue from aggrieved members of the party.

The state Chairman of the party, Alhaji Muhammad Kana urged members of the party to come out en mass to vote for all APC candidates in the forthcoming local government election.

Other speakers at the occasion were the Deputy Governor, the Speaker Kebbi State House of Assembly, Chief of Staff, commissioners, special Advisers and the National President of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), among other dignitaries.