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Category: Special Report

  • Controversy as multi-million naira constituency projects collapse in Ibadan school

    Controversy as multi-million naira constituency projects collapse in Ibadan school

    • Computer training stalled as thieves cart away hardwares

    • UBEC: Lawmakers, not us, chose contractors for projects

    • I had no hand in choice of contractors – Ex-lawmaker

    After many years of defecating in bushes within and outside the school premises, teachers and pupils of decrepit Chesire High School, Ijokodo, Ibadan, heaved a sigh of relief when the then lawmaker representing Oyo South Federal Constituency, Senator Adesoji Akanbi, facilitated the construction of a block of three classrooms and a VIP toilet in the school.

    The VIP toilet was part of a three-classroom block and furniture project meant to alleviate the sufferings of the teachers and pupils and also enhance learning in the school.

    Findings showed that the project, which was commissioned in 2017, was worth more than N18 million.

    Not quite long after the project was commissioned, the  toilet, which lacks every feature of the VIP it was tagged, collapsed, leaving the school community to return to the archaic practice of defecating in open places and consequently polluting the environment.

    “This is what they constructed for us as  a VIP toilet. We used it for only a very short time before it collapsed.

    “It is disheartening that this kind of project could be said to have been constructed by a certified contractor.

    “Who certified such a contractor and what was the company’s antecedent that made it to be given  the project to handle.

    “I bet that if this project had been handled by local bricklayers, they would have done a much better job that will last for decades.

    “The toilets we constructed with modest amounts in our various houses have lasted far longer than this and are still in good shape.

    “There is nothing VIP about this toilet. It is a glorified latrine,” a teacher who preferred anonymity said.

    Also lamenting the condition of the collapsed VIP toilet, another teacher noted that the toilet was actually not meant for the students.

    The teacher said: “It was solely used by teachers. They are just two toilets in one small space as you can see. As it is now, whenever it rains, water will fill the toilet.

    “In fact, it is a no go area as you can see. If you put your leg inside the place, that portion will cave in and you will find yourself inside the rubbish. This is despicable.

    “All the people involved in the execution of the project should be probed because they endangered our lives by carrying out this shoddy job for a sum that you can be very sure is far and above what a local bricklayer would charge.

    “Imagine somebody was using the toilet when it caved in. The person would have fallen inside the mess and may not have come out alive.

    “When people get contracts, they should endeavour to execute them well. They shouldn’t put monetary gains above the safety and well-being of the citizens they are claiming to serve.”

    Some of the pupils who spoke with our correspondent also decried their experiences defecating in the bush.

    One of the pupils said: “We were defecating in the  bush for a long time. As boys, we were going deep down the bush to defecate, but the females couldn’t go far because they were afraid of snakes.

    “We do kill snakes within the school premises. In fact, we killed one two weeks ago. We are never scared of them.

    “If we are in the classroom and see a snake passing, we would run after it and make sure we kill it.

    “Apart from snakes, we also have seen an alligator within the premises. It was when the alumni saw our plight that they constructed new toilets for us sometime last year.”

    Aside from the challenge of not having a toilet, the dilapidated state of the school is another source of worry for the pupils.

    Decrying the state of their learning environment, a pupil said: “Our classrooms are not in good conditions. We are in the heart of the capital city, Ibadan and yet our school looks like a rehab home. It is very disturbing.

    Read Also: Universities as constituency projects?

    “As you can see, some of our classrooms have no doors and windows. The roofs of some are leaking and it is a sorry sight when it rains.

    “Each time it rains, we would have to be moving around the class to settle down in a place that is not so much affected by the rain. This is obviously not healthy for us.”

    The pupil added: “The sets of furniture are also in bad shape. Hardly will you find a chair and a table that are in good condition. Many of them are  broken, and for us to write we have to be patching things together.

    “We deserve more than this. It is not a crime that we are studying in a public school.”

    Internet project suffers setback

    Apart from the failed toilet project, findings around the school revealed that internet cum computer projects said to have been facilitated by a lawmaker are also not functional.

    The first set of computers delivered to the school were said to have been carted away by robbers shortly after they were installed.

    One of the teachers said: “The computer project was meant to teach and enhance the education of our pupils. Shortly after they  brought some computers, robbers broke into the school and carted them away.

    “The problem was that the people who facilitated the project didn’t consider the porous nature of the school and didn’t make efforts to put security measures in place to prevent the computers from being stolen.

    “One wonders the kind of leaders that we have as nothing was probably done to investigate the theft. The assumption obviously was that it was government’s money and once it is gone, it is gone.

    “An ‘honourable’ facilitated the project. It is just unfortunate that I cannot remember his name.”

    The teacher continued: “They also brought some dishes for internet training purposes but the whole thing is not working because there is no subscription on them.

    “The school does not have the money to pay for subscription. Those who facilitated it through the NCC should do something about this because it is a federal government project. They are the ones that should be paying for it.

    “When the first dish was not working,  they brought another. When the officials came earlier, they signed the documents that they were  meant to sign after visiting  but for them now to subscribe is the only challenge.

    “We have not been having computer training. The new computers they brought are only being used to type examination papers. It was facilitated by the then principal because he knew some people in the NCC.

    “They brought the new set specifically for the special and disabled students. It came with a braille machine.”

    Alumni save situation

    It was gathered  that a silver lining appeared behind the cloud for the teachers and students last year when the alumni association took it upon itself to build a befitting toilet for them.

    “That has been our saving grace. Their intervention ended the pains of going to defecate in the bush where pupils also defecate. It could be denigrating and embarrassing rushing into the bush to pooh.

    “Aside the toilet, the alumni association has also helped us to renovate some of the buildings and equipped them with good furniture. They also intervened in our library.

    “It is very unfortunate that we have to rely on the alumni to put the school in order. If not for their intervention, this place wouldn’t have been good for learning,”  a worker in the school said.

    We’re not responsible for choosing contractors – UBEC

    The signpost placed by the collapsed toilet  showed that the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) project was the client.

    Spokesman of UBEC, David Apeh, exonerated the commission of any guilt in the project.

    He said: “Yes, UBEC was the client, but who brought the contract there? It must have been brought by a House of Reps member or a Senator.

    “What we do is that if there is a contract by a House of Reps member or a Senator, before we were giving them those monies for their constituency.

    “Now we tell them, this  your constituency, what are things to be built? When they bring the work, most of them come with their contractors. Those are the people concerned.

    “What I know is that the honourable facilitating the project brings the contractors.

    “Most of these things that are happening are between the contractors and the politicians; not UBEC.”

    I didn’t pick contractor – Ex lawmaker

    The facilitator of the project, Senator Adesoji Akanbi, said he was not aware that the toilet collapsed.

    “After leaving office, I have done quite a lot for my people. The old students can come together and do another one for them,” he said.

    Asked if the development was an indication that the contractor didn’t do his work well, the former lawmaker said:  “Well, I have left office and I have done quite a lot for my people. The contractors are not allocated by us. we don’t bring contractors.  We don’t bring contractors, that I know.

    “I think it was SMEDAN that was in charge of it.”

    Contacted, SMEDAN Public Relations Officer, Ibrahim Kaula, demanded to know the connection of the agency with a project that UBEC was the client.

    “Which is the agency responsible for that project?”

    UBEC, our correspondent replied.

    “What is the connection with SMEDAN now?  If it was a SMEDAN contractor, it should have indicated it as the client.

    “Send me the name of the contract and the name of the project. I will send it to my procurement officer to find out if we were the one that awarded that contract. I will send it right now to the procurement officer  and I will get back to you. “

    NCC reacts

    Reacting to questions about the stolen computers, NCC spokesperson, Reuben Muoka, said: “I wouldn’t know about the computers that were carted away.”

    He went on to say that the project wasn’t a constituency project but a social responsibility project.

    He said: “There is a project that we do that is called DAPT, Digital Appreciation for Tertiary Institutions  and Computer Awareness Programme for Secondary Schools.

    “We give these facilities to schools. We don’t  monitor them. If it has any problem, the school will know how to report it for us to remedy the situation.

    “It is not anybody reporting that it is not working. That is  not what happened. This is a corporate social responsibility  that  we give to schools across the country.

    “Ours is to give them those facilities, make sure it is working and hand it over to them. We don’t have  a staff there that monitors whether it is working or not.

    “If it is  not working they know what to do. They have all the channels to meet with us to do what is necessary.

    “It may interest you to know that the internet subscription we give is for a period. If it expires, we expect the people to continue the subscription.

    “We buy bandwidth and we don’t buy it forever anywhere we install it. We buy it for a reasonable period of time that we think that those  people should be able to buy the bandwidth.”

    He added: “The most important thing you need to know is that we install these facilities and hand them over to the schools, and if there is any problem with it, especially problems that we can solve, those people know what channel they contact.  They know how to reach the NCC to remedy the situation.

    “It is not a matter of it is not working. That is not how it works.

    “Even the one you said about carting away computers, we  also give the responsibility to the people to protect the facilities.

    “We cannot send security men to go and be protecting facilities that we have installed in a school. We expect the school to take responsibility.

    “In fact, that is one of the major messages we give to them during commissioning. They are to ensure that those equipment are secure and not left for people to vandalise.

    “It is the responsibility of whichever institution that is receiving to protect them. We can’t be sending security men to all the schools to go and protect them.”

    Concluding, he said: “We are giving these things to the institutions. If any institution is porous, who would take the responsibility? They should have told us that it is porous.

    “In the place where you schooled, if you say we want to give you computer, build the lab, refurbish the building and equip it with computers with a protector, would your school say we will not take it because there is no protection?

    “We assume primarily that every school has security. It is a school and not somebody’s house.”

    Concern over growing number of special children in school

    Apart from the failed projects in the school, parents have also expressed worries about the growing number of special children in the school.

    A parent who identified himself simply as Mr Taju said: “The school was established as an able bodied school. Oluyole Chesire Home, which was a private institution, gave the school that land and in turn expected the school to admit pupils.

    “Now, it is like the school is being hijacked by the physically challenged. The categories of special students being admitted into the school now are the kind of pupils that should be in special school.

    “Their being in a regular school is like wasting the teachers’ efforts. It is just like giving the teachers tick forest to clear. There is no competition among the students.

    “The government will need to look into this and change its strategy. If they want a special school for special pupils, they should establish one.”

    Reacting, a high ranking official of the school, who didn’t want her name in print because she was not authorised to speak to the press, said: “The inclusion of special children in the school is an integration policy of the government meant to help the physically challenged pupils.

    “We always give able pupils orientation about the need to assist their physically challenged colleagues. This has been yielding fruits as there is no discrimination among them.

    “There are tremendous improvements in the lives of many physically challenged as a result of their interaction with able bodied colleagues.”

  • NNPC: Optimising oil & gas investments for economic development

    NNPC: Optimising oil & gas investments for economic development

    The Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has, in over three months after its re-branding, activated new investments and partnerships for the growth of the domestic economy and sustenance of its industry leadership. The anticipated investment in the $25 billion Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline projects, engagement of local security firm to secure gas pipelines, among other steps, show the corporation’s commitment to industrial and economic growth. NNPC Ltd’s plan to restart activities on the Shell Plc-operated Forcados export terminal and Trans Niger pipeline is expected to add 500,000 barrels a day to its output by the end of November in line with its commitment to improve domestic oil production, writes AMBROSE NNAJI

    Not many companies hit the ground running in the quarter of operation as a limited liability company.  For the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), an institution that represents hope and prosperity of Nigerians and the global oil industry, getting the work done from day one was a remarkable priority.

    The unveiling of NNPC Limited by President Muhammadu Buhari in July was the highpoint of years of planning and decision-making to make the corporation a more commercially-viable private entity with greater transparency and impact on the lives of the people. In the face of rising criticisms over its activities, NNPC Limited is strengthening the capacity and market relevance of the oil industry and gas industry to align with global best practices through investments and infrastructure security.

    For instance, the NNPC Ltd is considering a Final Investment Decision (FID) on the $25 billion Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline in 2023. The 5,600-kilometer (3,840-mile) pipeline is meant to supply the fuel to Europe, with the NNPC and the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines of Morocco, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the deal last month.

    It traverses 13 African countries and is aimed at monetising Nigeria’s abundant natural gas resources, diversify the country’s gas export routes and eliminate gas flaring across Nigeria. The pipeline will originate from Brass Island (Nigeria) and terminate in the North of Morocco, where it will be connected to the existing Maghreb European Pipeline that originates from Algeria (via Morocco), all the way to Spain, according to the sponsors.

    Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, assured that the project was on course and remains one of the most critical for the company. “We will take a final investment decision next year,” he said. The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is also a signatory to the MoU. The project will cost $20-25 billion to build and will be constructed in phases, according to Kyari, who anticipates the first segment would take three years to finish and the others five years.

    Nigeria’s gas exports are currently limited to shipments from Nigeria LNG Ltd, a joint venture between NNPC and international energy companies including Shell Plc and Eni SpA. Nigeria possesses Africa’s largest proven gas reserves at over 200 trillion cubic feet, most of which is untapped, flared or re-injected into oil wells. While the government says it wants to monetise much more of the resource, for domestic use and export, to replace crude as the country’s key commodity, Kyari stated that quadrupling gas production in the next four years was “very realisable.”

    The NNPC has also revived a longstanding proposal for a separate transcontinental gas pipeline that would travel about 4,400 kilometres through the Sahara Desert to Algeria for onward transport to Europe.

    “We have seen the opportunity to bring back every gas pipeline project that you can think of,” Kyari said, noting that “It is a matter of who needs it and who’s ready to pay for it.”

    The NNPC GCEO also said that the country can add an additional 500,000 barrels a day before the end of November by reopening the Shell-operated Trans-Niger Pipeline and Forcados terminal and introducing new evacuation routes. The NNPC also hired new private security contractors in August to protect the pipelines, some of which are connected to militant leaders that once waged a war against the oil companies before accepting a government amnesty in 2009.

    Also, the NNPC Ltd recently entered into ‘cash for crude’ deals worth about $5.6 billion with some of its business partners as it forages for cash to revamp the country’s beleaguered oil sector. The capital commitments agreements seek to raise quick cash for investments and meet cash-call obligations and highlight the fragile financial state of the company, despite its claim of making record profits.

    Other prominent interest of NNPC include the acquisition of 20 percent interest in Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals Free Zone Enterprise worth $2.76 billion. This investment is held by NNPC Greenfield, a special-purpose vehicle that is 100 percent owned by the NNPC. This acquisition was financed by $1.036 billion funding from Lekki Refinery Funding Limited, of which $1 billion was paid to Dangote Refinery and $36 million accounting for transaction costs.

    “The balance of the cost of equity investments made in Dangote Refinery, which is $1.76 billion will be paid upon completion of the refinery project starting April 1, 2023 or any other date agreed between the parties (NNPC and Dangote Oil Refining Company Limited) via a combination of a $2.5/bbl discount (on the official selling price) per barrel on 300,000 barrels per day to Dangote Refinery, and 100percent of NNPC’s portion of any dividend declared by Dangote refinery, throughout the repayment period,” NNPC said.

    The NNPC entered into a forward sale agreement with Lekki Refinery Funding Limited to supply 35,000 barrels of crude oil per day for the settlement of the $1.036 billion (N426.2 billion) funding received for the financing of investment in Dangote Refinery. “The interest rate for the facility is 3-month LIBOR plus 6.125 percent. The arrangement has been scheduled to commence from August 30, 2023,” NNPC said.

    Also, the NNPC disclosed it expects Nigeria to add 500,000 barrels a day to its output by the end of November, mainly by restarting activities on the Shell Plc-operated Forcados export terminal and Trans Niger pipeline.

    Security of oil pipelines

    Nigeria’s main source of revenue and foreign exchange earnings has been undermined by low oil production due to rising oil theft, pipeline vandalism and underinvestment by International Oil Companies (IOCs).  The NNPC Ltd has therefore taken major steps to secure the oil industry, especially gas pipelines.

    The NNPC said the award of multi-billion naira pipeline surveillance contract to a privately contracted oil pipeline surveillance company, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, led by Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo is a right decision. The NNPC said the decision was necessitated by the need for Nigeria to hire private contractors to man its oil pipeline network nationwide due to massive oil theft.

    According to Kyari, the decision was aimed at achieving three broad objectives. He said: “First, to ensure the government’s security agencies play their part, we have our Navy, the Army and they are doing an excellent job of containing this, but as you do this sustenance is everything and therefore we also decided that we need private contractors to man the right of way and also operate outside the right of way so that they can also join us to manage members of the community.”

    Since the contract was awarded, the Tompolo team has recorded several success stories. The team discovered more massive illegal crude oil pipelines attached to Trans Forcados Export Trunkline. The latest discovery comes a few days after an illegal four-kilometre crude oil pipeline belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) was exposed.

    The discovered illegal pipeline revealed that the illegal line was connected to the 48-inch Trans Forcados Export Trunkline in Burutu Local Government Area. Chairman of Centre for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusade (CHURAC) board of trustees, Alaowei Cleric noted that Tompolo has shown he is able to stop crude oil theft in the Niger Delta.

    “This is just one of the many syndicates all over the region, milking our economy dry. We can’t dispute the NNPC’s claim that Nigeria is losing about 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day to economic saboteurs. Our consolation, however, is that with Tompolo given the contract to secure the oil pipelines, oil thieves are already having a bad day,” he said.

    He pointed out that NNPC Limited has achieved a feat it hasn’t been able to accomplish for the past 22 years, fighting crude oil theft, within few weeks of taking action to stop the illegal business. While urging Nigerians to assist in the task in order to achieve the desired results, he claimed that Tompolo’s initiatives are already having a positive impact on the economy.

    Managing Director, Financial Derivatives company Limited, Bismarck Rewane, said the government is tackling oil theft  as seen in the engagement of private security company to secure pipelines, which suggests a possible boost in production in the near term.

    “This is in addition to the re-opening of the Trans-Niger pipeline, which transports about 180,000bpd of crude oil. The pipeline, which is known to transport the nation’s high grade crude oil was formally closed due to vandalism and oil theft on the export facility,” he said.

    According to Rewane,  the government lost 400,000 barrels of oil daily to oil theft, which is equivalent to a revenue loss of N1.2 billion monthly. Possible increase in oil production coupled with high oil prices will bolster the country’s export earnings and aid reserves accretion,” he added.

    He said the possible increase in oil production coupled with high oil prices will bolster the country’s export earnings and aid reserves accretion. “Oil prices are expected to increase further towards $100pb in the coming weeks supported by OPEC+’s production cut as well as the impact of the lingering Russia-Ukraine war. Higher oil prices are positive for the Federal Government revenue and external reserves accretion,” he stated.

    For the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva, the unveiling of NNPC Limited is a new dawn in the quest for the growth and development of the oil and gas industry, opening new vistas for partnerships. “While the country was waiting for the PIA, Nigeria’s oil and gas industry lost about $50 billion worth of investments. In fact, between 2015 and 2019, KPMG states that “only four per cent of the $70 billion investment inflows into Africa’s oil and gas industry came to Nigeria even though the country is the continent’s biggest producer and the largest reserves,” Sylva said.

    “We are setting all these woes behind us, and a clear path for the survival and growth of our petroleum industry is now before us. With the PIA assuring international and local oil companies of adequate protection for their investments, the nation’s petroleum industry is no longer rudderless.

    “The PIA avails us with the golden opportunity to strengthen our institutions, improve our regulatory and fiscal frameworks and attract the much-needed investments. Some of the golden opportunities presented by the reforms are coming at a time when the global energy conversation is moving towards gas as a cleaner energy fuel,” he added.

  • FLOODS: When the dead rose in Bayelsa, Delta communities

    FLOODS: When the dead rose in Bayelsa, Delta communities

    There appears to be no end to the disastrous impact of the floods that have been ravaging different parts of the country in recent weeks. Beyond the shock of people being swept away by furious floods, rendered homeless or battling with snakes and other rodents for space at the different camps set up for internally displaced persons, a twist to the narrative is that corpses are being exhumed by floods in states like Bayelsa and Delta.

    In Bayelsa, the sight of corpses from Azikoro Cemetery in Yenagoa, the state capital, floating on water has sent jitters down the spines of residents of the neighbourhood.

    Apart from the gory sight of floating corpses, the distraught residents are also expressing fears and worries about the health hazards it poses to the inhabitants of the area.

    The chemicals used by the authorities during the reburial of the washed-up corpses have also worsened the worries of the residents.

    A resident, who identified himself simply as Ebi, said he was still transfixed by the gory images of dead bodies he saw floating on the flooded graveyard.

    Ebi said like a scene in a horror film, he saw something coming out of the cemetery that made him to develop goose pimples all over his body. Not deterred by that, he alerted some other persons to what he saw and they all headed for the cemetery only to see corpses floating on the flood that had covered the entire graveyard.

    He said: “The first was a casket with decomposing corpse inside. Then the second corpse came out without a casket and the third corpse with a wrapper near the body.

    “Initially, we were confused. Later an idea came to us that we should find a way to retrieve the corpses and take them to a corner outside the cemetery that was not as flooded as the graveyard. We did so and some persons informed the authorities.

    “Later, the government officials came and reburied the corpses. After that, they fumigated everywhere.”

    Ebi noted that since the incident, the emotional trauma from the flood and seeing those corpses floating on water have weighed him down physically, emotionally and psychologically.

    Another resident of the area, Angela Moses, said although the corpses had been reburied, the stench from the decomposing bodies still permeates the environment.

    She said the images of those dead bodies she saw were appearing in her dreams and she has been finding it difficult to shake it off her mind. She appealed to the government to evacuate the residents, most of whom are already stranded, to safe places.

    “I want to appeal to the government and relevant authorities to come to the aid of residents in whichever way possible. We are really facing terrible times now. We need help badly,” Moses stated.

    A prominent politician in the state, who is resident in the area, urged the government to relocate the cemetery from its present location after the floods because it is flood prone.

    The politician, who spoke in confidence, appealed to the state government to provide relief items to the residents, the majority of whom had been ravaged by the floods.

    The source noted that the chemicals applied and the stench from decomposing corpses posed serious health hazards to residents.

    “May I call on the government to provide relief items for the residents and relocate the cemetery after the flood,” the source appealed.

    The Commissioner for Environment, Iselema Gbaranbiri, had earlier confirmed that three floating corpses were recovered from the scene.

    Gbaranbiri, who is also the Chairman of the Bayelsa Flood Management Committee, said the corpses had been reburied and the environment adequately fumigated.

    In Delta State, a member, 2022 Delta Flood Management Committee and Director-General, Delta State Orientation Bureau, Mr. Eugene Uzum, confirmed that the committee had received reports of floating corpses.

    He said after an assessment of the situation, the Ministry of Health had swung into action to evacuate the bodies, adding that a team was on ground to report daily on the situation in Bomadi.

    According to Uzum, the Delta State government places premium on the lives of its citizens and would do all within its powers to prevent an epidemic.

    He said the committee was taking steps to check the influx of persons from neighbouring communities of Burutu, Patani by opening more internally displaced persons camps in the Bomadi axis.

    His words: “We got a report of that nature that the place is submerged and that corpses are floating. We assessed the situation and ascertained that that is the true position.

    “What government is doing through the Ministry of Health is to ensure that the bodies are evacuated.

    “The Delta State Government understands that this can lead to an epidemic and so it is taking steps to check the situation.

    “After evacuating the bodies, relevant authorities will fumigate the area as soon as the floods subside.”

    Activist laments magnitude of floods

    Speaking on the magnitude of this year’s flood and the unpalatable consequences, an environmental right activist, Alagoa Morris, said unarguably, this year’s monstrous flood had exceeded that of 2012.

    Morris, who is the Niger Delta Coordinator, Environmental Right Action and Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) said: “Besides the flooding of homes, offices and causing forced relocations and destruction of farms and traders’ stocks, infrastructure such as bridges and roads have been destroyed in Bayelsa.

    “Livestock and fish farmers have lost so much too, as spaces overflow and caused death or forced sale of livestock or escape of fishes.

    “Of great significance is the spreading of pollution from oil spill impacted sites, refuse dumps and, worst of all, human corpses.

    “The scenario in the cemetery in Yenagoa, where corpses reportedly came up floating is a sad and unfortunate reference point.”

    Morris lamented the health and socio-economic implications of the flooding and urged the authorities to accordingly rise to the occasion.

    He stated: “There is need for related distribution of drugs to residents and medical outreaches to all affected communities in the state.

    “So far, the Environmental Rights Action has heard of five deaths relating to this flood.

    “Only yesterday, ERA received calls in connection with a Hausa man who drowned last Sunday while trying to cross the Epie Creek at Igbogene. His corpse was discovered on Wednesday.

    “Earlier a boy also drowned around Igbogene community. We also heard of another death at Adagbabiri and two others.”

    Controversy trails disaster in Delta

    Eugene Uzum, a member, 2022 Delta Flood Management Committee and Director-General, Delta State Orientation Bureau, dismissed the allegations of non-release of funds to facilitate the work of the flood committee, adding that funds had been made available through an inter-ministerial committee established by Governor Okowa.

    But lawmaker representing Bomadi Constituency in the State Assembly, Hon. Kenneth Preyor, contradicted the position of the flood management committee on funding.

    He said no financial assistance had come from the flood committee in aid of flood victims in his constituency, adding that public spirited individuals had tasked themselves to provide palliatives.

    Preyor appealed for urgent assistance from the Delta State Government, adding that he had written several letters to the relevant authorities.

    Read Also: Flood: over 70 dead in Adamawa, Kano

    He, however, praised the state interventionist agency, Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) for responding to their needs by providing palliatives.

    According to Hon. Preyor, although the floods have not taken over the entire hospital, it has submerged the hospital’s morgue.

    He appealed to government to establish an IDP camp in the Bomadi axis to accommodate the influx of distressed persons from neighbouring communities.

    His words: “Government has not established any IDP camp here and this is making a bad situation worse. It is very terrible.

    “I have written letters to relevant authorities to come to our aid but no response. DESOPADEC has not responded to our pleas for help.

    “On our own, we, the elected and non-elected leaders, are organising to reach out to our distressed constituents. I can only reach Bomadi through Warri by boat. My house is under water as we speak.

    “The flood has not taken over the whole hospital premises, but the morgue is under water, causing dead bodies to be washed off. The concerned authorities are taking steps to rebury the bodies.”

     

    Floating, decomposing corpses have grave medical conditions – Medical experts

    Ex-Chairman, Nigeria Medical Association, Delta Chapter, Dr. Uyi Osarenkhoe, said if the report of floating corpses were true, government must act fast to prevent an epidemic.

    He said the issue of unchecked floating corpses has implications beyond the health on residents, adding that the emotional and psychological trauma on residents cannot be overstated.

    His words: “If it is true that dead bodies are washed off, then that is bad news. Outside the health implications, there are emotional and psychological implications on residents to watch the bodies of their loved ones floating around.

    “There is also a high risk of contamination of water bodies if corpses are not properly interred. And we know there are no pipe borne water in those communities who depend on streams for domestic use. So the risk of an epidemic is high.

    Another medical practitioner, Dr Michael Azezi, said decomposing corpses floating freely on flood waters have grave health implications for people.

    Azezi, a former Chairman, Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Bayelsa State chapter, also queried the depth of the grave, saying the dead bodies must have been buried in shallow graves for the floods to be able to wash them up.

    The medical doctor said: “There are a lot of public health implications for corpses buried in the cemetery to come out of their graves. First, the burial method was not properly done because the graves may have been too shallow, which is not good enough.

    “They need to bury people in such a way that no matter the flood, the corpses will not be affected. For corpses that are decomposing to come out of their graves and floating freely on the flood waters is awful, because flood waters flow to everywhere.

    “There are people living in their houses with the flood waters, there are people who wade through the flood waters and there are people who by mistake flood water can enter into their mouths or other parts of their body.

    “Therefore, it is a very bad thing for decomposing corpse to get to the homes of the people.

    “Of course, in this environment, people use the water to wash their clothes, take their baths and even wash their plates.

    “Even though they don’t drink from it, it has severe health implications. It will spread infections particularly water borne diseases such as diarrhoea, typhoid, hepatitis and others.”

    On the chemicals used for fumigating the environment after the reburial, Azezi said chemicals don’t stay only where they are sprayed because they flow with the water.

    Giving further insight, the medical expert stated: “If you spray any chemical in the water, the chemical will not stay in that place you sprayed it, because as water is flowing, it will get to other people.

    “That itself is not the best way to decontaminate the corpses. What they should have done is remove the corpses from that place and decontaminate them before reburying them.

    “If they are going to do any containment of the water, it becomes very difficult because the water is not circumscribed into a particular area.

    “If you spray chemical on the water, it will spread to other places because flood waters have current and wave and they move from one position to another.

    “That is a very precarious situation even though there is no other way government would have done sincerely by decontaminating the immediate surroundings.

    “But even at that, we know that water is not something you contain in one place since it is flowing with that pressure.

    “If the water was in an enclosure, it would have been a different thing. So, the chemicals themselves as well as the decomposing corpses have grave public health implications.”

    Azezi, therefore, advised the people living in the immediate environment to actually seek medical help by going to the hospital and get some basic investigations.

    He added: “If possible, those living around the cemetery area are the first set of people government should have evacuated because of additional health implications of corpses flowing freely in that environment.

    “They should have removed those people from that place. They need to go for check-ups and also it is not still too late for government to evacuate them from the area.

    “Sometimes when you have all these contaminants, all of them don’t flow with water, some may still be deposited within the vicinity of that place and they will continuously be exposed to the contaminants of that water and that can lead to further health problems.

    “They should still be evacuated from there and taken to hospital to do medical examination and if possible some form of medications should be given to them as a way of protection.” Residents dispute claims of floating corpses

    But some residents disputed the reports that corpses were exhumed by floods in Bomadi LGA and left floating around.

    They also denied that the morgue at the Government Hospital, Bomadi was submerged.

    In a telephone conversation with our reporter, a resident identified as Fun-ororo Narebor Esq. said the flood only wreaked havoc in the community, displacing residents and destroying farmlands, like in most affected places.

    He explained that the mortuary attendant only made provision to move the corpses should the morgue become flooded.

    Narebor said: “It is not true that buried corpses were floating because of the flood here.

    “The morgue was waterlogged but was not taken over by flood. The mortuary attendant only tried to prepare a platform to place the bodies in case of eventuality.

    “As of today (Friday), the water in the area has drastically reduced.”

    Another resident and member of Bomadi Community Committee, Anderson Clark, debunked the report of floating corpses in the community.

    He said: “In this Bomadi, nothing like that happened. I am a member of the community committee. We only have people whose homes were flooded and they are right now living in the secondary school where displaced persons are camped.”

    Efforts to get comments of the lawmaker representing Bomadi/Patani Federal Constituency, Hon Nicholas Mutu, were unsuccessful, as calls made to his phone went unanswered.

    The Delta State Commissioner for Health, Dr Ononye Mordi, assured that the epidemiology department was assessing all possible health hazards that might emanate from the flooding.

    He said health workers had been deployed to all flood affected areas and Internally Displaced Persons camps to monitor and attend to health-related issues.

    “First of all, the ministry is on alert to see that we are up to speed with the emerging health challenges. We have set up clinics in all the IDP camps.

    “We have sent doctors, nurses and other health workers to other places where people are camped even though they may not be official camps, to see that we offer them medical service, consultation and all that is connected to it. We have had deliveries taken.

    “The epidemiology unit of the ministry is also working from community to community, from camp to camp to ensure that health hazards are identified and appropriate measures to mitigate them are put in place.

    “Immunization, health education and all manner of health services are going on not just in our camps but in communities where we have had issues with flooding.

    “Like you talked about corpses floating, we have not had any official reports of that; not official reports of persons who are missing and so I can’t comment on that.

    “All I can say is that we are on top of the situation and doing all that is possible to ensure that no issue of public health importance arise from this unfortunate flood disaster,” the commissioner said.

     

    Stories By

    Simon Utebor, Yenagoa; Okungbowa Aiwerie, Asaba and Elo Edremoda Warri

  • ANCHOR BORROWERS’ PROGRAMME: How Ogun farmers were allegedly shortchanged by CBN Reps, contractors

    ANCHOR BORROWERS’ PROGRAMME: How Ogun farmers were allegedly shortchanged by CBN Reps, contractors

    The CBN’s claim that it loaned N1 trillion to smallholder farmers across the country under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (APB), to boost food security, has come under the hammer from the supposed beneficiaries in Ogun State. TAIWO ALIMI reports.

    MRS. Adekemi Adeife thought her farming struggles were over when the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) was brought to her doorstep during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown.

    It did not take long before the story began to change.

    Recounting her experience, the 62-year-old native  of Awa Ijebu in Ijebu-North Local Government Area of Ogun State, said: “When my nephew introduced the programme to me, and that government would  be giving farmers money to farm, I was happy. I love farming. I’ve been farming with my money for more than 10 years. I saw it as an opportunity to expand.”

    She thought of securing a bigger farmland.That prompted her to move  to neighbouring Ago Iwoye in the same Ogun State, where she got three acres.

    Her joy  knew no bounds and expectations soared.

    “We were advised to look for farmland as it was a prerequisite for  getting a loan. I paid N50,000 for three acres of farmland. They also promised us pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer, and saplings such as cassava stems and seedlings.”

    The first shocker soon hit her when the supposed loan came,a far cry from the half a million naira she was expecting.

    “ When the money eventually came it was a paltry N23,000 paid into my WEMA Bank account. That was  what many of us got. This was in 2020,” she said.

    “I had to leave the farm. I financed the little work I did that year to the tune of N150,000. I did not get any fertilizer, pesticides, or seedlings.”

    Mrs. Adeife was expecting N500,000 from the ABP under the supervision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the country’s apex bank in conjunction with the World Bank and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.

     

    GOALS OF ABP

    The Federal Government of Nigeria launched the ABP in 2015, to create a link between anchor companies involved in the processing  of crops and smallholder  farmers (SHFs) of the required key agricultural commodities. The programme thrust of the ABP is the provision of farm inputs in kind and cash (for farm labour) to SHFs to boost the production of Rice, Maize, Wheat,  Cotton, Roots, Cassava, Potatoes, Yam, Ginger, Sugarcane Oil palm, Cocoa, Rubber, Soybean, Sesame seed, Cowpea, Tomato, Fish, Poultry, and Ruminants; and stabilize inputs supply to agro-processors to address the country’s negative balance of payments on food.

    At harvest, the SHF supplies his/her produce to the agro-processor (Anchor) who pays the cash equivalent to the farmer’s account.

    According to the CBN, the ABP is expected to improve the capacity of SHFs.

    The CBN claimed the programme evolved from consultations with stakeholders comprising the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development, State governors, millers of agricultural produce, and SHFs.

     

    FARMERS’ REALITY

    In reality, ABP failed to  achieve these set-out goals in Ogun State, one of the Southwest states with enormous agro business capacity, due to its large expanse of farmlands.

    Like Mrs. Adeife, Banjo Asajueda, a.k.a Baba Awogi, another beneficiary of ABP in Ogun State, has a sad story to tell about the scheme.

    The 70-year-old who ended up having high Blood Pressure (BP) and no farm said he will never forget the year 2020.

    “ I’ve not recovered from the setback,” he said..

    “When our names came out, I began to pursue the money. We were told that a tractor would come to our farm three times before harvest; that  we would receive  three containers of pesticide and fertilizer. I waited for months and the planting season was almost over and yet nothing came.

    “I had to go to LAPO (Microfinance Bank) for a loan of N200,000 in  the hope of paying back when I got the ABP money. By the time the chemical arrived, my farm had been  overgrown by  weeds making the chemical useless. As much as I used it wasn’t effective until I mixed it with another chemical.

    “A tractor also came to work on the farm once without consultation with me. When I challenged the contractor, Gbenga he just told me that he wasn’t responding to me but to the government that gave him the contract.

    “So, there was no cordial relationship between  the contractor and farmers. The same thing happened with the cassava stems. They just called me around 1 AM  one day while sleeping to inform me that cassava stems had arrived. They just dropped the stems there and farmers were told to go there and take them. There was no consultation.

    “I had to collect another loan  from LAPO making a total of N400,000 to work on the farm. Unfortunately, thieves and herders did not allow me to reap the fruits of my labour. Thieves came overnight to cultivate my cassava, while herders destroyed the rest. I had to sell my ancestral land to pay the bank when the harassment was much

    “My BP rose as I became worried. I lost my farm and became indebted and sick. I have not returned to the farm since that incident due to falling health.”

    farmers

    MORE TALES OF WOE   

    Another female farmer Mrs. Adeyinka Babajide whose farm is located in Ijebu Igbo said she got N210,000 from ABP in 2020 with some pesticides and no tractor service.

    Recalling her experience,she said:“ The cassava stems they brought were all dried up by the time they got to us. Second, the money I was given was little. It was not sufficient to cultivate half of my farmland. When the ABP Monitoring Team came to my farm, they saw it themselves. I received N210,000 for three acres of farmland. When I complained they said the rest of the money had been given to us in kind. Yet, all I got was dry cassava stems and four containers of herbicide.

    “I had to abandon the farm because the money could not complete the project. The farm was taken over by weeds and I lost all the crops.

    “It was later that we started hearing that each farmer ought to have been given  N500,000;that  government officials and contractors had taken their share of the money; and what they gave us was what was left. It is not supposed to be like that if the government wants to tackle food insecurity.

    “If I had got  N500,000 it would have been  okay for me. That would have been  sufficient to clear  the land, buy cassava stems, sow, cultivate, and buy chemicals, and  pay for harvest. I spend N4000 on transportation each time I go to the farm.

    “Imagine the number of times I have to go there. These are things the government did not consider. And because the money was not sufficient, I had to abandon the farm. I doubt if anyone else in my vicinity benefitted from the ABP.”

    Biodun Ogunjimi, Ogun State Secretary of the  Farmers Council Association of Nigeria, confirmed that the ABP failed in Ogun state.

    He said:“We have made our feelings known to the federal government and we condemn in totality the outcome of ABP. The programme is laudable and fantastic but the implementation is faulty.

    “Out of the 23,000 cassava farmers that were captured in Ogun State, it will interest you to note that only 800 actually and actively participated. The margin is too much. It is not a success story at all. It is a failure.”

    Oladele Awoleri, former ABP coordinator in Ijebu North, also scored implementation of the programme low in his area.

    The CEO of Golden Crown Agricultural High School Awa Ijebu, said: “For Ijebu North, the programme did not achieve food security. Of the 200 names  on the list that was sent to me, we found out that only 84 were legitimate farmers. The first major issue was the invasion of herdsmen. Out of 80 farmers, 42 complained of herders. Secondly, drought affected the farming session. Thirdly, the operations were faulty because farmers complained about allocation of herbicides and pesticides. They should have given the farmers  money to buy the chemicals.

    “As it were, it is possible that CBN will not be able to get neither money nor crops from farmers due to all these complaints. Also, the goal of the scheme, that of food security could not be achieved. Many of the smallholder  farmers will not even sell to government.”

    Read Also: CBN stops foreign banks from deposit collection

    MORE PROBLEMS

    Asked how much each beneficiary ought to have received,Awoleri said: “In the books, it’s supposed to be N210,000 per farmer but part of the money comes in kind. The argument is that if some of these farmers were given physical cash, they would  not use it to farm.So the money came in the form of seedlings, chemicals, and tractors to work on farms. All these were contracted out.

    “As for the  tractors,the job was given to companies that have tractors in the locality. From the N210,000, a certain amount of money was deducted from the source, about N45,000 for tractor to work on each farm three times. Then, instead of the farmers to begin to look for money to buy pesticides and herbicides, they contracted it out to companies to supply them That money will also be deducted from the source. They also contacted out cassava stems to another company to supply the TNB419 variety.

    “But, a certain amount, approximately N32,000, was supposed to be given to each farmer. Out of this may be bank charges will be taken and that is why farmers may get N31,500 or less. The money is for transportation, harvesting, and some other things. It is expected that farmers would harvest themselves. That is why you see somebody saying that it is only N24,000 that he/she was given.”

    Awoleri, was, however, quick to point out areas of compromise and inefficiency  which led to the failure of ABP.

    His words:“Where the problem lies is that some of the contractors short-changed some farmers, and  some were in complicit with the farmers.

    “Instead of going to their farm to work three times, the contractor would go there once and give the farmer N5000. He would now ask them to lie that he came to their farm three times. So, some farmers are also part of the problem. Some of the contractors’ cheated farmers and the farmers blamed the government for it.”

     

    UNDERHAND DEALS 

    Ogunjimi put the blame squarely on the doorstep of CBN.

    “It is interesting to note that some CBN officials are culpable accomplices. But the bulk of the blame was put at the doorstep of the leaders of the national association. However, this is just to cover up their shortcomings.

    “ For example, the supply of the fertilizers to be used for the programme in Ogun State was  contracted to companies in Kano, Katsina, and Kano. Are there no service providers in Ogun State that could  be given the job, thereby empowering the local companies?”

    Many of the farmers also complained of the insincerity of the CBN, their representatives, and contractors for underhand deals and short-changing of farmers in Ogun State.

    Mrs. Adeife said: “If government said it wanted  to give farmers money and it was some people who are not farmers that were  ‘eating’ it, I’ve made up my mind to put my mind off any government money and do the little I can with my money. If I see N250,000, it will go a long way.”

    According to Awoleri: “most of the farmers in Ijebu North and Yewa did not get more than N35,000. The highest was N210,000. Many of them complained that tractors did not come to their farms and they did not get chemicals too. Some of them received only N24,000.”

    Another problem is coordinators manipulating the list of beneficiaries. There were thousands of ineligible people registered as farmers thereby displacing real farmers.

    “The problem is that they simply brought people who were not farmers in and they all went in droves to collect form claiming they were farmers. Many of them are artisans: mechanics, vulcanizers, tailors, traders, commercial tricycles, and motorcycle riders. The bona  fide farmers were not given the opportunities. So, when the list came out and we moved out for inspection we found that many were not qualified. They didn’t  even have land to farm.

    “At that point, we had to sectionalise the project. Under Ijebu North we have  Awa Ijebu, Ago Iwoye, Ijebu, and Ijebu Igbo. So, I went to the paramount rulers to ask for land. Though tedious, we got hectares of land but they were not tractorable land and we could only bring a few real farmers to the land.”

    Baba Awogi accused  Olatunde Gbenga, CEO of Global Feeders, one of the contractors given  contract to plough in Ijebu North LGA, as a culprit in this regard.

    He said:“We were told that tractor would  work on our farm at least three times and the contract was awarded to one Olatunde Gbenga, CEO of Global Feeders. I know him very well. I accosted him once but he rebuffed me saying he was only responsible to the government.”

    When The Nation contacted Gbenga, he denied the  allegation and blamed climate change for the poor harvest. “Climate change made nonsense of government efforts because by the time the ABP money came, the rain did not fall and a lot of farmers had projected that the money would come earlier.  It affected crops adversely making them dry up.

    “This was as a result of climate change and that is why Ogun governor has met with CBN governor to revisit the scheme in the state. At least do something for those who did not get much. As I speak with you the CBN is making plans to revisit the issue.”

     

    CLIMATE CHANGE

    Awoleri admitted that  drought played a part in disrupting the scheme.

    “It is true that climate change killed a lot of crops. By the time the money was ready, rain did not fall. It was in September that it started to rain. By this time  farmers who had cultivated their lands expecting rain in March had to rush back to work; then the rain stopped again, and all their crops dried up.

    “In 2020, a meeting of all coordinators was called in Abeokuta with CBN, Ministry of Agriculture, and Cassava Growers Association. It was said that all the farmers that were affected be given another year to benefit from the programme. Unfortunately, this did not happen.”

     

    ABP A SUCCESS

    Despite the many complaints, CBN described the ABP as a resounding success.

    The apex bank  claimed that about 2.85 million farmers benefitted from the ABP from 2016 to 2020.

    According to figures obtained from the CBN, N554.63bn was disbursed, of which N61.02bn was allocated to 359,370 dry season farmers.

    The CBN also stated in its last October monthly report that under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, the sum of N1.9bn was disbursed to 2,521 farmers to cultivate 8,963 hectares of land through three participating financial institutions.

    The report, however, failed to give details of disbursement to each state and the number of farmers that benefited from each state.

    Local farmer

    CBN GOT IT WRONG 

    Ogunjimi disputed  the CBN’s figures and impact, claiming  that Ogun State had little or nothing to show for the scheme.

    He said:“We have met with the CBN. We submitted detailed complaints about our experience with the programme. It is a failure and many farmers across the state share my opinion.”

    National President of The All-Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Arc. Kabir Ibrahim also queried CBN’s claim.

    “The programme would have been more impactful if the real farmers and stakeholders were carried along.”

    He said there was little or no consultation with the private sector before the ABP was commenced, adding that the implementation pattern was not comprehensive enough to have the desired effect on the agricultural landscape of the country.

    “For example, how many farmers were consulted when they were starting the ABP? How many real operators were involved or contacted? Even in disbursing the monies, how many real farmers benefited? How do we know that all the beneficiaries were genuine farmers?”

    He also complained of policy inconsistencies and lack of continuity, saying successive CBN governors always have different agendas in the area of fiscal interventions.”

    The AFAN president  called for institutionalization of the ABP, adding that the Ministry of Agriculture is better positioned than the CBN to manage the scheme henceforth.

     

    OPERATION NO MERCY

    Going forward, the CBN said it has begun an aggressive drive to recover the loans it gave out under the ABP.

    Yusuf Yila, director of development finance of the CBN said: “Every person(s) or state that took that loan (ABP) is going to pay. We have their BVN.”

    Such persons referenced by Yila are smallholder farmer , who received funds for farming from state governments via the ABP, but have yet to pay them back.

    “If a state government has taken N1 billion and is already in default, over six months, we debit them N150 million every month.

    “So, every single loan that has been given out through any of our intervention programmes must be paid back.

    “There is absolutely no mercy. We have started; we are in recovery mode. At the development finance department, we have begun to recover the loans.”

    “There is the ABP which is a primary consumption element of our interventions.  We lent out N1 trillion for the ABP of which we have gotten over N400 billion back.

    “Every single person or state that took that loan (ABP) is going to pay. We have their BVNs. We have started implementing the Global Standing Instruction (GSI).

    “We will continue to pull the account in the bank that they lent to or whichever bank that they have the account. Anytime we see money in that account, we will recover it.

    “We are working with the EFCC. The CBN governor has approved the collaboration with the EFCC on loan recoveries.”

     

    FARMERS NO LONGER HAVE FAITH IN ABP

    Reacting to the CBN threat, Awoleri said genuine farmers such as Baba Awogi and Mrs. Adeife, that have been dealt serious blows  with the failure of ABP, would suffer more.

    “Genuine farmers will no longer collect government loan and what it means is that the money will continue to flow into the wrong pockets and the goal of the programme to facilitate food security would have been defeated.”

    He enjoined the federal government to re-evaluate the ABP to refocus its implementation.

    Awoleri was a beneficiary of another agricultural intervention scheme that robbed him of more than N8 million.

    “These programmes are troubled with dishonesty, bribery, and corruption and it is the real farmers that are suffering from the lapses. If food security must be achieved, then the loan must go to sincere SHFs and not contractors, politicians, or bankers.

    “Out of N9.9m approved for my project, I was able to pull out only N650,000. That is out of the N900,000, that they claimed came out. For you to get anything out, you have to grease palms,” Awoleri added.  a

  • Revealed: Why oil theft, environmental pollution persist in Niger Delta

    Revealed: Why oil theft, environmental pollution persist in Niger Delta

    After spending four days as media embed with the Nigerian Navy in anti-crude oil theft operations in the Niger Delta, PRECIOUS IGBONWELUNDU reports that connivance and greed of oil companies, fear or complicity by host communities, accessibility of the terrains as well as corruption and delays in the criminal justice system are fueling the menace.

    Metal tanks of about 10,000- litre capacity each with long iron pipes, hoses and large pits filled with products littered vast expanse of lands with choking stench of petrol that leaves the uninitiated feeling drowsy and nauseous.

    There were also tents with white hankerchiefs on shrubs signifying peace truce or red clothes with charms, makeshift beds, mosquito nets, rain boots, flip-flops, kitchen utensils in some of these sites mostly located in islands with no access roads, bridges or telecommunication networks.

    Underground pipes connecting crude oil reservoirs suspected to have been siphoned from well heads along the Trans-Forcados by the criminals who ran other pipes to various tanks and dugout pits, such that diesel, kerosene and the waste products go into different channels from their heat ovens through hoses and metal pipes were observed.

    In some of these metal pipes and hoses traced to crude oil well  heads located between five to 15kms away and abandoned by both international and national oil firms for not being economically viable, the liquid gold was visibly gushing out into dug out pits, barges and other storage facilities emplaced by the thieves.

    The above were common sights at Market Square by Cawthorne Channel, Alakiri, Azuzama, Lobia, Forupa, Oyeregbene, Sangakubu, Ekeni, Ezetu, Sagbama, Fununu, Amassoma, Minibei, Ayama, Oyoma, Mbiama, Ahoda, Azikoro, Otuoeke, Onimubu, In Jones creeks Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta states; havens for vicious crude oil thieves who illegally cook  Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) and Kerosene, rob the country of billions of naira in crude earnings as well as destroy agricultural lands and aquatic life with reckless abandon.

    It is not news that Nigeria’s oil sector has seen turbo-thievery in recent years with seeming helplessness from the government on the best way to contain the menace. Oil thieves have become increasingly daring, sophisticated and prosperous. The financial power of the oil thieves has reinforced their sophistication and encouraged them to morph from pussy cats into lions such that they even parade gunboats and General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG) which they used to engage security forces that dare to dislodge them.

    Enroute Azuzuama community, a journey of over five hours on gunboat from the Ministry of Transportation jetty, Yenagoa, this reporter who was embedded in the Nigerian Navy (NN) anti-crude oil theft (COT) operation codenamed Dakatar Da Barawo, a Hausa phrase for stop the thief, and spent 16 hours on the river to and fro Azuzuama, observed militants fleeing a cooking site in a gunboat, apparently, after receiving information that the naval operatives were on their trail.

    Armed men in one of the five naval boats on the mission were directed to pursue the fleeing criminals but they had to withdraw from the chase to protect the journalists on board after the militants fled deeper into the creeks.

    At the illegal refining site, two wooden boats containing crude oil abandoned by the fleeing vandals were set ablaze by the operatives to prevent the criminals from utilising them when they returned, just as pumping of crude into a pit was ongoing.

    Thick black oil on the surface of the river, dead trees with oil soaked roots and even thick dark clouds around the cooking areas were visible and indicated that the operators of these illegal businesses have a ready and thriving market.

    The issue

    Despite the 2011 Ogoniland report by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), which revealed unprecedented concentration of benzene, a carcinogen and hydrocarbons occasioned by oil spillages that has polluted air and water; oil theft and illegal refineries still persists in the Niger Delta.

    In some instances, UNEP’s study showed benzene concentrate in outdoor air were 900 times higher than the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) benchmark, while the contamination of drinking and ground water posed serious threat to human health, caused distortion of the ecosystem and would take up to three decades to clear.

    Although the federal government had approved the establishment of modula refineries as a way to checkmate crude oil theft, which according to the Nigerian Natural Resource Charter (NNRC) robbed the country of N3.8trillion between 2016 and 2017, the syndicates involved in the crime have continued.

     Statistics

    In its September 12, 2022 report titled “The Anatomy of Crude Oil Theft in Nigeria: Understanding the Graft, Impact and Implications”, Proshare Research made a comparison between the actual gross earnings from oil and the estimated value of stolen oil, where it observed that N1.03trn, up to 54% of actual gross oil revenue earned in the first half of 2021, was lost to crude oil thieves.

    “This marks a notable deterioration compared to previous years. In 2017 with an average crude oil price of US$54.3/barrel, Nigeria lost an estimated N1.56trn, an equivalent of 38.2% of actual gross oil revenue of N1.89trn except for 2020, when average crude oil prices tanked to US$42/barrel, lost revenue on account of crude oil theft has continued to increase”.

    Months ago, the Group Managing Director, Oando Plc, Adewale Tinubu, while speaking at the Nigerian Oil and Gas Conference in Abuja, said the country loses 20 per cent of her daily crude production and 20,000 barrels of oil per day to thieves and pipeline vandals, lamenting that between March and May, the country recorded 43 per cent decline in oil production.

    Also, the Chief Executive of NNPC Limited, Melee Kyari, raised the alarm that the country lost $1.5 billion to oil thieves between January and March this year.

    Shell Petroleum Company (SPDC) in a 2019 report stated that crude oil theft on the SPDC Joint Venture (JV) pipeline network resulted in a loss of around 11,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) the previous year, which is more than the approximate 9,000 bbl/d in 2017.

    The multinational firm blamed illegal refining and third party interference for 90% of the spills of more than 100kgs of SPDC-JV pipelines last year. The report revealed that over 1,160 illegal theft points have been removed by SPDC alone since 2012.

    “Oil spills due to crude oil theft and sabotage of facilities (referred to as third party interference), as well as illegal refining, cause the most environmental damage from oil and gas operations in the Niger Delta.

    “The number of sabotage-related spills of more than 100kgs in volume in 2018 increased to 111 compared to 62 in 2017. The sharp increase in 2018 can (in part) be explained by an increase in theft activities in a pre-election year; availability of our production facilities following repair of a major export line in 2017; price of crude oil and refined products that is seen as an opportunity for more illegal refining.

    Read Also: War against oil theft: Tompolo’s gunboats storm Niger Delta creeks

    “This demonstrates that continued air and ground surveillance and action by government security forces to prevent crude oil theft and illegal refining remain necessary,” it stated.

    Why crude oil theft persists

    Checks by our correspondent showed that combating crude oil theft and associated crimes have proven impossible because of the connivance of corrupt staff of both national and international oil companies, who largely benefit from the abnormality.

    These people buy the products from the criminals at outrageously cheap prices only to resell at official rates, and in the case of PMS, still file false claims for subsidy to the government for products not imported. In Bayelsa State for instance, it was learnt that filling stations ran out of products when operatives of NNS SOROH started dislodging the criminals and deactivating tankers, barges found carrying illegally refined products.

    Moreover, these oil companies deliberately abandon well heads they consider dry and refuse to seal them only for the vandals to knock off the valves and connect their pipes such that whenever pumping activities are going on, they would have unrestricted access to crude oil for their use.

    They also allow crude oil theft because it provides an enabling environment for corrupt officials of the NNPC in particular, to lift more quantity than they declare, export through back deals to make money for themselves, since no other agency physically monitors the lifting of crude oil.

    An example of the above is the case of a vessel which arrived Nigerian waters on August 7, 2022, and was accosted by a naval ship before it fled to Equatorial Guinea where it was arrested on August 10, 2022, only to produce a loading approval on August 11, which showed it was to commence loading on August 17.

    •Commander NNS DELTA, Commodore Abdulhamid Baba-Inna and Commanding Officer FOBESCRAVOS – Captain Bashir Abubakar, at Jones creek in Warri South West LGA on Saturday.

     

    This implies that the vessel, which, showed was hired at about $85,000 USD per day, arrived Nigerian waters 10 days before its supposed loading date, thus accumulating approximately $850,000 USD as chatter fee for the voyage.

    Even at a premium of $2 per barrel for three million barrels, the chatter fee defies economic logic, and a pointer that the vessel would have lifted crude illegally without the proceeds being remitted to the federal government had it not been accosted.

    Aside the oil companies, host communities have also been found to connive with the thieves either as a result of fear of being harmed or out of sheer nonchalance and greed. Because these cooking sites are mostly located in the middle of nowhere, these criminals ordinarily wouldn’t know security forces were coming after them unless they were alerted by locals posing ad fishermen, onlookers, dredgers or wood cutters several kilometres away.

    Operation Dakatar Da Barawo

    With the successes recorded in the navy’s fight against illegal bunkering on the high seas in 2015 through the Choke-Point Management and Control Regime, which saw the deployment of Naval Security Stations (NSS) or Houseboats anchored permanently at strategic/problematic areas on the waterways to monitor and intercept vessels suspected of illegal activities, the criminals, who were trapped in their enclaves, resorted to opening one-stop shops in their camps, where their clients come to with drums, kegs and specially constructed waterproof boats to purchase crude oil, diesel, kerosene or bitumen in commercial quantities.

    Faced with this new challenge and the alarming losses incurred at the beginning of the year, the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo on April 1 flagged off Operation Dakatar Da Barawo, with a mandate to dominate the waterways through aggressive and intelligence-driven patrols aimed at curbing the menace and preventing the movement of stolen oil products to other countries through the sea.

    Launching the operation at Onne, Rivers State, Gambo said reports of massive revenue losses necessitated the multi-pronged efforts to curb the excesses of the criminals.

    He emphasised that the Navy, under his watch, was committed to eradicating acts of criminality in the country’s maritime space and the Gulf of Guinea (GoG).

    “It would also be dedicated to monitoring pipelines; block identified strategic estuaries to prevent conveyance of stolen crude oil from inshore to sea and to maintain credible presence along the coastline of areas prone to crude oil theft,” Gambo said.

    Successes

    Within the six months of the operation, 95 suspects have been arrested; a barge, one tugboat, 132 wooden and six fibre boats seized; two trucks, 18 pumping machines, five outboard engines, two generators, one AK47 rifle, one dane gun, three AK47 magazines and 92 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunitions recovered in Rivers State alone by operatives of NNS PATHFINDER.

    Also, the base deactivated 215 illegal cooking camps, seized 23.5 million litres of AGO, 18 million litres of crude oil and 6.2 million litres of DPK within the period, just as four suspected sea robbers/pirates’ camps were also dislodged.

    According to the Commander, NNS PATHFINDER, Commodore Suleiman Ibrahim, this volume was split between crude stolen and production deferment (shut-ins) due to legitimate fear of losing substantial volumes in transit.

    He said the navy has established, sustained its dominance and have been able to achieve deterrence to some extent but cannot single-handedly curb the menace unless other stakeholders played their roles effectively.

    Ibrahim emphasised the need for oil companies to ensure that well heads no longer useful to them were permanently shut in order to deny the criminals access to products. He decried situations whereby the navy would discover these well heads, inform the oil firms but no action would be taken several months after to seal them off.

    “The solution to the problems of crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism and illegal refinery require the collaboration of all stakeholders. We cannot completely eradicate the problem without the traditional rulers, community leaders, state and local governments, the media and the oil companies themselves. The navy is doing its part and we will continue to do so.

    “The Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Zubairu Gambo has given us all the support within his ability for us to do this job, but the truth is that it takes a lot of resources to execute swam buggy operations.

    “We spend a minimum of N500,000 to deploy a swam buggy to an illegal cooking site each day just for the equipments. Multiply that by the number of days we have been doing this since April 1, and same goes to other operational bases.

    “It is pertinent to state that the Swamp Buggy operation is still ongoing in order to degrade the infrastructure used by the illegal bunkerers. Currently, the base has deployed two Swamp Buggies, two tug boats, two barges and gunboats to Alakiri for Anti-COT operations. These efforts are all geared towards the attainment of the objectives of Operation DAKATAR DA BARAWO,” he said.

    In its area of operation (AOO), NNS DELTA also deactivated 132 illegal sites, 75 wooden boats, 14 speed boats, 12 outboard engines, 78 pumping machines, nine generators and 100 jerricans between April and September 27, said the Commander, Commodore Abdulhamid Baba-Inna.

    The Commander who conducted reporters round Jones Creek, said they also destroyed 631,992 storage facilities, 19,311,000 litres of crude oil, 8,844,890 litres of AGO and 372,650 litres of PMS, 346,075 litres of DPK and 265 drums.

    He said the base impounded 10 tankers/vehicles, arrested five suspects, discovered 681 dug out pits and 1008 ovens within the period under review. “The well head is active because they usually tap crude oil from there using pipes or hoses which are put into wooden boats then taken to dug out pits where they are discharged and then taken to the cooking pots.

    “The location of this well head has been reported to the NPDC and other oil companies in the area. We are expecting that they will come and do the needful. From this point, usually once they see us coming they take to their heels.

    “In previous operations, arrests were made and suspects handed over to the appropriate agency for prosecution and necessary actions. Areas where arrests were made are Egwa 1, Egwa 2, Opunami, Sagara creek, Ekemu, Jones Creek and a host of others.

    “Anytime we come in we talk to the community. But, of course, we have the good and bad people everywhere. So, maybe the bad people have overwhelmed the good ones.

    “To carry out this operation requires a lot of logistics. Looking at where we came from, it took us an hour plus to get here, and if you are to move in a swamp buggy to this place, it will be at least six to eight hours. This is similar to every other site where you have these illegal refineries,” he said.

    In Bayelsa State, a two-million litre capacity barge loaded with illegally cooked AGO was intercepted last week and samples sent to the laboratory for confirmation. As soon as the result showed it was illegally refined, the barge was deactivated in line with presidential directive.

    Commander, NNS SOROH, Commodore Patrick Atakpa, while addressing reporters at Azuzuama said the base ensured that buyers of these products were caught in order to break the chain, adding that over 20 trucks have been impounded and crushed.

    He said the site was destroyed three weeks ago through manual labour because it was impossible to deploy the swamp buggy based on the terrain, lamenting that the criminals were already back to the scene..

    “We deactivated this camp three weeks ago. The Navy will continue to do its part but other agencies have their own role to play. The message we really want them to get is that when we deactivate a place, they should go and seal the wells.

    The way out

    For former President, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Tunji Oyebanji, it was possible that rogue staff of International Oil Companies (IOCs) were involved in such criminal activities and not the companies themselves.

    He said the solution to crude oil theft was application of technology in the production, storage and loading chain that would enable tracking.

    Oyebanji said: “IOCS, from my experience, operate under strict corporate governance codes. I doubt if they would indulge in such practices unless their staff who would be operating on their own. But no IOC would engage in such as official policy or operations.

    “Corruption is pervasive and the staff of any institution is not insulated. Where it is discovered, IOCs will generally take severe disciplinary action.

    “The solution is to apply technology so that all production, storage and loading are tracked. Just like you use fingerprint access to open dome doors, you need to find technology that will track movement of crude throughout the value chain.

  • Inside multi-million naira ponmo business in Ogun community

    Inside multi-million naira ponmo business in Ogun community

    Ijebu IAgbo, a historical town in Ijebu North Local Government Area, Ogun State, is fast becoming a popular destination for hardworking jobless graduates desirous of legitimate income. For some years now, the community which thrives on processing and sales of edible cow skin known locally as ponmo, has become a fertile ground for unemployed individuals within and outside the state to become business owners and employers of labour. Traders, majorly women, besiege Oke Agbo and surrounding communities littered with bukas (the outlets where the processing and sales of the product are done) for acquisition and onward transportation to different parts of the country. INNOCENT DURU, who visited the area, wonders what fate awaits the hordes of traders involved in the business and the huge population that depend on it as meat source with a plan in place by the Federal Government to ban the consumption of ponmo in the country in order to revive the leather industry, particularly now that unemployment and poverty rates are going through the roof.

    • Unemployed graduates earn living selling local delicacy

    • Merchants pay N55 million for container of cow skin, source supplies from Sudan, others

    • Younger traders modernise business, embark on export

    • NBA chief threatens legal action against FG over planned ban

    Abibat Jimoh, a graduate of Business Administration from  Ogun State Government owned Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), ilived in misery and penury after completing her studies in 2001. Many years after completing her education and the compulsory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC),  she combed the nooks and crannies of Ogun and neigbouring states foremployment to no avail.  All she could get were ad hoc jobs that paid her pittance.

    At some point, she got introduced to ponmo business but she turned it down, waving it off as a business for old and uneducated women. She, however, had a change of mind after some time and decided to give the business a try, and that marked a turning point in her life.

    She said: “I am happy doing this business. I am now an employer of labour and no more a job seeker.

    “Interestingly, there are many graduates involved in this business here in Ijebu Igbo. We learnt the trade from our elders who didn’t hesitate to put us through.”

    Exuding joy over her transformation from a job seeker to a business owner, she said: “I have people working in my buka (outlet) as you can see, and I  pay them on a daily basis.

    “People who earn a living from each buka are many and they include people who fetch water, transporters who help to deliver the ponmo to different locations, wood sellers, women who help to count the ponmo and many others.

    “Some go home with as much as N4,000 on a daily basis depending on the volume of what they do.”

    Sadia, a graduate of Tai Solarin College of Education, now Tai Solarin University of Education, also had a depressing experience searching for a paid job.

    “I graduated from Tai Solarin in 2008. I took up teaching jobs at different times in private schools but the salaries were too poor and were not coming regularly. Some of the schools were paying between N8,000 and N10, 000. The little I was getting I spent on transportation,” she recalled.

    Explaining why she ventured into ponmo business after everything else failed,  she said: “The cost of fish and meat is outrageous and ponmo comes as a cheap alternative.

    “If you buy N3,000 meat to make a pot of soup for your family, it will almost be finished after one or two meals. The same applies to fish. But if you buy N1,000 worth of ponmo, it will stay for a long time.

    “I am happy that I ventured into the business because there is no way I would not make money on a daily basis.”

    Also sharing her experience, another university graduate, who gave her name as Sola Ogun, said the business has grown beyond what it was many years ago. She said even medical doctors and other professionals are involved in the business.

    Ogun said: “A doctor comes every 10 days to buy from me. I also have a headmistress who comes from Sango Ota to buy and resell. There are even people in the UK and other foreign countries that I supply.  Sometime last month when there was a hiccup in air travel in Nigeria, it was through Ghana that they took the ponmo to the UK if you have N56 million to be able to buy a container. It is a good business that helps people to earn a living.

    More success stories

    There were more revelations about how the ponmo business has been empowering unemployed graduates when our correspondent encountered another graduate, Aliu Adewale, who also expressed joy doing the business.

    Adewale said: “I have been doing this business for some time now and I find it rewarding. It is a business that employs many people because it has so many levels of processing.

    “It is not something that one person can do singlehandedly. Sorting of cow skin is a business on its own.

    “The cow skin comes in containers and a container contains a minimum of 4,000 pieces. Containers carrying small sizes of cow skin cost over N25 million each.

    “Some people prepare them dry and send them abroad. But I don’t export mine. Women come from places like Ondo, Lagos, Ibadan and so on to buy it.

    “The dry one is even sold in some supermarkets. The number of women involved in this business is very high.”

    Quantifying the natives involved in the business, he said: “Fifty per cent of our people are into the business. There are people who only travel to the north and other places like the Sudan to bring in the cow skin.

    “Another set of people will go and buy from them and process it and another set will come toIjebu Igbo from different locations to buy it.

    “The cows that are killed in Nigeria are not enough to meet the quantity of ponmo that we process, so people go outside Nigeria to get it.

    “Besides the amount of sunshine in Nigeria cannot be compared with what obtains in the Sudan. The intensity of sunshine in their country makes their cow skin to be different from ours.”

    Outside Ijebu Igbo, the number of graduates that are reaping from ponmo business is staggering. Faith, who plies her trade in Ikorodu area of Lagos, has moved from supplying people in different parts of the country to sending her wares abroad.

    “I I deal in fried dry ponmo,” she said. “I have been doing this business for the past five years. I supply people within and outside Lagos, including Canada.

    “The dry ponmo does not smell and has a long shelf life. I get orders from outside Nigeria and use the money I make from it to take care of my children and also support my husband.

    “I supply ponmo to no fewer than seven states in Nigeria.”

    Protest over plan by FG to ban ponmo consumption

    There has been growing concern among Ijebu Igbo and other traders since the Federal Government said, last week, that it was planning a legislation aimed at banning the consumption of ponmo in the country to revive the leather industry.

    There are fears among the people that their means of livelihood, which is one of the mainstays of the community, is on the verge ofbeing aborted.

    Many of the natives avoided comments on the issue as they feared our correspondent was a government official who had come to compound their fears. Many of them would not even take the risk of speaking anonymously or even on the phone.

    But Abibat Jimoh, one of the few respondents who braved the odds, said: “If they ban the sales and consumption of ponmo, the number of people that they would send into early graves would be too many, because the number earning a living from the sales of ponmo is innumerable.

    “Just check all the markets in the Southwest and tell me if there is any place where you will not see women selling raw ponmo.

    “Aside from those selling raw ponmo,  there are those who only sell peppered ones for a living aside from restaurants, eateries and food vendors that also add it to their business.

    “Apart from the business angle, people who don’t want to eat beef prefer to eat ponmo. Poor families who cannot afford to buy fish and meat now depend on ponmo. What do they expect such people to eat if they ban ponmo?”

    Also speaking, Aliu said: “I don’t buy into the idea of the government ban ning ponmo because of the leather industry. It is a wrong thought.

    “If they want to produce leather, they shouldgo and buy cow skin and leave us to buying cow skin for the purpose of producing ponmo.

    “The argument that it is not nutritious is also out of place. There is no time when you go to a hospital and you are told that you have a certain kind of illness because you are eating ponmo.”

    Aliu fears that if the government bans the consumption of ponmo, it will affect the economy of many people not only in Ijebu Igbo but across the Southwest and beyond.

    She said: “It will affect poor women selling in the markets and earning a living through it. It will also affect transporters because many women travel as early as 2am in order to be in Lagos by 5am.

    “On many occasions, you will find 18-seater buses fully occupied by women leaving for different states to go and sell ponmo. It is the same transporters that will bring them back after they finish their business.

    “Transporters make a lot of money from this, and it is when they make money that they will be able to buy things for their families.”

    He added: “Ponmo is the only thing that the poor can afford to buy now.  If the government should ban ponmo, what do they expect the common man to eat?

    “Ponmo is very economical.  Many  people use it for their parties. If you want to buy a ram now, they will be telling you that the price is N60,000. But with N15, 000 ponmo, the pot will be full. It is very economical.

    For Faith, the federal government’s statement is anti-people.

    She said: “People are opting for ponmo because it is not expensive. If they say they want to ban ponmo, what alternative are they bringing to the table?

    “The reason why more people consume ponmo now is because prices of fish and meat are out of reach. Is ponmo the problem that is facing Nigerians now?

    “Thousands of people will be out of work if the government goes ahead to  carry out its threat.

    “You cannot be thinking of reviving the leather industry by taking hordes of the citizens out of job.

    “Aside from people who are selling it, banning ponmo will also leave many people without meat in their food.”

    Herbal practitioner also knocks FG

    A herbal medicine practitioner and Director of Adelite Herbal Clinic, Adetola Soyemi, in a post circulating on social media, said the Nigerian government is  being confused  over the demand for cow-skin in leather and food source. “Both are sine qua non in the economic stability of the country. Nevertheless, I will choose cow skin as ponmo higher than as leather making, because food comes first in the essential needs of man.

    “The DG of leather agency said ponmo is worthless. How did he come about that? Why do we play politics with everything in this country? Why?

    “I don’t agree with the reason given by the FG at all. They say that some chemicals can pile in the skin of the cow and may cause harm. How?

    “This can only be possible in plants, and after a period of time, the chemicals are used up. If the leather industries need leather, they should establish their own ranch and possibly train more nomads.

    “Ponmo is very healthy, contains low level protein. What will adults gain from that? High level proteins are cheese, milk, chicken… these are even worse, only good for children but injurious to adults.

    “Increasing fat also is associated with rich protein. The protein in ponmo contains collagen, which is for strong bone and skin tissue formations. A lot of people suffer from chronic bone pains; most of them have low collagen.

    Read Also: NAFDAC warns against consumption of animal hides, Ponmo

    “Ponmo is highly recommended to sundry, soak in water and wash ponmo to reduce the level of contaminants.

    “It is best to remove the hair and boil it properly before consumption.

    “Ponmo is a good weight loss substitute that is unique with fewer calories and tastes nice when properly cooked in dishes.”

    “However, Ponmo has unsaturated fats too but not as high as red meat and other high proteinous meat. Laboratory analysis on these meats reveals the presence of high unsaturated fat and cholesterol.

    “This fat is high enough to form dangerous clumsy blocks on the blood vessels.It is due to this that I have so much kicked against the consumption of red meats among  our aged and middle aged men.

    “Therefore, ponmo is recommended because it is health friendly for those that wish to live long.

    “FG needs to give facts to back their claim. There must be some ingredients or chemicals they must name to prove that cow skin is not good for consumption. Come up with scientific facts!

    NBA Chief threatens to sue FG

    The Chairman of NBA-SPIDEL, Dr Onyekachi  Ubani has threatened to drag the Federal Government to court if they make good their threat to ban the chewable delicacy known as ponmo in the country as reported in the news.

    Dr Ubani insists that ponmo is the common delicacy that is mostly enjoyed by the citizens due to its affordability. Fish, meat and  other proteins have become very expensive and thus unaffordable by the common man  in Nigeria.

    He wondered why our leaders derive so much pleasure in inflicting pain and agony on the common man in every aspect of governance. He queried why and how the government always goes against the things the common man derives pleasure in?

    “The truth is that ponmo remains the most constant meat-like substance in stews and soups in many kitchens, and it beats our imagination that every government in Nigeria always plans to take away that substance from their dining tables.

    While politicians and rich Nigerians chew all manner of proteins in every of their sumptuous meals with their loved ones, they have become restless and jealous of the only thing that the common man chews while eating their meals of “affliction”.

    “Is such government pronouncement and policy of banning ponmo fair and just? The health danger of ponmo is yet to be proved conclusively within the scientific community.

    “Besides, no Nigerian has died and it is announced that ponmo was responsible. So what are they talking about?”

    Dr Ubani advised the government to desist from the threat and ensure that such wicked and callous policy does not see the light of the day.

    However, he said, if they fail and refuse to abide with this free advice, they should be prepared for a prolonged legal suit that may end up in the Supreme Court on the illegal ban.

    “I shall be prepared to undertake this public interest case on behalf of millions of Nigerians who consider this delicacy too palatable to be taken off their meal table, more so when it remains the only affordable substance that has a semblance of meat and fish while enjoying it.

    “A word is enough for the wise,” he concluded.

    The Federal Government last week said it was proposing a legislation to ban the consumption of animal skin, known locally as ponmo, to revive tanneries.

    The Director-General, Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology, NILEST, Zaria, Muhammad Yakubu, said this in Abuja on Sunday.

    NILEST was set up to promote leather production as provided in the Agricultural Research Institute Act of 1975. The institute conducts research on the production andproducts of leather and the utilisation of local tanning materials in the country.

    Yakubu, who said the litigation was necessary to revive the comatose leather industry in the country, said the habit of eating animal skin, which has no nutritional value, should be stopped to save the industry and boost the nation’s economy.

    The Director-General added that the institute, in collaboration with stakeholders in the industry, would approach the National Assembly and state governments to bring out legislation banning ponmo consumption.

    He said: “To the best of my knowledge, Nigerians are the only people in the world that overvalue skin as food. After all, ponmo has no nutritional value.

    “At one point, there was a motion before the two chambers of the National Assembly, it was debated but I don’t know how the matter was thrown away.”

    He also said the current National Leather Policy had addressed some fundamental problems of the sector.

    Yakubu said: “If we get our tanneries, our footwear and leather production working well in Nigeria, people will hardly get ponmo to buy and eat.

    “When implemented fully, it would turn around most of the comatose tanneries and ginger greater output in production.”

    Unemployment and poverty figures in the country have continued to nosedive over the years.

    Statista, an online platform in a post said: “In 2022, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is estimated to reach 33 per cent. This figure was projected at 32.5 per cent in the preceding year.

    “Chronological data show that the unemployment rate in Nigeria rose constantly in the past years. In the fourth quarter of 2020, over 33 per cent of the labour force was unemployed, according to the Nigerian methodology.

     

    yakubu and ubani
    Yakubu and Ubani

    On the poverty level in the country, the World Bank in March  said that the number of poor Nigerians is projected to hit 95.1 million in 2022.

    The bank made this known in its poverty assessment report titled ‘A Better Future for All Nigerians: 2022 Nigeria Poverty Assessment’.

    The report noted that COVID-19 crisis is driving up Nigeria’s poverty rate, pushing more than 5 million additional people into poverty by 2022.

    With real per capita GDP growth being negative in all sectors in 2020, the bank said poverty is projected to have deepened for the current poor, while those households that were just above the poverty line prior to the COVID-19 crisis would be likely to fall into poverty.

    “Were the crisis not to have hit (the counterfactual scenario), the poverty headcount rate would be forecast to remain virtually unchanged, with the number of poor people set to rise from 82.9 million in 2018/19 to 85.2 million in 2020 and 90.0 million in 2022, due largely to natural population growth,” the bank said.

    “Given the effects of the crisis, however, the poverty headcount rate is instead projected to jump from 40.1 per cent in 2018/19 to 42.0 per cent in 2020 and 42.6 per cent in 2022, implying that the number of poor people was 89.0 million in 2020 and would be 95.1 million in 2022.

    “Taking the difference between these two scenarios, the crisis alone is projected to have driven an additional 3.8 million Nigerians into poverty in 2020, with an additional 5.1 million living in poverty by 2022.”

    The report noted that Nigeria’s growth performance was declining even before the COVID-19 crisis.

    “Between 2000 and 2014, it noted that Nigeria enjoyed a period of sustained expansion, during which the economy grew by around 7 per cent per year, outstripping the estimated annual population growth rate of 2.6 percent.

    “Yet real GDP growth dropped to 2.7 per cent in 2015, then -1.6 per cent in 2016, as the decline in global oil prices induced Nigeria’s first recession in almost two decades.

    “Growth has not recovered subsequently,” the bank said.

  • Banditry survivors recall horrific experiences as troops bombard marauders in Kaduna communities

    Banditry survivors recall horrific experiences as troops bombard marauders in Kaduna communities

    Survivors of banditry in Chikun, Igabi, Kajuru and Birnin-Gwari local government areas of Kaduna State have relived horror tales of killing, maiming and kidnapping by gunmen, as security forces take the battle to the dreaded bandits, ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE reports.

    In the last five to ten years, many communities in the mostly agrarian Chikun, Igabi, Kajuru and Birnin-Gwari local government areas of Kaduna State have come under series of attacks from bandits. Many have been killed, maimed or kidnapped while thousands of people were displaced after their communities were sacked.

    The most worrisome are the Birnin-Gwari villages where bandits are firmly in charge. They take taxes to allow villagers access to their farms, recruit youths into terrorism, forcibly marry villagers’ daughters and turn the farmers into slaves.

    The dark days however appear to be fading out as the communities, especially those in the suburbs of the state capital, now sleep with their two eyes closed, thanks to the military and police troops making great exploit against the dreaded gunmen.

    Some the survivors of who spoke with The Nation however called for sustenance of the military operations against the bandits, saying that those who impoverished them and made them suffer, deserve no mercy.

     

    We paid to bandits taxes we never paid to government – Farmer

    A farmer in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area, Malam Musa Lawal, said himself and other farmers in Kungi village have paid to bandits sums of money they had never paid to the government since they were born.

    He said: “These people took over our community and started telling us what to and what not to do. They started by kidnapping us, then we paid ransom and got released.

    “Virtually every family in my village has had one or two people kidnapped and ransom paid. It got to a point that nobody could go to the farm again because they feared that they would be kidnapped. So, practically, we could not farm again.

    “When the bandits now realised that we had nothing left to sell and pay them ransom, they allowed us to start going to the farm on condition that we would be paying them taxes from the profit we made from our farm produce.

    “We agreed to that because help was not coming from the government. It is either you pay them money or they collect certain percent of your harvest.

    “For example, if you harvest 10 bags of produce, they will collect two bags or even three bags. It is an outrageous form of tax that even government has never taken from us.

    “In fact, I have never paid any direct tax to the government except you go to the market and they collect small money at the gate before you bring in your produce.

    “In fact, the bandits are not even satisfied with what they are getting from us. They too are now farming because they feel we are getting more of the produce than them.

    “We would not have had any problem with them using our land to also farm, but the problem is that they are too lazy to cultivate their own farm, so they force us to go and work on their farm without being paid.

    “They have exploited us and now want to turn us into slaves on our ancestral land.

    “So, we welcome this military operation, and we want it extended to the entire western part of Birnin-Gwari so that we can live a peaceful life once again.”

     

    I’ll rather die than get kidnapped again -Septuagenarian

    One of the survivors of the several kidnap attacks in Chikun Local Government Area, Alhaji Abdul Shafiu, a septuagenarian who was kidnapped in his home in August 2021 alongside his two daughters, told The Nation that he would rather be killed than get kidnapped again.

    Shafiu said: “My kidnap experience was not just traumatic, it was deadly. So I will even prefer death to a repeat of that horrific experience.

    “I am telling you, if kidnappers come for me again, God forbid, I will tell them I am not going with them.

    “I know the worst they will do is to kill me, but I prefer death to that experience.”

    He added: “On that fateful day, I went to the hospital for a check-up as I was just recovering from cold. I am asthmatic, so I don’t joke with my health.

    “I was given medicines at the hospital and I was just in the sitting room waiting to have my dinner and take my medication before going to bed. It was just around 7 pm.

    “Then my daughter came back from work, and as she was just driving into the compound, her sister went to open the door for her and these criminals jumped the fence into my compound and followed my daughters into the house.

    “I wanted to move and one of them holding a machete threatened to cut me into pieces if moved. I would have dared him, but I just looked back and saw the other ones with guns, like brand new rifles, and I mellowed down.

    “So, my two daughters and I were marched out of the house into the bush.

    “I saw hell at the hands of those criminals. First, they subjected us to trekking kilometres in the bush barefoot. Luckily, my daughters had their own shoes on.

    “Along the line, one of my daughters fell down and they couldn’t wait to pick her because they suspected that they were being chased by vigilante men. That was how she escaped.

    “But for me and her sister, we spent three weeks in the bandits’ den. They moved us from one camp to another inside the forest.

    “Eventually, my family sold our hard-earned property to pay ransom, both in cash and materials. They collected money in millions and two motorcycles before we were released.

    “The most traumatic moment for me there was when the bandits were negotiating with my family members for ransom.

    “The bandits, small boys, none of them by my estimation was up to 30 years of age, but they would put a gun on my shoulder while making phone call to my family and fire the gun. The sound at that close range would make me go deaf for close to one hour or even more.

    “In fact, there was a day the gang leader, they called him Boka, asked me to put my leg on a log of wood, that since my family refused to cooperate, he would break my leg with bullet. I put my leg because I could not have objected, then he fired the shot.

    “Then, I gradually turned my head, because I didn’t feel any pain. Then I discovered that the bullet didn’t hit me. I was terrified, but we made out alive.

    “Now, I am happy because the security operatives have been arresting the bandits responsible for that operation, one after the other. Recently, I heard that, the gang leader, Boka himself has been arrested.

    “Maybe now I can be thinking of going back to my house, because I have abandoned the house I built with my hard-earned gratuity for more than a year now. I will consider going back to my house because I know it is that Boka that is responsible for most attacks in the part of Chikun Local Government where I live.

    “In fact, while I was in his captivity, he told me of the several attacks that I am also aware of, that he led operations.”

     

    Bandits killed my security guard right in my front, but I escaped narrowly -Displaced landlord

    A senior banker and landlord in New Millennium City, Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, said he saw death face to face, but he escaped miraculously as bandits shot his security guard right in his presence.

    According to the banker, he went out with his security man popularly called Mai Guard that evening to assist a neighbour who had put a distress call to him, but the bandits, who had laid an ambush on the way, shot his guard in the head at close range.

    Read Also: How to end banditry, kidnapping in Nigeria with mercenaries

    He said: “Before that night in June 2020, we had never experienced bandits attack in our community. All we knew were petty thieves who came in the afternoon when everyone must have gone to work, to steal valuable items.

    “So, that night, a neighbour who had told me on two occasions that some people usually came to knock on his window around 10 pm, put a call across to me that he just received a call from another neighbour of ours that some people were trying to break into his house.

    “I quickly told my Mai Guard who had a local gun about the development and we moved. We first went to the house of the neighbour that called me and we all moved to house being attacked together.

    “On our way, the Mai Guard, who was also holding a torch, was just flashing it round, then he beamed the light on one of the bandits who had laid ambush. Immediately, the bandits fired him in the head while the remaining two of us scampered to safety.

    Kaduna survivors

    “We didn’t realise the enormity of the problem on our hands until my Mai Guard was shot. Then, the person who called me immediately called the soldiers of the task force in our area. Luckily for us, the soldiers came in less than 10 minutes.

    “But before they came, the bandits had succeeded in breaking into the first house and taken one of our neighbours and his 12-year-old daughter. But they didn’t retreat immediately, because they obviously came with plan to break into houses and kidnap many people.

    “So they were busy breaking the wall of another house when the soldiers arrived, but that didn’t deter them. They continued while a part of the group engaged the soldiers in a shootout. Eventually, they had to run away due to the superior fire power of the soldiers.

    “Since then, it has been over two years now but I cannot go back to my house. I am now back to paying rent again. I know the situation is now calm, but it has not been easy for me, because it was like I saw the death that killed my Mai Guard but I just escaped by miracle.

    “We are happy that the security agencies are now giving the bandits bleeding nose and we pray that the criminals are completely wiped out very soon.”

    The military have in the past few weeks taken the battle to the doorstep of the bandits in their forest hideouts, neutralising the marauders, destroying their camps and rescuing hostages.

    The most recent of the successful military outings was the rescue of 10 chained hostages after a fierce gun battle between the troops and the bandits, where many of the terrorists were taken out, and the killing of some of the bandits who attacked the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) and kidnapped 37 students of College of Forestry Mechanization in Afaka, Igabi Local Government Area.

    The mastermind of the NDA attack and notorious bandit identified as Boderi Isiya, was reported by the military to have escaped been killed in the gun duel by a whisker.

    The consistent military operation where victims are now being rescued without ransom payment has no doubt reduced tension in the state, just as it has denied the gunmen the freedom to regroup to plan kidnap attacks.

    On Thursday September 1, the Kaduna State Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, reported the killing of two bandits by the Troops of Operation Forest Sanity in Birnin-Gwari Local Government Area, saying that the troops overpowered the bandits during a shootout.

    According to Aruwan, “Troops of Operation Forest Sanity made further gains as they continued fighting patrols and clearance operations in the Birnin Gwari area.

    “In an operational feedback to the Kaduna State Government, it was reported that the troops embarked on the clearance patrol along the Birnin Gwari-Doka-Sabon Layi-Kuriga-Maganda-Farin Ruwa Road.

    “The troops made contact with the bandits at Farin Ruwa. Two bandits were neutralised in the encounter as the criminal elements were forced to withdraw under the troops’ superior firepower.”

    Similarly, on Wednesday, September 7, the Security Commissioner reported that troops of the Nigerian Army repelled bandits around Fondisho general area, along the Kaduna-Zaria Road in Igabi Local Government area, saying that the troops, in quick response to credible intelligence, set up an ambush position at the location.

    “On entering the area, the bandits sprang the ambush and came under intense fire as they were stoutly repelled by the troops. Two of the criminals were thus neutralised.

    On Saturday, September 10, the military operation recorded additional milestone as troops killed many terrorists, including a lieutenant of the notorious bandit, Boderi Isiya, who masterminded the attack on NDA, Kaduna.

    Aruwan had said in a statement that security agencies’ feedback to state government that “Notorious bandit, Boderi Isiya has narrowly escaped being neutralised while his deadly second in command and several other fighters were gunned down by Nigerian Army troops.

    “A painstaking check with credible human intelligence sources further confirmed that Boderi and his terror group had a bad day at the hands of the combat-ready troops.

    “The troops engaged the bandits around the Tollgate General Area of Chikun LGA. The bandits scrambled in retreat, only to run into another ambush laid by the troops in Sabon Gida general area.

    “The troops engaged the bandits ferociously and ultimately subdued them. Corpses and weapons were recovered at the scene while some of the terrorists eventually died from bullet wounds.

    “Boderi’s deadly second in command, one Musti, was among those identified to have been eliminated alongside one Yellow Mai-Madrid and one Dan-Katsinawa, with others yet to be identified. Some of the terrorists are battling with life-threatening wounds.

    “Musti and Boderi were responsible for the security breach at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, and the kidnapping of students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization, the Emir of Bungudu and several other citizens last year,” he said.

    On Monday, September 12, troops of the Nigerian Army also rescued six kidnapped victims during clearance patrols conducted around the Kangon Kadi area in Chikun Local Government Area of the state.

    According to operational feedback to the state government by the Army, the troops, under the Operation Forest Sanity, embarked on a clearance operation from Damba to Kangon Kadi, and fired on identified bandit locations around the Kangon Kadi Forest, Labi and the Udawa River.

    The Security Commissioner said, “Bandits fled from the Kangon Kadi area under the superior firepower of the troops, leaving behind six kidnapped victims at their camp. The victims were rescued by the troops, and are identified as follows: Iliya Gide, Rabi Ali, Hussaina Gide, Naomi Nuhu and her baby, Pamela Barage.

    Also on Tuesday, September 13, troops of Operation Forest Sanity neutralized several bandits and dislodged camps during clearance operations conducted across some hard-to-reach locations spanning Chikun and Igabi LGAs and rescued 10 victims chained together.

    Aruwan, in a release to journalists, said: “As disclosed in an operational feedback, the troops neutralised an unspecified number of bandits while clearing out insurgent and bandit camps at Apewohe in Chikun LGA.

    “The operation extended to Dakwala and Kunai hills in the same LGA, where more hideouts were cleared, though no contact was made with bandits.

    “Another camp was similarly dislodged at a location known as ‘Daban Lawal Kwalba’ in Igabi LGA, after the troops overpowered heavily armed bandits guarding hostages. The troops, after clearing out the bandits, stormed the hideouts and rescued 10 kidnapped persons who were chained and bound with ropes.

    “The troops untied the hostages, who were identified as follows: Surajo Aliyu, Ayuba Yakubu, Ibrahim Abdulrasheed, Aliyu Mohammed, Magaji Tasiu, Nasiru Ahmed, Mohammadu lbrahim, Ayuba Abdulsalam, Kelvin Musa and Paul Patrick.

    “The troops who came under further attack in the thick forest, successfully evacuated the hostages to a military facility.

    “Furthermore, a camp was cleared at Rafin Gwaska, Igabi LGA, where the following items were recovered, among other effects: Three locally made rifles, One AK-47 magazine, One AK-47 top cover, Four Bafoeng radio chargers, Eleven mobile phones, Three music boxes, Two sets of military uniforms, One frag jacket, Spanners, knives and chains.”

    Some community leaders have however attributed the recent successes to the gallantry moves of the new General Officer Commanding (GOC), 1 Division Nigerian Army, Major General Taoreed Lagbaja who has been severally applauded for gallantly leading his troops to battle field.

  • Pathetic tales of Benue children orphaned by killer herdsmen

    Pathetic tales of Benue children orphaned by killer herdsmen

    In the last four years, many innocent children in Logo Local Government Area of Benue State have had to watch helplessly as their parents are hacked to death by murderous herdsmen. Without any psycho-social support to assuage their pains and trauma, many of the children are hounded by horrendous experiences that leave indelible scars on their minds.  To mitigate the pangs of hunger and hardship that have become their lot, the embattled children have resorted to work on people’s farms for paltry sums with which they keep body and soul together, INNOCENT DURU reports.

    • Hapless kids watch in horror as herders hack parents to death 

    • Resort to manual labour on farms for survival

    Moses Vendaga had a sword thrust into his heart at the age of 10 when murderous herders invaded their house and hacked his parents to death before his very eyes four years ago. Before the incident, he had only learnt through his friends and relations about how innocent citizens were being gruesomely murdered by the assailants. But the ugly tales did not make so much impression on him until he watched his parents slaughtered.

    “I saw it all with my two eyes. I was with my parents in 2018 when some herdsmen invaded our house and killed them. Their killers cut them with cutlasses and watched them bleed to death. I hid somewhere and later ran away to avoid being killed too. I was only 10 years old,” he said.

    The teenager admitted that life has not been the same since he witnessed the horrific scene. “The images of the sad incident still play back in my mind, but there is nothing I can do about it again. I really missed my parents,” he said.

    Since he lost his parents in those brutal circumstances, Moses has been fending for himself at his tender age. “I am on my own,” he said. “I am not schooling at the moment. I desire to go to school but there is nobody to pay my bills. I now live in the internally displaced persons’ camp.  I have no siblings and there is nobody to call my relation.”

    At the internally displaced persons’ camp, food is rationed. In fact, there are times they don’t get food to eat, rendering them, particularly the children of Moses ilk, vulnerable to hunger.

    To augment what he sometimes gets from the camp, Moses wakes up early in the morning to look for people he could work for on their farms in return for a paltry sum with which he could buy food.

    He said: “I go out early in the morning to look for people in need of workers on their farms. That is what I do to survive. I make about N500 when I get people to work for. I don’t feed well because the food that they give us in the camp is never enough and it does not come every day.”

    Logo and a few other local government areas of Benue State have been under intense attacks from gunmen suspected to be herders in the last couple of years. Countless lives and property have been lost in the process with an end not in sight.

    Official statistics by the state government puts the number of displaced persons across the state at 2 million. The state emergency management agency, SEMA, said the cash-strapped state would need N500 million monthly to feed the IDPs. This challenge is obviously why the predicaments of Moses and his orphaned colleagues are finding survival more and more challenging.

    But Moses is not alone in his travails.

    Iyoku Lawrence is another orphan who killer herdsmen menace has been left indelible scar in his memory. Like Moses, Lawrence, 15, had his parents killed when he was much younger. Things have since then fallen apart for the teenager.

    He said: “My parents were killed in 2019.  I was going to school before they were killed but I have stopped going to school since then. These make me to feel sad and depressed always.”

    Getting to see Lawrence in the camp is most often in the evening, because he has to go out looking for how he would survive each day.

    “Getting food to eat every day is not certain. To stave off hunger and the attending challenges, I go out to look for where I could help people to clear their farms in order to get money to survive.

    “What I get each day is barely enough to survive. Incidentally, it is not every day that I get somewhere to clear farms for people. When I don’t get a place to work, I would not have money to eat.”

    For Ushenea Samuel, 17, the unfortunate loss of his parents occurred in 2018 when he was 13 years old. Every passing day since then has been filled with misery and pains as he has no shoulder to lean on in his moments of anguish.

    Recalling his last moment with his parents, he said: “I am from Tombo Ward. I lost my parents in 2018 when herders attacked our home and community at large. I was with my parents when the herders struck.

    “The herdsmen came around 9 pm when we were already getting ready to go to bed. They started shooting indiscriminately. I managed to escape but my parents could no run as fast as I did.  When I came back the following day, I saw their dead bodies on the ground and I wept.”

    In an emotion laden voice, he said: “I have been left to hustle for survival since then. I do help people to clear their farms and also help people to do other menial jobs to get some money to eat.

    “I could make N500 a day when I have job to do. When I work at mining sites, I make as much as N1,000.

    “It is challenging surviving without my parents or any helper. I desire to go to school but there is nobody to help me. I hope that one day, a non-governmental organisation or some kind hearted Nigerians will come to my aid.

    “Hunger is the order of the day here in the camp. The State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) brings food to the camp. But when they don’t bring food, everyone will look for how to feed.

    “I have siblings but they have been taken away by my cousins because of the hardship in the camp. I decided to stay back because I could go out and hustle to augment whatever is provided in the camp.”

    More orphans relive ordeal

    It has also been a world of tears and heartache for Richard Abeega. The 19-year-old had looked forward to seeing his parents attain old age but his desire never saw the light of day. His parents’ death came much earlier than he ever imagined.

    “They were killed in 2020 in our place at Ayiin, close to a mobile barracks,” he said.

    “I was with them when the herders came to our place. I was lucky to escape but my parents were not. The attackers came to our place around 7 pm on a Friday.

    “Before they came, my parents and I were talking about the work we would go and do on the farm the following day, which was a Saturday. I never knew that was the last time I would sit down and chat with them.

    “I am heartbroken by the ugly experience.”

    Like his counterparts, he said: “I go out to do odd jobs to survive. I am the one paying my school fees. I go to school in the morning and go out to work on people’s farms later in the day.

    “I also spend my weekends working for people on their farms. Whenever I am driven from school for owing school fees, I seize the opportunity to work for people in order to get money to eat and pay my school fees.”

    The story is a bit different for Tewase Sember (15) as one his parents died naturally when he was younger.

    He said: “I lost my father as a baby but had my mother killed by herders in 2018. I am with my grandmother at the moment here in the camp. My grandmother cannot take care of me very well.” Lamenting the condition in the camp, he said: “I sleep in the tent without a mattress. Rainstorm damaged the tents recently and it has been a challenge sleeping well when the rain falls.

    “I am not happy about my predicament. The school that I attend is right here in the camp. It was organised by camp officials. I want to go to higher institution later on in life and also want to acquire skills in tailoring. But who would help me?”

     

    Community leader: Orphans’ future is bleak

    A member of the community who assists the IDPs in different capacities, Pedro Indyerkaa, decried the predicaments of the orphans and the IDPs in general.

    “Most of the orphans are feeding themselves. They usually go to farms or mining sites to work. The money they make is not enough for them to eat, but what will they do?

    “I told you about an NGO came here during the week. The NGO brought malnutrition food for the people because they cannot cater for themselves. “The malnutrition food is made of soya beans, grounded maize and little fish. It is packed in sachets and they take it like pap.

    “Most of them are battling with malnutrition. They have no stove to cook. They go into the bush to fetch firewood each time they want to cook. They also sell part of the firewood to people to get money to eat.

    “They can’t go to school. Where they sleep in the camp would make you to shed tears. It has been raining for the past one week and the children have not gone anywhere.

    “Yet our government is claiming to be doing something for them. The government is doing nothing.”

     

    Benue needs N500m monthly for IDPs – SEMA

    The Benue State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, last weekend disclosed that the state needs approximately N500 million monthly to provide the basic needs of its close to two million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

    The Executive Secretary of Benue SEMA, Dr. Emmanuel Shior, explained that the state government was struggling with the burden without support from the Federal Government, saying “we need about N500 million to take care of the basic needs of the IDPs on a monthly basis.

    “We know that food is very, very expensive. A truck of 25kg rice which is about 1,200 bags is about N18 million for one truck. What we have here is not enough to go round. “So in terms of purchasing food and non-food items that should be enough, we need approximately N500 million to buy enough items for the IDPs monthly.

    “It is unfortunate that Benue State has been abandoned and the IDPs have been neglected by the Federal Government and the challenge at hand is very huge that it cannot be left to the Benue State Government alone.

    “Fortunately, Governor Samuel Ortom has been relentless not only in working and ensuring that he mobilises Benue SEMA on a monthly basis to respond to some of the basic needs of the IDPs, but also ensuring that in other areas of human endeavour he works to ensure that the lives of Benue citizens are actually better.

    “The situation we have in our hands is not only humanitarian. In most of the communities that they attacked, they also destroyed the infrastructure, farmlands, crops, schools, markets, churches and even bridges so as to make it difficult for security agencies to access the attacked communities and those they are occupying.

    “So it is difficult for the government to return the IDPs. And this has been in existence for over four years since 2018 but we will not be tired of talking about this.

    “Some people who want to be mischievous try to compare the humanitarian situation in Benue State to what is happening in Borno State.”

     

    We support every IDP camp – NCFRI

    Contrary to claims by the Benue State Government that displaced people in the state are not cared for by the federal government, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRI) said it has not left out any state in its support programme.

    The South West Zonal Head, Mrs Ola Erinfolami, said: “We have been catering for every state with IDPs.”

     

    Governor, FG in verbal war

    The state government and the presidency during the week engaged in war of words over allegations by the governor, Samuel Ortom, that the menace of the herders cannot be curtailed because the federal government is protecting them.

    “I have spoken to some security men who told me that the federal government gave them directive that they do not have to move against these herders.

    “This is why I keep saying that the federal government’s inaction clearly shows that they are complicit in the criminality that is going on in Nigeria,” the governor alleged.

    The presidency in a swift response dismissed the governor’s allegation describing him as a liar who sought to divide the country.

    The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in the reply challenged the Benue State Government to identify the  army personnel who told him  President Buhari ordered troops not to attack the herders responsible for causing violence in the state.

     

    Out of school children may later become criminals

    A lecturer at the Umaru Musa Yaradua Univeristy, Katsina, Dr Bla Abdullahi Husaini, is worried that the neglect of the kids by the society could spell doom for the country in the future.

    He said: “They are out of school now. Their parents have been killed and the community is not doing anything for their survival. They are left alone.  In years to come, these out of school children will have no sympathy on any growing economy that is coming because they were not assisted when they were growing up.

    “There was no sympathy, empathy by the host community when they needed it. So, they will now turn out to be another class of criminals.

    “It is only when you grow up in a family setting that somebody will tell you that what you are doing is not good. You will have somebody to knock your head when you are wrong and somebody to also guide you.

    “But these categories of out of school children don’t have anybody to do all that. Tell me in the near future how they will be sympathetic to the community that they find themselves. There is no way.

    “It is only education that gives people focus, direction, orientation and organisation.”

    Sharing his experience with some of the children, Dr Husaini, an expert in international relations, defence and ecurity, said: “I was able to interview some of these out-of-school children.

    “When they saw a motorcycle, the brand called Boxer, they ran into the host community and started screaming, ‘They are coming,! They are coming!’ They ran in and shut the door. That is the level of psycho-social trauma these people are going through.

    “There should be a provision for education in an emergency. The aim of that is to cater for those that were chased away by disasters and other man made calamities.

    “They are running away from their original homes to a host community that is relatively peaceful than their own. It is now the responsibility of the state authorities where they are or where they left to cater for their basic needs. “Again we are in a situation where the host communities don’t have the shock absorber to absorb them and give them what they need. It now puts the host communities in a dilemma.”

    He noted that there is a direct relationship between the rising cases of out of school children and budgetary allocations for fighting insecurity in the country.

    “The budgetary allocation we are having in fighting insurgency and other insecurity in the country is not being monitored.  It is not being fully given to those who deserve it.  It is not being fully applied.

    “The federal government is spending N1 billion on security every day.  Per month, the federal government is spending N30 billion on security.   There are other people that are invisible, those visible and actors that are benefitting from it and that is why it is not going to end.

    “Believe you me, what is happening in the country in the next 10 to 20 years, it will not end because it is a very lucrative venture.”

    A run through the statistics of the country’s budget shows that allocations for security have continued to rise over the years without a corresponding decrease in terrorism, banditry and violent crimes.

    In 2016, allocation to security gulped N1.06 trillion and moved up to N1.14 trillion in 2017. In 2018, the allocation jumped to N1.35 trillion and rose in 2019 to N 1.76 trillion. In 2020, allocation to the sector was put at N1.78trillion. Put together, the total allocation within the five years under consideration totaled N7.1 trillion.

    Between 2011 and 2015, budgetary allocations to the sector by the Goodluck Jonathan administration stood at N4.62 trillion.

    The allocation to security in 2011 was N920 billion and N924 billion in 2012. In 2013 and 2014, N923 billion each was allocated to security while the sum rose to N934 billion in 2015 to bring the total to N4.62 trillion.

  • Kaduna communities where villagers marry daughters off to bandits, farm for terrorists to have peace

    Kaduna communities where villagers marry daughters off to bandits, farm for terrorists to have peace

    The security challenges in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State have taken a turn for the worse. Besides demanding money from farmers before allowing them to plant or harvest their crops, terrorists are also taking the daughters of helpless villagers as wives, radicalising the youths and compelling community members to cultivate their lands as a condition for them to have a measure of peace. INNOCENT DURU reports that many members of the farming community have been kidnapped at one time or the other and made to pay huge ransoms to regain their freedom. Some of the victims were killed by the terrorist group after ransoms were paid.

    A few weeks ago, the Secretary of Birnin Gwari Local Government Area, Mohammed Abubarkar Maialo, went to his farm to till the soil and plant some crops without any foreboding that he was visiting the farm for the last time.

    Shortly before he concluded the task he had set for himself on that fateful day, bandits invaded the farm and whisked him and his brother away.

    Subsequently, the terrorist group made contacts with his family, asking for a huge sum as ransom, which the victims’ relations rallied round to pay.

    That, however, was not enough for the bandits to release him.

    “The bandits said the money was not up to the sum they demanded. So they killed him and kept asking his family and friends to send more money.

    “It was in the process of sending more money that his younger brother escaped and told the community that  his elder brother was killed 11 days before he escaped from captivity.

    “Abubarkar was not the only one killed in that manner. We have had so many others killed after paying ransom for them.

    “Many farmers are being killed, kidnapped and maltreated,” Ishaq Usman Kassai, Chairman of Birnin Gwari Emirate Progressive Union (BEPU) told our correspondent.

    The fear of bandits pervades the entire area. It is a topic that many members of the community would never get into for any reason. The bandits hold the ace and dictate the pace in a good part  of the area.

    Farmers are worst hit as they can no longer access their farms because of the menace of the bandits.

    “If you dare speak against them, you will be killed on that day. That is why people are not talking about the bandits,” a community member and farmer, Ibrahim Umar, told The Nation.

    The state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, had earlier raised the alarm about the spread and grip of bandits in the state.

    In a memo to  President Muhammadu Buhari, El-Rufai said: “Terrorists are consolidating their grip on communities in Kaduna with a “parallel” government and “permanent operational base” in the state.”

    Sharing some of his unpleasant experiences with bandits, a farmer, Surajo Isah, shared some of his unpleasant experiences with the bandits thus:  “I have friends that have been kidnapped and brothers who were shot dead while visiting the farm.

    “About four months ago, my brother was travelling from our community to another. After passing the army checkpoint, he ran into some bandits who are always staying there.

    “They wanted to kidnap him but he resisted them. In the course dragging with them, the bandits shot him dead.

    “His corpse was taken to our grandmother’s house. When she saw the dead body, she suffered a heart attack and later died.

    “Last year, the bandits came to my house and kidnapped my wife, my brother and my boss’ wife.  I was the one who entered the bush to deliver the ransom to the bandits. Our predicament is  much worse than the  picture being painted.

    It was after dropping the ransom that they released my people. The bandits told my wife that they were from Birnin Gwari bush. They called the names of all the villages in our place.

    “I have left my farms and some family members to seek refuge elsewhere.”

    To  broker peace between the bandits and the people, Surajo said: “The army and our community leaders called for dialogue with the bandits but that didn’t work. They have guns that I have never seen even in American films.

    “I chatted with one of the mobile policemen drafted to our area. He told me that the kind of guns that they have is nowhere near the ones that the bandits have.

    “The government knows where they are.  If they say they don’t know, let them come and be escorted to where the bandits are. Our people know where those bandits are hiding in the bush.

    “You cannot travel for more than two kilometres without meeting the bandits. They are there for 24 hours.”

    Our correspondent’s encounter with Ibrahim Umar, a youthful farmer, further revealed the level of despondency among the people.  Aside from having had his family members killed by the bandits, he has had to leave over 20 hectares of land he had planted on for them.

    He said: “Everywhere you go, you will find the bandits.

    “There was a time the bandits called and asked us to pay N10 million before they would allow us to cultivate our farms. We told them we didn’t have such money and that if we had we would have given it to them so that they would allow us to farm.

    “The bandits then warned us not to come to the farm, saying that if we should come, they would kill us.

    “At that point, we agreed among ourselves to leave the farm until the government takes action on this.”

    Asked what the response of security operatives had been to the threat, he said: “Up till now, we have not seen any soldier, police or vigilante group.

    “We are indigenes of Kaduna and not foreigners. Nobody cares about our plight and nobody talks about it. I don’t know what we would do in this country.

    “We are trying to get some weapons so that we can protect ourselves, because the government does not care about us.

    “We have bandits here and also the Ansaru. Every time, they come inside Damari. When you come there you will see them with AK 47, AK 49 and machine guns.

    “The bandits killed my brother and four others in our house.  They came around 3 am and started shooting indiscriminately.

    “My brother was the first to rush out of the house when the bandits started shooting. I was only lucky to escape on that day. When we came back, we saw our people’s corpses lying on the ground.

    “Our people are leaving in droves to use trucks to carry loads for people so that they could get some money to feed.”

    Another member of the community, Ibrahim Zaharaddeen, lamented that the menace of the bandits was too much for the people to bear, adding that it has affected their social and economic lives badly.

    His words: “People are barred from carrying out their business activities along the road. Also in the farms, thousands of hectares of land have been abandoned as a result of insecurity.

    “There are villages where if you move a kilometre, you can easily be kidnapped or killed. We are being forced to abandon our farming activities and animal husbandry.

    “It is only lands that are close to town that can be cultivated. We have been on this for many years.

    “When they kidnap people, the family members of the victims may have to pay ransom three times before the terrorists release their victim.”

    Zaharaddeen said: “A neighbour of mine was kidnapped recently.  After collecting ransom from his family, the bandits didn’t release him. They kept asking for more money.

    “At times, when the bandits invade a village, they would cart away all the valuables and also kidnap about 20 people.

    “I am a farmer. I have left some of my farmlands because of the menace of the bandits. We have become hopeless in the face of what is happening to us.

    Villagers farm for bandits to have peace

    The impunity with which the bandits operate in the area appears dumbfounding.  Findings revealed that they have been forcing the villagers to work for them on their farms as a condition for some respite.

    Ishaq Usman Kassai, Chairman of Birnin Gwari Emirate Progressive Union (BEPU), said:

    “The issue now is that these bandits are into farming. There is one Yellow Jambross, who two weeks ago told four communities in Birnin Gwari that if they want peace and want to farm this year,  and even for them to stay in their communities, they should go and work on his farm. About 140 people in that community went to the farm of that particular bandit Last Tuesday and worked for him in order for them to have peace of mind on their farms.”

    The secretary of the group, Comrade Abdulrashid Abarshid, said he had also learnt about the ugly development. He said: “I was told that some communities used to go and farm for the bandits just to have peace. The people that are vulnerable to them cannot do otherwise.

    “I don’t know what the government is doing about dealing with those people.  There are some groups of bandits that allow people to move around. They intentionally allowed people to use the road.

    “The bandits are moving freely with their guns.  Even you, if you go, you will see them.”

    Terrorist group wins villagers’ hearts, marry daughters, radicalise youths

    After many years of bloody attacks and mindless killings of their members by bandits, some communities in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area gladly accepted the offer of the Ansaru group, a splinter of the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents, to protect them against bandits.

    To the surprise of the embattled people, the Ansaru group began to repel attacks from bandits who had effortlessly invaded the communities to unleash terror on the villagers.

    With that singular feat, the Ansaru group gained the confidence of the people and embedded themselves deeper in the communities.

    Laudable as their mission was, checks around the communities revealed that the group had an ulterior motive which they have started showcasing.

    “The Ansaru group has a similar ideology to Boko Haram. They are there in Western Birnin Gwari and they have been there for years.

    “They camp in the bush the way Boko Haram does. It is only recently that they started showing the real motive why they are there.

    “They go into the community, share pamphlets, wear army uniforms and carry sophisticated weapons. They tell members of the community to stop western education, politics and whatever is western,” Ishaq Usman Kassai Chairman of Birnin Gwari Emirate Progressive Union (BEPU) told our correspondent.

    He further said: “They told the villagers that they are protecting them from bandits. From there, the villagers concluded that the Ansaru group was there to protect them.

    “Based on the acceptance they are getting, they started marrying the villagers. This development is very dangerous.

    “I understand that Ansaru is more dangerous. It is better to be with bandits than to be with the Ansaru group.

    “The Ansaru group is recruiting people and changing their mindset. That is why they are very dangerous. They are cajoling the youths and asking them to become terrorists.

    “They are telling the youths to take arms and fight the government and stop everything that western.

    “Terrorism will continue to escalate in this area if the government  fails to act. Children are being radicalised. Over 50 youths were recruited by Ansaru.”

    Corroborating Ishaq’s remarks, a resident of the embattled area, Ibrahim Zaharaddeen, expressed concern about the activities of the Ansaru group in the communities.

    He said: “The people have agreed and accepted the Ansaru group up to the extent that they marry off their daughters to them. The Ansaru group takes the villagers’ daughters into the bush.

    “Sometime last month, there was a clash between the Ansaru and another terrorist group. One of the Ansaru men that married a villager was killed during the clash.

    “The parents of the girl that was married to the late Ansaru member asked that their daughter should be returned to them but the Ansaru people said the daughter could not return to the parents.

    “They said she had joined them permanently and that there was no way she could return to their families.”

    The Ansaru group, Ibrahim said, came in, assuring villagers that they were going to assist them against bandits.

    “They came using religion as a decoy. The Ansaru people have sophisticated weapons and small explosive devices with them. Sometimes the Ansaru group repelled bandits when they came to attack.

    “Because the villagers have lost hope in government, they embraced the Ansaru group. I don’t believe that they are here to help us. Rather, I believe that they have come to add insult to our injury because we don’t know what will happen next.

    “The worst thing is that they have started recruiting some individuals from the villages to join them. If care is not taken, they may later turn to another Boko Haram and the problem will get worse.

    “Honestly, people have lost hope in the government, and that is why people embraced the Ansaru group.

    “The Ansaru group always quotes verses of the Quran and Hadith of the Holy prophet to convince the villagers that they are there to help and not to cheat them.

    “Like I said, someone like me would not buy into that idea because I believe that they have come to do more harm.

    “People have abandoned their farms and that will affect food supply.”

    ‘Discussions on agriculture could draw natives into tears’

    Following the losses they have recorded over the years, discussing agriculture in the agrarian communities move the people to tears.

    Surajo Isah said: “If you talk about agriculture in Birnin Gwari, some people may begin to shed tears, because a man that was harvesting two to three bags before will hardly have a bag of rice or maize now.

    “As I am talking to you now, I have a brother that was harvesting more than 5000 bags of produce before. Today, he cannot harvest 50 bags of maize.

    “If this continues for the next five years, I don’t think you will be able to see up to 1,000 people in Birnin Gwari anymore if you remove  Birnin Gwari town.

    “Our population is reducing on a daily basis. Some people are migrating to Kano, Katsina and other places.

    “The bandits kidnap and kill. We cannot go to our farms. If they kidnap you, you must pay a huge sum of money as ransom to secure your release.

    “I have more than 10 hectares of land in one area, and two hectares and three hectares in other places, but I cannot access them again.”

    Describing the farms as a no-go area for the people, Ishaq, the BEPU chairman, said: “If you go to your farm, the bandits will attack and kidnap you.

    “The farmland that we used to cultivate is no longer accessible. It is only farms that are very close to the town that we can cultivate now.

    “Unfortunately, those farms are tired and are not as fertile as those that are far away. Bandits are covering those distant farmlands. 70 per cent of the farmlands are no longer accessible.

    “Many members of my community have been kidnapped. Last year, more than 100 people in my community were kidnapped.

    “There was a time they kidnaped between 60 and 70 people.  People had to contribute money in the Kakanji community for us to pay the bandits and secure the release of our people.

    “We paid about N14 million to secure their release. We cannot determine how much the individuals that were kidnapped paid for their release.”

    Continuing, he said: “If the bandits allow you to farm, when it is time to harvest the crops, they will stop you from doing that even when you paid to plant the crops at the beginning of the season.

    “At times when you want to harvest, they will ask for money ranging from N300,000 to N1 million. The size of your farm will determine how much they will ask you to pay.

    “When you remove all the monies collected by the bandits, there will be no profit left for the farmers. Our people pay to harvest our produce just to minimise the losses. “The bandits kill victims even after collecting ransom. They sometimes kill if what they asked for is not what the victim pays.”

    Also bemoaning their plight, Comrade Abdulrashid said: “You can’t access the farms that are two kilometres away from the town because of the activities of the bandits. They kidnap, extort and ask for ransom.

    “Before they would ask for how much you would pay, they would first beat you. After the beating you, they would ask you how much you want to pay.

    “I know of several people that have been kidnapped by the bandits and you have no alternative but to pay what they ask you to pay.

    “Some communities negotiated with them and paid some millions of naira so that they could be allowed to harvest their produce.

    “Some time ago, the farmers in some communities could not harvest their produce.”

    360 people killed by bandits 1,389 persons kidnapped in Kaduna in three months

    To show the level of havoc  being wreaked  by bandits in the state,  a security report by the Kaduna State government revealed that bandits killed at least 360 persons in the first quarter of 2022 (January – March).

    According to the 52-page quarterly report presented to the state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, by the Commissioner for internal security, Samjuel Aruwan, the figure also includes those killed in communal clashes.

    The latest figure by the state government comes as attacks in Kaduna and other parts of the North-west heightened in the past few months.

    In 2021, bandits killed 1,192 people in the state and kidnapped 3,348 others, according to SBM Intelligence.

    Deaths from insecurity in the state in 2020 were three times higher than those recorded in the North-east states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, which are battling terrorism.

    According to the report, 1,389 persons were kidnapped during the period under review within the three senatorial zones of the states.

    Among the local government areas worst hit were Birnin Gwari, where 169 persons were kidnapped, Giwa 158, Igabi 263, Chikun 287 and Kajuru 203.

    It also said no fewer than 249 people were kidnapped due to banditry and other violent attacks in the Kaduna South Senatorial District alone within the same period.

    Other incidents are the rape of 10 women, including six minors, 258 injured due to banditry and communal clashes while 3,251 animals rustled during the period. Of the 3,251 animals, 3,137 were stolen from Kaduna Central, accounting for 97 per cent of the total.

    According to the report, 41 bandits were neutralised by the ground force while more than 60 were neutralised through various air strikes carried out at identified bandit camps within the state.

     

    Budgetary allocation rises as insecurity escalates

    A run through the statistics of the country’s budget shows that allocations for security have continued to rise over the years as the menace continues to escalate. In 2016, allocation to security gulped N1.06 trillion and moved up to N1.14 trillion in 2017.

    In 2018, the allocation jumped to N1.35 trillion and rose in 2019 to N 1.76 trillion. In 2020, allocation to the sector was put at N1.78trillion.

    Put together, the total allocation within the five years under consideration totaled N7.1 trillion.

    Between 2011 and 2015, budgetary allocations to the sector by the Goodluck Jonathan administration stood at N4.62 trillion.

    The allocation to security in 2011 was N920 billion and N924 billion in 2012. In 2013 and 2014, N923 billion each was allocated to security while the sum rose to N934 billion in 2015 to bring the total to N4.62 trillion.

    The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) said that at least 60,000 people have been killed in Nigeria’s 18 northern states in the last 10 years due to insecurity,

    In a new report by CDD titled “Multiple Nodes, Common Cause: National Stocktake of Contemporary Insecurity and State Responses in Nigeria,” the CDD said in the Northwestern states of Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara, about 14,000 people lost their lives between 2011 and 2021.

  • Trouble looms as Abuja aborigines blow hot

    Trouble looms as Abuja aborigines blow hot

    Caught in the complex web of a bourgeoning city, indigenous peoples of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja speak on their fears and aspirations in a land they had occupied for close to a thousand years but are now faced with threats of extinction. ADEWALE ADEOYE, who was on a week-long visit to Abuja indigenous communities, reports.

    Caught in the complex web of a bourgeoning city, indigenous peoples of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja speak on their fears and aspirations in a land they had occupied for close to a thousand years but are now faced with threats of extinction. ADEWALE ADEOYE, who was on a week-long visit to Abuja indigenous communities, reports. breathe. Our lives matter.’

    Idris Adamu, a cab driver from Jigawa State, who took the reporter to the event, whispered his fears in thick Hausa accent: ‘I hof (hope) this fefu (people) are not trying to chase us away.’ Musa Ndua, a Bassa of indigenous extraction who overheard him, shot back: ‘We are not asking you people in Abuja to go. We are the original owners of this land. We have fought for 40 years for recognition, no one listens. We want integration. Our civilisation, our values, our tradition, our humanity are being destroyed.’

    Adamu returned a dry, conspiratorial grin, hopped into his cab and zoomed off even as another cab operator honked, shouting ‘Abuja is no man’s land’; the common cliché that is distasteful to Bassa, Dibo, Ganagana, Egbira, Gwandara, Gade, Koro, Anwanwa and Gwarri indigenous peoples whose forefathers had lived in the FCT since the 12th Century. Their population is more than 15 million. The Gbwari alone are about 5.8 million people in the FCT and beyond.

    The ancestral owners of the FCT land under the aegis of Original People Inhabitants seized the August 9 window offered by the United Nations International Day of Indigenous Peoples to reassert themselves collectively as a people being squeezed by the spiralling Abuja industrial and commercial grandeur.

    On that Monday, for the first time in a long history spanning centuries, the cries of marginalised indigenous peoples of the FCT echoed from the deep valley. It was the week the UN had proclaimed as the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, coined for the first time in 1994 following global outcries of several indigenous peoples across the globe who had called global attention to the threats they face.

    The nine ethnic nationalities that own the FCT say that their land, their cultures, their traditional knowledge and even their spirituality have been trampled or even thrown into the trash bin in the face of onslaught of civilisation, economic upbeat and the invasion of their land by capital and the prowess of multinationals. The people list lack of statehood, denial of access to opportunities, occupation of ancestral shrines, threat of extinction of their languages and outright display of arrogance by land occupiers who, for decades, continue to magnify the ‘Abuja is No man’s land’ slogan.

    Aba Ahmed from Koro, in a chat with our corresponden, said he was 15 in 1976 when the Nigerian military government announced the transfer of the seat of power from Lagos to Abuja. He recalled that his parents and thousands of the indigenous peoples were invited and asked one question almost at gun point: ‘Do you want to stay on this land or you want to be evacuated?’ He said frightened by blistering gun nozzles, the majority of the people said they would wish to leave the land their forebears had treasured for centuries. The landless people then moved to neighbouring states where they rented apartments with their families. Ahmed said the military branded those among them who said they would stay on the land as rebels.

    “There is no land that is ungoverned. Abuja belongs to some people. We have been cultivating the land since 1300s. The land is ours. We need to be recognised as a people,” Lazarus Nyanolo who holds a PhD and official of FCT Original Inhabitants and Secretary, Garki Chiefdom told our correspondent, his eyes cloudy with suppressed tears.

    As a matter of fact, many youths from the communities, who spoke to our correspondent, said the issue at hand is like a molten magma waiting to erupt.

    “We have been patient enough. Our land sits on billions of money but our indigenous communities have no good roads, no water, no electricity and no access to opportunities. They should not wait until we start to block all entries into Abuja before they listen to us,’ Suleiman Usman, an Ebira with stern eyeballs, told our correspondent.

    On Monday, our correspondent visited some of the ancestral homelands. In Kubwa, Paska, Dutse, Dankoru, Kute and several rural communities, poverty is etched on the face of the land. In some communities a mushroom of mud huts dot the landscape. Excited but ignorant children ran helter-skelter, some half naked, some in pampers; nearby, women tender domestic animals while some prepared food in ramshackle makeshifts.

    In general, the visitor is confronted with extremely poor population that eke out a living in the most difficult ways: no access to electricity, bad roads, limited land for cultivation and lack of access to potable water. Most residents rely on the dwindling forest for their livelihood, including their source of wealth.  But close by is a chain of sky rise buildings and the opulence associated with Abuja.

    Living a hair’s breadth away from the wealth and power of Abuja, the original inhabitants are enveloped in penury. One aged woman said any time she visited Abuja city centre, she felt like someone who had been raped and robbed in daylight.

    “They talk of compensation, but they gave nothing or at best peanuts. They forced thousands of people away from their lands,” she said in a ghostly voice that fits her old and fragile physique.

    She said the Federal Government sometimes paid like N30,000 only for the crops on plots of land owned by indigenous people while the same land would be sold to someone else at about N30 million. She said when the FG paid stipends as compensation in 1976 there were few educated people among the indigenous peoples. But that today, those children of yesterday are now highly educated and are desperate to deconstruct the historical injustice.

    In those rural communities, from distance, daily locals are enraged watching the beautiful, electrified Abuja skylines, dotted with reflections of energy, beauty and affluence.

    It was partly the tempestuous condition that drew the conference organised by Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education, (CHRICED) with the support of MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with FCT Original Inhabitants, a coalition of groups from the nine ethnic groups that traditionally own the land Abuja now stretch her vast wings.

    The event drew indigenous peoples and other stakeholders who gathered together for constructive engagement on the plight of indigenous peoples of the FCT. The conference extended to an African regional meeting held on Tuesday with participants from several African countries and representatives of the diplomatic communities.

    Some of the resource persons were Dr Quinter Akinyi Onyango of the University of Free States, South Africa; Prof Emily Choge of Religious and Philosophy Department, Moi University, Kenya; Prof Ismail Adegboyega Ibraheem, Director of International Relations, Partnerships and Prospects, University of Lagos; Prof Oshita O. Oshita, Executive Director, Ubuntu Centre for Africa Peace Building and Development, (UCAP) in Abuja among many others.

    Speaking at the conference, His Royal Highness Alhaji Ismaila Danladi Mohammed, said the government should engage the people for a peaceful resolution of the lingering problem. The Etsu Kwari said: “They took the land, took our sacred places and left us naked.”

    Another youth told the audience which included top government officials: “If you think you are enjoying today without our recognition, you are murdering sleep.”

    He said the culture and civilisations of the people have been lost to the fleeting time and to them, the illusion of splendour occasioned by the overwhelming infrastructure in the FCT mostly do not add value to the economic conditions of largely poor and vulnerable indigenous peoples in the FCT. A woman leader in the community said Aso Rock, the seat of power, was one of the sacred places taken away by government.

    She said: “We told them Aso Rock is our spirituality. If they don’t return it to us, there will never be peace in Aso Rock.”

    She said some of the sacred traditional groove taken from the people included a spiritual site where the spirits of the dead were invoked from the ancient times.

    CHRICED’s Executive Director, Ibrahim Zikirullahi, said his group and international partners want to promote dialogue, peace and justice.

    He said: “This is the first time in history that we have come together to speak about the tribulations of indigenous peoples of the FCT as a united front.”

    He said part of the reasons for the conference was to initiate robust discussions for a peaceful resolution of the problems.

    A traditional ruler said the indigenous peoples are neglected and treated as second class citizens right in their ancestral homelands. “It is excruciatingly painful that the original inhabitants who made enormous sacrifices to give Nigeria its centre of unity have been rendered stateless and left to wallow in despair and regret,” he lamented.

    The representative of MacArthur Foundation, Dr Kole Shettima, said it is the first of its kind in the history of the community that a regional conversation around indigenous issues would be held.

    “We are guests of this place. We have been thinking of how we can be good guests to our people,” he said.

    Another representative of the traditional chiefs in the FCT said: “The indigenous people are very peaceful. We are saying give us our right.” He said in other countries like Germany, Brazil where the capital cities were moved, adequate compensation was paid while inclusion was a policy.

    Indigenous peoples claim over ancestral land is a global phenomenon. This compelled the UN on July 28 to adopt the process of dealing with the problem. In 1993, following the recommendation of the World Conference on Human Rights, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the International Decade of Indigenous peoples (1995-2004).

    The UN described the indigenous peoples as “holders of unique languages, knowledge systems and beliefs and possess invaluable knowledge for sustainable development.” In some countries, lack of government intervention has led to armed uprising against the state.

    Abdulkareem Tijani, who leads a civil society promoting indigenous rights, said: “Though certain things are being done, much needed to be done.”

    The traditional rulers of Gbwari said: “We cannot do anything that will destabilise Nigeria. We will not do it. We just want the government to listen to us.

    “We are like fatherless children. You have become our parents. Please hold us. We need to be considered as the real indigenous people.

    “We must have our full rights.”

    He said when the rest of the country elects state governors, Abuja indigenous people go to sleep. They are also denied statehood by virtue of the legal requirements that one must have a state of origin to be gainfully employed or to gain admission into higher schools.

    “Our people are compelled to claim Nassarawa, Kogi, Kwara and other states to be included where states of origin is required for opportunities since Abuja is not a state,” he lamented.

    Section 263 of the 1979 Constitution says that the FCT will be treated like a state, but that only exists on paper. He said the whole country is keeping quiet in the face of bottled up stinging bees that can force their way out at any time. He said the various governments have broken promises.

    A representative of the Environmental Rights Action (ERA), Chimma Williams, said “the situation of indigenous people in Abuja is induced and forced displacement. It is not acceptable.”

    Nyanolo said he was born and brought up in Garki Village. “I entered secondary school in 1976 when the FCT was created.

    “Let me correct the impression that there were no towns created here. Aguda Panel said it was a virgin land, but we had lived here, cultivated the land, which means the land was not virgin.

    “We are not Nigerians. The constitution says to be a Nigerian, you must come from a state, but the FCT is not a state.

    “When land is taken away from you, it means everything on earth has been taken away.”

    One participant said the law in FCT says “we do not have the right to allocate our land to our children. When you refuse us, whether you like it or not, we will take it by force unless we are all killed so that the land can become virgin.”

    Nyanolo said the FCT by land mass is more than Bayelsa and Lagos. “So why should we have only one senator?

    “Some states have 20 people in the House of Reps but we have only two. How can they lobby over 360 lawmakers?

    “We as a people are being administered as a ministry. Are we indigenes of a ministry?

    “When others are electing their governors, we are busy sleeping, disenfranchised.”

    Abuja

    He said his people went to court that they should be represented at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) up to the Supreme Court, adding that his people won but the FG failed to comply.

    “The land we own is being reallocated to us. They valued what we planted 1000 metres at N30,000. Someone from somewhere who got the land will sell it for N30 million.”

    The challenge came in 1976 when the then Gen. Murtala Mohammed administration wanted to move the federal capital away from Lagos. A panel was set up, led by Justice Akinola Aguda. Other members of the panel were social critic Dr Tai Solarin, Col. Monsignor Pedro Martins, Prof O.K Ogan, Prof. Ajato Gandonu, Alhaji Mohammed Musa Isma and Chief Owen Fiebai.

    The committee suggested some 30 cities including Ile-Ife, Makurdi, Okene, Osara, Kafanchan, Agege, Agena, Auchi and Abuja. Some of the considerations for choosing Abuja were security, excess land, low population, soil, ethnic accord, health, climate and centrality. It was thought that Lagos was identified with only one group, the Yoruba; a situation considered as a “threat to national unity.”

    At the FCT, an official who did not wish to be named told our correspondent that the authority was looking into the grievances of the indigenous people.

    “We are aware of some of the challenges. They cannot say compensation has not been paid. They can only say it may not be enough,” he said.

    After the conference, the indigenous people expressed support for peaceful means of expressing their grievances to local and international authorities while urging the Nigerian government to meet her international obligations like the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) where member states affirm that before developments take place in indigenous communities, the people must have ‘free, prior and informed consent’ among other things.

    Some challenges: The indigenous people are yet to develop their alphabets while many of their cultures have been eroded through contact with bigger ethnic groups in the FCT. Nyanolo said it was not a problem, adding that his people are already developing their alphabets. In February next year, the indigenous people also hope to mark, for the first time, their Heritage Day.

    Nyanola was right when he said while some of the older generation are appealing for calm the youths are boiling with anger. Saliu Idris, 25, a Nupe who came from Warri where he grew up, said his father told him the family lost over 1,000 acres to the FCT. He is a graduate but has no job and watches cars in Warri. He appears to sum up indigenous youths’ lack of trust in government’s various promises.

    He said: “Bros, we are tired.’

    Informed about Federal Government’s plans to address the problem, he took off his fez cap in a dramatic response: “Bros, wicked people no dey change. Winch (Witch) no dey get mercy.”

    But Zikirillahi said his group will work with the Nigerian government and international partners to ensure justice is done in the shortest time possible to avoid breeding a rebellious movement in the FCT at a time the authorities are almost dazed with terrorists threats in Abuja, once Nigeria’s safest city.