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  • Midnight tragedy: Maiduguri residents recall ordeal in flood disaster that claimed many lives

    Midnight tragedy: Maiduguri residents recall ordeal in flood disaster that claimed many lives

    • Survivor: My neighbours died because they were too old to run
    • Death toll can’t be ascertained until water level recedes – Displaced person
    • Traders count losses, cry for help

    The respite enjoyed by Borno residents from Boko Haram onslaught was shattered on Tuesday as a catastrophic flood swept through the Maiduguri metropolis, leaving many dead and property worth hundreds of millions destroyed. More than one million people were reckoned to have been displaced by the devastating incident reportedly caused by the collapse of the Alau Dam in the state. INNOCENT DURU reports that the unusal incident will linger in the people’s memory.

    When  Sadai Usman, a trader in the Maiduguri metropolis, closed his shop at the end of business on Monday, it was in the hope that he would return the next day to continue from where he stopped.

    On his way home, he received calls from his business partners who asked him to supply them bags of rice, flour, sugar and other items the next day. An elated Usman assured them that their requests would be granted first thing in the morning.

    He was so certain that he would be at his business place the next morning that he left a huge chunk of the money he made for the day in his shop.

    As fate decided, however, his plans for the next day were shattered by a disastrous flood that ravaged the metropolis  and perished all he had laboured for overnight.  

    Reliving his ordeal in an interview with our correspondent, Usman, who is now taken refuge in the displaced persons’ camp in Bukassi, said: “The flood affected my shop. I sell flour, sugar and rice, and they were all destroyed.

    “There is no need for me to go and see my shop, knowing that sugar, flour and rice are not friends with water.”

    Usman estimated that “the items I lost were worth more than N6 million. There were 22 bags of flour, 18 bags of rice and nine and a half bags of sugar. I also had cash in the shop. I don’t know if I will still see it when I go back later.”

    But for mother luck, Usman and his household would also have lost their lives in the incident as they were fast asleep when tragedy struck.  

    Explaining how they escaped, he said: “I was sleeping in my house that fateful night.  At one point, a neighbour knocked on my door and asked if I was not aware of what was happening in the area, and I said no. 

    “He asked me to come out and see what was going on. My family members and I ran out of the house with only the clothes we had on us.

    “I didn’t take a pin from the house as we all ran away with the neighbour that came to call our attention to the danger in the neighbourhood.”

    Usman continued:

     “If you go to our area now, you would see many dead bodies. I counted more than 10 and I knew some of them: Baba Musa,  Ba Modu and Ba Isah and Ibrahim Hassan. The flood water killed them. They were old people so they could not run.

    “As the water was coming,  they said they would watch and see if it would go back.  It was while waiting that the water ran over them.”

    Contrary to reports that the incident was caused by Alau Dam collapse, Usman said: “The water was not from Nigeria; it was from Cameroon. This is not any kind of water we know in Maiduguri. It is not water from yhe Alau Dam.

    “It has affected farmlands. Nobody could take anything from their farmlands.

    “If you see the farmlands, they are all covered by flood water.”

    It was a mixed feeling of thanksgiving and sadness for Yagumsu, an embattled mother who is now hibernating in the Bukassi IDP camp with her children.  She is sad that she lost goods worth hundreds of thousands to the flood but thankful that the incident did not claim their lives.

    “I am a businesswoman. I sell garri,” she told our correspondent, looking very groggy with sleep.

    “I had some of my wares in the house and some in the shop. The flood destroyed all the goods in the house.  The goods I lost to the flood were worth more than N400,000,” she said. 

    Recalling her experience, the distraught mother said: “Between 11pm and 12am, the water started coming. By 2 am the volume became too high that we ran away. 

    “When I went there today (Wednesday), I could not find a way to enter my house. The water did not cover my roof but it destroyed everything I had in the house.”

    Asked about the situation in the IDP camp, she said: “There are too many mosquitoes in the camp.  We are managing with mosquito coils. 

    “We don’t have a mat or mattress. We just got something to lie down on.”

    Dispirited by the conditions in the camp, she expressed hope that normalcy would soon return for them to go back home.

    Asked what she will do if she got home and found that her building had been damaged by the flood, she retorted: “When we get home and find out that the building has been damaged, we will leave the place and move to another place.”

    With the situation of things, she said, “there is no hope of our children going to school for now. They can’t go anywhere.”

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    Another survivor, Liman Mustapha, was also yet to overcome the shock the incident caused him and his family.

    His words: “I was sleeping in the house with my family members when trouble began. 

    “We started seeing the water early in the night after our Maghreb prayer.

    “When the water started coming, we blocked the place it was coming from. But by 2 am, the level had risen too high and we had to run to Shehu’s palace.

    “We slept there and by morning time, the state government came and brought us to the IDP camp.”

    Decrying his ordeal, Liman said: “I only came out wearing the cloth I have on me now and nothing else. I lost everything.

    “I only came out with my wife and children and the only clothes we were wearing.

    “Before we ran out of the house, the water was yet to get to the zinc level.”

    As a man in charge of his own affairs before the incident, Liman is not happy that he is not in his house.  He said: “I was living comfortably with my family before the incident. But here in the camp there are too many mosquitoes.

    “One of my sons is sick. He has fever. It is not good to live in the camp.

    “I don’t have a mattress to sleep on in the camp. Everything was left in the house.

    “I am sleeping on the floor. There is not even a mat.

    “I went to beg for a mat but I had to give it to my family because it’s too small.

    “Mosquitoes are too many in the camp. I couldn’t even sleep yesterday because there was no net. 

    “I ran out of the house without a dime and could not even afford coil to combat the menace of mosquitoes. 

    “I couldn’t sleep at all at night because of mosquito bites.”

    Exhibiting a high sense of optimism, Liman said: “When I leave the camp, I will be going back to my house. Once the flood recedes, I will go back. 

    “I am not scared that the flood can come again. If God brings flood, there is nothing we can do.

    “We thank the government for the money they have given us to buy food.”

    ‘The flood rose above my zinc’

    Another survivor, Abba Jimo, said the flood “rose above my zinc. I went to my house today but I couldn’t get close to my house.

    “The flood water was too much. The environment is a no go area, you can’t ascertain the number of dead people for now. 

    “Everything we had was covered by water.”

    He said he was sleeping in the house when the flood water started rising.

    Jimo said: “We ran away before it could cover our house. It was already entering our house before we ran to the Shehu’s palace at 2am. 

    “The Shehu’s palace was also destroyed by the flood.  The government later came and moved us to this IDP camp. We don’t know how soon we will be living.

    “The flood water pulled down the walls around my building. My room is still there but the wall surrounding it has been grounded. 

    “The school where I work, you cannot even see the zinc. I don’t know where I will be staying after this period. We are waiting for the government. 

    “The governor said he can assist us to rebuild our houses again.

    “The governor came and gave N10,000 to each one of us to buy food for our children. He gave the money to about 8,000 of us. 

    “He said NEMA may come to assist us tomorrow.”

     Victims outside IDP camp share experience

    Findings showed that not all the survivors were evacuated to the IDP camp. Some of them had fled to neighbouring communities to seek refuge in friends’ and relatives’ houses.

    One of them, Umaru Kashim, said: “I have moved to my younger brother’s house. The flood seriously affected me.

    “My four-room apartment is broken down. It is only my wife’s room that is standing. 

    “You can’t even enter the house. We only escaped wearing the clothes we had on us. 

    “But for God’s intervention, I would not have been able to rescue my children. 

    “Even the Emir of Bornu was affected. He packed his family in my presence and left.”

    Asked if people died in his neighbourhood, Umaru said: “You can’t count the number of people who died.

    “A neighour who had a poultry farm lost all his 300 birds. Those rearing rams also suffered the same fate. 

    “But the concern here is about human lives and not those of animals.

    Going down memory lane, he said: “We had  a similar incident in 2004 but this one is worse. It is at Alau Dam that they used to control the river.

    “For some time now, there had been warning that the river was overflowing and that those who were close to it should vacate the area.

    “This had been going on for about a week.”

    Also sharing his experience, Ibrahim  Mohammed Abubarkar, said: “I am at Baga Road after escaping from the deadly incident. But someone has told me that I will be taken to the IDP camp.

    “I lost everything. I didn’t take a single thing out of my house.

    “My family members and I ran out of the house to save our lives from the danger that was at our doorstep. 

    “We were very lucky to have survived. Walahi, we were very lucky. 

    “Neighbours told me that many people died in the flood, but I am not aware of anyone who died.”

    When the flood started, he said, “I saw water entering my bedroom. I quickly alerted my children and told them we should leave the house. They thought that I was joking.

    “Before we realised it, the flood was almost covering us.

    “By the time we got to the road, there was no place for us to cross to the other side. Everywhere was flooded. 

    “I carried my child on my shoulder and held others by their hands. I had to, at a point, leave some in the flood water to cross the other ones to a safe place.

    “It was other people who helped to rescue and bring the others to a safe place.”

    Ibrahim, who works as a teacher and tailor, added that his machine and every other thing he had were left at the mercy of the flood.

    “It is soldiers who have been assisting us,” he said. 

    “We have not been eating well at all. Some people assist us with bread and other small small things. 

    “As I am talking to you now, hunger is seriously dealing with me.” 

    Dahiru Adam, a spare parts dealer, said he had more than 65 engines in his shop submerged.

    According to him “any engine that is soaked with water is a good as condemned.”

    Explaining the cost of the different Honda engines in his shop, he said the lowest of the engines would cost N400,000 while the highest would go for N1.7 million.

    “By the time we heard that the Monday market was taken over by water around 3.00pm, some people had started moving out their goods out of their shops. But it was too late as the water just came in no time and took over the entire area,” Dahiru said.

    Nomso, another Igbo trader at Bank of the North area, said: “My entire shop and those of many other people were swallowed by water. It was a surprise to us how the water travelled so fast to swallow our shops.

    “We were in our houses sleeping when the water took over our entire businesses. We came out the following day only to find that all our shops had been submerged.”

    He said their losses were unquantifiable

    The loss of more than 30 lives is a tragic reminder of the human cost of the disaster. Families are grieving over loved ones who were unable to escape from the rising waters. For many, the psychological impact of losing family members, homes and sources of livelihood is immeasurable.

    The flood waters also brought with it health risks, with concerns rising over potential outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

  • Untold story of Illegal mining activities, deforestation in Taraba

    Untold story of Illegal mining activities, deforestation in Taraba

    Despite its huge natural endowments, Taraba State sits on the lowest rungs of the human development index in Nigeria. Among these endowments are rich forests and mineral resources. Our Taraba State Correspondent VICTOR GAI, looks into the perennial illegal activities of deforestation and solid minerals exploitation by local and foreign agents with far reaching consequences on the environment and economy of the state.

    Boasting one of the largest landmass in the country, Taraba State is naturally gifted with arable land for farming, livestock and fisheries. It has the largest stretch of the River Benue and one of the largest collections of livestock in the country. All these might have earned it its sobriquet, ‘nature’s gift to the nation’.

    But below the fertile lands and in the interspersed terrain are exotic solid mineral resources and forest trees that the state had not given much attention to until recently when foreigners began to exploit them with rapacious tendency. With the connivance of locals, foreign nationals have made huge fortunes which eventually drew the attention of the government.

    Akwana, a community in Wukari Local Government Area of Taraba State, is the hotbed of illegal mining activities. It is among several others spread across the state that are notorious for illegal mining. It is located at the Taraba/Benue border which has been a flashpoint for kidnapping, banditry and inter-communal clashes over time.

    Findings made by ‘The Nation’ shows that the activities of illegal miners are responsible for the spate of kidnapping, banditry and boundary disputes that have lingered between Taraba and Benue states.

    According to a local source who craved anonimity for security reasons, the menace of illegal mining thrived with the connivance of security agents, state government officials and some local lords who have the cover of authorities.

    The source said: “It is the individuals in the community that decide to handle mining disregarding warnings from the chiefdom and even the mines officer. At a point, even the mines officer was involved in the racket. I can say that anytime and anywhere. He was giving them immunity.

    “Illegal mining led to the influx of unknown people, leading to kidnapping, robberies and others. It got to the extent that even the DSS and some security operatives got so interested in the case because of the infiltration of illegal explosives used for mining activities.

    “They claim that they as indigenes deserve to mine what they have in their community. But the question is do you have the licence to mine?

    “Any time I write a report, because we do write monthly reports, within five minutes, I will start recieving calls that they know what I am doing.

    “So I became a target. Hence I myself don’t go there.”

    He further disclosed that despite the government ban on illegal mining, the practice still contineud because of the presence of a ‘mafia’ who control the state boundaries for their business interests.

    “They themselves don’t want to stop. So it took the grace of the task force to stop them.

    “The illegal mining got so bad that in the boundary issue between Taraba and Benue states, knowing full well that there is a ban in Taraba State, some locals in Akwana would tell the Tiv people living in that area to claim the place as Benue State so that Taraba authorities would not be able to come in.

    “At some point, through the allocation of cadastral unit for mining, some points were mapped out of Taraba State and placed in Benue,” the source added.

    The Madrid debacle

    In the heyday of rosewood exploitation, popularly known as Madrid, the immediate past governor, Darius Ishaku, had to wade into the matter to restore order and decorum. Business men took advantage of the weak regulatory environment to deny the state of revenue from the product until the government intervened.

    The Ministry of Environment was stripped of powers to collect revenue from the product and the state’s Internal Revenue Service took over. But by the time order was restored to the industry, millionaires were made. Young men and women left school to engage in the trade while the state lost billions from the illegal business.

    In her 2018 study titled Eco-criticism: A comparative Study of Madrid Deforestation and its Effect on Secondary School Students’ Learning Performance in Jalingo and Ardo Kola Local Government Taraba State of Nigeria, Dr. Abigail Seth Karfe of the Taraba State University wrote: “Critical observation has been seen on how this benefit of natural resources (forestation) has been jeopardised because of human beings’ self desire and unnecessary quest for money.

    “This is usually ignored in most states and local governments and is resulting in a lot of deforestation, reducing the learning performance of students in secondary schools and land degradation.

    “Madrid deforestation in Taraba State needs to be discouraged.”

    She quoted Dayo Aiyetan of the International Centre for Investigative Reporters, in his study titled: How China fuels deforestation in Nigeria, West Africa. “Smart Chinese businessmen are exploiting a lax regulatory and enforcement environment, loopholes in existing laws, lack of government policy and direction as well as official corruption by government officials to drive an illegal trade in and export of the country’s forestry resources that might have grave consequences for both the environment and the economy…forestry experts are warned that the unrestrained and uncontrolled harvesting of the special type of timber across the states will have devastating impact on the environment and contribute immensely to global warming which is currently threatening the world.

    “Apart from the effect on the environment, the experts fear that the illegal activities of local and Chinese merchants will also have telling economic implications in the near future in many communities where the forests that are being violated are located.

    “In many states, including Kogi, Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun, Taraba, Kaduna, Adamawa, and Cross River, a rapacious demand by China for an ornate species of wood, rose wood (Pterocarpus erinaceus) locally known as Kosso, has since late 2013 fuelled an unprecedented frenzy of illegal logging of wood that is fast depleting the nation’s natural forestry resources.”

    According to Karfe in her findings, students were “immensely involved in Madrid deforestation and this has a lot of negative influence and effect on their learning performance as shown in their results for both Mathematics and English language… and “Madrid deforestation equally promotes global warming.”

    In her recommendation, she called for government intervention to curb the trend through education and enlightenment of citizens, promulgation of laws, strengthening of security and economic empowerment of the citizens.

     Kefas to the rescue

    Meanwhile, the menace of illegal mining continued side by side with the heavy deforestation of the land, posing a double jeopardy for the state.

    In June 2023, the state governor, Dr. Agbu Kefas, inaugurated the Taraba State Task Force on Environmental Protection, Public Safety and Prohibition of Deforestation, headed by Brig-Gen. Jeremiah Faransa (rtd). The governor then signed the Executive Order 3 and 5 (as amended) suspending mining activities and deforestation in the state.

    This policy direction by the governor could be a deliberate attempt at looking at alternative revenue sources for the state rather than an attempt to save the environment.

    The Task Force has achieved a lot just as it faced several challenges due to the presence of an entrenched “cartel” and bottlenecks from official and non-official quarters. Besides that, the terrain is a huge challenge considering the land mass and the under-developed nature of the state.

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    According to the Task Force through its spokesman, Ibrahim Zuppai, it has discovered 15 illegal mining sites across five local government areas  namely Sardauna, Gashaka, Bali, Wukari and Karim-Lamido. They have arrested 17 foreign nationals and 100 Nigerians involved in illegal mining. The suspects have since been handed over to the special mobile court for prosecution.

    Also, over a billion naira has been realised as fines from those arrested for flouting the Executive Order. The minerals discovered include Fluoride, Zircon, Blue Sapphire, Lead, Iron Monzite, Quartz and Galena.

    In September 2023, the Task Force made the biggest recovery of 22,373 kilograms of Blue Sapphire in Mayo Sena, a notorious illegal mining site in Sardauna LGA of Taraba State. While speaking on the discovery, Faransa also disclosed the enormous mineral potentials in the state, which includes the discovery of uranium in Yorro LGA.

    But as the Task Force was yet to recover from the euphoria of its successes, a scandal ensued which might potentially pitch the Task Force against the authorities. The latest scandal was the destruction of mining equipment in yet another notorious mining site in Akwana, a border community between Taraba and Benue states, a fortnight ago.

    The Task Force was allegedly accused of ordering the burning down of mining equipment which belonged to the state government. The mining equipment, reportedly worth billions of naira, were said to have been procured and transported to site by the Taraba State Bureau for Solid Mineral Resources. They include excavators, soundproof Mikano generators, detecting machines, motorcycles and others.

    That act actually generated social media reactions and concerns by citizens who have all along criticised the activities of the Task Force. Controversy is still raging in the state over the matter as citizens continue to lament over what they say is an unnecessary waste of tax payers’ funds used in the purchase of the equipment.

    Irked by this development, a pressure group known as Taraba Concern Citizens (TCC) have accused the Task Force of destroying State-owned mining assets and called on Governor Kefas to come out clear and inform the people of the state on the true position of things. They demanded to know why a Task Force established by his government would go all out to destroy equipment worth billions of naira which were procured with tax payers’ money.

    The Coordinator of the group, Comrade Emos Tijani, while addressing journalists in Jalingo, Taraba State capital last week, alleged that there were discrepancies leading to the burning of the mining equipment. He stated that “it is still not clear why a Task Force that was established by the governor would destroy state owned properties of such magnitude”.

    He said: “We the concerned citizens are still confused on what led to the destruction of the mining equipment.

    “Is it that the Faransa-led Task Force is in disagreement with the state government or is it that the governor and his government have also engaged in illegal mining activities that the equipment worth billions of naira were destroyed at this time that we are always told there is economic hardship?

    “We demand to know.”

    The Permanent Secretary, Taraba State Bureau for Solid Mineral Resources, Matsai David, confirmed that he did convey the mining equipment procured by the Bureau to Akwana in Wukari on the directive of the governor.

    He said: “I conveyed the mining equipment to Wukari on the directive of the governor. I am not answerable to the Task Force. When the governor comes back from his trip, I will give my explanation on the situation. For now, I reserve my comment.”

    But the Taraba State Government did not come out clear on the matter and only gave a tacit response on the matter.

    Speaking during a parley with journalists in Jalingo, the Taraba State Commissioner of Information, Barrister Zainab Usman Jalingo, said: “I don’t think there is a disconnection between the Task Force on Illegal Mining and the government. If there is a misunderstanding, it is something to be sorted out at their level.”

    According to her, the legal and regulatory framework has already been put in place in the state, in collaboration with the federal government in order to avoid conflicts.

    Jalingo stated: “I happen to be part of the delegation at the Ministry of Solid Minerals and I happen to be part of the committee that tidied up and sorted out the Mining Act in the state.

    “As far as Taraba State is concerned, the issue of mining, we have concurrent interest as to the implementation of the Mining Act.

    “Where any of the miners is going to explore more than five centimetres into the ground, the state government has to be taken into consideration.

    “We have tidied that up at the House of Assembly and they have promulgated a law before the initial issue of mining in the state.

    “So anyone that enters Taraba must first register with the Minister of Solid Minerals at the federal level and then at the state level too.”

    On the part of the Task Force, it said it did not deliberately burn the equipment and usually follows due process in its activities.

    According to the spokesman of the Task Force, Ibrahim Zuppai, the governor actually gave the directive for any illegal mining equipment to be burnt whenever they are found since they can’t be confiscated. He added that the allegation was a ploy by a “cartel” to pit the Task Force against the governor.

    A statement he issued reads: “The attention of the Taraba State Task Force on Environmental Protection, Public Safety and Prohibition of Deforestation has been drawn to a malicious allegation circulating in the media. The Task Force and its Chairman, Brigadier General Jeremiah Faransa (rtd), were accused of destroying government owned mining equipment in Akwana.

    “We categorically debunk this baseless allegation and set the record straight. The Task Force has been diligently carrying out its functions in accordance with Executive Order No. 3 and 5 as amended, signed by Gov. Agbu Kegas in 2023.

    “The allegation of destroying government-owned mining equipment is a clear attempt by a cartel to create a rift between the governor and the Task Force and to undermine our efforts to protect the State’s environment, its resources and citizens as the task force was not communicated of any government’s equipment deployed to any mining site when the government is still working on a clear guide line for all miners to adhere to.”

  • Nasarawa community mourns as boat accident claims four siblings

    Nasarawa community mourns as boat accident claims four siblings

    The Ubbe community in Nasarawa Eggon Local Government Area of Nasarawa State is in sorrow over the sudden death of four members in a mysterious boat accident on a river in Awe Local Government Area of the state. Particularly distressed is the Dauda family of which the deceased graduates and undergraduates were members.

     The victims were crossing River Awe to Wuse village in a boat on Monday evening to harvest rice from their farm when their canoe capsized. Among the deceased were Shedrack Dauda, 29, who had just graduated top of his class at the Nasarawa State University in Keffi, Akolo Moses Dauda and Meshach Dauda, who are also undergraduates of the university, and Alkali Congo Dauda, 39, who had just graduated from the College of Education Akwanga.

    It was gathered that the tragic incident occurred on Monday while they were travelling to their rice farm in Wuse for harvesting. Although there are different accounts of the incident, the most popular is that the river’s tide forced the boat to hit a tree, culminating in the accident.

    The entire Ubbe community has since been thrown into mourning over the death of four educated members of the same family.

    A witness, Mr Ibrahim Abu, said the deceased victims had barely boarded the boat for three minutes when the accident occurred.

    Abu said: “The four young men came with their bags and boarded the boat. Three minutes after take-off, the boat capsized and all the four young university graduates in the boat died.

    “I don’t know what happened when they took off, but the boat broke inside the river.

    Abu lamented that the people of Wuse resort to water transportation because there are no access roads leading to the community.

    “Our problem is that there is no access road that connects all the Wuse communities. We have no choice but to travel on water.

    The aged mother of the siblings was far from getting over the disaster when our correspondent visited as she grappled with an experience her fragile posture could hardly bear. In a short speech amid tears, Mrs Dauda said her children had planned to pursue their academic programmes to master’s level.

    The entire Dauda family was in pensive mood when our correspondent visited. It took the reporter some time to get them to speak about the death of their four grown up loves ones.

    Sitting dejected in a corner of the house was a relative of the deceased victims, Joseph Congo Dauda.

    Tears rolled down his cheeks before he could utter a word. But after gaining some composure, he sat back, clear his throat and declared that he would speak only briefly about the lives and times of the victims and the misfortune that befell the family.

    Dauda said the entire family was living happily before tragedy struck on November 6. He said the deceased young men were workaholics who had chosen to assist their parents by engaging in farm activities to support the home front and support their education and other family needs. Consequently, he said, they acquired some lands in Wuse where they farmed rice.

    Dauda said: “They were actually travelling to the farm to harvest their rice ahead of the Christmas celebration and school resumption in January

    “We were in constant communication throughout the trip, even at the point of boarding the boat. Little did they or we at home know that they were on a journey of no return. A few minutes after they boarded the boat, we received the sad news that the boat capsized in the middle of the river and consumed them.

    “We raised these children ourselves. The parents are not well to do people, but with their strong determination, they were able to make it through secondary school and up to the university and college of education.

    “We never thought the four of them could die in one swoop. In fact, they died while working to build their future. I said so because they were going to harvest their rice farm to help them clear their educational needs.

    “They were already laying a foundation for themselves to be self-sustained. They were so obedient, calm and focused on pursuing their dreams in life. I still can’t believe the pain of this whole loss. My heart is broken.

    “I cannot believe that I will never see them again. I literally can’t bear it. The four young university graduates were already thinking of pursuing further studies to build a solid future. Sadly, death sneaked in, in a mysterious and cruel manner, killing not just one but the four of them in one swoop.

    “We are going to accept what has happened, and I’m not blaming anybody for this. But I am appealing to both the state and federal government to construct a bridge, not only across the Awe River but other rivers around the country to avoid boat mishaps.

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    “Our plan for Shedrack, who was the first to graduate from the University before the other ones, was to support them in their educational pursuit to, at least, master’s level, so that in the future, they will have a great impact on the society

    “We wanted them to be financially stable so that they would help the underprivileged in the society and contribute to the growth of Nasarawa State. Unfortunately, man proposes, God disposes.

    “The four of them are no more. Sometimes it is ideal to question God’s work, but because He is invisible, you don’t see Him to question. Taking four graduates away in a family at a time is painful, to say the least.

    “The children were very peaceful. They never had issues with people even in school. Throughout their period in primary, secondary to tertiary institutions, they never had any disagreement with anybody. They loved God so much and they were very mindful of how they relate with people because they did not like having misunderstanding with anyone.”

    Asked what he and the family would miss about them, Dauda said: “We will miss so many things about them. Shedrack was a very good young man to the family. While he was growing up, especially after his graduation from the university in Keffi, he decided that he would learn some craft in Lafia and also assist his brothers to achieve their academic programmes, which was why he went with them to Awe to help them harvest rice.

    “It is always his wish to assist his siblings. He supported us greatly even while in school. We will continue to miss and be proud of him. He was indeed a good young man.

    “The death of four graduates in one fell swoop is a big tragedy and the entire Ubbe community has been crying since Monday when the news was broken. Their death came to us as a shock. The situation is really hard for us but we just cannot question God. He knows best, so we have to accept our fate.

    The distraught mother Mrs Dauda explained amid tears that due to the difficult times, training four children in the higher institution at the same time was actually a difficult task, but the “committed and determined” young boys decided that they would return to the farm to assist their parents in settling some of their educational needs.

    She said: “They farm rice yearly in far away Awe Local Government Area, and during holidays, they collectively travel there to harvest it to assist themselves in settling their school fees when they are resuming in January so as to save their parents the stress of catering for their school needs alone.

    “Losing them in their prime is a lifetime scar; it will never heal. It is traumatic.”

    She said their mysterious death was a bad dream she wished she could wake up from to hear it never happened.

    “Why didn’t God take away my life? These children are the ones to bury me and not me burying them. What then is the meaning of life?

    “I was already feeling fulfilled in life when Shedrack graduated from the university. He didn’t even wait to enjoy the fruit of his labour. He left alongside his brothers. What a world!

    “Despite the difficulties, the boys kept encouraging me not to lose hope in life; that the future was bright. They had all the hope that the days/years ahead would be better.“They had good plans for me and the entire family, and they never foresaw death in the near future.

    “Before their trip to Awe, the boys and I were inseparable. They gave me true love, cared so much about me and were constantly in touch with me even when they were in school.

    “They meant well for the entire family. They always encouraged me to endure the hardship; that it was a matter of time. Now the time has not come and they are no more.

    “God is not fair to the entire family. He has inflicted a permanent wound in my entire life. There is absolutely no point taking them away at the same time in their prime. What is their offence? My joy has been stolen, my expectations were to see them grow up to become men in the society, but God took them back.

    “It is only God that can console us for us for we don’t have much to do to console ourselves. I will miss them so much. No one on earth can fill the space they have left in my life. My children were easy going people, good and dutiful, always committed to achieving whatever they wanted to achieve by leaving no stone unturned.

    “We are badly touched by this whole loss. Their untimely exit from this sinful world has left us all distraught.”

    A pastor, Rev. Solomon, who was friends with the deceased graduates, urged the family members not to query God over the incident, saying Christians should know that living and dying are in God’s control.

    He advised Christians to emulate Christ, adding that because Jesus submitted himself to God’s authority, though He died, He later rose on the third day

    According to him, Christians should know that the death of the four was of God and not of man. He said if the people understood life’s mystery, it would help them to correct and discard things denying them of God’s glory.

    “It is God alone that can console the family for we don’t have much to do that will console them. The Daudas are for God and so, only God will console them.

     “Jesus was for God and He died for God and because of that, we have life. It is therefore true that those who died in God will return to life as Jesus did, because He lives. May God enable those living to realise this and give God thanks in all things.”

    Rev. Solomon said he was heartbroken over the incident, commiserating with the family in its moment of grief.

    “I’m deeply sad because of this incident. We are together in it. The word of God is peace and in anything, he says there is peace.

    “Our prayer for the Dauda family is that God will give them peace. We know what the people recorded in the Bible suffered and in the end, God repaid them.”

    He prayed that such calamity would never be repeated in the land.

  • Much ado about tales of missing genitals in Abuja, others

    Much ado about tales of missing genitals in Abuja, others

    Since the time of Hippocrates, the ‘Father of Medicine’, around 400 B.C., medical science is yet to document a single case of mystically-disappearing manhood. But in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), well above 100 of such cases have been said to have occurred within the past three months.

    In other parts of the country, many claim to have also heard about numerous such cases. It is not uncommon to see irreverent skit makers weave content out of such common anxieties that produce disturbing results.

    On October 13 last month, a man on evangelising mission accused of snatching someone’s manhood was lynched by a mob at One Man Village, an area in Nasarawa State just outside the Federal CapitalTerritory (FCT). The killers of the victim, who was said to be a member of Living Faith Church, fled before police arrived at the scene.

    Earlier, on Thursday, October 5, a commercial cyclist identified as Yahuza died in hospital after he was brutally attacked by a mob in Nyanya following an allegation by one of his passengers that he caused his manhood to disappear during a brief ride.

    The FCT Commissioner of Police announced subsequently that between September 21 when the first case of missing manhood was reported in Gwagwalada and last week, there had been no fewer than 62 cases of alleged disappearance of manhood reported to the police in the territory.

    “The first case of male organ disappearance was first recorded in Gwagwalada on 21/09/2023. It has spread all over FCT whereby as of today, we have had a total of sixty-two (62) cases reported. Fifty-one (51) have been suspects charged to court for giving false information and inciting public disturbance,” he said.

    Still, many who claim to know someone that knows someone who is a victim have continued to spread fears about alleged disappearance of manhood, especially in Abuja suburbs and other towns.

    For instance, Mr. Adamson, an otherwise well-educated worker with a private firm in Wuse, could not hide his disdain for any thought that a conversation about missing manhood is an unserious affair. He would not hesitate to bring out the ‘antidotes’ he carries about in his pocket nowadays – an unbroken piece of bitter kola and a stone-sized charcoal.

    According to him and several other men close to Wuse Market, these odd objects generate enough metaphysical vibrations to counter the curious powers of unidentified people who routinely perform the odd exercise of magically snatching away any man’s manhood for the gratification of some equally odd, manhood-hungry gods.

    So where do the disappearing phalluses go? To some distant shrine where they are received in some calabash, with a sprinkling of the victim’s blood on top – like some serving of Mama Put amala or in the closet of some sex-hungry madams with sated appetite for battery-operated vibrators? Till date, no one knows with any measure of certainty; the superstitious realm appears convincing or comforting enough.

    One common explanation is that witches, wizards and politicians conspire to somehow use the item for replication of wealth and acquisition of more political influence.

    A conviction about the presence of paranormal powers and occurrences spans across the tapestry of diverse cultures, but there exists a distinctive peculiarity in the manner through which this belief manifests in the heart of Africa. It is such that some assert that our belief systems could be part of reasons why the rest of the world seems to have sprinted ahead while we linger in the shadows of political and economic underdevelopment.

    The African cosmology, deeply interwoven with spirituality, could be seen as a key factor predisposing us to a pattern of belief that borders on the mystical and superstitious. This unique worldview, rich with the essence of spirituality, may have in its intricate fabric threads of superstition which add to the complex tapestry of our belief systems.

    For those old enough, it is easy to recall that in few cities during the 1970s, there were fears about the possibility of one’s masculinity vanishing into thin air like mist upon shaking hands or having mere physical contact with a person rumoured to possess unfathomable mystical prowess. Such apprehension, like the ebbing tide, would periodically retreat, only to resurface again, casting its shadow upon us. Note too, that once in a long while; we get enthusiastically regaled with stories of how someone turned children or even grown men into tubers of yam.

    Now, the ‘missing manhood’ fears that once gripped parts of Nigeria during the 1980s before a decisive threat of summary detention by the military regime ended it currently manifests beyond Abuja.

    Just last month, Delta State Police spokesperson, DSP Bright Edafe, confirmed an arrest and warned the public in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

    “On Sunday, 8th October, 2023, at DBS Road Asaba, this 18-year-old suspect, Ebube Linus, raised a false alarm that an old woman inside a tricycle touched him and his manhood (penis) disappeared. Over 100 misguided touts gathered and mobbed this woman, stripping her naked and beating her to a stupor to the point of almost killing her,” he stated.

    Yet one Vincent Nwosu, a resident of Garki, who is in his 30s, asserts that missing manhood is real because it once happened to him.

    “I went to sleep as a whole man, but upon waking, it had vanished. I searched high and low, but there was no sign of it. It’s as if it evaporated into thin air. But after shutting myself in and doing one hour of mighty prayers, God restored it,” he said in a really incredible tale.

    A disturbing viral video clip that circulated in October had shown a 68-year-old widow, Mrs Ann Ekechukwu, mobbed, stripped naked and later handed over to the police over allegations that she ‘stole’ someone’s manhood during a ride in a commercial tricycle in Asaba, Delta State.

    Concerned about how anxieties spurred by the new wave of allegedly disappearing genitals may negatively affect its annual internationally-known ‘Calabar Festival’ that holds every December, the Cross River State Government sought an immediate end to such talks and the beatings that sometimes follow.

    In a September 12, 2023 press statement, the state government emphatically described reports of disappearing genitals as “fake news” and threatened to apply “the full· wrath of the law” against anyone found to have a hand in spreading such accusations/rumours. Still, the problem persists!

    Last month too, the Commandant-General of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi, ordered the arrest of NSCDC officers seen in a video clip circulated online, following their vicious beating up of a man who was alleged to have stolen the genitalia of two men.

    In Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, the disturbing phenomenon of alleged missing manhoods have culminated into cases of cruel physical assaults. The problem allegedly caused by the powers of sorcery and witchcraft resulted into numerous reports of men losing their penises – partially or completely – while walking through the streets, waking up in bed, during sexual activity or just passing by someone who appears to have some unseen magical powers.

    In spite of the serious warnings from FCT Police Command, the unusual and perplexing phenomenon has gripped the population and a wave of mass hysteria has swept across many neighbourhoods, leaving people bewildered and anxious.

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    It is a peculiar situation that defies logical explanation. And as rumours and fear spread, many are left in distress and anxiety that lead them to resort to all manner of counter-measures.

    Consequently, some people no longer respond to greetings or requests for direction from strangers. Others now stay more alert while sharing seats in commercial vehicles and some others find faith in having objects like a small Bible or a combination of charcoal and bitter kola in their pockets.

    The most worrisome aspect of the problem of alleged missing manhood in Abuja is the ease with which it is causing mob lynching across the FCT.

    Rahab Emmanuel, a housewife and mother of four, told the FCT Commissioner for Public Complaints Commission (PCC), Mr Ezekiel Musa Dalhatu, how she was almost lynched for allegedly stealing a man’s genitals at Gosa village along the Abuja-Airport Road.

    Rahab, who eked out a living by doing domestic chores for people, said that a man who gave her N200 for her to buy biscuit for her little child suddenly turned around and started shouting that his manhood was missing. Before she could process what was happening, several young men had appeared with sticks and other objects that they used on her before she was taken into the area’s vigilante office nearby.

    Psychological and Medical Explanations.

    Danjuma, a police detective, attributes most cases of alleged genital disappearance to criminals’ ploys aimed towards diverting public attention or putting potential victims into threat situations.

    He said: “When a man is dragged out of his car and beaten up over allegations of stolen manhood, no one asks about what happens to the money or telephone handset in his pocket.

    “And worse things have been known to happen because frustrated, angry youths easily join in spontaneous application of jungle justice on any unfortunate victim.”

    Remi Kehinde Ojewumi, a university lecturer who has a Ph.D in Clinical Psychology, thinks that there may be a psychological explanation for the problem.

    Ojewumi said: “We deal with what we can verify objectively. Again, are you aware of what we call ‘Group Control’? This means that people around us can influence our thoughts and behaviour in a numbers of ways.

    “Also, look up the concept of ‘Self-fulfilling prophecy’ and you can see that a whole lot of this phenomenon can be explained by Psychology. A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that comes true at least in part as a result of a person’s belief or expectation that said prediction would come true.”

    Delving into the database of medical research, one easily comes up with ‘Koro Syndrome’ which somewhat bears close similarity to the missing manhood issue being reported in Abuja.

    In men, Koro may manifest as the unwarranted conviction that their penis is undergoing a gradual vanishing act. Conversely, in women, the fear may centre around the perceived shrinking or disappearance of their breasts. This highly localised and culture-specific manifestation of anxiety underscores the influence of cultural beliefs on mental health.

    Part of the scientific literature of the United States’ National Institute of Health published on February 21, 2023 and made available online is a paper: ‘Koro Syndrome: Epidemiology, Psychiatric and Physical Risk Factors, Clinical Presentation, Diagnosis, and Treatment Options’ authored by Yukino Strong and nine others, following a study in parts of Asia where there were claims about the retraction or ‘disappearance’ of male genitals.

    “Koro syndrome is a multi-tiered disease presenting as an overwhelming belief that one’s sex organs are shrinking into their body. Moderate to severe anxiety attacks are associated with the condition, along with a fear of imminent death.

    “Koro is often culturally related and is most seen as an epidemic form in East and Southeast Asia, although it can present anywhere worldwide in its sporadic form. The condition typically affects young males who believe in sex-related myths, and many individuals can co-present with anxiety, depression, or even psychosis.

    “Although most presentations of Koro are self-limiting, the condition is harmful for one’s self-esteem and quality of life, and some individuals may go through extreme, physically injurious measures to prevent genital retraction. Treatments include the use of psychotherapy that has a sex education component, especially if the patient believes in culturally rooted myths.

    “In sporadic Koro, it is believed that if the primary psychiatric disorder is treated with anxiolytics, antidepressants, sedatives, or psychotics, the secondary Koro-like symptoms will also fade.

    “Additional investigation on the prevalence, pathogenesis, factors that correlate with treatment efficacy are needed to fully understand Koro syndrome,” the researchers stated.

    Addressing Koro is a delicate task, as it involves not only the individual’s mental well-being but also the cultural and societal beliefs that contribute to the condition’s persistence. While psychological interventions such as cognitive-behavioral therapy can help individuals manage their distress and anxiety, broader strategies are required to address the cultural and social factors perpetuating Koro.

    Education and awareness play a crucial role in dispelling myths and misconceptions related to sexuality that contribute to the onset of Koro. Open dialogue within affected communities, led by mental health professionals and cultural leaders, can help individuals understand the psychological underpinnings of the condition and encourage more constructive belief systems.

    No doubt, Abuja may need more that the threat from the FCT Commissioner of police before the scare of missing manhood becomes a thing of the past once again.

    The spate of untold merciless beatings of randomly suspected manhood thieves across several Nigerian towns and cities call for great attention.

    While speculations run rampant, numerous individuals, including experts, traditional healers, and religious figures who proffer their own interpretations and remedies only add to the intrigue surrounding this peculiar crisis.

  • Inside Nigeria’s multi-billion naira aphrodisiac business

    Inside Nigeria’s multi-billion naira aphrodisiac business

    • Herbalists, distillers, others flood market with products
    • Ghanaians, others smile to bank selling unregistered products
    • in Nigeria   Youths high on enhancers mess up at orgy party

    Production and sale of aphrodisiacs has become a big money spinner. Most herbal concoctions, energy drinks, alcoholic bitters, among others, are laced with aphrodisiac ingredients and marketed with messages that brazenly hype their potency. Ghana and many other countries are latching onto the thriving business and turning Nigeria into a dumping ground for all manner of unregistered aphrodisiac products. INNOCENT DURU examines the implications of the trend for the rising incidents of rape and health problems in the society.

    ADAMU, a dark complexioned young man, sells herbal medicines stuffed in plastic bottles along LASU/Isheri Road in Lagos. Besides the herbs, he also sells all manner of aphrodisiacs which he brazenly displays on his table.

    The products need no introduction, because the obscene pictures on the packages say it all.

    “This one works well,” he said in reply to our correspondent’s request for potent brands. “It costs just N500 a pack. It is in tablet form and you only need it before the match,” he said in salacious tone.

    Pointing to another, he said, “This one is just like coffee. You only pour it in hot water and drink before you start action. Walahi, e dey work well well (I swear, it works very well)”

    Asked how he knew that it works well, Adamu said: “People buy it a lot. It is one of the brands that people buy the most.”

    Checks on some of the products showed that they are not made in Nigeria and are not registered by NAFDAC. Information on the packages showed that some of them came from Ghana while others bear Arabic inscriptions without NAFDAC’s mark of approval on them.

    As the conversation was going on, a man suspected to be in his 50s walked in. The customer knew what he wanted and where it was kept as he opened a box, took a small tablet and handed N200 over to Adamu.

    “What is that?” our correspondent inquired after the customer left. Adamu opened the box containing different tablets cut into pieces. A particular brand was shaped like a man’s private part with the sac attached to it.

    “It helps man to perform well. The man will last longer after taking it, Adamu said with a sense of expertise.”

    A number of other young men also strolled in at regular intervals to pick their brands from Adamu while our correspondent sat observing the craze for aphrodisiacs among Nigerian men.

    Besides the likes of Adamu who sell by the roadside, online checks revealed that many young ladies have been quitting their jobs and floating mega aphrodisiac businesses, which they say is highly lucrative because the products are in high demand.

    Walking away from Adamu, our correspondent ran into another trader who gleefully marketed his products to him.

    He particularly advertised a product he claimed had no side effects.

    “Oga, this one is not for drinking. You only need to rob it on your manhood and it will stand well well,” he said, assuring that our correspondent would come looking for the product subsequently.

    Prior to his meeting with the above traders, our correspondent had run into a trader who caught his attention in an unusual way.

    “Oga, buy Maradona,” he said as our correspondent gazed at him to see what he meant.

    Having caught his attention, the trader raised a very dark wood perfectly carved like manhood.  Holding it firmly, he tossed it up and down to demonstrate how turgid a man’s manhood would become after using his product.

    “When you use it, you will still be on after one hour,” he said as he brought out other products he said were in high demand.  

    Herbal concoctions aggressively marketed as aphrodisiacs

    Apart from the above types of sex enhancers, checks further revealed that regular herbal concoctions sellers have begun to make brisk business aggressively promoting aphrodisiacs. While some sell their aphrodisiacs in raw forms, others have elevated their brands, selling them in well branded packages.

    The poor herbal concoction sellers have moved from selling powdery aphrodisiac called ale (hardener) in Yoruba language. They now do a series of mixtures for their clients.

    “How about the one that will make you perform very well as a man,” a seller asked our correspondent who had bought herbs meant for treatment of pile from her.

    For some who use megaphones to market their wares in public areas, the manner of advertising the products are sometimes crude and disturbing. They pronounce private parts and sexual issues without any consideration for the effects it could have on the morality of the children who are listening to them.

    One of the marketers’ advertisements on major roads in Lagos goes thus: “Oga, you do only three seconds and give up, saying yours is a quick action. Are you a fowl? Better buy this enhancer and make madam happy.

    “When you use it, your manhood will stand kakaraka like iron, and wherever you meet your woman, you will be able to hit her well. If you see her in the kitchen, you hit her. If you see her in the bathroom, you hit her.”

    At times, they employ fear appeal to compel pliable consumers to buy their products.

    “You, a landlord that performs only once and gives up, may God never allow your tenant to take over your wife. You better come here before a tenant takes over your responsibility.”

     Some more privileged manufacturers go on air to advertise their wares and are overlooked as they use all manners of foul expressions.

    Alcoholic bitters, energy drinks, others as aphrodisiacs

    Other forms of aphrodisiacs that are highly abused are energy drinks and alcoholic bitters. The brands in the market are innumerable and they all thrive on being potent aphrodisiacs.

    The adverts are couched in suggestive words and at times in irresponsible manners. They come in sachets, small plastic bottles as well as big bottles.

    Age restrictions about who can consume the products are at times placed on the packages but that is hardly followed.  

    Aphrodisiacs in pharmacies and supermarkets

    The sales of aphrodisiacs are also common in supermarkets and pharmacies. In supermarkets, the drugs are sold as over the counter products and open to anyone who has the money to buy them.

    At supermarkets, they come in different forms, including herbal teas. Everywhere you turn to in the country, aphrodisiacs are available in any form you want.

     Why demand for aphrodisiacs is on the rise

    Speaking on why demands for aphrodisiacs are on the increase, a sex therapist and  Executive Director of Sex in Marriage Therapy (SIM) Omolola Natural, said: “Its use has been abused overtime just because of people’s ideology of what is expected of them when it comes to sex. It is something majorly used by men because they want to last longer.

    “That is not the only reason, but most times, men want something that will make them last longer in bed because they feel that is what makes them a man.

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    “The use of those things come from wrong viewpoints about sex in the first place. For a woman’s satisfaction, it is not about the man lasting longer because the man can last as long as can be and still not satisfy a woman. Most men don’t understand that aspect.  They don’t understand that satisfying a woman is not just about the jerking and penetration. They are just all about ‘let me last long’.

    “It has become something like a norm that if you don’t use these things, you can’t perform and you are not a man. Everybody wants to feel like a man and they go all out.  They can pay anything to get it.

    “Like I can have people book for therapy and tell them the therapy fee and explain the gains of doing it. But they will just tell you no, no,no, just give me the drugs.

    “I tell them you actually don’t need drugs but they don’t want to hear that. They are not interested in the right information. They are just interested in the drug.”

    Aside from wanting to last longer in bed, she said: “Some men tell me that they want a longer manhood because theirs is six inches. They want eight inches. It is just this mentality of wanting more.

    “I don’t know if you read the story of the man with the longest manhood. He is feeling he is carrying too much load. Although he has entered the Guinness Book of record, he has lost many job opportunities. Now it has become a burden for the man who has a long one, but those who have shorter ones want it to be longer.”

    Also speaking, the Executive Director of Initiative for Sustaining Family Unity, Kate Ibeanusi, said: “Some people take it as self-help medication to help them perform no matter how minimal. Some are using it to show that they can do this and do it more than any other person. Then, there are these people who are taking it for the fun of it to embolden them to molest people.”

    Going further, she said: “Nigeria is a fertile ground for everything that is not good, and it is coming from the point of regulation. We have the rules but we don’t have strong institutions that can monitor and control whatever rules that exist.

    “The country becomes very porous and people can bring in anything at any time without any fear of reprimand or being caught or cautioned. Even when they are caught, they would easily tell you that they will get away with it.”

     She regretted that individuals in Nigeria are using the excuse that the times are hard to indulge in vices that have long term implications for productivity for relationships with one another.

    “These vices are affecting meaningful conversations because a number of people take this, I don’t know if it is only the sexual effects it has on them, I also believe it impairs their judgment.

    “If the only thing that is occupying the mind of a man is how he will take aphrodisiac to perform, it will impair his judgment, which will eventually make him not to have attraction just for the partner for which he has taken it but it could also be for harassing and intimidating other people.”

    Youths share aphrodisiacs at orgy party

    Kate Ibeanusi also spoke about how youths hold orgy parties where they share aphrodisiacs.

    She said: “Young people now put anything in the foods they eat. They now hold orgy parties where they come together and collectively share aphrodisiacs to spike their sexual desire for one another.

    “Beyond it being linked to the increase in rape cases, what about the ones that these teenagers come together cook food and spike it?

    “They also make cookies and spike it with the intention to raise their sexual arousal level so that they can all make love to one another. It is a huge problem.”

    She said the use of aphrodisiacs among the youth is like a rite of passage now. “It is a way to show that you are in town. It is not only for the guys but also for the girls. It is a ritual of growing up in recent years. They force themselves on one another. For those who are not consenting, they will force them.

    “Little children engage in different sexual activities simply because they are taking these things. So many of them are getting raped and raping one another because they are taking these things.

    “And because we don’t have strong institutions, anybody can buy anything. In more organised countries, even to buy alcohol, you have to show your ID card to show that you are up to a certain age. But here, even little children are sent to buy alcoholic drinks. Even these alcoholic drinks you are talking about and all these sachet drinks they call all manners of ridiculous names, little children are sent to buy them for adults. So, why would it not be everywhere?

    “It is no longer a thing that people hide. Before, when people talked about Viagra they covered their mouths and lowered their voices. Now with the proliferation of production of all these kinds of bitters, energy drinks and all that, people are no longer ashamed of using it.

    “Young men buy a bottle of coke, pour these drinks in them and consume.”

    Why some women use aphrodisiacs

    Omolola Natural explained why apart from men, some women also use aphrodisiacs.

    She said: “Women take these things for different purposes. I told you that men take it for the purpose of energy to last longer. Women are not interested in energy or lasting longer. Some women are interested in being wet for a longer time because they go dry on time. There is what we call virginal sugar.

    “Some women take it because they want their virginal sweeter. We have something like Spanish Fly that can make a woman go gaga, but only a few women want to do that. I hardly see women who would do that because they want to go gaga.

    “I am not talking about women who use sex as their means of trade.  Those ones might want to do anything to be in the mood.  We hardly have products in this category that are adulterated because they are natural.”

    Demand fuels adulteration

    Omolola Natural noted that there has been adulteration of aphrodisiacs because of the high demand for them.

    She said: “The reason why we are having adulteration is because of that unsatisfying desire in the heart of people to just want to do anything to feel like a man and what makes them feel like a man is because they feel it is when I am able to last longer to the extent that she can’t walk.

    “But like I said earlier, satisfying a partner sexually is not really about that.

    “If you are greedy about gain, you can actually put anything together and say it works for this, and people will gladly buy it.  That is why we are beginning to have a lot of adulteration, because whether it works or not, as long as you give it that tag, people will gladly buy it.

    “They may try for the first time and not come back, but they will gladly buy it.

    “I have had a friend who spent N5,000 buying one online to improve his performance. Immediately he opened it, the whole house started smelling, and that was something that he was supposed to drink. He ended up turning the drink which costs N5, 000 into his toilet. There was no way someone could have drunk that kind of thing because it was really smelly.”

    Recently, the operatives of the Zone ‘B’ Strike Force of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) intercepted assorted foreign sex drugs worth over N6 million in Katsina State.

    According to the agency, the drugs, all bearing fake NAFDAC registration numbers, were intercepted in Malumfashi and Jibia Local Government Areas of the state as part of the NCS’s ongoing war and zero-tolerance for smuggling.

    They included 52 cartons of EJAC powder manpower alongside several manpower capsules such as Bobarak capsule manpower, Ginseng coffee manpower, Sacks manpower, Goldfly, gonorrhea capsule, amipara plus capsule and hympashy capsule.

    Aphrodisiac business highly profitable

    Speaking on the profitability of the business, Executive Director of SIM, Omolola Natural, said: “Aphrodisiac business is a big market and it is extremely profitable.  If you know how to mix the natural herbs in a way that they will work, you might probably spend N1,000 to mix something and sell it for N20,000.

    “People will buy it. You know human beings need anything to save face. One big problem of humans is shame. Anything that will make them boost their ego, human beings can give anything to get it. This is why you will see people quit their jobs to go into it.”

    Relationship between use of aphrodisiacs and rising rape incidents

    Incidents of rape in the country are said to be on the rise. Although there are no statistics to confirm this, the United Nations Women said a total of 11,200 rape cases, including children who were raped to death, were reported in Nigeria in 2020.

    The Technical Specialist, Spotlight Initiative of the UN Women, Tosin Akibu, added that violence against women and girls had continued to grow at an alarming rate.

    She said: “In 2020, a total of 11,200 rape cases were reported. Some of these included children who were raped to death. Violence against women continues to occur at an alarming rate.

    Speaking on this, Kate Ibeanusi said she could not expressly say that the use of aphrodisiacs is responsible for rising rape cases. “Just like we would tell you that alcohol is not a reason for any form of abuse, the use of aphrodisiac, I cannot say it is directly related to the increase in rape. Rather, I will say that it has an influence in the sense that people who take aphrodisiac, they have a motive for taking it.

    “Having taken it, it now emboldens them to go out and carry out that act. Just like the way alcohol does not necessarily make a man beat his wife, but with the intake of alcohol, he is more emboldened to do it. That is what these aphrodisiacs are doing.

    “Yes, rape is on the increase, but with the use of aphrodisiacs, the users are able to complete the process. At the end of the day, it still has its negative impact on our social interactions. Remember when I talked about how it interacts with social interactions, relationships and conversation.”

     NAFDAC raises alarm over indiscriminate use of aphrodisiacs

    The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), recently raised the alarm over indiscriminate use of aphrodisiacs.

    The agency warned that consumption of such substances could lead to stroke, organ damage or sudden death.

    NAFDAC’s Director-General, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye,

    said: “Most of the performance enhancing drugs are not registered with NAFDAC. They are smuggled into the country. If they were registered, the producers and peddlers alike would not be doing what they are doing in the supermarkets, social media platforms and on the streets.

    Adeyeye lamented that many men have died using performance enhancing drugs and their relatives would blame their death on some imaginary witches in the village.

    The NAFDAC boss also described as false the claim by the producers of the products that they have no side effects, insisting that the majority of the products did not go through the approval process of the agency.

     Health implications of aphrodisiacs

     Adeyeye noted that unbridled use of aphrodisiacs has a lot of implications in the entire body system, noting that the use of the products could potentially affect blood pressure.

    The NAFDAC boss explained that “when you have a disproportionate flow of blood to a particular part of the body and lasting longer than normal, they tend to disrupt the normal flow of the circulatory system.

    “When these things are used, especially with some herbal medicines that don’t have dosage and professional prescription, it can lead to internal organ damage. It can hurt the liver and the kidneys, leading to untimely death.”

    Adeyeye recalled that over N3 billion worth of falsified and banned drugs and unwholesome food products were seized by the Agency recently at the Lagos Trade Fair Complex where no fewer than 20 trailer loads of such banned and unwholesome products were seized by officials of the agency’s investigation and enforcement directorate led by Barrister Kingsley Ejiofor.

    She disclosed that some of the drugs impounded at the trade fair complex were performance enhancing drugs. Worse still, they are counterfeited.

    “When something is counterfeited, the manufacturers don’t care about quality. They add what they are not supposed to add or add more than what they are supposed to add. Invariably, the user is the loser,” she said.

  • Concerns as ‘Almajiri’ children flood Lagos suburbs

    Concerns as ‘Almajiri’ children flood Lagos suburbs

    Kid beggars shun school, roam major roads, eateries for alms 

    They could pose serious threat to their host, says Security expert

    Sanwo-Olu, northern govs must find ways to address menace -Yaradua varsity don

    From Lagos mainland to even the highbrow parts of the Island, they loiter around major roads, streets and eateries, begging for alms and at times left over food. These almajiri children are out of school and have no plans to acquire skills in any vocation. INNOCENT DURU examines the implications of these for the pliable children, Lagos State which hosts them and the country at large.

    Hauwa, a 13-year-old girl from Funtua, Katsina State begs for alms on LASU\Isheri Road without any form of deformity or disability.

    Although enrolment in public school is free in Lagos State, neither Hauwa nor her parents have thought it wise to exploit the opportunity and acquire basic education. The young, ignorant girl is simply enamoured with alms begging; the craft she grew up into.

    “I was not going to school in Katsina and have also not been going to school since we came to Lagos,” she said in response to a question from our correspondent.

    “I come out every day to beg for alms,” she added as she sat on the walkway between the road.

    “What I get on a daily basis varies. People give me whatever they deem fit and I collect it.

    “At times, I make  up to N1,000 a day. At other times, it could be more or less.”

    Besides the issue of education, it has also not crossed Hauwa’s mind to acquire skills in any vocation.  In fact, the mention of learning a trade appeared to be alien to her.

    “Work?” she echoed, looking  confused as she shook her head.

    To make the point clearer to Hauwa, our correspondent began listing skills like tailoring and hair dressing. But before he could land, Hauwa shook her head vigorously, saying that she had not given it a thought and had no plans for such.

    Many of Hauwa’s age mates who are in school are either rounding off their junior secondary school or just beginning their senior secondary education. Those who are into vocational training would have acquired one skill or the other that would help them to have a meaningful means of livelihood and add value to the society. This is not to talk about the  impact that children in that age bracket in a developed world like China would have been making on the society.

    But as it is, Hauwa is visionless and rudderless. The road is her classroom and begging her only skill. Many  young people in her mould are said to have grown up to also have children who grew up taking after their parents who lived on begging for alms. It is almost certain that she will end up like that if nothing drastic is done about it.

    Incidentally, she is not alone in this. Hordes of her peers and others far below her age flock major roads and streets of metropolitan Lagos, singing songs laced with prayers to get money from passers-by, many of whom are easily swayed by anything woven around religion.

    Aminat, a 10-year-old, also does not have any formal education or skill. Right from her mother’s womb, she had been exposed to begging, and that remains her only vocation till date.

    “I beg passersby or motorists for alms when there is traffic. Some people give me money while some don’t. Some play with me for some time asking me to sing for them before giving me money,” she said through an interpreter.

    “I don’t go to school,” she added, beaming a smile that revealed her ignorance about the importance of education.   “My father is begging up there while my mother is begging down there,” she added as if to prove how skillful they are in the art of begging.

    Some younger kids seen around could also hardly express themselves and often rely on sign language to communicate their message before going ahead to express themselves in a few words.

    Folding her fist and raising it towards her mouth, one of the kids of about five years moved to hold a passer-by’s hand.

    “Oga, I beg, give me money. God go bless you,” she said in Pidgin as she trailed her target.

    Checks around major roads revealed that some of the grown up boys have moved from begging into other activities. Many of them now run after motorists in traffic armed with sticks wrapped with foam and  buckets filled with soapy water. They  use this to wipe the windscreens of vehicles with the aim of getting compensated by the drivers or vehicle owners.

    “Some drivers give me N100 or more while some don’t even give anything. Some of them get angry when we want to clean their windscreens but we don’t allow that to deter us.” he said.

    His partner shouted ‘ba turenci’ (I don’t understand English) as our correspondent made to approach him for comments.

    When his colleagues translated our correspondent’s question about going to school to him, he snapped back saying, “Ba makaranta (no school)” as he dashed off with his tools to look for a client.

    Worries about kid beggars’ future

    An Arewa motorcycle operator, Taheer, who spoke with our correspondent, expressed surprise that beggars are allowed to operate on major Lagos roads. He also disagreed with the use of the term ‘almajiri’ for the out of school children.

    He said: “They are not almajiri. Almajiri children go to school but these ones don’t. So there is no basis for calling them almajiri.

    “Many of them were born here and not in the north. When I came here, I was really surprised to see that they are allowed to beg on the expressway. You can’t find beggars on expressways in many parts of the north.

    “My feeling is that the Lagos State Government does not want to drive them away because they may be accused of tribalism.

    “The challenge here is that when any of them commits a crime, he will run to the north.  Go to places like Alaba Rago, Agege and see what some of them are turning into.”

    Our correspondent, who had an encounter with some of the kids at an eatery, reports that they milled around the place looking very dirty with rashes on the faces and heads of some of them. People dump all manner of leftover food on them as if they are less human, all in the name of helping them. The manner they run after vehicles for money also puts them in grave danger.

    Writing on his Facebook page, veteran journalist, Lanre Idowu, shared his experience with one of the kids in a piece he titled ‘The Girl at the Traffic Lights’

    The post reads: “Our eagerness to get home quickly and welcome the New Year with hymns and prayers was halted by the traffic lights at the junction of Adeola Odeku and Akin Adesola streets on Victoria Island. Time was 21.45 hours.

    “The car windows were wound up. As we waited for the green light to continue the journey, a young girl moved close to the driver’s side, soliciting.

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    “Involuntarily, I moved my mask to cover my nose and mouth even with the car windows closed. Our guest was not deterred. ‘Sorry Daddy,’ she pleaded. I pretended to not see her, so I kept my eyes fixed on the traffic lights, monitoring her with the corner of my left eye.”

    Idowu, fearing that the stranger could be working for some criminal minded persons, said: “You never know with this people, I thought. They come with all tricks in the book to set you up for a sucker punch and I wasn’t falling for it in these dying hours of 2021.

    “But the girl, probably no more than seven, wasn’t done yet. ‘God will promotion you,’ she declared. ‘Your children children go better well well.’

    Continuing, Idowu said: “As I pondered on her quaint expressions and started to look for loose Naira notes near the joystick, the green light came on, and I moved the car in the direction of home, unable to help the girl.

    “Thereafter, the traffic was light and nothing stood in our way until we got home twenty minutes after. What kept playing over in my mind was the girl’s eleven-word prayer. “God go promotion you. Your children children go better well well.”

    “Her opening apology of ‘Sorry Daddy’ indicates her sensitivity to disturbing my peace in the comfort of my space. The import of her prayer, ‘God go promotion you’ was that God would uplift me. I would enjoy an improvement in my circumstances.

    “Since I looked old enough to be a father and indeed a grandfather, her last statement was a prayer for my children and grandchildren; that things would go well for them.

    “Nowhere did she outrightly ask me for alms, even as there was no denying her intention. Her approach subtly employed prayer, hoping that I would do the needful.

    “As I headed home, I couldn’t help remembering the approach of girls of her age in another era, armed with the beggar’s bowl, moving in bands of twos, threes, and fours, soliciting with songs.”

    Involuntarily, he said, “I started humming one. ‘Ba bi Allah, tori Olorun ba bi Allah, e bun mi toro, ba bi Allah. Asiri abo.’

    “Ba bi Allah was a more direct plea for alms; a call for help with the persuasive appeal of music. It was a song rendered by itinerant beggars moving from home to home in the Lagos of the 1960s where traffic lights were not common sight. Appealing to our common humanity, it asked in the name of God for alms, indeed the odd three pence.

    “Then and now, street begging remains a reminder of the poverty in the land and the unfinished work of deploying state and private resources to ridding the land of poverty enveloped, in this instance, in idle begging.

    “It is a reminder that our people’s needs are largely rudimentary—food to keep body and soul together. It is what our politicians exploit to buy votes and underdevelop the land. It is what conscienceless leaders in secular and religious groups utilise to take advantage of the weak.”

    Beyond the relatively sane and safe precincts of Victoria Island where the praying girl operated on 31st December 2021, Lanre Idowu said “many like her are exposed to grave dangers of being exploited in the name of begging to douse the hunger in their stomachs and those of their parents who usually lurk in the background.”

    Don x-rays implications of menace

    Dissecting the implications of the rising number of almajiri kids in Lagos State, a lecturer with the Umaru Musa Yaradua University, Dr Bala Abdullahi Husaini, who specialises in International Relations, Defence and Security, said “the implications of that may not be far-fetched from the nature and the consequences that will come back to the host community.

    “These children were not properly trained and brought up. Anybody who is not properly trained, whatsoever social vices that is deemed fit for him will automatically be accepted by him. That has future consequences on the population of Lagos, and peaceful co-existence in Lagos. 

    “The level of security in Lagos will also be affected and that has an implication over the whole plan in Lagos State, and this also speaks of the non-challant attitude of our people especially from the north, which is not going to augur well for the north and Lagosians and Nigeria in general.

    “If care is not taken, for the future now, you should expect to plan for the worst because  these people can constitute some groups of nuisance despite the nature of Lagos and the social vices it has. This is another problem that is coming.

    “Lagos already has its own problem that  it is struggling to solve and here comes another problem that will also disturb the whole activity in the near future.”

    Asked about the implications of not going to school or learning vocational skills, DR Husaini said: “When you are not educated and not properly brought up, there is going to be a serious problem, and that serious problem could also affect the economy, political and cultural structure of Lagos. This will not only affect Lagos but the north as well.

    “Some of them when they commit an offence or are found wanting, they will definitely escape, and their safe haven will be in the north here because that is where they were known.

    “The implication is that there will be an influx of crime from Lagos to the north and from the north to Lagos, because this is somebody that is well known and well groomed here in the north with the culture, with the norms and with the tradition whatsoever.

    “He went down to Lagos and is trained with the norms and values of Lagosians. Once he commits an offence, you know he has now gained an experience, he will transfer that same experience in the event where he wants to run away from the constituted authorities there. He will run down to the north with the same character, the same habit and the same social vices that are uncalled for.

    “When he comes here, he may likely train others with those bad experiences of Lagos he has got. This is what I call “transfer of crime.”

    Kid beggars not targets of kidnappers

    Dr Husaini went on to dismiss fears that the children could become victims of kidnapping, saying: “Ritualists don’t use these children. It is one of the criteria being given to the ritualists. They are not to present anyhow person. If they have been using them, believe you me, you will not see anyone of them anymore.

    “If ritualists pick victims at random, nobody will be there as almajiri because all the ones out there will have been used by now.”

    He added: “Those children coming from the north, most of them, their parents don’t know their whereabouts. Most of them were influenced by some very useless and hopeless individuals to make ends meet.

    “I facilitated a programme regarding the repatriation of a boy from Liberia. He was originally from Katsina. He was taken from Katsina to Kano for an Islamic education and their school got burnt and the boy became affected.

    “Someone  saw him and lured him to Lagos and from Lagos to Liberia. You could see the influence. Whatever the child does, he does so at the influence of somebody.  They don’t have that thinking by themselves.  Somebody must have initiated them into it. It is a sort of child trafficking that is done in a modernised way.”

    Why it’s difficult to control population explosion

    Noting that the large size of families among the people is a causative factor for poverty and street begging, Dr Husaini said:  “The aspect of population explosion is a no go area because you can’t control it. It is cultural, religious and political.

    “Those states in the southern part of the country  are yearning for derivation and the only thing that can get that for them is by having population. Baby factories are more than you can imagine in the southern part.

    “In the north here, the issue is so much attached to religion and culture. They say the more children you have, the wealthier you are likely to become. You will find somebody with four wives and 20, 30, 40 children.

    “In the southern part, you don’t find such. You only find one wife and  some side chics. The side chics could be as many as you can have and not all the side chics have children for the man. So we can’t control the population among those people.

    “The only way you can control the population is when you are providing everything for the people. Access to health in Nigeria is not free. Education is not free. Basic social amenities are not free. When you don’t give those things free, who are you to tell me the number of children I should give birth to?

    “It is only when you give all these free that you can say that anybody that gives birth above X number will not get all those benefits. That is when you can have some measures regarding that.

    “As long as you don’t provide for them, you cannot control their population because of politics, religion and culture.”

    Sanwo-Olu, north’s governors should address problem

    Proffering solution to the menace, Dr Husaini said: “The earlier the governors at their own level decide and address the issue, the better for them. The Lagos State governor and his northern counterparts will have to find ways of addressing the problem. They should do that at their own level.

    “There should be proper sensitization, proper community awareness and implication of this. Let them know, let them hear and let them think what will happen.

    “Let the governors collaborate. If the Lagos government can decide to evacuate all of them, when they come here (north), people from Katsina will also decide to go, people from Sokoto will also decide to go. 

    “Let there be a synergy, a collaboration between the governors from the north and the south. Let them understand where each one of them is coming from so that the earlier they draw the line to address this collectively, the better for all of them.”

    Ruling out fears that tribal sentiments may be attached to the move, the erudite lecturer said: “If the governors meet and discuss, it will be fine by all and sundry. Media houses will capture that and that will also form part of the sensitization programme that the concerned governors will do to their people.  So the issue that they will chase northerners from the south will not happen. It will only happen when the sensitization is too low. When the sensitisation is at the higher level and continuously being carried out by all and sundry, the issue will automatically be erased.”

    Officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development was yet to respond to our message on what it is doing to address the menace as at the time of filing this report.

  • How my kidney disappeared after operation for appendicitis – Plateau housewife

    How my kidney disappeared after operation for appendicitis – Plateau housewife

    • NMA disowns surgeon as investigation reveals he studied Economics

    These are not the best of times for the family of Mr Kehinde Kamal of Rikkos community, Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State and Dr Noah Kekere of Murna Clinic and Maternity located at Yanshanu community also in Jos North LGA, as global attention is drawn to the case of missing kidney involving the family and the medical doctor.

    The nation recently woke up to the news of Kamal’s family protesting his wife’s missing kidney and their suspicion that their medical doctor was responsible for the ugly development.

    While the culprit in the missing kidney saga remains a matter of conjecture, there is no debate as to the fact that the life of Mrs Kehinde Kamal, a 45-year old mother of four, is in clear and present danger.

    The Nation learnt that the housewife has suffered severe pains for about five years since she underwent a surgery for appendicitis in a private hospital known as Murna Clinic and Maternity located at Yanshanu.

    Narrating her ordeal in an interview with The Nation correspondent, Kehinde, the victim of the alleged organ harvesting, said: “Dr Noah Kekere has been our family doctor for years. So when I had a stomach problem in 2018, I went to his clinic for treatment.

    “After running some tests, the doctor told me my problem was appendix (appendicitis) and there was an urgent need for me to undergo surgery to remove the appendix.

    “Because we trusted him, my husband paid the bill of N80,000 and the surgery was carried out successfully.

    “But shortly after I was discharged from the hospital, I started experiencing a very strange pain in my abdomen and my husband said I should go back to the doctor for examination.

    “So I went and the doctor gave me some drugs to relief the pains, but the pains kept going and coming.

    “Each time the doctor gave me drugs to relieve the pains, I would only experience relief for a few days and the pain would return even more severe.

    “I was having sleepless nights due to the pains. Then the doctor said I should come for another surgery and gave us a bill of N60,000.

    “At that point, my husband and I decided to go to the University of Jos Teaching Hospital (JUTH) for advanced medical examination.

    “To our surprise, we discovered at JUTH that one of my kidneys had been removed.

    “I was shocked and confused at the discovery that my kidney was missing.

    “The only thing that came to my mind was the hospital where I had a surgery in 2018, and that is our family doctor, Noah Kekere.

    “So we suspected him and my husband reported him to the police”

    “The truth is, since I was born, I had never had surgery. Even when I gave birth to my four children, I did not undergo surgery. It was only when this doctor said I had appendicitis that I underwent the surgery. So, the only person that has had access to my organs since I was born is Dr. Kekere”

    With the bizarre discovery, Kehinde’s husband Kamal reported Dr. Kekere and Murna Clinic and Maternity to the police, accusing the former of removing his wife’s kidney during an operation in 2018. Dr Kekere was promptly arrested by the police over the allegation.

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    The Nation checks revealed that Dr Kekere, an indigene of Kogi State, is a graduate of Economics from Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma while the purported pastor with one of the frontline Pentecostal churches has operated the clinic for 25 years.

    The Plateau State chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) told our correspondent that Dr Kekere is not one of their members because he is not known to the association.

    The branch chairman of NMA, Dr Bapigaan William Audu, said: “Our records do not show that the person accused is a medical doctor. What we have at our secretariat and the investigation we have carried out is that Dr Kekere is not our member.”

    Ironically, the self-styled doctor has earned a lot of trust from residents of the community as a competent medical doctor as many of his clients attested to the fact that they have received solutions to their health challenges at his clinic.

    Popularly known as “Yellow”, Kekere attracted a lot of patronage from the community due to his compassionate disposition towards his patients.

    A resident, Sulaiman Bala, said: “The doctor is very compassionate. He does not charge much and he even gives treatment on credit. He is very friendly with everyone and that makes people to patronise him.”

    Fifty-one-year-old Busari, an indigene of Ogbomoso, Oyo State and husband of the victim, said: “I am confused. I don’t know what to say.

    “All I am saying is that I want justice for my wife. She is has been in pains since 2018. We have never rested, and now we are discovering that her kidney is missing.

    “I will spend my last kobo to get justice for my wife.

    “I want government to help me take over this case.

    “I have spent all I have while treating my wife over this stomach problem. I need help to get out of this problem.

    “My biggest worry is that my wife is in pains. I want her to be well and healthy.

    “I need treatment for her and I need justice over her missing kidney.”

    The doctor at the centre of the missing kidney saga, Kekere, was still in police custody and could not be reached for comments. The police, however, said that investigation was ongoing as to how Kehinde’s kidney got missing.

    However, a Jos based medical doctor, who pleaded anonymity, told The Nation that “this issue of missing organ is a very complex one in the sense that the truth can only be discovered after a careful and thorough investigation.

    “It is possible for someone to be born with one kidney. It is also possible she was born with two kidneys and one has been removed, but how it was removed and who removed it has to be carefully investigated.

    “Again, the antecedents of the accused owner of Murna Clinic have to be investigated, in case he has ever been suspected of such act and to also be sure his area of specialisation is in the medical field.

    “So, it is an investigation that will take some time.”

    The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for the Plateau State Command, Alfred Alabo, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), told The Nation: “The position of the police now on the missing organ is that our investigation is almost concluded.

    “We have written to the state government and to NMA so that a team of medical doctors can be consulted to actually know and examine this woman to be sure if the kidney was actually removed or she was born with one kidney.

    “We have been able to get all the other doctors that Mr Kekere employed. They are undergoing our interviews.”

  • MohBad: Mysterious death of 27-year-old singer enmeshed in controversy

    MohBad: Mysterious death of 27-year-old singer enmeshed in controversy

    Fans and admirers of promising Nigerian music act, Ilerioluwa Oladimeji Aloba a.k.a. MohBad, woke up last Sunday to the sad news of his untimely death. The circumstances surrounding his tragic end at age 27 have ignited a flurry of speculations, with accusing fingers pointing towards some of his colleagues, including the owner of a record label responsible for the release of some of his songs.

    The Genesis

    As at 2019 and at the age of 23, MohBad was already an online music sensation, but he was still struggling and looking forward to making it big on the Nigerian music scene. Unknown to many, he was formerly known as 2Black but got his popular moniker MohBad after wowing a music producer who said his verses were mind-blowing.

    Many of his short videos had gone viral owing to his well crafted and acceptable use of words and the weaving of Yoruba, one of Nigeria’s indigenous languages, into his songs. In the same year 2019, the owner of the record label aforementioned was arrested in connection with an alleged case of internet fraud and money laundering.

    After the record label’s ordeal with the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), MohBad reached out to him on Instagram to seek collaboration on one of his songs. The conversation however drifted away from a duet to getting MohBad signed on to the record label. Thus MohBad was officially signed on to the record label in December 2019.

     The Good

    As it turned out, all through 2019 till October 25, 2022 when MohBad’s management announced his exit from the record label, it was all smooth and rosy between him and the owner.

    While the good times lasted, MohBad worked tirelessly, releasing many singles with at least five of them becoming hit songs of the Afrobeats movement. From ‘Ponmo’ to ‘Feel Good’ and ‘KPK (Ko Por Ke),’ MohBad churned out hits under music label and worked with notable music producers including Rexxie, P.Beat and Austin Sinister.

    From the Headies Awards to The Beatz Awards, MohBad’s fame knew no bounds and he churned out songs that produced an EP entitled ‘Light (Imole)’ in 2019 and ‘Peace’ in 2022.

    Despite releasing many feel good songs to the delight of fans and music lovers, Imole, as MohBad became known after the release of his first EP, started having cracks in his relationship with the owner and other executives of the record label.

     MohBad

    It is alleged that the discord between Mohbad and the owner of the record label stemmed from the artiste’s refusal to participate in alleged drug peddling operations. According to reports, while the relationship that existed between the owner of the record label and MohBad appeared smooth on the outside, darker secrets lay beneath the surface.

    Various reports claimed that part of the obligations of all music acts signed to the record label in question include alleged initiation into drug peddling and taking an oath of secrecy. Mohbad’s reluctance to partake in these activities reportedly triggered a bitter feud that ultimately led to his exit from the record label.

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    MohBad’s management later announced his exit from the record label while his legal team released a statement asserting that his exit was as a result of the constant attacks orchestrated by the label’s owner as well as unpaid royalties since 2019.

     The ugly

    Things grew from worse to ugly between MohBad and the executives of the record label with videos of physical assault and harassment viral on the social media in the second and third quarters of 2022.

    The once rosy relationship that existed between the music act and his one time record label degenerated so badly that even after parting ways with the record label, Mohbad repeatedly raised the alarm over threats to his life allegedly originating from its owners.

    Adding to the grim narrative, videos circulating online featured Mohbad lamenting how his life had taken a downward spiral since his return from an NDLEA (Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency) operation. Notably, the agency had conducted a raid on the residence of the record label’s owner in February 2022 and arrested Mohbad and others associated with the record label after recovering illicit drugs and cannabis in the house.

    Subsequently, MohBad alleged that executives of the record label and their aides were frustrating his efforts of growing in the music industry at different times on his social media accounts.

    As if his battles with the record label were not enough, MohBad’s health deteriorated so much that in October 2022, the singer took to social media to reveal a startling diagnosis – he had been identified as an emergency hypertensive patient at just 26.

    In a tweet, he expressed the gravity of his health condition, denying any involvement with drugs or alcohol and pleading for support.

    “I’m not intoxicated, but l have just been diagnosed as an emergency hypertensive patient. I’m not on drugs or drinks and my life is at stake. I’m still getting threats,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

    Despite his health conditions, he was again assaulted by men believed to be acting under the instructions of the boss of the record label with which he had had a running battle. In a petition dated June 27, 2023, Mohbad formally sought the intervention of the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) after he was assaulted during a music video shoot with another music act, Zlatan Ibile.

    In his petition, Mohbad cited threats to his life and detailed how some individuals stormed and disrupted the video shoot, causing damage to the set and equipment.

    MohBad narrated how he was assaulted by a singer and music promoter believed to be a close associate of the record label’s owner together with 15 others.

    Until his death, the record label’s owner and MohBad could not make up as they avoided each other like a plague.

    Family and struggles

    While it is public knowledge that MohBad’s father, Joseph Aloba, is a clergyman, not many are aware that the late singer’s music artistry was one of the traits he picked up from his dad. Unknown to many, Aloba senior was a talented singer in his heyday and was popular as a member of a few choirs before he moved on to start a church he leads as the shepherd.

    After the singer’s death, his father claimed he had a premonition but thought the battle had been fought and won in his dream.

    Narrating his premonition for MohBad’s death, he said: “I had a dream about him, two days before the incident. In the dream, I saw someone trying to shoot me. I thought I escaped the bullet, not knowing something like this would happen to me.”

    MohBad’s battle as a young boy growing up with a single dad spurred him into working hard for every penny. He was closer to his father, who raised him and his siblings.

    Interestingly, in the midst of his battles, MohBad and his lover of many years, Omowunmi, welcomed their first and only child, Liam. The partners welcomed Liam in May 2023.

  • Only God can understand my trauma, says man who lost wife, daughter, 14 other relatives in boat mishap

    Only God can understand my trauma, says man who lost wife, daughter, 14 other relatives in boat mishap

    When Ahmed Mohammed bid his wife, three year-old-daughter, sisters and brothers’ wives goodbye as they headed for their farms in their old settlement across the River Niger last Sunday morning, he had no inkling that he was seeing them for the last time.

    But midway into the journey between Jebba and Kanji Dam in Gbajibo Ward, Mokwa Local Government Area, Niger State, the boat in which they were travelling capsized after running into a water snag.

    The boat, according to the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), had 100 passengers on board when it capsized on Sunday.

    Speaking with newsmen during a condolence visit to the family of the deceased, Ahmed said the incident was still a nightmare he was praying to wake up from, adding only God could understand how he felt about it.

    He said: “My wife, my daughter, my brothers’ wives and all my sisters were inside the boat. I cannot say much. I leave everything to God.

    “I don’t have any explanation, because if I want to ask for an explanation as to what happened, who will give me the explanation?

    “My mind is always going to them. I feel bad because since I came into this world, I have never experienced anything as bad as this.

    “The way I am feeling, it is only God that can understand.”

    Mohammed’s mother-in-law, Hajiya Kashi Mokwa, who also lamented the death of her daughter, grandchildren and other members of her family in the boat accident, described the incident as a severe disaster and great loss to the family.

    “We are devastated by the mishap,” she said.

    “Losing 16 members of your family is a severe disaster and it has happened to us. It has been a traumatic experience for me and the rest members of my family.

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    “When you lose 16 members of your family at once, how easy is it to bear the tragedy? We want government to come and help us. These boat mishaps are becoming too many.”

    Mokwa explained that water transportation is the main means of transportation in the community as they always have to pass through the water to get to their farms and major markets.

    Members of the affected communities accused the government of non-chalance in the provision of life jackets, calling on the government to stop making political statements regarding its availability.

    They insisted that the number provided were far from adequate compared to the huge number of residents who must travel on water from time to time.

    No fewer than 24 bodies were recovered on the first day of the rescue mission on Sunday, while six other bodies were recovered afterwards, bringing the the death toll to 30.

    On Wednesday, the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) declared that there were no more bodies to look for as no one else had been reported missing.

    The agency declared that 100 people were on board the boat when it capsized.

    The Chairman Mokwa Local Government Council, Jubril Abdullahi Muregi, said during a condolence visit to the affected families that the incident would have been avoided if safety measures had been adhered to by the drivers and passengers of the boat, adding that the government would need to clear the underwater snags responsible for repeated boat accidents on the river.

    Muregi said: “One of the things that the government should do quickly is to embark on an operation to clear these trees that are under the river so that the incident would not repeat itself.

    “It is an avoidable situation. There is need for every passenger using water transportation to use a life jacket.

    “We will have to come up with a clear government policy that will  prescribe punishment for anybody who fails to use their life jackets when embarking on water transportation.”

    The Council Chairman moved from house to house to condole the bereaved families and gave an undisclosed amount of money for funeral expenses.

  • Bayelsa community under threat of extinction 18 years after JTF massacre

    Bayelsa community under threat of extinction 18 years after JTF massacre

    • Ocean encroachment ravages area, pulls down buildings, displaces inhabitants
    • Ancestral shrine, cemetery, electric poles, others washed away
    • Questions trail multi-billion naira ecological funds received by state

    Odioama, a coastal community in Brass Local Government area of Bayelsa State, is back in the mournful mood it found itself in 2005 when it was  invaded by a Joint Task Force team on a reprisal mission. At the end of the invasion, many inhabitants lay dead while the community was left in ruins. Today, Odioama is suffering a worse form of invasion at the hands of nature which had previously beautified  the area. The community is being ravaged by ocean surge that has pulled down many houses, including cemetery, ancestral shrines and other cultural landmarks. Fears are rife that  the area and adjoining communities may soon be swallowed up if nothing urgent is done to check the fury of the ocean. INNOCENT DURU reports.

    Ladstone Amabebe, a prominent member of Odioama, a community in coastal area of Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, suffered a debilitating loss recently when his exquisite one storey building was pulled down by a rampaging ocean surge that has ravaged the area.

    Like every other  house owner in the area, Gladstone had laboured hard and spent a fortune  to complete the structure as it costs much more to build in the coastal area than plain land.

    “I owned a very big building at the seashore area that was pulled down by ocean surge,” he said as he began to relive his ordeal.

    The house, Gladstone said,  was almost about 200 metres from the sea when he  built  it, adding: “Just within my line, about 70 buildings were washed down by the sea encroachment.

    “We lost virtually everything to the incident.  We didn’t expect that the incident would happen in the manner it did.”

    He added: “Many people have been displaced. Just within my compound,  over 15 people were displaced. It is difficult to explain how much other victims and I have suffered as a result of the incident.

    “It is not easy to cater for the family now. The challenge is biting us seriously and there is nobody to run to.”

    In spite of his predicament, Gladstone was glad that nobody was trapped in the incident. “The only luck we had was that nobody was trapped inside. That was the only saving grace. The children were inside the house playing and shortly after they moved out, the whole one storey building went down.”

    Recounting how the incident happened, he said: “We didn’t know that it (sea encroachment) was digging from the under. We thought that when the wave comes, the water will just flash in and when the tide goes down it will dry up. We didn’t really know that it was digging from inside, causing the building to collapse. 

    “If nothing happens between now and let me say in the next two years, I don’t think the community will continue to exist.”

    He further feared that the history, culture and everything about the community will be wiped away if it goes into extinction as he expressed concerns about the loss of livelihood by the community’s inhabitants.  

    “The main occupation of the community is fishing. There is no hope for the fishermen if the encroachment continues the way it has been coming. The sea is 10 times more ferocious than it used to be and the waves are getting stronger and coming close to the shore.

    “It is going to be worse this rainy season. Nobody will even go fishing. The tide is going to be higher and there will be nothing like fishing again.

    “Some will go to the creeks  to fish, but those who usually go to the ocean will not be able to do so. 

    “Most of them are leaving for other areas.”

    The menace often referred to as oceanification evokes fears in the minds of the people. The sight of it sparks anxiety. The thought of it pierces  the heart and shatters  the soul. The sight of the people standing with arms folded and  helplessly watching the tide menacingly invading their buildings to wreak untold havoc forces tears down the eyes. 

    The Secretary of Odioma Council of Chiefs, Chief Ambrose Alfred Akierite, described the ocean surge as devastating and its impact on the community as unfortunate.

    He said: “When we were younger, where the sea shore is right now, used to be far away from the community.

    “But right now, because of the unprecedented sea encroachment on the land, places that used to be bushes are now part of the community, and it has eaten deep into the centre of the community.

    “If nothing is done in the quickest possible time, the community will go into extinction.”

    Asked about the fate of vulnerable members of the community, Chief Ambrose retorted: “I will consider everybody in the community vulnerable. The effect is not only on pregnant women or on the aged or the less privileged; it is on everybody.

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    “One of the best buildings in the community was washed away. The owner, by any standard, is not a poor man. The effect is on the whole community.”

    Following the huge losses suffered by the people, the Odioama Council of Chiefs’ scribe  said: “At a time, people were even considering relocating the entire community,  but that is going to be very capital intensive.  How long will that take and how long will the government agency handling that put up structures that will move people away from the community. 

    “What I think is the best bet is what I think the state government is considering doing, probably in partnership with the federal government and other international environmental bodies.”

    In spite of the terror constantly unleashed on the community by the ocean, Chief Ambrose does not have any fears that the yearly flooding that has to do with the opening of the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon would compound their woes. “You can see its signs but not in the seriousness with which it ravages other areas,” he said.

    “It could be because we are at the bank of the ocean. Maybe the water filters into the ocean and it doesn’t always rise to that level where it gives us concern.

    “The one that is really disturbing us is the ferocity from the ocean itself. It is possible that there could be some reaction due to climatic changes and all that.

    “We think that as the sand is being washed away, it is being deposited somewhere.”

     We are afraid of what could happen in the next 10 years –  Council of Chiefs Chairman

    Chairman of the Council of Chiefs, Chief Marlean Walter Omieh-Munafa, told The Nation that the challenges posed by the ocean surge are so many.

    “You know the ocean has washed away about 200 metres of our land that hosts some residential buildings. 

    “We have lost many residential buildings to the ocean encroachment. Part of the cemetery too has been washed away. Electric poles, parts of tarred roads and other things, including a juju shrine, have also been washed away.

    “The encroachment of the ocean is continuing. We are afraid of what could happen in the next 10 years about the challenge we have. 

    “The challenge started about 10 years ago but no life has been lost to it.”

    Many displaced people, according to the chairman, are  squatting with their family members in the community.

    “Some have left the community to live in Yenagoa,” he said.

    The chairman also noted that the incident has affected the education of the children. “Like I said before, some of the people have packed to Yenagoa. They must have gone with some of their children that are schooling here. 

    “They may have financial problems looking for admission for their children.

    “That is how it can affect the education of the children, because the menace has not washed away any school within the community.”

    He  added that no corpse or casket was washed out when the surge swept through the cemetery. “It is an old cemetery,” he said. “You cannot see the caskets. The only thing you would see are bones.

    “Because of the encroachment of the sea, people now go deep inside  and not nearer to the sea to bury their loved ones.”

    As a community, the chairman said, “we have been making a lot of efforts on how to solve the problem.

    “Last year, one of our community members attended many seminars and even travelled to one of the west African countries to represent the state on this. 

    “We are hoping that the federal government will do something, but that is not  yet forthcoming.

    “After the state governor came here, our matter was presented in the House of Assembly.

    “They said the piling is too much for them but that they will do the dredging. That is the promise they made to us. That is how far we have gone on the issue.”

    Tracing the history of the community, he said: “Ours is one of the oldest communities in Nembe Kingdom. We don’t know the first phase of our history, but the second phase dates back to when the Portuguese were exploring the West African coast.”

     Ex-CDC chairman makes clarification between Odi and Odioama

    Making a distinction between Odi and Odioama, the Community Development Committee Chairman, Samson James, said: “Odi is quite different from Odioama. Odi is in Kolokuma Local Government while Odioama is in Brass Local Government. Odi invasion was in the 90s or so but ours was in 2005.

    “People were killed, houses were razed and the community was totally burnt down then. It was after that, that the community started rebuilding to the standard we find ourselves now. The rebuilding was done through self help.”

     After the invasion, he said a committee was set up and it was headed by former Senate President David  Mark.

    “They said the government had made money available to us but we didn’t get any money,” he said.

    The CDC  feared that “what happened to Koluama in 1950 may happen to our community if urgent steps are not taken. Koluama is a community in Bayelsa. It was eroded by ocean surge. We would have to migrate to wherever nature says we should if our community is eroded.

    “There is no hope as the government does not intervene.”

    He noted that the problem confronting the community is beyond the state government, and called on the federal government to come in to help, especially the interventionist agencies like NDDC, Ecological Fund and others.

    “When the one storey building fell, it was as if somebody had died. The community  gathered  around it crying and appealing to God and the government,”  he said.

    Menace also ecological, not just environmental – Activist Alagoa

    Programme Manager of  Environmental Rights Action (ERA) and head of ERA Resource Centre in Yenagoa, Alagoa Morris, said the significance of the ocean encroachment, just like desertification, cannot be overemphasised from the point of the economic importance, health, and psychological wise.

    His words:  “The issue is not just an environmental issue. It is equally an ecological issue.  The last time I visited Odioama, I saw a number of trees that had been going down because of the ocean surge as it encroached on the land.”

    Recently, he said, “we saw houses going down and building houses in those places isn’t cheap.  Building a house in such coastal area is not easy as they are far from the city.

    “It takes so much courage, financial and other resources such as time for people to put up good buildings there.

    “Watching such buildings go down is very frustrating.  The problem is beyond any community’s power to deal with from any perspective you want to view it. 

    “The people’s properties, ancestral graves, forests, land, and so on are washed into the ocean, and it is still raging day and night. 

    “The prowling waves of the Atlantic Ocean come to hit the shoreline and go back every now and then. 

    “It is worse when the tide is high. It is a very big blow when you talk about the environmental and ecological impacts. 

    “It is ecological in the sense that it can cause relocation.”

    Continuing, Alagoa said: “The last time I was discussing with some natives, they were worried because Odioama has another river behind them. In front of them is the ocean and at another side is the St Nicholas River which is also very big and fearful to cross.

    “St Nicholas empties into the Atlantic Ocean and where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean is where Odioama is settled.

    “It is a very tough situation and it is even leading to relocation of some  persons. People are now apprehensive to build houses because houses that were about 1,000 far away from the sandy shoreline have been washed away. 

    “The ocean encroachment is not abating. It is not like the wind that comes and goes; it is constant. For 24 hours you are hearing the roaring sound of the Atlantic. It will deny them of that environment if nothing is done to address the problem.

    If nothing is done, they may lose that community in the not too distant future.”

    Speaking on the psychological effects of the challenge on the people, the environmentalist said: “The psychological effects on the people are better imagined than experienced. 

    “There is a community in Sagbama Local Government called Anibeze; an Isoko speaking community in Bayelsa. It is located at the bank of River Forcados. 

    “We had a very shocking bad news there. A certain man had left his community for a while but  by the time he retired home, this coastal encroachment occurred and washed down his house.

    “Immediately, he got paralysed and eventually died. That is  the kind of psychological impact on the people who are losing their properties when there is no hope of getting a replacement. 

    “As we speak, other communities are also suffering the problem along the rivers and creeks of Bayelsa State. One of them is very close to the Government House in Yenagoa.

    “The way the erosion is eating up that community is faster than one can imagine. Just within a space of a year, a whole football field is gone.”

    Looking at the relationship between  the menace and climate crisis, Alagoa said: “The climate change phenomenon cannot be over emphasised. We hear that the ices are melting and the sea level is rising.

    “In some areas, there are more rains and in some drought. It is very disturbing that it appears that the sea level is rising. 

    “In Lagos, around the Bar Beach, they experienced this kind of thing in the past and they were able to do some kind of containment.

    “The rising level of the sea is part of the problem. When God created the world and talking about the ocean, in the scriptures, it is said that God asked the prowling waves of the ocean not to go beyond  their bounds.

    “They were supposed to stop somewhere, but now they are going over their boundaries and wreaking havoc just as it is happening in Ayetoro community in Ondo State. 

    “Climate crisis cannot be absolved from what is happening along the coastal areas in connection with the ocean surge.  The sea is getting warmer, according to scientists, and getting more voracious.”

    In spite of the magnitude of the challenge, he assured  that all hope is not lost. “With proper scientific interrogation and application of science and financial resources with expert knowledge, Odioama can be saved. 

    “There is hope if there is the political will to deal with communities like Odioama, Tom Brass, Sangana and others on the fringes of the Atlantic Ocean.”

    Failed promises by successive governments

    Checks showed that failure of past governments in the state to keep to their promises has been largely responsible for the crisis in the community. 

    According to Gladstone, “The encroachment was happening gradually. From 2013, we started seeing the approach. It continued in 2014. In  2015, we saw it coming and complained to the state government. 

    “Then, the former governor, Seriake Dickson, came for his campaign and I think that was the campaign promise he made.

    “He said he was going to call the federal government to come because it was not something the state government alone could do. 2015 passed and the whole administration passed without any action taken.

    “We later started approaching international oil companies because we are also an oil producing community, we wrote a series of letters to the NDDC and the federal ministry of the environment but nobody listened to us. 

    “We also did a series of appearances on television but nobody listened to us but … I don’t know, … it is gone, it is gone.”

    Going down memory lane, Chief Ambrose said: “In 2005, the community was destroyed and a committee of enquiry was set up and some recommendations were made towards the rebuilding of the community. I think about N2 billion was recommended by the commission of enquiry.

    “Unfortunately, nothing happened. I led the delegation to the National Assembly with a petition and the resolution was passed. The money was not paid.

    “The community was destroyed as a result of military invasion. There was an allegation that some youths of the community carried out a dastardly act where some persons were killed along the waterways. They pointed fingers at our community. 

    “The then governor, the late Alamieyeseigha, invited the joint task force and they entered the community. You know what happens when the military enters a community.

    “I am sure you may have been told that the governor recently visited the community, and seeing things for himself, has made promises that the state government will do something about it. We are hoping and praying that it should not be one of those political gimmicks where promises would be made and nothing would happen. Although not too confident we want to say that we are relieved because the governor has made promises.”

    Questions trail utilisation of ecological funds received by state

    Following the crisis faced by various communities in the state, there have been questions about what the government does with the ecological and other funds, including the 13 per cent derivation it receives from the federation account.

    Checks showed that the state has received about N1.2 billion in the last three years as ecological funds. Between 2021 and 2022, it received N1.2 billion and N700 million  in 2023.

    Failure of some state governments to alleviate the plight of their citizens when there was flood disaster last year triggered heated debate about the utilisation of the ecological funds.

    The immediate past government of Muhammed Buhari had challenged states to give an account of how they spent amounts in excess of one trillion naira, allocated to them from the ecological fund to tackle floods and other ecological problems.

    Roughly N1 trillion, representing 2.2 per cent of the total budget for 2018, 2019 and 2023, was budgeted for ecological and disaster management.

    In 2018, 2.2 per cent of the estimated N9.120 trillion budget, amounting to N198 billion was set aside for the Ecological Fund. In 2019, 2.2 per cent of the budget of N132 billion was allocated to the fund, while in 2023, 2.2 per cent of the N21 trillion budget indicated  N462 billion allocation for ecological funds.

    No meaningful result came from the House of Representatives  probe last year  into the utilization of the funds for the past 10 years.

    Diri allays residents’ fears

    The state  governor, Douye Diri, on August 8 visited the community, promising the people that the state government was going to make immediate intervention to prevent further damage to infrastructure.

    The governor noted that the scope of work was beyond the state government but said “we must take our destinies into our hands.

    “There is hope for our people. The sea encroachment, which is the perennial problem of Odioama will now begin to have a solution from your state government.

    “Be rest assured that your government will be shoulder to shoulder with you to tackle this encroachment that is hitting our land and our houses.

    “So we call on all our developmental partners to join the state government to keep Odioama safe. And not only Odioama, we have the same instances in Koluama, Sangana.

    “So we have so much to do, which is beyond the scope of the state government.”

    105 communities at risk -Don

    Prof. Ambily Etekpe of the Department of Political Science, Niger Delta University, Amassoma, Bayelsa State, in 2021 raised the alarm that about 105 coastal communities in Bayelsa State could face extinction in the next 30 years if nothing is done to halt the rampaging effects of ocean encroachment.

    Etekpe noted that oil exploration activities of some multinational oil companies have moved too deep into the sea, with their attendant negative impacts on the environment.

    His words: “Desertification is equivalent to oceanification. But while nobody talks about oceanification, desertification is attracting not only national but international interest.

    “Oceanification has thus become very important because the effects of ocean encroachment in Bayelsa in particular and other states that are also very close to the ocean generally are more devastating than those of forest encroachment.

    “Most of where we used to have towns and communities have been taken over by the ocean. So, the towns and communities continue to shift and you find that the extreme end of that shifting is another river.

    “If something is not done, in the next 30 years, a lot of our towns and communities will be taken over by the ocean.

    “In Bayelsa, we have more than 500 communities out of which 105, representing 46 per cent, live near the ocean, and if they are disorganised or dislocated, where else can they go?” he queried.