Four children, Jinkai Hakila, 10, Bridget Ibrahim, 11, Precious Ezra, 14 and Azumi Daniel, 16, were yesterday found drowned in Danko River, Galadimawa Community, FCT suburb.
A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who visited the community, reports that residents were thrown into mourning following the ugly incident.
The four deceased were at the river for washing with other children before the incident occurred.
Some eye witnesses told NAN that the incident happened at about 11am when the children were still washing in the river.
Miss Blessing Elisha, 14, an eye witness, told NAN that they were together at the river washing while others were playing.
She said several efforts made to stop the children from playing in the water yielded no result before the incident.
“I actually did not see them entering the water because I was busy washing, suddenly I was called that three of them had entered the river.
“It was then I looked up and saw the fourth one going in and an attempt made to rescue her looked like I was getting drowned.
“Then I left her and ran to call for help,” she said.
Alhassan Abdulwahab, one the first people that responded to the distress call, said it took about three hours to get their corpses out of the river.
He said the information gathered from other children at the scene showed that the youngest of the deceased, Hakila was the first to enter the river.
He said other children were drowned while attempting to rescue their colleagues.
Four children, Jinkai Hakila, 10, Bridget Ibrahim, 11, Precious Ezra, 14 and Azumi Daniel, 16, were on Saturday found drowned in Danko River, Galadimawa Community, FCT suburb.
A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who visited the community, reports that residents were thrown into mourning following the ugly incident.
NAN reports that the four deceased together with other children were at the river for washing before the incident occurred.
Some eye witnesses told NAN that the incident happened at about 11a.m. when the children were still washing in the river.
Miss Blessing Elisha, 14, an eye witness, told NAN that they were together at the river washing while others were playing.
She said several efforts made to stop the children from playing in the water yielded no result before the incident.
“I actually did not see them entering the water because I was busy washing, suddenly I was called that three of them had entered the river.
“It was then I looked up and saw the fourth one going in and an attempt made to rescue her looked like I was getting drowned.
“Then I left her and ran to call for help,” she said.
Mr Alhassan Abdulwahab, one the first people that responded to the distress call, said it took about three hours to get their corpses out of the river.
He said the information gathered from other children at the scene showed that the youngest of the deceased, Hakila was the first to enter the river.
He said other children were drowned while attempting to rescue their colleagues.
“We came to the scene of the incident immediately we got the information, and it took some time before we discovered their corpses because our nets were already in the river for fishing.
“It was after I pulled out my net with a very big fish in it that I saw the four corpses in the same area with their stomach not swollen,” Abdulwahab said.
NAN reports that the four corpses were buried by the river side in line with the tradition of the community. (NAN)
A Kado Grade 1 Area Court, Abuja, on Friday sentenced a 44-year-old woman, Veronica Anum, to eight months imprisonment for criminal breach of trust and cheating.
The presiding judge, Alhaji, Ahmed Ado, however, gave him an option to pay a fine of N4,000 and warned him to desist from committing crimes.
Ado said the sentence would serve as deterrent to other would be offenders.
He also ordered her to pay N29,000 as compensation to the nominal complainant.
Anum, an apprentice and resident of Global Estate, Abuja, was convicted on a two-count charge.
The convict begged the court to temper justice with mercy because she did not know that the person did not send the money.
Prosecutor Zannah Dalhatu had told the court that Chika Abia of Karmo, Abuja, reported the matter at the Life Camp Police Station, Abuja, on March 2.
Dalhatu said that the complainant told the police that the convict on Dec. 13, 2016 approached him for his account details to enable her friend send her money.
He later got an alert of N29, 000 and he transfered the money to another bank account she sent to him, he later received a call from his sister outside the country that she sent N29,000.
Also that the money was to be given to their mother to buy drugs.
Dalhatu said that all efforts made to recover the money proved abortive.
The prosecutor said that the offence contravened sections 312 and 322 of the Penal Code.
A Grade 1 Area Court, Kado, Abuja, on Friday sentenced 35 year-old Nuhu Salam to five months in prison for stealing clothing items worth over N500,000.
Salam, who resides at Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, was convicted on one-count charge of stealing after he prayed the court to temper justice with mercy.
The convict said he had no intention of stealing the items but had urgent need for money which prompted him to steal.
The Presiding Judge, Alhaji Ahmed Ado, however gave Salam an option to pay a fine of N4, 000 and warned him to desist from committing crimes.
Ado said the sentence would serve as deterrent to other would be offenders.
Earlier, the Prosecutor, Zannah Dalhatu, told the court that Salam stole clothes, one cooler and two travelling bags, all valued at N534, 000 from occupants of Kado Estate, Abuja.
He said Salam confessed to the crime during investigation and the stolen properties were recovered.
The prosecutor said that the offence is punishable under Section 289 of the Penal Code.
The Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Brigadier General Paul Boroh (Rtd), on Thursday appealed to governments of the oil producing States to absorb beneficiaries of the amnesty programme from their respective states.
Boroh said the development will reduce unemployment among the ex-militants.
Describing the new approach as a game changer, in a statement by the Office Media & Communication Consultant, Owei Lakemfa, Abuja, the presidential aide added that it would resolve youth restiveness in the region.
He disclosed that in line with the model, the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki already commenced moves to provide employment for Edo State amnesty beneficiaries.
Boroh noted that the Office has submitted a list of 1,416 ex-Agitators including 213 scholarship graduates and 466 persons who needed training and empowerment or employment.
The statement reads: “A fundamental one in sustainably reintegrating aggrieved youths who six years ago, had taken the amnesty offer of the Federal Government.”
He emphasised the need for other State governors from the oil producing states to partake in the programme.
“By assisting their youths the presidential amnesty programme is not an open-ended one and all beneficiaries would have to eventually exit the programme.
Boroh said the visit to Edo State by the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo last Monday, further cemented the ties between the people in the Niger Delta region and the federal government.
He said, “If the amount of empathy, concern and commitment to the people in the Niger Delta and their plight shown by the Buhari administration had been shown by past governments, there would have been no reason for agitations in the region. All that the people require and are asking for is basic development and understanding which is what the Buhari administration is offering.”
He lauded government’s decision to get all contractors who have abandoned projects in the region to go back to work and fulfil their contractual obligations.
The Federal Government has warned smugglers of frozen foods, especially fishes to desist from the criminal act otherwise, face five years jail term or pay a $250, 000 fine.
The Minister of State Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri gave the warning on Thursday in Abuja during a meeting with the National Association of Nigerian Sea Foods Stakeholders.
He condemned increasing rate of importing unwholesome frozen foods such as Tilapia, Red Pacus, River Bream, Pangasius, Horse Mackerel, Sardine, Croaker into the country stressing that anyone caught will be duly prosecuted according to the law.
According to him, it is illegal to import frozen foods through the land borders, adding that the circulation of unhealthy fish and fishery products in the local market has resulted in serious health implications such as kidney disease, cancer among others.
Lokpobiri said: “The ministry is using this medium to warn all those involved, colluding, aiding and abetting in these nefarious activities to stop or face the full wrath of the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Importation of fish without a licence attracts 5year imprisonment or a fine of $250,000 or both, in addition to forfeiture and destruction of the vessel and its products.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture has put in place measures to arrest, detain and prosecute offenders as provided in the sea Fisheries Act Cap S4 laws of the Federation 2004. Such persons would be dealt with as criminals and economic saboteurs”
•Heaps of seized frozen poultry
Heineken revealed that the federal government has taken advisory from the Central Bank in the allocation of 800,000mt quota for frozen fish importation to bridge the 1.2million demand gap.
To check the illegal activities the minister stated that the government has been collaborating with countries in the Gulf of Guinea, Nigerian Customs Service, Maritime Police, Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Agriculture Quarantine Service (NAQS).
He noted that “if we are unable to get these people before smuggling the product into the country, we will deploy our officers to begin inspection of the cold rooms and by next week I personally will go to some of these cold rooms to inspect.”
In his remark, the National President of the association, Mr Lamina Rasheed pointed out that importers are made to pay 14 percent of their total cargo to the federal government, unfortunately, smuggler pay nothing, making it difficult for licenced operators to favourably compete with them.
Imported fish
He lamented that Frozen fish imported by the licenced operators are wallowing in the Cold Rooms because the smugglers have flooded the market with their product selling at any price range as against them.
He said: “The smugglers have done a lot of damage, we have a lot of stock now in the cold room that we ate unable to sell due to the activities of these unpatriotic people”.
Reacting to why prices of frozen fish have gone up in the market, Lamina said the CBN was no longer providing forex for frozen fish operators as the product has being delisted from CBN list.
“So we have to source for forex from the black market at N520 – N465 to $1 so for us to make profits, the consumer bears the brunt. We are appealing to the CBN to. Include Frozen fish on their list so that operators would be able to get forex at a cheaper rate which also translates to cheaper fish for consumers”, he stated.
SIR: Since the idea to close the Abuja International Airport was first mooted, and the alternative palliative measures hurriedly being lined out to ensure the smooth completion of the repair of the ONLY airport runway, coupled with the furore that ensued among Nigerians for and against the whole affair; I have been enveloped in deep thinking about the place of ordinary Nigerian citizens in the scheme of things generally.
For instance, it took the unfortunate death of a serving minister of state, Mr. James Ocholi, courtesy of the potholes-infested Abuja-Kaduna highway, for the same road to be given a sudden facelift way back in 2016. And that, had the minister miraculously survived the accident, nothing would have been done to reduce the wasteful human carnage that would have continued unabated!
What a shame that one of the busiest highways in the country, and the gateway to the capital city from the far Northern states, had to be repaired at such supersonic speed in order to impress and satisfy the yearnings of a particular class in the society. As it appears, those for whom it is being undertaken care less about the huge amount being committed to the project, but for the less-privileged the amount would go a long way in meeting their numerous needs like water supply, food, medicine, etc.
Pitifully, the same highway bedevilled by all sorts of criminals that have been terrorising innocent citizens on a daily basis has all of a sudden come under the limelight with 24/7 joint security watch, all for the sake of the VIPs. And all the potholes and craters that have been causing avoidable killings, maiming and damaging of vehicles have suddenly disappeared because the crème of the society would be using the renovated Kaduna Airport, albeit temporarily.
We are no doubt happy that some part of Kaduna, the former capital of Northern Nigeria; a state that was subjugated and degraded by years of bad governance is now wearing a new look. That the Kaduna western bypass, otherwise known as the Nnamdi Azikiwe Road, reported to have had over 701 potholes for many years, has been repaired with newly installed solar street lights to boot, remains however as a source of worry to me personally and other lower-class Nigerians. This unfortunate class stratification and subjugation engenders nothing but inequality and injustice which must be redressed and done away with for the sake of peace and tranquility in Nigeria.
This development keeps me thinking because Kaduna-to-Kano high-way and many similar highways across the country that are currently in terrible shape, but which unfortunately will not be used by the high and mighty in the foreseeable future, will remain neglected and will continue to remain death-traps, consuming the hardworking breadwinners who daily ply the roads in search of daily means of survival for their families.
The new realisation to the effect that N10 billion earlier budgeted and captured in 2016 budget was never utilised by FERMA to repair roads, according to reports, for reason best known to them is also depressing reality of the shameful situation of Nigeria. Does that mean that Nigeria’s ordinary poor only have value during elections, political campaign and routine Immunisations?
I’m not happy at all for my inability to decipher what really made me and members of my social class less important than the so-called VIPs to warrant extreme concern for them and total neglect of my immediate basic needs as an equal and bona fide citizen of Nigeria.
This politics of Abuja Airport closure reminds me of the famous saying by Charles Dickens in his famous fiction-Animal Farm – that “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” This is true in the contemporary Nigerian context, most unfortunately.
Indeed, the closure of the only gateway to the nation’s capital just to allow for the repair of a single airport runway would remain one of the many shames of our nation. And the on-going frantic effort by Federal Government to provide alternative measures to ease the suffering of only the VIPs is, to say the least, most crude and a shameless display of crass insensitivity to the plight of the ordinary and hardworking citizens of this country.
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, on Wednesday, said that the current recession in the country will end before this year runs out.
According to him, the yet to be passed 2017 Budget has been structured to achieve the goal.
He spoke with State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
He said: “Yes, we are determined to get the economy out of the recession before the end of this year. And the 2017 budget is structured to do just that.
“So that is why we are anxious to get the budget passed so that we can begin the implementation and begin to take all the steps we need to get the economy out of recession,” he said
He also disclosed that his ministry briefed the Council on the recently released National Bureau of Statistics Third Quarter GDP Report and the full report on 2016.
He added: “I also informed the council of the released of the Economic recovery Growth Plan which is already on the website of the ministry of budget and national planning as well as the budget office.
Udoma
“We look forward to the early passage of the 2017 budget so that we can fast-track the implementation of the plan. As you know the plan fed into the 2017 budget. So many of the initiatives in the plan are reflected in the budget.
“With regards to the NBS report, as you are aware the fourth quarter of the economy contracted by 1.3 per cent which is lower level of contraction than the previous year and which indicates that we are already turning and we are beginning to recover even though we are still in recession.
“And the overall result was better than what many people projected. The IMF report had thought the GDP for 2016 was going to be -1.8 per cent and it turned out -1.5, so that’s better than expected but we are not out of the woods.
“It is encouraging but we have to do and continue to do more to make sure that we get the economy out of the recession this year.
“So we are encouraged but we are even more energised to put in more effort in agriculture which is doing very well to do even better. To put in more efforts in solid minerals to make sure that our infrastructure is revamped because that is what will stimulate our economy if we continue in this way.
“You saw yesterday (on Tuesday) the acting president went to break grounds for the railway from Lagos to Ibadan all the way to Kano. As you know, the economic recovery and growth plan focuses on three objectives, one, is restoring growth and that is what we are determined to do.
“Two, inviting in our people, our people are our greatest resource and three, building a competitive economy because ultimately the economy cannot do well unless it is competitive.
“And as you know the five priorities areas that we have are:
Stabilising the microeconomic environment.
Achieving agriculture and food security.
Ensuring energy sufficiency – power as well as petroleum products.
Improving transportation infrastructure and,
Driving industrialisation focusing on small and medium scale enterprises.
“So we are determined, with this plan, to get this economy great again. We are determined that by the end of the plan to move from the negative growth that we experienced in 2016 to the growth rate of 7 percent by 2020,” he assured.
Armed men on Tuesday night reportedly invaded the house of former National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh in Abuja.
A statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Richard Ihediwa, issued on Wednesday stated that the armed men numbering about eight, fired several shots and forcefully gained entrance into the compound after destroying a section of its spiked security fence.
“They tied up security guards and a driver at the premises and attempted to gain access to the main building, but could not due to the security doors at the front and back entrances of the main house, “ Ihediwa said.
“ When they could not gain access into the main building, they beat up the security guards and ordered them at gunpoint to call out Chief Metuh using their phones, but the guards insisted he was not at home but had travelled to the east.
“Out of frustration, the invaders broke into other buildings in the premises including Chief Metuh’s out office where they carted away some documents and electronic equipment.
“Their escape route trailed with blood as one of the armed men got injured in the course of their breaking through the spiked security fence,” Ihediwa added.
Chief Metuh has already reported the incident to the police to unravel those behind the attack and their intention.
Two men, Abdulrafiu Shittu and Mohammed Idris, were on Wednesday arraigned in a Karmo Grade 1 Area Court, Abuja, for alleged joint act and stealing.
The prosecutor, Zannah Dalhatu, told the court that one Abubakar Yahaya, of Wuse Zone 5, reported the matter at the Utako Police Station Abuja, on March 5.
Dalhatu said that the complainant alleged that on that same day, the accused persons stole his Samsung A3 phone valued at N140, 000.
He said that during police investigation, the accused persons were arrested.
The prosecutor said that the accused persons could not give any satisfactory explanation of themselves.
Dalhatu also said that the offence contravened Sections 79 and 288 of the Penal Code.
The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge levelled against them.
The Counsel to the accused persons, Isaac Mathew, applied for their bail, and assured the court that the defendants would not jump bail.
The judge, Alhaji Abubakar Sadiq, granted the accused N50, 000 bail each and one surety each in like sum.
Sadiq said that the sureties must reside within the court’s jurisdiction and adjourned the case till March 30, for further hearing.
