The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Bauchi

  • NSC South-West Zone 1 promises free, fair zonal elections

    The headquarters, National Sports Commission (NSC’s) South-West Zone 1, Ibadan, on Wednesday pledged to conduct a free and fair zonal elections into the sports federations.

    Steve Olarinoye, the Coordinator of the zone, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan that all hands were already on deck for a rancour-free polls in the zone.

    “I want to assure the sports stakeholders that the Zone 1 office will deliver a free and fair zonal elections into the sports federations, scheduled for April 19,’’ he said.

    According to Olarinoye, all logistics for the success of the elections are being deployed to the headquarters and also assured of tight security at the event.

    The NSC, in its elections guidelines released on April 9, had said that the zonal elections would hold simultaneously on April 30 at the headquarters of the six geo-political zones of the country.

    The other zonal headquarters are in Benin, Enugu, Kaduna, Jos and Bauchi.

    The commission added that elections for the positions of the president and the vice president of the various sports federations would hold in Abuja on May 14.

    It added that the elected officers would be sworn-in on May 17, after all appeals or petitions arising from the elections would have been decided.

    NAN reports that the elections would exclude the privately run sports, which have been concessioned to sponsors.

    It would be recalled that the NSC recently dissolved the boards of the various National Sports Federations.

  • Kano Pillars eye point in Bauchi

    Kano Pillars eye point in Bauchi

    League champions, Kano Pillars, are aiming to kick start their Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) opener on a high note as the Pyramid side lock horn with Wikki Tourists of Bauchi in one of today’s league matches at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Stadium.

    The players and technical crew traveled to Bauchi on Saturday in preparation for the clash while the team’s officials as well as supporters are expected to storm Bauchi today.

    The Kano Pillars media officer, Idris Malikawa told SportingLife that the defending champions want a good beginning to sustain their confidence, adding that preparations are on top gear for the clash.

    “First of all we are all happy that league is finally commenced after several postponements. A team playing in the continent, we need matches to boost our fitness level. Although, we’ve played some games and we won but this will give us more playing time,” Malikawa said.

    “Our players are ready and all our fans are ready for the league. We are looking for a good beginning in the game against Wikki Tourists on Sunday (today). We want to come back with at least a point.”

  • Protest in Bauchi over kidnap of foreigners

    Youths at Jama’are in Jama’are Local Government Area of Bauchi State yesterday protested the kidnap of Setraco Company workers.

    They appealed to the Federal Government, Bauchi State Government and security agencies to fish out the abductors of the foreigners.

    The youth carried placards. One of them reads: ‘Jama’are youths call for the release of seven foreigners abducted’. They went to the Emir’s palace and delivered their letter of protest.

    The youth decried the kidnap, saying: “Setraco Company has created job opportunities for over 400 indigenes of Jama’are and 300 from other states, thereby reducing hardship and criminal activities associated with unemployment.”

     

     

     

     

  • Briton, Italian, five other foreigners kidnapped in Bauchi

    Gunmen kidnapped seven foreigners and killed a security guard when they stormed the compound of Lebanese construction company SETRACO in Bauchi Sunday  morning.

    Among those abducted were a Briton, an Italian, a Greek and four Lebanese workers, including two women, Local Government Chairman Adamu Aliyu and security sources said.

    Bauchi Police Chief Mohammed Ladan said the gunmen attacked a police station and a prison overnight before storming the construction firm’s compound in Jama’are, a Bauchi state town.

    “We repelled the attack on the police station and the security men at the prison yard also repelled the attack, but they burnt two vehicles in Jama’are police station,” Ladan said.

    “They then attacked Setraco construction, killed a local security guard and they succeeded in kidnapping people,”  he said and declined to state the nationality of the victims.

    The Italian and Greek foreign ministries confirmed that one of their nationals was taken in the raid. A spokesman for the British Embassy in Abuja said it was investigating.

     

  • Gunmen kill two soldiers in Bauchi

    Unknown gunmen killed two soldiers and injured a civilian on Monday night along Kano-Potiskum-Maiduguri road, Azare, Bauchi State.

    The soldiers were attacked at a Suya spot close to an AA Kankani petrol station.

    The Second-in-Command to the Brigade Commander of 33 Artillery Brigade at Shadawanka Barracks in Bauchi, Lt. L. Adekanmbi confirmed the killings.

    “Yes, they killed our men – two of them – we have received the report,” he said.

    The gunmen also took away their rifles. He said the bodies of the deceased soldiers had been taken to the Federal Medical Centre, Azare. A civilian who suffered a bullet wound to the leg was also taken to the hospital.

    Residents of the area said the two soldiers went to the joint to buy suya.

    The scene of the attack is the busiest spot in the town.

     

  • Explosions rock Bauchi

    Explosions rock Bauchi

    An explosion on Wednesday night slightly damaged the building of Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) in Zango area of Bauchi metropolis.

    Bauchi State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Ladan, confirmed the incident in a telephone chat with the News Agency of Nigeria.

    He said the church building was slightly damaged, adding that there was no casualty.

    Ladan also confirmed that another explosion occurred in a building located at the Bauchi Industrial Area, saying that there was also no casualty.

    “We have commenced investigation into the two incidents and will do our best to apprehend the culprits,” the commissioner assured.

     

  • Bomb attack: Igbo traders close shops in Bauchi

    Bomb attack: Igbo traders close shops in Bauchi

    Following Sunday’s suicide attack on St John’s Catholic Church, Bauchi where three people died and many were injured, Igbo spare parts dealers yesterday closed shops to mourn the victims.

    The streets were deserted and business activities were low. The few people on the streets wore mournful looks.

    The Chairman of the National Auto Spare Parts Dealers in the state, Mr. Martin Nwakaibeya, said they closed to honour the victims.

    He said the injured are receiving treatment in the hospital.

    “It was a very painful incident. We feel that since they were our colleagues, we should show solidarity. We closed our shops to honour them,” Nwakaibeya added.

    The husband of the late Gloria who was killed with her friend, Mrs. Veronica Osi, said he was disappointed that the government had not been able to address insecurity.

    Mr. Paul Onwe from Ohukwu in Ebonyi State, who wept as he recalled the last moments he spent with his wife, a mother of one, described her death as sad and painful.

    He said: “I am sad. That day, after church, she and her friend decided to visit someone. They were waiting for KEKE NAPEP when the suicide bomber struck.

    “I went everywhere looking for her. I later saw her body in a mortuary. Our president and governor should resign if they cannot protect the citizens.”

    The husband of the late Mrs. Veronica Osi, Benedict, who hails from Ivo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, could not hold tears as he mourned his wife, a mother of seven.

     

  • Hold Bauchi government liable for blast – CAN

    Hold Bauchi government liable for blast – CAN

    The Christian Association of Nigeria on Monday blamed the Bauchi State government for Sunday’s suicide bomb attack on a Catholic Church in the state.

    It would be recalled that a suicide bomber attacked Saint John’s Catholic Church in Bauchi, killing two people and injured several others.

    The attack was the third in two weeks.

    The first occurred a week ago where nine people were killed in Zango village by unknown gunmen and the killing last week Monday of former Comptroller General of the Nigerian Prisons Service, Ibrahim Jarma, who was shot dead together with his orderly after he came out from the mosque near his house in Azare.

    CAN blame the attacks, which it said is targeted at Christians on the state government.

    A statement issued in Abuja by CAN’s National General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Musa Asake, said the body received the news of the bombing with a mixture of shock and sadness.

    The statement reads:

    “The Christian Association of Nigeria received with shock the bomb explosion at the St. John’s Catholic Cathedral in Bauchi which killed four people when an explosives-packed car reportedly rammed into the line of worshippers waiting to be screened before entering the Church.

    “The government has failed to take precautionary measures and compliment the efforts of Christians in the state. As it is, the state government seems to be unfazed by the calamities happening to Christians.

    “It is sad that after several attacks on Christians in the state we are still unable to put our fingers on the government’s ability to secure the lives, property of Christians and their Churches.”

     

     

  • Church Bombing: Police confirm 3 dead, 46 injured in Bauchi

    Church Bombing: Police confirm 3 dead, 46 injured in Bauchi

    The Police Command in Bauchi State said on Sunday that the explosion at St John’s Catholic Church, Bauchi, killed three persons, including the suicide bomber.

    The police spokesperson, ASP Hassan Auyo, also told newsmen that 46 other worshippers in the church were injured.

    He said that the incident occurred when a car-riding suicide bomber tried to force himself into the church.

    Auyo said the bomber hit a barricade and detonated an Improvised Explosive Device that caused the deaths and injuries.

    He, however, said that no arrest had been made, although investigation had begun into the incident.

    Earlier, the Nigeria Red Cross and the Christian Association of Nigeria, Bauchi chapter, had given the casualty figure as four persons dead, including the bomber, and 48 others injured.

  • Slain ex-Prisons chief’s home torched as terrorists’ victims are buried

    Slain ex-Prisons chief’s home torched as terrorists’ victims are buried

    IT was a job they never prepared for. But, for the families of the 10 people killed in Bauchi, there was no running away from the funeral.

    The ceremony evoked so much emotion and tension in Bauchi on Tuesday and yesterday.

    Nine of the deceased were Sayawa. They were buried in Bauchi, the state capital and in Bogoro Local Government Area.

    Security was tight as Sayawa youths protested the killings. The Sayawa are a minority ethnic group, who are mostly Christians in a predominantly Muslim environment.

    The body of the retired Comptroller General of Prisons, Ibrahim Jarma, was buried in Azare, headquarters of Katagum local government.

    But, it was a double tragedy. As the funeral got underway, the late Jarma’s home was set ablaze.

    Two minors were arrested in connection with the arson.

    One of them allegedly confessed to the police that he was asked by an unnamed mallam (Islamic teacher) to burn down the house, a four-bedroom bungalow on the Azare-Jama’are Road, for a fee.

    Governor Isa Yuguda pledged to keep the peace after visiting the families of the victims.

    Jarma, 65, was the 14th Comptroller-General of Prisons. He served between March 1996 and July 2002.

    He was shot on Monday as he came out of a mosque in his home town. He died on Tuesday.

    Over 2000 Muslims and Christians prayed at the Azare Central Mosque.

    The funeral prayer was led by Azare Chief Imam Alhaji Ayuba. The late Jarma is survived by two wives Hajia Saratu and Hajiya Adama, and nine children.

    Many shed tears in Bauchi and Bogoro as the bodies of the nine Sayawa were buried amid tight security.

    Angry youths chased away journalists at the Christian cemetery at Yelwa, during the burial.

    The reporters who were waiting to interview Rev.Lawi Pokti, the Bauchi CAN Chairman, suddenly took to their heels when the angry youth numbering over 200 advanced menacingly towards them.

    The quick intervention of security agents saved them from being lynched by the angry youths.

    “They killed our people, now you are here to take our pictures, the pictures of the dead, so that you will go and show them to mock us”, they shouted.

    The journalists were taken into the Bauchi Police training School opposite the cemetery where they waited for over an hour before peace returned after the burial.

    The Bauchi State Government donated food stuff and an undisclosed amount of money to the families of the victims who were killed on Sunday evening at Zango in the Bauchi metropolis, by unknown gunmen.

    The undisclosed cash and food items, according to Yuguda’s Chief Press Secretary Ishola Michael Adeyemi, were donated on behalf of the state government by Pastor Kennedy Masau, a Director-General in the office of the Chief of Staff to the Governor.

    Kennedy led a government delegation on a condolence visit to the families of the bereaved at the COCIN Church, Zango.

    Presenting the government’s aid to the families through the Bauchi Local Government Council Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kennedy said it was to fill a temporary gap and not a compensation.

    The CAN chief hailed the government for the quick concern shown to the bereaved families, and urged Christians not to avenge the death of their loved ones.

    Six of the dead were buried at the Christian Cemetery in Bauchi. The others were buried in Bogoro Local Government Council.

    Yuguda described the killings as “painful” and promised to do everything possible to apprehend the culprits.

    Responding on behalf of the relations of those killed, Mr Iliya Ayuba said they were shocked by the incident.

    He said Christians and Muslims had been living in peace and never expected such a thing to happen.

    Ayuba called on the people of Zango to maintain the peace and urged the state government to station a team of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in the area.

    The governor also visited Azare to commiserate with the people over Jarma’s death.

    Yuguda described the former prison chief as an asset to the state, adding that he would be missed.

    Replying on behalf of the people, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, thanked the governor for finding time pfor the condolence visit.