The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Benue

  • Family of three burnt to death in Benue

    Three persons were burnt to death yesterday when an early morning fire razed a home on Katsina Ala Street, High Level in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.

    The victims are a 40-year old member of the Nigeria Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Terhemen Makar; his wife and their two-year-old son.

    The only survivor of the fire was the seven-year-old son of the deceased, who was rescued by sympathisers who tore open a part of the building.

    The boy was injured and rushed to St. Theresa’s Hospital in the area.

    An eyewitness, Terna Iorza, told The Nation that the fire started when the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) restored electricity in the area after an outage.

    It was learnt that there was a spark, which was followed by a fire. Thick smoke engulfed the building, which was heavily fortified with burglary proof.

    Makar and his wife were said to have cried for help but the thick smoke and the huge blaze were too much for anyone to penetrate.

    The bodies of the victims were pulled out of the house by fire fighters and policemen from the “B” Division Police Station. They conveyed the bodies to a mortuary.

    Police spokesman Daniel Ezeala, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), confirmed the incident.

     

  • 2015: Benue deputy governor joins race

    Benue State Deputy Governor Steven Lawani has joined the 2015 governorship race on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Since the creation of Benue from Plateau State, this is the first time a deputy governor has openly expressed his desire to succeed his principal.

    Lawani is from Benue South Senatorial District, which is yet to produce the governor in the 37-year-old state.

    The deputy governor said he was responding to a request by a Forum of Governor’s Aides from Zone C to contest in 2015.

    Lawani said he had informed the State Executive Committee of the PDP and the party’s caucus in the zone about his ambition.

    The deputy governor explained that having served Governor Gabriel Suswam for eight years with rancour.

     

     

     

  • Benue worker jailed three years for stealing N4.95m drugs

    A Magistrate’s Court judge, Mrs. Cecilia Bakare, yesterday sentenced a worker in the Benue State Ministry of Health, Mr. Sesugh Manasseh, to three years’ imprisonment without an option of fine for the theft of drugs belonging to the ministry worth N4,959,000.

    Besides, the trial magistrate ordered that the convict should pay a fine of N5,000, adding that if he failed to pay the fine, he would bag another jail term.

    Mrs. Bakare held that Manasseh stole the drugs, which he was employed to protect, thereby frustrating the efforts of the government to provide drugs to patients in hospitals.

    The prosecution told the court that a worker in the ministry, one Mr. Terna Abuku, had reported to the police that some drugs in the store of the Central Medical Store, near the School of Nursing worth over N4 million were missing.

    The prosecutor explained that during police investigation, the convict and Dennis Obaji, who received the drugs, were arrested.

    Obaji, a chemist, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

    The accused said he did not know that the drugs were stolen.

    The matter adjourned till August 3 for further mention.

     

  • Two truck-loads of fertiliser missing in Benue

    Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam has expressed shock at how two truck-loads of fertiliser disappeared from the Ministry of Agriculture, Makurdi, last week.

    The Nation learnt that some unidentified persons entered the building, where the fertilisers were stocked in the New Garage area of Wadata, and loaded two trucks of the commodity.

    Each truck, it was also learnt, takes at least 600 bags of fertiliser, meaning at least 1,200 bags were stolen.

    The development, a source said, has caused a furore in the government.

    The police were said to have begun investigation to unravel the circumstances leading to the theft.

    The ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Neeyum Tsavnum, told reporters that the ministry’s warehouse, where the fertilisers were kept, was burgled.

    He said the robbers had an easy access to the warehouse.

    According to him, the robbers did not destroy the padlock, showing that they unlocked the padlock.

    Tsavnum added that only 150 bags of fertilisers were stolen.

    The permanent secretary said the security man on duty claimed to have slept when the incident happened around 3am of the fateful day.

    The police yesterday confirmed the investigation of the missing trucks of fertilisers.

    Police spokesman, Daniel Ezeala, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said two persons, including the security man on duty during the theft, have been arrested.

    Ezeala said the command would unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the commodity.

    He said investigation is on while the arrested suspects have been granted bail.

     

  • ‘Nine killed in Benue communal clash’

    The Benue State Police Command has said nine persons were killed on Monday in a communal clash in Awe, a Benue/Nasarawa boundary town.

    Police spokesman, Daniel Ezeala, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Makurdi, the state capital.

    Ezeala said the deceased have been deposited at the Gbajimba General Hospital morgue in Guma.

    He said the command was investigating the cause of the clash, adding that it had not made a formal complaint to any security agency on the clash.

    The spokesman said the police recovered the bodies following a widespread rumour on the killing.

    Ezeala assured that the situation was under control.

    He urged the people to go about their businesses without fear of molestation.

    The Chairman of Guma Local Government Area Mr Usa Adi said the assailants razed three villages in Njorov District of Guma.

    He said several residents of the affected villages, who fled to neighbouring villages for safety, have not returned.

    The council chairman appealed to security agencies, especially soldiers drafted to Guma, to forestall further breakdown of law and order.

    Adi accused the villages on the Nassarawa/Benue boundary of harbouring bandits, who were responsible for the recurring clash.

    He advised the government of both states to fish out the killers.

  • 20 feared dead as Fulani herdsmen attack Benue community

    The conflict between Tiv farmers and nomadic Fulani herdsmen in Benue State worsened at the weekend with the Fulani invading Nzorov ward, in Guma Local Government Area and killing about 20 residents.

    Several houses in the area including that of a former Head of Service in the state, Mr.Mike Iyordye, were torched.

    Some of the invaders, sources said, wore military camouflage and drove into the village in a convoy of vehicles from the neighbouring Nasarawa State.

    The Guma Local Government Council Chairman, Frank Adii, said he could not immediately confirm the exact figure of casualties but said it was high.

    Many others were injured, he added.

    The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Deputy Superintendent Daniel Ezeala, confirmed the fighting but added that the police had no report of deaths arising from the crisis.

    “Security personnel have already been drafted to the crisis area, but we have not received any information on the number of deaths,” he said.

     

  • Panic as Cameroon releases more water from dam

    Panic as Cameroon releases more water from dam

    Panic gripped residents of Makurdi, Guma, Agatu, Gwer West and other areas affected by last year’s flooding in Benue State as the state government announced plans by Cameroonian authorities to start releasing water from Ladgo Dam.

    The Executive Secretary of the state Emergency Agency (SEMA), Mr Adikpo Agbatse, had announced on the state radio station early Friday that the Cameroonian authorities would release  water from the dam in the morning  and enjoined the people in vulnerable areas to be on alert, particularly, when the volume of water on River Benue begin to rise.

    The Nation, which went round vulnerable areas in the capital city saw as people expressed fear and called on the state government to immediately provide comfortable place for them.

    Madam Caroline, who lives at new garage area, one of the worst hit last year’s flood told our correspondent that the family is already planning to relocate their children to their place in the eastern part of the country to avoid the ugly experience of last year.

    According to her, “someone called my husband this morning and informed him of the radio announcement of the repeat of the flood incident anytime from now. Immediately we heard this, we started thinking of sending our children to the village to prevent them from experiencing the ugly incident of last year where we were crammed in a room that look like cubicle when the flood sacked us from here.”

    Also, Mr. James Atser , who lives along Gboko Road, one of the areas affected by last year’s flood, said that there was little he could do since he could not remove his house from the area but called on state government to make available a better place for people who may likely be displaced by the flood.

  • Benue ACN to Suswam: account for N13b bond

    •Money spent on roads, others, says govt

    The Benue State Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has asked the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration under Governor Gabriel Suswam to show the people what they have done with the N13billion bond the government borrowed from some banks.

    But the Special Assistant to the Governor on Media Affairs Dr Cletus Akwaya said the money was spent on some vital projects.

    ACN Chairman, Comrade Abba Yaro, told The Nation in Makurdi, the state capital, that the Suswam administration allegedly spent the N13billion bond on litigations.

    Morro said there is nothing on ground to suggest that such a huge fund, which was borrowed from the capital market, has been judiciously spent on infrastructural development.

    He said: “As I’m speaking to you, the Benue State Government is at a standstill. There is no single ongoing project – whether it is water, road, or a primary school’s renovation. I think the chunk of the money was used on litigations during the battle by the ACN to recover its stolen mandate. The rest is now being used in buying up every building in the state capital by PDP stalwarts and their cohorts.”

    The ACN chairman said if the billions were judiciously applied, primary school teachers would have been paid their minimum wage, pupils would not have been squatting on bare floors to receive lesson and the state university’s (BSU) students and lecturers would have enough offices and lecture theatres.”

    Yaro noted that since the ruling PDP has run out of good ideas, it should stop further borrowing.

    The politician warned the ruling party to avoid piling up debts for the in-coming administration.

    According to him, the ruling PDP in Benue State has not executed any project that impacts positively on the residents.

    Yaro noted that though Benue State is called the food basket of the nation, the state has abandoned agriculture under the Suswam administration.

    But Dr Akwaya said part of the money was used to complete the Makurdi Greater Works, which President Goodluck Jonathan has inaugurated.

    The governor’s aide said the Benue State University Teaching Hospital in Makurdi and a number of roads, which he did not name, were completed with the bond.

    He directed our correspondent to the Finance Commissioner for details on the bond.

    The sixth Assembly had approved for Suswam to go to the capital market and borrow N13billion bond for infrastructural development.

    The governor sought to borrow the money through a bill to the House of Assembly.

    The lawmakers passed the bill into law and the government borrowed the N13billion through the capital market.

     

  • 40 killed in Sunday morning attack in Benue

    40 killed in Sunday morning attack in Benue

    No fewer than 40 Idoma farmers in Ekwo-Okpanchenyi, Agatu Local Government Area in Benue State have been killed in an early Sunday morning attack.

    The victims’ relatives and survivors said they suspected Fulani herdsmen, who numbered over 200.

    Sources said the attackers set ablaze over 200 houses.

    They allegedly surrounded the entire village, and gunned down those attempting to escape, among them women and children.

    Sources said the attackers moved from one compound to another, shooting and killing people.

    By dawn, about 40 persons were reported dead. A report claimed 47 were killed.

    This is the second time in 10 days that the council area, which is in Benue South senatorial zone, is coming under attack from suspected Fulani herdsmen.

    The dead were said to be mourners carrying out the burial rites of two police officers killed last Tuesday in Nasarawa state.

    It was gathered that the herdsmen stormed the village on Sunday morning in the middle of the burial rites and shot sporadically at the mourners. Many escaped with bullet wounds.

    “The burial rites of the two slain policemen were going on at Okpachanyi village when the armed herdsmen stormed the scene and opened fire on the mourners, killing and maiming the people while many escaped with bullet wounds,” a source said.

    Governor Gabriel Suswam, who visited the displace camps where the victims have taken refuge, expressed shock and disgust.

    The victims are now camped in three centres in Apa Local Government Area of Benue state.

    Benue State Commissioner for Works and Transport, Chief John Ngbede told The Nation that the attackers were accompanied by heavily-armed hired mercenaries.

     

     

     

  • Youths attack NAFDAC DG, others in Benue

    Protesting youths have attacked the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr Paul Orhii, and other officials of the agency in Benue State.

    The attack occurred at the agency’s destruction site on the University of Agriculture, Makurdi (UAM)/Gbajima Road, on the outskirts of Makurdi, the state capital.

    NAFDAC was planning to destroy some fake and expired products at the site when the youths invaded the area.

    They alleged that the fumes from the fire during the destruction of confiscated products constitute a hazard to their health.

    The protesters said several residents had become ill after inhaling the fumes, adding that expectant mothers had miscarriages any time NAFDAC destroyed confiscated items in the area.

    NAFDAC officials had poured fuel on the heap of expired items and were waiting for Governor Gabriel Suswam to set fire to the items when the youths and women, armed with sticks and placards, stormed the site and chase Dr Orhii and other officials away.

    Some of NAFDAC officials’ vehicles were smashed.

    The scene became rowdy as everyone scampered for safety.

    Spokesperson for the protesting youths, Udom Francis, told reporters that they would no longer allow toxic wastes to cause harm to the residents.

    Udoma said burning of expired drugs has contaminated the only source of water in the area, resulting in the death of livestocks. It has also caused rashes and body itching among the residents.