The Nation Newspaper

Tag: communal crisis

  • Insurgency, communal crisis hindering immunization in Nigeria, says NMA

    Insurgency, communal crisis hindering immunization in Nigeria, says NMA

    The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), says insurgency and communal crisis among other factors are the main hindrances against adequate immunization coverage in the country.

    Vice Chairman of NMA in Cross River State, Dr Agam Ayuk, told reporters in Calabar during the opening of the 2017 Physician’s Week that immunization coverage in Nigeria was declining due to insurgency and recorded cases of communal crisis.

    The event had as its theme, “Declining Immunization Coverage, Threat to National Security and Development: The Way Forward’’.

    Ayuk, who is also the Chairman of the Physician’s Week, said riverine and other hard-to-reach areas communities were also hindering the holistic coverage of immunization in the country.

    He said that it was time for the state and federal government to take bold steps in restoring peace and security in all nook and crannies of the country, to protect the lives of health workers in areas of crisis.

    He worried that about 70 percent of immunization sponsorship comes from development partners, which is also on the decline, adding that it was important for government at all levels to adequately fund the health system.

    The Director General of Cross River Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Betta Edu, said the state has over 464 hard-to-reach communities in the state.

    Edu said that with 959 health facilities across the state, it has become very difficult to access the 464 hard-to-reach communities either by land or sea for immunization coverage.

    “Our immunization programme in the state is geared towards reduction of childhood morbidity and mortality through adequate immunisation coverage of all risk populations’’, she said.

    The keynote Speaker, Dr Bassey Ikpeme, Chief Consultant, Community Medicine, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, advised government at levels to recruit more doctors and nurses into the health sector.

    Ikpeme, urged governments all levels, to invest greatly on the development of primary healthcare centres across the country.

  • Council chief urges calm in communal crisis

    The Chairman of Abaji Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),   Hon. Yahya Garba has called for calm in Tiv and Dogon Ruwa communities in Gawu ward of the council where there has been a crisis between both communities.

    Garba also appealed to the indigenes of the two communities to live in peace with one another, because development can only be achieved where peace reigns.

    The council boss made the call while addressing youths of the two communities when he visited the scene of an incident that occurred between the Tiv people living in the community, which led the destruction of farm produce, houses and vehicles.

    Garba who commiserated with the victims of the incident, described the situation as unfortunate, appealing for peace and unity between them, that his administration is poised to ensure the protection of lives and property.

    He added that his administration, in partnership with relevant security operatives to bring the perpetrators of the incident to book, while urging them to always maintain peace.

     

  • 84 killed in Taraba communal crisis 

    84 killed in Taraba communal crisis 

    Taraba State, Nature’s Gift to the nation, has been turned into a killing field, with no fewer than 84 persons killed at the weekend in renewed communal clashes.

    Many houses have been torched and the occupants forced to flee.

    The crisis is reportedly between Kuteb/Fulani and Tiv ethnic groups of Takum -the home of former Minister of Defence Gen. Theophilus Danjuma and Governor-elect Darius Dickson Ishaku.

    Police spokesman Joseph Kwaji, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), said nine bodies were recovered in the attack on Takum township. The casualty figure rose drastically by evening. Kwaji said Sunday’s clash in Takum was between Kuteb and Tiv.

    A 24-hour curfew has been imposed by the Chairman of Takum council, Caleb Bitrus Babafi, who told The Nation he was meeting with the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) to ascertain the authentic casualty figure.

    Babafi directed the police and soldiers to restrict movement in the area to maintain law and order. No arrest has been made.

    Over 20 Tiv residents, mostly students, were massacred in Takum township by suspected Kuteb militia on Sunday night. Five of the students were killed at the School of Health Technology hostel. Others were massacred in their homes during a house to house attack by the assailants.

    “We woke, this morning (yesterday) only to see the bodies of our brothers and sisters, mostly students,” a Takum resident told The Nation.

    Thirty persons were massacred at a Tiv settlement, Yongogba, along Takum-Kpashe Road, also on Sunday. The invaders also reduced the settlement to rubble.

    Butu village was also attacked on Sunday, after it received a notice, said to be from the Fulani on Friday.  Young men and women, fled the village, but an aged man who was left behind was beaten to coma  by the invaders. Soldiers took the victim to the MRS Clinic of the 93 Army Battalion, Ada Barracks, where he is recuperating.

    Before these attacks, a Tiv laboratory technician, Samuel Ojo, 32, was killed at the Jonas Clinics where he worked. Eye-witnesses said Ojo was in the lab when Kuteb assailants came and dragged him outside and hung a tyre across his neck before setting him ablaze.

    A Kuteb source said his kinsmen were taking vengeance on five of their people who were allegedly gun down at Age by Tiv militia. A source said the deceased, two men and three women, were riding on motorcycles on Barrack-Dogon Gawa Road to a church conference when they were killed.

    It was gathered that the fighters of the warring groups have laid siege to many of the roads linking Takum, where they remove and kill people from commercial vehicles.

    Seven Tiv passengers were removed from a commercial vehicle on Dogon Gawa-Katsina-Ala Road. They were killed. Tiv woman was macheted while riding on a motorbike with her son on the route on Saturday. A military van appeared at the scene and the marauders ran out of sight. The soldiers took the woman, nearly deformed, to the Rapha Hospital. Her son who escaped into the bush, said the attackers were Fulani and Kuteb.

    Four Kutebs and a Jukun were shot dead while trekking down the trough between Kwali and Gbaaondo settlements by gunmen. One of the deceased had his eyes removed when the bodies were recovered.

    Three victims could not be identified because their bodies were cut into pieces. This attack and killing took place on Vingir Road, near Loko. The wives of the deceased were spared by the attackers who asked them to go and break the news at home. The women said the killers were Fulani.

    On Wednesday, a Hausa chickens and goats trader, popularly known as Yaro Yaro, was killed with his Tiv business partner, John Chin. The duo had gone to some villages to buy chickens and goats and were returning home when suspected Fulani gunmen opened fire on them.

  • Two killed in Rivers communal crisis

    TWO indigenes of K-Dere community in Gokana Local Government of Rivers State have been killed in a renewed clash with neighbouring B-Dere.

    It was gathered yesterday that the two persons were abducted from their farms in Yemuordee by suspected B-Dere fighters, who were allegedly armed with AK-47 rifles and killed.

    The victims are Dumie Mubari (62),a father of four and Esther Zorgoni (30), a mother of three.

    Commissioner of Police Joseph Mbu yesterday met with leaders of K-Dere and B-Dere at the police headquarters.

    Police spokesman Ben Ugwuegbulam confirmed the crisis in K-Dere and said the situation had been brought under control.

    He, however, could not confirm the casualty figure.

    Ugwuegbulam would neither deny nor confirm the commissioner’s meeting with leaders of the two communities.

    Condemning the crisis, the state Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) described it as shameful and unfortunate.

    The party, through its Publicity Secretary, Jerry Needam, said the crisis had exposed the failure and lack of sincerity on the part of the leaders of the communities .

    It called on the Rotimi Amaechi-led administration to set up a probe panel to investigate the causes of the crises and monitor activities in the communities.