The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Foreign

  • Kaduna killings: Yakowa cancels foreign trip

    •‘Govt will arrest perpetrators’

    Kaduna State Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa yesterday called off his foreign trip and visited Dogon Dawa community, which was attacked on Sunday by some criminals said to be on a revenge mission.

    The governor said his administration would pick up the medical bill of the injured.

    Yakowa said the government would collaborate with states sharing boundary with Birnin Gwari to drive out the criminals in the area.

    The governor told the residents that the state would fish out those responsible for the killings.

    Yakowa was received by the Emir of Birnin Gwari, Alhaji Jubril Maigwari.

    The governor said a special State Security Council meeting would be held to plan how to drive away criminals away from the area.

    He said Kaduna State would collaborate with the security agencies in Niger, Zamfara, Kebbi and Katsina states to curtail criminality.

    The governor was accompanied by the Genaral Officer Commanding (GOC) One Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army, Maj.-Gen. Wahab; the State Director of the State Security Service (SSS), Mr. Yomi Zamba; Police Commissioner Olufemi Adenaike; the Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), senior security officers, among others.

  • Floods: Mark, Foreign Minister meet Camerounian envoy

    Floods: Mark, Foreign Minister meet Camerounian envoy

    Nigeria has launched a diplomatic initiative to encourage Cameroun to check the raging water from its Lagdo Dam which has wreaked havoc in several states.

    Dozens of Nigerians have been killed, thousands rendered homeless and farmlands and livestock washed away by the flood triggered by excess water released from the dam.

    Worst hit are Adamawa, Benue and Cross River States.

    Senate President, David Mark and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Olugbenga Ashiru, on Thursday evening met with the Camerounian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ambassador Salahuddeen Ibrahim Abbas in Abuja on the issue.

    Mark and Ashiru asked the envoy to prevail on the authorities in Yaounde to manage the release of water from Lagdo Dam.

    Also, there were indications last night that the federal government might send a Mission to Cameroun next week for technical talks on the situation.

    It was gathered that the Senate President and the Foreign Affairs Minister conveyed the displeasure of the federal government to the High Commissioner on how more than 200,000 Nigerians have been displaced in seven states.

    The states affected by the release of water from Cameroun are Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna and Bauchi.

    Others flooded by water from River Niger are Kwara, Kogi, Kebbi, Anambra and Kano.

    A reliable source said: “The Camerounian government sent a note verbal to Nigeria on the situation in Lagdo Dam and we decided to meet with the High Commissioner on the way forward.

    “But as a responsible government, there is no way we will sit by and watch Nigerians lose their lives and property to floods created from the release of water from Cameroun.

    “I think the two nations will jointly find solutions to the challenge of floods.”

    Ambassador Ashiru, who confirmed the session, last night, said the federal government has stepped into the flood problems.

    The Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe, also spoke with our correspondent, and said: “We have sent our team right to the dam to take stock of the situation. We will send a Mission to Cameroon next week for talks on how to manage the release of water from the dam.

    “They told us that the release of the water is important to avoid the collapse of the dam which can wreak more havoc. We have observed that when they release water from Lagdo Dam, after some days, it will recede. But this has not been so this year because of the structures that have been built.”