Tag: Kaduna

Six teenagers returning home after writing their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), also known as ‘Junior WAEC,’ have reportedly drowned in the Mbang River in Ribang village, Kauru Local Government Area of Kaduna state.

The Nation gathered that the six victims were students of Government Secondary School Fadan Chawai.

The tragic incident occurred around 5:30 pm on Tuesday, June 26.

The victims were identified as Manasseh Monday (16 yrs), Musa John (16 yrs), Pius David (15 yrs), Monday Ayuba (16 yrs), David Danlami (19 yrs), and Yahuza Audu (16 yrs).

Though the Kaduna state government and the security operatives were yet to make a statement confirming the incident.

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When contacted, the zonal coordinator of Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) zone one, Mubarak Muhammad, said he would confirm the incident and get back to our Correspondent.

Meanwhile, the national public relations officer of Ribang Development Association, Simon Ishaku Chinge, who confirmed the incident on Wednesday, disclosed that three dead bodies have already been recovered and buried amidst tears.

He explained that three other students are still missing and locals on search and rescue missions have not been able to recover them out of the river.

Chinge said: “The school children left their homes full of hope and excitement while their parents went to the farm with the hope of reuniting with them after writing their papers of the day, only to meet their untimely death.

“The Mbang river has been a death trap for our people over the years, noting before the community can access any school or any hospital facility they’ve to travel for about 8 kilometres.

“We’re calling on the federal government, Governor Uba Sani, Sen. Sunday Katung and our House of Representative members as a matter of urgency, to kindly assist us with school, hospital, access road and bridge to bring succour to our community.” Simon appealed.

Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani has directed stakeholders to come up with the best way to mitigate the potential impact of flooding in areas identified by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) in the State.  

The Commissioner of Environment and Natural Resources, Abubakar Buba disclosed this during a sensitization campaign held on Monday at the Lagos Garage, Mando in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

According to him, Gov. Sani directed the Ministry and other stakeholders to look at all the proactive measures to be taken to avert the flood, and part of it is sensitization, which all the MDAs of the State have started to work on for the past two to three months.

Buba reiterated that the team decided to kick start the Campaign at a center like Mando Motor Park, which is highly populated and the exercise is to distill all the drainage.

He added that the project ‘Distilling Drainage’ is a Kaduna Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (KAD-ACReSAL) supported by the World Bank.

“Since it is the rainy season, we have decided to distill all the drainages within the city center and the three senatorial zones, Kaduna, Kafanchan, and Zaria Metropolis. We are going to distill 160,000 meters of drainage within the City centers of the three senatorial zones.

“In doing this, we are sure that by the time the rain comes to its peak, it will have a way to flow back into the river which can prevent any likely occurrence in the State.

“We called on  Citizens of Kaduna State to ensure that they cooperate with the Government by coming out to assist, and also stop disposing of garbage in the drainage system and also ensuring that they keep their areas clean and together with the efforts of the Government, it will be a success.

“All the flood-prone areas have been drainage systems and the only thing is that most of the drainage is blocked. We involve the people in the work we are doing so that at the end of the day, sustainability can be achieved.

“There’s a monitoring and evaluation team which comprises of all the stakeholders, KEPA, SEMA, and others from the LGA Council and even the traditional rulers and also the youths, men and women of the community will be involved. We are going round to ensure that it is a success and everybody will participate in it,” he said.

Speaking earlier, Jibril Dahiru Rufa’i of (KAD-ACReSAL) said the project is World Bank-assisted and aimed at addressing the challenges of land degradation and climate Change in Northern Nigeria on a multi-dimensional scale.

According to him, the ACReSAL Project will help restore 1 million hectares of degraded land in the northern part of the country. “The Project will also help reduce the vulnerability of millions of extremely poor people in northern Nigeria, strengthening their role in line with achieving environmental sustainability.

“Today we are participating as key stakeholders in distilling Drainage as proactive measures to flooding.”

In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of, the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA,) Muhammed Mu’azu Mukaddas said “It would be recalled that for the last six weeks, we’ve been moving around with KEPA and other key Stakeholders, trying to sensitive the citizens on the need to be safe and at the same time, mitigate the flood highlighted areas.

“I must say with full happiness that the Ministry of Environment under the leadership of the Commissioner, has made this proactive, not just with drainage but informing citizens on the impact and the need to come out fully to support the Government and others by making sure we mitigate the effect of the graded plots.

“The report is something we have been receiving for almost three years even though we are on a high level one will understand that one of the main agendas is safety.

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“We went out to 738 points in the State with all the Ministries, KEPA, and Ministry of Environment in the State to sensitize citizens living in those flood areas.

“The Government can only provide Haven Centres so that peradventure we experience any kind of food, we hope these efforts will mitigate the effect.

“This is to say there is an expectation, but with this kind of proactive measures taken, we are certain that if we continue like this and if the communities come together, and listen to the instructions from concerned agencies, we will be able to mitigate the high level of risk that can attract the flood.”

Similarly, the Managing Director of Kaduna State Environmental Protection Authority (KEPA), Dr Yakubu Yusuf Arrigasiyyu explained that the target of the operation is to distill all drainage in the state so that there is free flow of water to avoid any blockage that can cause damages to the houses or flooding.

Scores of bandits troubling the North-Western region and parts of Niger State have been reportedly eliminated in another coordinated attack by the military in Giwa LGA of Kaduna State.

Kaduna State Overseeing Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan disclosed this in a statement yesterday.

He said, “the coordinated ground and air strikes by troops of Operation Whirl Punch successfully neutralized several bandits including some of their leaders at an identified meeting point near Bula community within Yadi Forest in Giwa LGA.

“According to operational feedback to the Kaduna State Government, the strike was based on credible intelligence which followed the recent elimination of some bandit kingpins along the Kaduna-Katsina border areas.

“The intelligence report had earlier revealed that bandits were to converge at the area for a meeting on a deadly mission within the Yadi Forest genera area. Close monitoring followed, and at the agreed time, the bandits were sighted bearing arms and approaching the location on motorcycles.

“Further exploration confirmed the movements and convergence of the bandits in a group of about seven to ten members at a hub in the location.

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“Upon verification, the location was struck and scores of the bandits including one Alhaji Kachalla Ragas – an ally and childhood friend of the previously neutralized Buharin Yadi – were confirmed to have been neutralized by the strike,” he said.

The Security Commissioner said Governor Uba Sani while receiving the report, expressed satisfaction and warmly commended the security forces for their quick response, diligent efforts and precise execution.

“The Governor thanked the various sources who provided crucial intelligence leading to the successful strike,” he said.

Aruwan however, encouraged the citizens of Kaduna State to continue to volunteer useful information on suspicious movements to the State’s Security Operations Room via the phone lines 09034000060 and 08170189999.

Kaduna state government said it has within the first year under the administration of Governor Uba Sani, spent N19.9 billion on pension, gratuity, and death benefits of its civil servants.

Executive Secretary of Kaduna Pension Bureau, Professor Salamatu Idris Isah stated this on Thursday, June 13, at a One Day Sensitization on Data Recapture Exercise for Kaduna State Public Servants under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

The sensitization which was organised by the Kaduna State Pension Bureau in collaboration with the Pension Funds Administrators (PFAs) Operating in the State, has in attendance representatives of civil servants from all the MDAs in the state.

Speaking to journalists shortly after the programme where the PFAs and officials of the Pension Bureau made presentations on the importance of accurate data to seamless pension payments, Professor Isah urged the civil servants to perfect their records to avoid challenges after retirement.

She said though the state was still facing the challenge of inherited pension liabilities, the Pension Bureau boss said, the state had between May 2023 and May 2024, expended N13 billion on the state monthly pension scheme and local government pension.

Professor Salamatu Isah also said a total sum of N6.9 billion has been expended on gratuity payments within the same period.

According to her, “the essence of the programme is to ensure that, all Kaduna Civil Servants are well documented by the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), because that is the only way to ensuring a seamless receipt of retirement their retirement benefits.

“We want to from now prevent the challenges of errors in names, BVN not tallying with the name or National Identity Number (NIN) not captured.

“The reason we had to do this data recapturing is that a good number of the civil servants were captured when there was no BVN or NIN. We also got to know that the PFAs have not been able to do data capturing properly for all the public servants of Kaduna State. Even though they have registered with the PFAs, the PFAs getting detailed information about their clients when they are retiring is significant.

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“So, with this sensitization, civil servants who have not done proper registration with their PFAs will know what to do. From the presentations, the civil servants have been told what and what they need to do.”

Speaking of the State’s pension expenses, the Executive Secretary said, “From May 2023 to May 2024, the current government has expended N13billion. In the state monthly pension scheme, we have expended seven billion Naira, while the local government has expended five billion Naira, making the N13billion

“In the area of gratuity payment, we have expended N6.9billion. So, that is quite a lot within one year. And we have paid over 2,000 people in terms of gratuity and death benefits in the new and old scheme.

“She however noted that the only challenge is the huge liabilities the state has to settle. Though the liabilities have reduced drastically, it is still something that we need to put more efforts into, especially since we have disengaged teachers that have not received their gratuities and death benefits,” she said.

Kaduna state governor, Uba Sani said that within the first 365 days of his administration, the government has reduced the number of out-of-school children from 680,000 by over 300,000.

The governor, who spoke at a lunch organized in celebration of his one year in office by the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Malam Sadiq Mamman-Lagos, said the feat was achieved due to the priority attention given to the education sector.

Addressing stakeholders, including the elders, traditional rulers, government officials, party faithfuls, labour leaders and members of organized private sector, as well as other citizens at the lunch, Governor Sani said that his administration has built 62 brand new secondary schools and 2,347 new classrooms in existing primary schools across the state.

He said having realized that, Kaduna is one of the most difficult states to govern in Nigeria, due to its cosmopolitan nature, he decided to run an inclusive government, which recognizes the importance of every stakeholder’s contribution, especially the elders have experience in leadership and governance, hence the success of his administration.

The governor said: “A lot of people are surprised that, within one year, we have done ground breaking and complete 54 roads, totaling about 673 kilometers within one year. It is because we are consulting; we have reached out to every former governor of the State, because we believe the only way we can get it right, is to tap from their experiences. We give credit of our success to them and the Elders Forum we formed under the chairmanship of Alhaji Abubakar Mustapha and General Zamani Lekwot.

“One of the key areas we are focusing on is education, because we recognize education as the greatest enabler. We believe the only way we can address the issue of insecurity, poverty and unemployment is to ensure that, every child in Kaduna State goes to school.

“When we came in, we realized that we had about 680,000 out of school children in Kaduna. Today, when I visited the SDGs office, the record before us as we speak, we have reduce it with over 300,000. And that is largely because of our aggressive efforts and investment in education.

“In the last 11 months, we built 62 secondary schools in Kaduna and we have commissioned all of them. We built, 2,347 classrooms in our primary schools in the last 11months. Close to this, we realized that have to focus on skills education, because we have deficit in the area of skills. That is why we currently building three major skills acquisition cities in the political zones of the state.

“We are going to complete these skills acquisition cities in the  next three months by God’s grace. When that is done, at least 1,200 of our youths will be admitted and the state government will invest to ensure that all of them come out with requisite skills that will make them self employed, while the state will even be exporting skills within and outside Nigeria. This will reduce poverty and unemployment,” he said.

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While highlighting the importance of agriculture and its 42% contribution to state’s GDP, Governor Sani said his government has recently reached out to 60,000 small holder farmers with input and equipment to ensure that, state does not lose its pride position as number producer of Maize, Ginger and Tomatoes in the country.

He also spoke about his efforts at reconstruction, remodeling and reequipping the secondary healthcare centers in the state, which he said have been neglected for over a decade, as well as his rural revitalization project.

Speaking at the event, former vice president and one time governor of Kaduna State, Architect Mohammed Namadi Sambo and former Military Administrator, A.S Ahmed lauded Governor Uba Sani for uniting the seemingly polarized state within a short period and security moves.

The convener of the lunch, Hon. Sadiq Mamman-Lagos said the event was put together to celebrate their leader, Governor Sani who has performed excellently well, what usually takes others four years to achieve.

The occasion was used to give business grants to over 100 supporters of Governor Sani at the grassroot, while some People With Disability (PWD) selected from the three zones of the state, were given wheelchairs.

Kaduna State Government is to plant 10 million trees to combat desertification and reclaim degraded land across the State.  

Deputy Governor Hadiza Balarabe announced this at an event to commemorate the 2024 World Environment Day and flagging off tree planting at the Kaduna State University.

Dr Balarabe explained despite the progress of Nigeria’s Great Green Wall project, desert encroachment into Kaduna State persists.

According to her, the challenge has inspired Kaduna Great Green Wall project to planting millions of trees across frontline Local Government Areas LGAs to prevent further desertification.

She maintained that, Kaduna State had developed Climate Change Policy, which is awaiting council approval Soon. 

According to her, desertification, land degradation, and drought are silent destroyers that impacted both people and the planet. 

 “Fertile and productive lands are essential for numerous human activities. This therefore denotes that, desertification and drought will present significant barriers to sustainable development, and thereby exacerbating poverty, poor health, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, forced migration, and reduced climate resilience.

“Land degradation is both a cause and consequence of climate change. Its restoration offers a powerful solution with the potential to limit climate change and achieve sustainable development goals,” she said.

Balarabe pointed out in Nigeria, significant efforts have been made to combat the challenges, stressing that, over 1,558.62 hectares of degraded land have been rehabilitated Under the visionary leadership of President Bola Ahmad Tinubu, Nigeria is committed to meeting its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) by conditionally reducing emissions by 47% by 2030.

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“In Kaduna State, through the World Bank-supported ACReSAL project, we aim to reclaim 20,000 hectares of degraded land. The Eco Citizen Kaduna initiative encourages green impact investments and opportunities for sustainable development in the state. It promotes the potential for climate-smart communities through Green impact investment.”

Balarabe called on upon other public institutions, the private sector, civil society organizations, and other groups to support government initiatives.

The Chief of Staff to the Kaduna State Governor, Sani Liman Kila, has said the doors of the state government are always open to members of the press in the state.

This was as he said the Governor Uba Sani-led government knows the worth of journalists and it is ready to work with them.

Kila stated this shortly after he was decorated as the Grand Patron of the Kaduna NUJ Correspondents Chapel on Friday.

The CoS disclosed that as a government, Kaduna State will partner with the press, saying “any government that ignores the press does so at its own peril.

“For us in Kaduna, we are enjoying a robust relationship with the media. Kaduna has always been in the news. This is not unconnected with the fact that I have known 75 percent of the members of your union for over twenty years.

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“The state governor, Alh Uba Sani has been a media friendly man. He has known many of you since his days as an activist and this relationship has been maintained over the years…

“The fact that I am being honoured when the media are observing their World Press Freedom Day makes the event special. I want to say without mincing words that our doors are open. We have partnership with the press and we will continue to partner with you. …” he said.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Chapel, Abdulgafar Alabelewe said the Chapel carefully chose the Chief of Staff as its Grand Patron because of his capacity to shoulder the responsibility the load.

A study conducted by Bayero University Kano (BUK) in collaboration with University of York and University College London has shown that 94.4 per cent of households in Kaduna and Nasarawa State, including some rural and semi urban parts of the FCT use fuelwood for cooking.

The study said between 2000 and 2020, Nigeria lost 17,400km2 of its foerest to deforestation.

The figures, the study showed, was approximately five-times the size of Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial city.

The Dean Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Bayero University Kano, Aliyu Barau spoke at the final workshop to present the report of a research funded by the Royal Society on ‘Improving Access To Clean And Modern Energy For Cooking While Reducing Land Degradation And Biodiversity Loss In Nigeria.’

Prof Barau, who was the Project Lead in Nigeria, lamented the speed at which the country’s forest was being depleted.

He said: “Our study has estimated that the forest loss between 2000 and 2020 across the three states stands at 17,400km2 which is approximately five-times the size of Lagos State.

“This finding resonates with the UN estimates that ranks Nigeria among top-3 states with the highest rates of deforestation.

“In the two states and rural and semi urban parts of the FCT, 94.4% of households use fuelwood or charcoal for cooking. Interestingly, 95.8% said they would use cleaner fuels should they be available and affordable.

“The cost of ignoring the local communities is too expensive for the future of this country’s ecological integrity and wellbeing. In the course of this project, we have listened to the people living near forests and their perceptions on conservation is very discouraging.

“For example, in Nasarawa LGA, a respondent rather indifferently told us that if we had come to their place “last Saturday you would have seen about one dozen young and old antelopes that we captured.” These animals are on the IUCN list of threatened species and yet they are recklessly hunted, sold and eaten as bush meat.

“More shocking story came our way in Kaduna State where a respondent claimed that ‘using a chainsaw we can cut down more than one thousand trees in a day.’These are consequences of ignorance, poor attitude, morality, values, and corruption.”

The Don stated that it was apparent that communities lacked knowledge and skills to manage scarce resources and are also ignorant of the government policy on environmental safeguards.

He added that another explicit manifestation of public ignorance the group came across in Nasarawa was the belief held by some locals that forests will never disappear.

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The Don said: “Similarly, our study has found how women are being exploited and short changed in the economics of fuelwood and charcoal production. Charcoal production by women as we observed it along Lafia-Ankwanga Road is a 24-hours nonstop and sleepless hard labour by women.

“In rural areas across the study sites, women spend much time on accessing fuelwood and while cooking they are being exposed to health hazards.”

Emir of Nasarawa Ibrahim Jibrin said, environment has gradually taken center stage in world affairs in the last six decades or more.

The monarch, who was a former minister of environment, said that Nigeria was not an exception to the global trend because every part of the country was facing environmental issues or challenges.

He therefore advised that everybody be involved in utilising available materials for producing and utilising clean energy.