The Nation Newspaper

Tag: kids

  • Making the best of holidays for kids

    Making the best of holidays for kids

    Hippee!! The holidays are here. At least the kids can rest from all work and no play. However, parents can get tired because the kids just want to play. rather than send them out for some summer class why not use this period to get them busy.

    Rather than send them out for some summer class, why not use this period to get them busy.

    Yes! Teach them some new things apart from school work. More about soft skills that will get their minds and hands busy.
    Let them see other aspects of learning and let them learn what is not taught at schools.
    Teach them house chores. How to cook. How to clean. How to keep things. Please spare them all the mathematics and English stuff, at least for while.
    Even in learning, there must be a balance between theory and practise.
    And if you are the get, busy parents, you can hire a private tutor or get a good summer camp where skills are taught.
    There are lots of advantages. It develops your kids both intellectually and physically. Kids learn faster through activities.
    You might never know the best musician, dancer, Engineer, that the world has ever known might be discovered. Yes! It helps to discover talents, gifts that God has blessed the kids with.
    It prepares the kids for the future. When kids get busy and learn skills and chores it helps them navigate through life as they grow.
    And most importantly it helps the kids to bond with their parents. When you spend more time with your children, you get to know them more. And that’s the greatest beauty of parenting.
    Get them busy. Build their future.
  • Set good examples for your kids, fan slams Davido

    Set good examples for your kids, fan slams Davido

    Hip hop music fan Davido has been slammed by a fan after he posted a picture on Tuesday on his Instagram account in which he was holding a cigarette and a glass half filled with liquid.

    Davido captioned the post, ‘FEARLESS.’

    However, while many of his fans hailed the post which had received over 93, 000 likes by Wednesday afternoon, a fan, @cyrilato, was opposed to it.

    “The Genesis of a junkie,” wrote @cyrilato.

    “@davidofficial You need to be a good example at least for your kid.”

    Davido has two daughters from two different ladies.

    In the picture, Davido is seen wearing a denim top over a white round T-shirt on top of a camouflage trouser. With his eyes covered in dark glasses, he struck a relaxing pose as he sat cross-legged with one hand holding what looks like a cigarette while the other hand cupped the half-filled wine glass.

    The singer whose singles, ‘If’ and ‘Fall’ are enjoying acceptance from fans across the world, is presently on the U.S. leg of his 30 Billion World tour.

  • Badoo kills couple, kids in Ikorodu

    Badoo kills couple, kids in Ikorodu

    A man, his wife and two children were at the wee hours of Sunday murdered by suspected members of ritual gang, Badoo.

    One member of the family identified simply as Feyin, it was gathered, survived the attack and was being treated at an undisclosed hospital.

    The incident occurred at the family’s room and parlour apartment situated at 4, Ile Baba Shade Mosque, Oke Otta, Ajose in Ibeshe, Ikorodu, Lagos.

    It was gathered that two of the three children, who were minors, were raped before their brains were smashed.

    This killing is coming at a time calm was returning to Ikorodu after months of continuous attack by the murderous gang.

    Although two children were alive when residents discovered them on Sunday evening, one later passed on at the hospital, it was learnt.

    According to a resident, the couple and a daughter died before morning, while their last born and the second daughter, were found unconscious and rushed to the hospital.

    Their killers, she said, removed one of the glass windows to access the house while the family was asleep, adding that there was no burglary proof there.

    She said the incident occurred very close to the community mosque, adding that it drew the ire of residents, who stormed the palace of the monarch.

    She said that policemen were invited to evacuate the corpses when they were discovered yesterday, adding that youths in the community were already spoiling for war.

    Another source told The Nation that the incident occurred close to where the very first attack from the ritual gang was recorded in Ikorodu.

    At the time of filing this report, the identities of the victims were yet to be ascertained.

    Contacted, the command’s spokesman, Olarinde Famous-Cole, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) said investigation has commenced.

    He said: “Police operatives were notified of the incident and they mobilised to the scene. They found it extremely difficult to locate the house, which was situated in a thick forest. It is remotely impossible for anybody to identify a dwelling house in the area.

    “They arrived the scene eventually and discovered an open window. Five members of the family were attacked and three dies on the spot. One died while receiving treatment and the last family member is alive and responding to treatment.

    “Investigation has commenced. There is no visible trace of violence and no clue linked to the cult group was found. No stone was found at the scene, which does not fit in the modus operandi of the cult group.

    “A case of murder is being investigated by police detectives. The Lagos State Police Command is using this opportunity to call on council, Community Development Association (CDA) Chairmen, traditional rulers who know persons staying in isolated areas, which are no longer safe to come and report/identify with the police in order to stop people from packing into obscure areas without proper social structures.

    “The command also wishes to inform members of the public to come forward with useful information to aid the police and not resort to jungle justice in order not to jeopardise the investigation that may lead to the arrest of the alleged suspects who are on the command’s watch list.”

  • Two women, kids injured as Badoo attacks church

    Two women, kids injured as Badoo attacks church

    The notorious Badoo gang yesterday stormed a church in Ajegunle, Ikorodu, Lagos, wounding two women and their children.

    It was the first time the gang would strike in Ajegunle since it went on a killing orgy around Ikorodu.

    The victims were said to have been attacked while asleep after a vigil at Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Aladura, 4, Victor Anibaba Street, Owode Weigh Bridge, Ajegunle.

    The women simply referred to as Iya Dabira and Iya Ayomide are lying critically ill at the Ikorodu General Hospital, but the state of their children could not be ascertained.

    Earlier reports however indicated that the children died on the spot.

    According to the founder of the church, Rotimi Ajidara, the killers scaled the fence around 2.30am to attack their victims.

    He said the women and children were asleep at another section of the premises after the vigil, while he retired to his apartment.

    Ajidara said he was woken up by the screams of his members, adding that he immediately alerted his neighbours.

    He said: “I went straight to the church, only to find the two women and their daughters in a pool of their own blood and I alerted some of my neighbours, who in turn called the attention of other residents.

    “Since I have been hearing about the killings by Badoo, I never knew they would come to my church.  After checking round it was discovered that they scaled the fence into the church to cause the harm.

    “I don’t know what to tell the families of the victims, because they only came to my church for vigil. My prayer now is that God heals the two women who are still battling to survive.”

  • Kaduna moves to save 1.6m underfed kids

    Kaduna moves to save 1.6m underfed kids

    With help from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Kaduna State has launched a campaign to keep its teeming malnourished children from dying. ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE reports

    The statistics is grave. There are over 1.6 million malnourished children in Kaduna, the highest prevalence figure in Nigeria, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Worse, said the global body’s nutrition specialist, Dr. Florence Oni, in a mid-2016 report, malnutrition was responsible for the death of 50 per cent of children under five-year-old in the state.

    She said, “Over 900,000 children, representing 57 per cent children in the state are stunted; meaning six out of every 10 children less than five years in the state are stunted due to malnutrition. Also, over 750,000 children are wasted, which implies that 47 per cent of the children are suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and are 10 times more likely to die.”

    This was worrying enough for the state government. In 2016, it released about N37 million to treat about 3,060 underfed children, while UNICEF equally supported the government in like sum to treat additional 3,060 children.

    Considering that 6,120 children being jointly treated compared with the over 1.6 million malnourished children in the state was insignificant, the government and UNICEF rolled out Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) in March as part of efforts to address the problem, where 507 children from six to 59 months old with severe acute malnutrition were admitted into CMAM between March and May.

    The Nation gathered that within a short period, 138 children were treated and discharged, while two defaulted and five died.

    Similarly, Community Infant and Young Child Feeding (CIYF) was also initiated in the state to educate mothers on proper feeding of children. Between January and May 2016 alone, The Nation learnt 11,572 pregnant and lactating mothers in Kajuru and Zaria Local Government Areas were trained on appropriate infant and young child feeding.

    This year, the government launched Kaduna State Emergency Nutrition Action Plan (KADENAP), spurring some non-governmental organisations to equally swing into action in order to save the 1.6 million malnourished kids in the state. KADENAP was floated in January as a task force to provide food for the vulnerable, while the NGO I-Care Women and Youth Initiative (ICWYI) complimenting it by teaching mothers at community level to use available local foods to get the required nutrition for their children.

    KADENAP Chairman and the wife of the Governor, Hajia Ummi Garba el-Rufai, recently visited Pampaida Millennium Village in Saulawa, Ikara local government area saying the alarming statistics released by UNICEF on the number of malnourished children in the state had gingered her to take the fight head on.

    She said, “Reading a piece of news by UNICEF that 1.6 million children are affected by malnutrition gingered me to thinking of what to do to salvage that situation. Therefore, this fight against malnutrition is a fight that must be won”.

    She said the visit to Pampaida, which is UNICEF model village, was to enable KADENAP observe first-hand how they produce highly nutritious foods locally. “They have been doing some locally produced foods that carry all the nutrients that a human being needs.

    “We are trying to see what they are doing if it’s something that can be replicated; for us to be able to spread the information and the formula and the recipe on how it is done because we do have the food stuff and the crops, we just need to put it together to be able to have a nutritious meal”, she said.

    Similarly, Governor El-Rufai had said that the Kaduna state government has taken steps to address hunger and starvation in the state, adding that his administration had in 2016 set aside N300 million to take care of 50,000 malnourished children through UNICEF.

    However, during one of its field trips, to Kakuri, a community in Kaduna South Local Government recently, I-Care Women and Youth Initiative, one of the NGOs implementing the System Transformed For Empowered Action and Enabling Responses for Vulnerable Children and their families (STEER) project, taught mothers on how to make nutritious foods for different age groups of children, using local foods.

    The ICWYI Nutrition Team led by Hadiza Abdulsalam went further by cooking the foods taught. Thereafter, children between the ages of 4-6 ate rice cooked with vegetables, while nursing mothers fed their babies with pap, enriched with groundnut and crayfish.

    Speaking with The Nation on the ICWYI’s nutritional outreach, Hadiza Abdulsalam said, the food demonstration and preparation outreach was conducted across the five communities of Down Quarter, Kakuri Hausa, Unguwan Kaje, Unguwan Makama and Unguwan Muazu, all in Kaduna South Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

    She said caregivers, that is, mothers, were taught on how to prepare nutritious food with the locally available foodstuff and also according to age groups (6-8 months, 9-12 months and 12 – 23 months).

    Abdulsalam said, “188 out of 318 caregivers enrolled in the programme were reached last month, with food demonstration and preparation. Similarly, 122 out of 318 caregivers were also educated and counselled on nutrition, as well as Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH), growth monitoring and home stead gardening.

    “We also carried out community Infant and Young Child Feeding together with the food demonstration and preparation in those communities. While we also monitor growth of children between the ages of six months and five years.

    “So, what we are doing today is food demonstration and preparation. The essence is to show that people can get nutritious meals for their children from the local foods around. People have this notion that good nutrition is only for the rich. But, we have shown them that nutritious meals are better gotten from local foods.

    “The problem most of the time is how to get the right combinations to address malnutrition. That is why we are teaching them how to use their locally available foods to get the right nutrients required for their children’s growth”, she explained.

    With interventions like ICWYI’s, Kaduna can be said to be on the right track to reversing negative nutritional status of its 1.6 million children.

  • Organisation fetes kids

    Bond FM 92.9 radio station has held a three-day event for children at its premises in Ikeja GRA, Lagos.

    The programme was aimed at uplifting the kids to discover their vision. Children within one and 12 years, from various parts of Lagos and other states, attended the event.

    An outfit, Empire Academy of Performing Arts, organised the competition for the children in various areas such as Talent Hunt. The finalists were expected to be trained at the Academy on scholarship.

    The station’s General Manager, Bamidele Dada said: “This is not the first programme we have held.’’ Since he assumed duties, he said he had been strategising on programmes which would boost the image of the station.

    “In every season, such as New Year, Easter, Eid-el-fitri, Eid-el-Kabir, Independence Day, Christmas and others, the station comes up with a programme to attract and sensitise the public during such period.

    “There are still other programmes planned for the rest of the year, which are still in suspense. When it is appropriate for the programme to be held in any season, it will be aired,” he said.

    Some of the programmes featured were swimming pool, bouncing castle, horses, trampoline, toy craft and other skills.

    Others were heating massage for parents and different machines to keep their bodies fit.

    Dada urged parents to bring their children in the way of the Lord, adding that they should not leave them only for the teachers because charity begins from the home.

  • Niger CSOs fight HIV in kids

    With more than 50,000 children born with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria annually, and the country also posting about 60 per cent of new HIV infections in Western and Central Africa, health practitioners and stakeholders are justifiably alarmed.

    That was why Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Niger State have set up a platform to reduce and eliminate the virus among children.

    The coalition, Society for the Elimination of HIV Among Children (SEHAC) seeks to eliminate the new HIV infection among children and work towards keeping their mothers alive with minimal stigmatisation.

    At the Inaugural meeting of the coalition in Minna, the Zonal Coordinator of SEHAC, Dr. Ismailia Garba said that 32 percent of all cases of mother to child transmission of HIV in the world occurs in Nigeria adding that if there is enough sensitisation, which is one of the main objectives of the coalition, infected mothers would know how to protect their unborn babies from the virus.

    He said that there is need for more hands to be on deck if Nigeria will attain its targets in eliminating the disease, adding that by ensuring children are not born with the virus will enable the next generation effectively manage the HIV virus.

    The Niger state Coordinator of SEHAC, Mrs. Mary Jalingo said that Nigeria is said to be the largest burden of mother to child transmission of HIV in the world lamenting that the number of pregnant women visiting health facilities across the state remains low.

    She stated that the number of facilities providing prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV across the state is also low stressing the need to encourage women to come forward to prevent their babies from being born with HIV.

    “With an estimated 260,000 children from 0 to 14 hard living with HIV, only 12 per cent have access to antiretroviral drugs. This is what thisnCoalition Seeks to address.”

    Jalingo added that the Coalition will embark on advocacy for the availability of drugs and sensitise the community and mothers with HIV on how to reduce mother to child transmission stating that there is a general believe that children everywhere can be born free of HIV with their mothers remaining alive.

    “We intend sensitising leaders, providing leadership and innovation programme delivery, strengthening the capacity of women living with HIV, men and couples with HIV, prevention treatment programmes for mothers and children.”

    Jalingo emphasised the need to ensure continuous care of infants and young children of HIV positive parents.

     

  • Why parents must listen to their kids, by don

    It is said that one in three girls in developing countries suffers gender-based violence while over 140 millions girls and women have suffered genital mutilation.

    Provost, Lagos State University College of Medicine (LSUCM), Professor B. A. Solagberu, who was a guest speaker at this year’s Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) Children’s Day symposium, made this known.

    According to Solagberu millions of girls are trafficked in modern day slavery and women’s bodies are battle grounds and rape being used as tactics of war.

    “Gender violence is one of the most pervasive violations of human rights in the world; one of the least prosecuted crimes, and one of the greatest threats to lasting peace and development. It is estimated that seven in 10 women in some countries face physical and/or sexual violence in their life time. Violence against women has tremendous cost to communities, nation and societies. It results in reduced quality and quantities of life for those affected,”he said.

    The provost, who was represented by Prof Antonia Ogbera, however, sought support and good health care for victims of domestic violence. “A rape survivor must have a rapid access to a health clinic that can administer emergency medical care, including treatment to prevent HIV and unintended pregnancy and sound counseling. A woman who is beaten by her husband must have some place to go with her children to enjoy safety, sanity and shelter. A victim of violence must have confidence that when she files a police report, she will receive justice and perpetrators will be punished,”he said.

    A representative of the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Unit, Mrs Alakija Oladapo  said: “I think it has always been there, but it is because of our cultural and traditional values we saw it as if it’s nothing. Now that there is awareness and the world is a global village it is obvious now that it is not cultural, it is wrong and that is why we are raising awareness about it. Citizens of Lagos State should speak out, although it goes beyond Lagos State because Lagos does not live in isolation. You will find out that we have so many laws in Nigeria, but the real issue is about domesticating those laws. If every other state domesticates that law then we’re going to have the same success story.”

    She continued: “Now people find out that domestic violence is all over the place- among the poor, the rich and some celebrated faces, which mean we need to do more. But how do we do more? First and foremost, we should go back to our homes; the family structure is wrong, wrong in the sense that we are all guilty for what we are now seeing. Then when we thought it was ok. The world was not a global village, now children can see everything going on elsewhere. So we need to as a people, as it obtains in Europe when you reach a certain age you leave your family home, instead of what obtains here where we find our nephews are still living with us with our younger ones or grandchildren, there and then, we are creating room for abuses.

    “Most of us are working, but we need to plan ourselves if we need to copy we need to copy right. In the western world the couples don’t work at the same time either they work in shifts, but here everybody goes to work and you leave the children at the mercy of a keeper.”

    She added: “You take the child to crèche very early, but the teachers are not yet there because they resume maybe 8am, so you keep your child with the security man or the gardener, who possibly may abuse. And you pick your child very late and it’s the same routine simply because your work must not suffer. So, we need to create a balance in our home and then the way we bring them up and the way we share the household chores too.”

    A consultant pediatrician and head of pediatric unit of the clinical science department, NIMR, Dr Nkiruka David  said the girl child is more vulnerable to domestic violence, hence, the need to raise more awareness.

    “Every child is vulnerable, but the girl child is more vulnerable and that is why we are raising awareness about the girl child, but actually we will like every child to be protected from violence because even the boy child is at risk, but the girl child is particularly vulnerable and that’s why we are focusing on the girl child.

    “Sometimes parents don’t listen to their girls so they don’t have anybody to run to, but as a mother, we must learn to listen to our children, we must become their friend and confidante so that they can be able to come to us and talk to us about any problem they are facing.

  • Save the kids

    Save the kids

    •Nigeria must act to prevent 500,000 young deaths annually

    For a nation that likes to call itself the Giant of Africa, Nigeria tragically appears to have forgotten that true greatness lies in its capacity to bring succour to the most vulnerable of its citizens. This is why the alarm raised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) that 500,000 children aged five years and below could die from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) by the end of 2017 needs to be given the fullest attention that it deserves.

    UNICEF’s statistics on the issue are tragic in their enormity. About 2.5 million children currently suffer from SAM in Nigeria. In 2016, the country’s north-west region had 1,594,462 cases, out of which there were 308,000 deaths. The north-east region had 695,998 cases and 134,000 fatalities. In the north-central region, there were 43,635 cases and 8,400 deaths. The figures for southern Nigeria include the south-south (86,304 cases and 16,700 deaths), south-east (34,889 cases, 6,700 deaths) and south west (84,417 cases, 16,300 deaths).

    Malnutrition is not exclusively confined to poor citizens; 18 per cent of malnourished children are from relatively wealthy homes. Thirty-seven per cent or six million of the country’s children are stunted, of which half are severely stunted. Twenty-nine per cent are underweight, and 18 per cent are wasting.

    This is not the first time the fund has issued such dire warnings. In 2016, it warned Nigeria that 300,000 children could die of acute malnutrition before the end of that year. Nor is UNICEF the only organisation to raise the alarm: in November 2016, the medical charity, Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF), claimed that thousands of children were dying of hunger in the north-east on a daily basis, and declared it a “large-scale humanitarian disaster.”

    It is clear that Nigeria is confronting what is perhaps its worst humanitarian crisis since the end of the civil war in 1970. The response of successive governments at the federal, state and local government levels has been shamefully inadequate, especially given the financial resources at their disposal over time. Rather than tackle the scourge of child malnutrition at its roots, the country has either ignored the problem or dissipated energy in needless quarrels with humanitarian agencies and charities whose only crime has been to voice their concerns about what they have seen.

    UNICEF’s solution to the country’s malnutrition crisis involves pumping extra money into relevant areas in the immediate short-term: U.S. $144 million for the treatment of at least two million underfed children; bridging the shortfall of $85 million aimed at treating malnourished children; ensuring that all states make financial contributions to major anti-malnutrition initiatives like the Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) and the purchase of Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF).

    Focused financial intervention, apart from saving thousands of young lives, will also result in substantial savings on future medical treatment. UNICEF estimates that $5 is required to prevent malnutrition in one child, whereas $71 is needed to treat it; so, every $1 spent to prevent malnutrition now would save about $16 spent on malnutrition-related diseases in future.

    Child malnutrition must be treated like the existential crisis that it is. Nigeria must reach into the substantial stores of courage, initiative and self-sacrifice that it displayed during the Ebola emergency in 2014. Information and awareness campaigns must be ramped up to enable all citizens understand the nature of the threat confronting the country and to reassert the crucial importance of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of a child’s life. Increased attention should be paid to the Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps which are at the front-line of the battle against SAM with the main aim of ensuring that food and medicines are supplied to them in adequate quantities.

    No nation can lose half a million children on an annual basis and still deem itself worthy of its own sovereignty.

  • Please release our kids, parents beg kidnappers

    Please release our kids, parents beg kidnappers

    •Pupils’ whereabouts remain unknown 

    •Victim’s mother ‘collapses twice’

    Where are the six kidnapped pupils of Lagos State Model College, Igbonla in Epe? Their whereabouts remained unknown yesterday, three days after they were kidnapped from the school by gunmen.

    Their distraught parents yesterday accused the government and the school of being insensitive to their plight.

    Likening their children’s kidnap to the 2014 Chibok school girls’ abduction, they appealed to the government to give it “the deserved attention”.

    After a meeting in Epe, the parents expressed displeasure over what they called the school’s nonchalance to the incident.

    Farouk Yusuf, Ramon Isiaka, Pelumi Philips, Peter Jonas, George Adebanjo and Judah Agbaosi were whisked away from their dormitories last Thursday by gunmen clad in police uniform.

    The kidnappers, who contacted the parents on Saturday, demanded N400 million ransom.

    They were said to have told the parents to brief the school and the government about their demand.

    According to the parents, the kidnappers said they were aggrieved with the school and the government.

    At yesterday’s meeting to discuss the kidnappers’ demand, tempers ran high when the school’s representatives arrived late.

    The parents became enraged when the representatives – two vice principals – could not give them any update on the issue.

    A source told with The Nation: “It seems we have been too quiet and that is why the authorities have not told us anything yet. No one has given us any update. When we call them, they say they don’t know any development.

    “Two of the patents called the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education separately, before coming for the meeting we had at Epe and you won’t believe he told them to call the police because he doesn’t have any update. He told them he doesn’t know anything that only the police can give information.

    “What kind of reaction is that? How can he ask parents who are already distraught and do not even have contacts to call the police? Are they not supposed to be briefing us daily on efforts being made to rescue our children?

    “As I speak to you, my wife has collapsed twice and was revived.  She hasn’t stopped crying since Thursday. It is lives we are taking about. Six children cannot be accounted for at the moment and no one is saying anything.

    “This is not different from the case of the Chibok girls. The only difference is the number. It seems government has been more concerned with celebrating Lagos at 50 than in helping us get our children back. Now that the celebrations are over, we are begging the government to bring our children back safely.

    “The government did not send any representative to the meeting and the Vice Principals that came called a female permanent secretary but the woman said she was in a meeting.

    “They now called another man, who was in charge during last year’s kidnap but has been transferred to Ikorodu. It was that man that promised to come on Monday. That was why the meeting was adjourned.

    “Government needs to show concern and help us get the children back. Some of the parents came from Ijebu-Igbo, Ijebu Mushin and there’s also a parent who came from Port Harcourt.”

    Another parent said: “It is obvious the school doesn’t appreciate our pain. They don’t care about what happens to our children.  Our children have been kidnapped from their care since Thursday and yet, we haven’t heard anything concrete.

    “The kidnappers told us they have an axe to grind with the school. We were asked to tell the school and the government to provide the ransom, which we have done.

    “We even fixed a meeting of all stakeholders but the school sent representatives, who came two hours late. We haven’t heard anything from the government either. We are not happy and want the world to hear our cries. The kidnappers should please release our children for us. We are begging them.”

    The Nation gathered that security forces have been combing the creeks in order to rescue the pupils’.

    It was learnt that Friday’s offensive against the militants was unavoidable because they allegedly attempted to snatch the Marine Police gunboats.

    The kidnappers who were in three speedboats, were said to have run into the patrolling troops.

    He said: “The kidnappers planned to snatch gunboats but they were unsuccessful. The marine police and the local vigilantes combing the areas engaged the militants. Three of their notorious commanders were among those killed.

    “When they opened fire, the police returned fire. The gunboats were fully loaded with weapons and the policemen overpowered them. Their boats sank. As the fight was going on, they called for reinforcement and soldiers and naval personnel joined them.

    “No policeman was killed but some of them sustained injuries. They have commenced mop up of the general area to retrieve the bodies of the militants. Nigerians need to support the police and other security agencies to achieve greater results.”

     

    We’ll bring them back, says govt

    Lagos State Deputy Governor Dr Idiat Oluranti Adebule has assured parents of the kidnapped pupils of their children’s safe return.

    Mrs Adebule, who visited the school shortly on arrival from Abuja on Friday, said efforts were on to get the children released unhurt.

    “We are on top of the situation and the governor has directed all security operatives to move into action, details of which I cannot disclose in order not to undermine their operation,” she said.

    Mrs Adebule urged the parents to be calm.

    She appealed to the kidnappers to release the children to reunite with their families.

    An Igbonla indigene, Mr Folabi Fakeye, called on the government to help the community facilitate the siting of a naval base around the creeks for security.

    Fakeye promised that the community would provide land for the project.