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Tag: Lawal Mohammed

  • ‘Lack of safe water affects children’s learning’

    A Community leader inJama’are Local Government area of Bauchi State, Alhaji Lawal Mohammed, says lack of safe water, inadequate sanitation and hygiene facilities affect children’s learning processes.

    Mohammed said this in an interview with our reporter in Azare, Katagum Local Government headquarters on Saturday.

    “We lack safe water in our communities, schools and the health facilities which affects learning process of children.”

    According to him, water scarcity in communities prevents many young children, especially girls, from attending school and receiving education.

    “They are expected not only to assist their mothers to fetch water, but also to help with household chores that are made more time-intensive because of the lack of readily available water.

    “Furthermore, the lack of clean water means the absence of sanitary facilities and latrines in schools, and so once puberty hits, this has a more serious impact on female children.

    “In terms of lost educational opportunity, school attendance drops or children skip class attendance day by day.”

    According to him, inadequate safe water, sanitation and hygiene facilities affect the education, health, safety, and quality of life of children as children under the age of five die each year from diarrhoea.

    “Children in our communities go to schools which have no drinking water or clean latrines — basic things that many of us take for granted.

    ‎“Every child has the right to be in a school that offers safe water, healthy sanitation and hygiene education.”

    Read Also: Educate children on moral, lawyer advises parents

    ‎Mohammed stressed that providing quality water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in schools would reduce hygiene-related diseases and could help curb the schools days missed daily due to fatigue occasioned by search for water.

    According to him, girls are reluctant to continue their schooling when toilets and washing facilities are not private, safe, clean, or simply not available.

    The community leader, therefore, urged government, policy makers, school administrators, communities and parents to ensure that all children go to a school with child-friendly water, sanitation and hygiene facilities.

    He also urged decision-makers and key stakeholders to increase investment for WASH in schools, with the participation of communities, civil society, the media, students and children themselves.

    He said providing WASH facilities in schools would improve access to primary education, reduce child mortality and halve the proportion of people without access to safe water and basic sanitation.

    Mohammed commended the Network for Civil Society Organisations in Water and Sanitation (NEWSAN) and WaterAid Nigeria for launching the vote4WASH campaign, adding that it would go a long way in the quest for the provision of WASH facilities in the communities

  • DSS arrests financier of Kogi kidnap gang

    The Department of State Services (DSS) said on Tuesday it has arrested a suspected major financier and armourer of the dreaded Basalube kidnap gang in Kogi, Lawal Mohammed.

    A statement issued by the DSS spokesman in Abuja, Mr. Tony Opuiyo, said the suspect was arrested on March 23, at Japama in Obajana local government area of Kogi.

    Opuiyo said the suspect was apprehended with two other members of the gang – Mohammed Tukur and Abubakar Ibrahim – by the joint team of DSS and the military during the operation.

    He said Tukur was identified as the Chief surveillance officer of the gang who coordinated the gang’s movement across Rivers, Edo, Delta, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kaduna, Kogi and the Federal Capital Territory, preparatory to the execution of their operations.

    Opuiyo said items recovered from the suspects included three cell phones and 25 bottles of psychotropic inducers.

    In a related development, the DSS said it has also arrested five suspected members of the Basulube kidnap gang at Ughelli North local government area of Delta State.

    The suspects are – Ali Abubakar, a top ranking member of the gang, Abubakareem Idrisa,Bashir Tsoho, Sanusi Abubakar, Nuhu Muhammadu and Abubakar Abdulhammeed.

    “This arrest was effected while Abubakar was perfecting plans to carry out kidnap operations in Obajana, Kogi,” he said.

    He said in its determination to decimate the gang, the DSS on March 26 arrested Abubakar Danlansu, driver and weapon courier of the group at Dikko area of Niger.

    “The suspect was arrested enroute Edo from where he was to convey weapons to Obajana in Kogi for the gang’s planned kidnap operations,” he added.

     

     

  • DSS arrest major financier, armourer of kidnap gang in Kogi

    The Department of State Services ( DSS ) said it had arrested Lawal Mohammed, a suspected major financier and amourer of the dreaded Basalube kidnap gang in Kogi.

    A statement issued by an operative of the service, Mr Tony Opuiyo, on Tuesday in Abuja, said the suspect was arrested on March 23, at Japama in Obajana Local Government Area of Kogi.

    Opuiyo said that the suspect was apprehended with two other members of the gang, Mohammed Tukur and Abubakar Ibrahim, by the joint team of the Service and the Military during the operation.

    He said that Tukur was identified as the Chief surveillance officer of the gang who coordinated the gang’s movement across Rivers, Edo, Delta, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kaduna, Kogi and the Federal Capital Territory, preparatory to the execution of their operations.

    The operative said that items recovered from the suspects include: three cell phones and 25 bottles of psychotropic inducers.

    In a related development, the DSS said it had also arrested five suspected members of the Basulube kidnap gang at Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta.

    The suspects are: Ali Abubakar, a top ranking member of the gang, Abubakareem Idrisa,Bashir Tsoho, Sanusi Abubakar, Nuhu Muhammadu and Abubakar Abdulhammeed.

    “This arrest was effected while Abubakar was perfecting plans to carry out kidnap operations in Obajana, Kogi,“he said.

    He said that in its determination to decimate the gang, the Service on on March 26 arrested Abubakar Danlansu, driver and weapon courier of the group at Dikko area of Niger.

    “The suspect was arrested enroute Edo from where he was to convey weapons to Obajana in Kogi for the gang’s planned kidnap operations.

    He said that the service had arrested Matthew Ekam, 39, in connection with the kidanap of Obianuju Onyema in Yenagoa on March 12 and later released by the kidnappers on March 18.

    Opuiyo said the suspect is a native of Ogoja, Cross River and a driver of a heavy duty truck operating between Bayelsa and Rivers.

    He said that on March 24, the service arrested a suspected Boko Haram terrorist, Mohammed Bello on the outskirt of Wudil Local Government Area of Kano State.

    Read Also: How we secured Dapchi schoolgirls’ release —DSS

    He said Bello was believed to be carrying out surveillance activities for the extremist group in the area.

    “At the point of his arrest, several handsets, multiple identity cards including those of a Police Constable and neighbourhood vigilante member and N37,857.00 were recovered from him,“he said.

    “The arrest of these suspects hold major significance for law and order and safety of persons.

    “It is instructive to note that the activities of kidnappers and armed robbers on the Lokoja-Okene and Abuja-Kaduna corridors have relatively reduced as a result of sustained counter operations of the Service and sister security agencies,“he said.

    Opuiyo said that the recent arrest of Abubakar and other members of the dreaded Basalube kidnap gang would apparently result in the complete elimination of violent and other allied crimes in those regions.

    “The successes so far recorded by the Service are geared toward providing a safe and peaceful environment for law abiding citizens to pursue their legitimate endeavours.

    “We wish to reassure the public that the tempo of these operations will be continually reviewed, strengthened and sustained.

    “The Service, therefore, wishes to reiterate its stance that all perpetrators of violence and criminality against the Nigerian State and its law-abiding citizens will be made to face the full course of law no matter how long it takes, “he said.

    NAN

  • Court imprisons three vagrants for criminal trespass

    Court imprisons three vagrants for criminal trespass

    A Karmo Grade 1 Area Court, Abuja, on Wednesday sentenced three vagrants to three months imprison each for trespass.

    The convicts: Sani Yusuf, Yunusa Abdullahi, and Abbas Nafiu, all of Jabi Motor Park by Delta Line, Abuja, were convicted after they pleaded guilty and begged for leniency.

    The convicts were sentenced on a two-count charge of criminal trespass and attempt to commit theft.

    The judge, Abubakar Sadiq, however, gave each of the convict an option to pay N5, 000  fine, and warned them to desist from committing crime.

    The prosecutor, Dalhatu Zannah, had told the court that one Lawal Mohammed of Jabi Motor Park, Abuja, reported the matter at the Utako Police Station on Feb. 9.

    Zannah said that the convicts criminally trespassed into the park at about 3: a.m. and attempted to steal valuable items.

    He told the court that, when the vigilance group arrested the convicts they could not give  satisfactory account of themselves.

    The prosecution counsel said that the convicts made confessional statements during police investigations and the offences contravened Sections, 348 and 95 of the Penal Code.

    NAN