The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Niger

  • 10 persons feared dead in Suleja flood

    About ten residents of Suleja, Niger State are missing and feared dead due to the heavy downpour and flood that started in the early hours of Sunday.

    The heavy rainfall lasted till about 9:30 a.m on Sunday morning.

    There was hardly any community in Suleja that was not affected by the adverse effects of the rain.

    But the worst-hit areas included Kaduna road through, Bakin-Iku, Chanchania and Yaro College area, Kantoma area, Kuspa, Angwa Gwari, and Angwa Juma.

    Some buildgings collapsed during the heavy downpour, resulting in the death of some residents while many sustained different degree of injuries.

    Some residents who tried to leave their submerged homes for safety were swept away by the flood.

    Cars and vehicles parked on the water ways were also not spared as they were moved from their original positions.

    A resident of Bakin-Iku, Sani Gamko said “Many houses were affected by the flood. Some completely collapsed while only parts of some buildings collapsed.

    “I know of nine persons who were carried away by the flood and likely dead in Bakin-Iku community alone.

    “The local government chairman and some NEMA officials have already visited the community to carry out on the spot assessment,” he added.

    At the General Hospital in Suleja, a nurse who spoke on condition of anonymity said that no dead body was brought to the hospital as a result of the rainfall.

    Only two injured patients from the rainfall, she said, were brought to the hospital.

    According to her, one of them is at the emergency ward.

    A Search and Rescue Officer of NEMA, Egrigba Micheal, who spoke to The Nation, said that the agency was able to rescue a victim who has been rushed to the Suleja General Hospital.

    He said: “We got a call from our zonal coordinator, Mohammed Idris that there was a flood in Suleja. So we quickly moved to Suleja. We have seen a lot of devastation the rain has caused. Many of the houses were submerged while some were completely rooted out. Many properties worth millions of naira were also destroyed.

    “There was one house that had eight people completely dead although we didn’t see their corpse.

    “In a family of eight, only one person was rescued dead. But the other seven are still missing.

    “We will go back to write our report and submit to our boss. Certainly tomorrow they will come back and do another assessment before there can be any relief. The rain was really devastating,” he said.

    Also speaking to The Nation, the Chairman of Suleja Local Government Area, Abdullahi Maje, said that about 10 persons have been declared missing since the flood took place.

    He said: “The flood I think started around 12 midnight till this morning and affected more than 100 houses around Suleja local Government Area apart from Tafa local Government Area.

    “There are about 10 missing persons within Suleja that the flood took away. Three bodies have been found, we are still searching for the remaining persons dead or alive.

    “We have made a call to the Federal government through NEMA. They responded quickly and came to Suleja and also the State management agency came in from Minna this morning,” he said.

    Stressing that the rainfall was an act of God, he promised that everything will be done to forestall future damages to lives and properties

  • Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon adopt plan to eradicate Boko Haram

    Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon adopt plan to eradicate Boko Haram

    The Council of Ministers of Defence of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) and the Republic of Benin have adopted a new plan “to completely eradicate” the terror sect, Boko Haram, in the region.

    The draft document prepared by military experts, chiefs of defence staff and heads of intelligence and security services of the LCBC was validated in Yaounde on Thursday, though the content was not made public.

    However, Cameroon Defence Minister, Joseph Beti Assomo said the meeting brought them closer to their “common strategic objective; the complete eradication of Boko Haram.”

    The Yaounde meeting also focused on assessing the security and humanitarian situation of the region and preparing for post-conflict stabilisation and rehabilitation of the areas affected by the Boko Haram militants.

    Boko Haram launched its insurgency in 2009 aiming to create an Islamic state in north eastern Nigeria, but has spread its terror to countries of the Lake Chad Basin – Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria.

    An 8,700-man regional Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) comprising troops from the four countries has been fighting to bring the sect to its knees since 2015.

    The executive secretary of the LCBC, Sanusi Imran Abdullahi said thanks to the efforts of the force, Boko Haram has been weakened.

    He announced that a new commander has been appointed to head the force.

     

  • Boko Haram militants kill nine in Niger village

    Boko Haram militants kill nine in Niger village

    Suspected Boko Haram militants have killed nine people in south-east Niger, an official said on Monday.

    The militants arrived on foot in Nglewa village in Kablewa rural municipality some 100 kilometres north of Diffa on Sunday.

    Kablewa Mayor Abari Elh Daouda said that they killed eight young people and an elderly man.

    About 30 people, including women and young men, were abducted.

    Report says the radical Islamist group kidnaps women to use as servants and sex slaves, while they use men as fighters.

    The Nigeria-based group has killed no fewer than 20,000 people since 2009 in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

  • 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.

     

  • Muslims, sustain your good acts after Ramadan – Etsu Nupe

    Muslims, sustain your good acts after Ramadan – Etsu Nupe

    The Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, has urged Muslims to sustain their good acts and behaviour beyond the one-month period of the Ramadan fast.

    He made the call while addressing his subjects who visited him in his Wadata Palace on Saturday in Bida, Niger.

    He said “we should strive to maintain our God-fearing acts which we exhibited during the fasting period.

    “As Muslims, we must strive to maintain all the good deeds we showed during the fasting period and shun the evil and devilish acts we abstained from during the Holy month.

    “Such good behaviours include abstaining from adultery, cheating, stealing, alcoholism, drug abuse and other secret sins.

    “I pray that almighty Allah accepts our prayers and the Ramadan fast and urge the Muslim Ummah never to return to abominable acts after the fast.”

    The monarch said it was only with the fear of Allah that Muslims would meet their needs and enjoy their possessions on earth.

    He appealed to well-to-do Muslims in the country to assist the less privileged with food items and other basic needs.

    He also urged Muslims to always pray for national peace and progress and tolerate one another for sustained unity in the country.

    He noted that the two major religions in the country preached peace, unity and love, stressing that without peace and unity, socio-economic development would continue to elude any society devoid of it.

    The royal father called on leaders at all levels to lead the people with the fear of God, saying “leaders should always remember that they would all account for their deeds on the day of reckoning.”

  • 5m children susceptible to water-borne diseases in Lake Chad – UNICEF

    5m children susceptible to water-borne diseases in Lake Chad – UNICEF

    The UN warned on Friday that no fewer than 5.6 million children across the Lake Chad basin are susceptible to deadly water-borne diseases such as cholera and hepatitis E as the rainy season hits a region already reeling from Boko Haram’s insurgency.

    UNICEF in a statement, said the 5.6 million children in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, many of whom have been uprooted by violence and live in host communities or refugee camps, are facing the disease threat as the rains arrive.

    The aid agency said flooding and muddy roads are expected to limit aid access to remote areas, where hunger is growing and the food is lacking, while the insecurity has made it hard to deliver supplies and ensure clean water is available ahead of the rains.

    “The rains will further complicate what is already a dire humanitarian situation, as millions of children made vulnerable by conflict are now facing the potential spread of opportunistic diseases,” Marie Poirier of UNICEF said in a statement.

    “Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene conditions can lead to cholera and hepatitis E.

    “Staving off disease is our top priority.”

    Cholera, which spreads through contaminated food and water, causes diarrhoea and vomiting, leaving small children especially vulnerable to death from dehydration, whereas liver disease Hepatitis E is particularly deadly for pregnant women.

    Also, the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said in Niger’s Diffa region, which has been hit by the conflict and hosts about 250,000 uprooted Nigeriens and Nigerian refugees, an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed at least 33 pregnant women so far this year.

    “To curb this type of outbreak, we know that our best asset at the moment is … water and sanitation activities ” said Víctor Illanes of the MSF.

    “When the deficiencies are so high and the space to be covered is as large as Diffa, it is difficult for these activities to have an impact in the short term,” he added.

    Boko Haram’s campaign to create an Islamic state is in its eighth year with little sign of ending.

    It has claimed more than 20,000 lives and uprooted 2.7 million people across Lake Chad.

    No fewer than five million people in northeast Nigeria need food aid, and about 1.5 million are believed to be on the brink of famine, yet the UN in this June, had to cut emergency food supplies for 400,000 people due to a lack of funding.

  • ECOWAS to set up solidarity fund to rebuild North East

    ECOWAS to set up solidarity fund to rebuild North East

     

    Mr. Edward Singhatey, the Vice President, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission says that plans are on-going to establish a solidarity Fund for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the North-East.

    Singhatey made this known on Tuesday in Abuja during the celebration of the 2017 World Refugee Day with the theme “We stand together with refugees and IDPs”.

    He said the Solidarity Fund was in compliance with the decision of the Mediation and Security Council to support the Federal Government’s Plan for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of North-East Nigeria.

    He said that the humanitarian crises in the insurgency affected states of the North-East was enormous, adding that it was constantly being assessed by the ECOWAS Commission.

    Singhatey said that the dire situation in the North-East deserved special attention, adding that it had necessitated the international community and ECOWAS Commission to engage in several interventions.

    He said that the ECOWAS Commission, working with partners had donated one million dollars’ worth of food items to support the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and 300,000 dollars for Nigerian refugees in Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

    The ECOWAS Commission vice president said that it also donated 400,000 dollars for the support of affected communities in the North-East.

    According to him, a recent statistics by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates over 65 million out of the eight billion worldwide population are refugees, asylum seekers and IDPs.

    Singhatey said that the African region represents about 30 per cent of the total number of refugees worldwide with a record of 180 million refugees as at 2016.

    He said that in West Africa, displacement and sufferings were caused by conflicts and other natural and human made causes.

    Singhatey said that failing to address the situation of refugees and other persons of concern amount to inviting adverse consequences for the environment.

    He said that the Commission’s Department of Social Affairs and Gender leads the humanitarian works with the goal of a borderless, prosperous and cohesive region with the capacity to effectively prevent and mitigate conflicts.

    He said the goal was also to limit the impact of conflicts and disasters on citizens and residents with a view to achieving human centered development.

    Singhatey said that the commission would continue to support the efforts of the Nigerian Government in assisting refugees, IDPs and other persons of concern.

    Also speaking, Mr. Jose-Antonio Canhandula, UNHCR Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS tasked Nigeria to join the new approach, which he said was the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework.

    He said that the framework was already being piloted by other African countries, including development actors and private sector in Chad, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda.

    Canhandula, however, said that UNHCR was working with various partners to foster the protection of refugees and IDPs, to collectively seek ways to increase support to the government in assisting people.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the occasion was attended by Acting President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who was represented by Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning.

    Others present were Hajiya Sadiya Farouq, the Federal Commissioner, NCFRMI, humanitarian actors and the refugees and IDPs who displayed the wares they made from various skills acquisition programmes.

  • Vice Principal accused of impregnating student gets N1m bail

    Vice Principal accused of impregnating student gets N1m bail

    Mohammed Mohammed, a school Vice Principal accused of impregnating his 16-year-old student, was on Tuesday granted N1 million bail by a Minna Magistrate’s Court.

    Magistrate Fatima Auna, who ruled on Mohammed’s bail application, said that the bail was in line with sections 35 and 36 of the 1999 constitution, and sections 341 and 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

    Mohammed, Vice Principal of Government Secondary School, Tunga in Niger, was first arraigned on April 4, but pleaded not guilty to the charge and applied for bail.

    The accused, who had been in prison custody since the arraignment, also challenged the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

    In her ruling, Auna granted the bail application and also ordered the accused to produce one surety, who must be a civil servant on grade level 12 or above.

    She also ruled that the offence was well within the jurisdiction of her court to entertain.

    Mohammed is standing trial on a two-count charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a child, and impregnating a female student.

    The Police Prosecutor, Mr Hussaini Paiko, had told the court that one Sokombo Danjuma reported the matter at the Child Rights Agency which, in turn, transferred it to the police.

    He said that the offences contravened sections 18 (2) and 25 (3) of the Child Rights Law of Niger State.

  • Niger Gov’s wife funds 63 patients’ surgeries

    The wife of the Niger State Governor, Dr. Amina Abubakar Bello has sponsored surgeries on 63 Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF) patients across the state. In the same vein, she has also conducted 1, 029 free cervical cancer screenings and 1,145 for breast cancer screenings for women in the rural areas.

    This was contained in a press statement signed by her Press Secretary, Aisha Wakaso highlighting the achievements of the governor’s wife in the past two years.

    Giving the breakdown of the VVF surgeries, the statement said, 19 VVF surgeries were done in Kontagora General Hospital, 30 in Umaru Sanda Ndayako Hospital, 10 in Minna General Hospital adding that the wife of the Governor sponsored four VVF patients who were referred to Katsina fistula Centre where she paid for their treatment, feeding, transport, and other expenses.

    Wakaso stated that for the 1029 Cervical Cancer Screenings, 630 women were screened in Bida in collaboration with PPFN, 208 in Anfani village in Mashegu Local Government during a medical outreach, 50 in Rofia village in Agwara Local Government during a medical outreach, 30 in Gbajibo village in Mokwa Local Government during a medical outreach while 31 women went to the RAiSE Cancer Screening Centre to be screened.

    “There have also been 1,145 breast cancer screenings. 650 women were screened in collaboration with 5th Chucker Polo and country club during the breast cancer awareness month, 304 women were screened during the breast cancer awareness week, 80 during a medical outreach at Anfani village in Mashegu Local Government, 50 during a medical outreach at Rofia in Agwara Local Government, 30 at Gbajibo during a medical outreach while 31 women were screened at the RAiSE Foundation screening centre.”

    She disclosed that out of those screened during the breast cancer awareness week,15 were positive of breast lump, 13 of them were referred for mammography, nine of them needed surgeries but only six out of those who were referred for mammography needed biopsies which Dr. Bello paid for while two who already had advanced cancer were referred to Shika.

    The statement further said that over 1,500 women in rural areas in the state have been empowered  in the past two years adding that, “The Governor’s Wife has also empowered 500 Women with multipurpose crop milling machine in Kuchita, Lavun LGA, Kwagana in Paikoro LGA and Gurara LGA to enable them process their farm produce while another set of 500 Women were trained in Kontagora on how to use agro wastes such as groundnut shell, egusi waste and rice waste to make alternative charcoal for cooking. Others were trained in skill acquisition.”

     

  • Customs collects over N1.2 bn revenue in Niger – Official

    Customs collects over N1.2 bn revenue in Niger – Official

    The Nigeria Custom Service (NCS), Niger Area Command, said it had collected about N1.2 billion as  revenue from January to May 2017.

    The area command comprised of Niger, Kogi and Kwara.

    The Public Relations Officer of the command, ASC Lomba Benjamin, disclosed this in an interview with the  News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna on Tuesday.

    He said that the area command had deployed well trained personnel to prevent any form of smuggling in the area.

    “We have deployed well trained security personnel to check the activities of smugglers in Banana border post,” Benjamin said.

    He explained that the command had also blocked all identified smuggling routes in the three states.

    The command spokesman appealed for support from members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers and other stakeholders in the effort to stem smuggling activities.

    He also urged traditional rulers especially those living in border communities, to educate their people on the negative effect of smuggling on the nation’s economy.