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Tag: Plateau State

  • Insecurity: More will die unless, Ekweremadu warns

    Life of the poor cheaper than peanuts and Gala – Sani

     

    Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, on Monday raised the alarm over the escalating killings and insecurity in the country.

    Ekweremadu warned that more lives would be lost unless the country’s security architecture was reorganised.

    This is contained in a statement by Ekweremadu’s media aide, Uche Anichukwu, on the recent killings in Plateau State, which had left scores dead.

    It said that Ekweremadu decried the reluctance of the nation’s leaders to tinker with the nation’s security structure, despite glaring lapses.

    It said that the Senator spoke after decorating his newly promoted security aides, Mr. Uchenna Igwebuike and Edward Utuh, with their new ranks of Superintendent of Police (SP) and Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), respectively.

    It said that Ekweremadu commended the Nigeria Police for the recent promotion exercise, noting that such would motivate the personnel to give their best.

    On the killings in Jos, it quoted Ekweremadu to have said: “It is really unfortunate because our country is a nation where the leaders have refused to learn from the mistakes and missteps of the past.

    “For many years now, some of us have been consistent about the need to descentralise our security architecture; and so long as we are not doing that, we are going to get exactly the same result.

    “It pains me that innocent people, who voted us into power to protect their lives and property are losing their lives and their property because we have refused to take the correct steps.

    “The sad news is not only that many people have died, but also that more people will die unless we take the right steps of putting the right security architecture in place.

    “There is no way you will have a federation like Nigeria as big as it is, with all the diversities, and continue to operate a centralised policing and expect it to work.  It will never work and it is a major problem.

    “So, it is sad that this is happening. But, as I said, the real tragedy is that this Plateau incident is not going to be last because we refuse to be corrected”.

    Read Also: Ekweremadu to lawyers: help sustain democracy

    It said that Ekweremadu reasoned that the Government of Plateau State would be in the best position to protect the citizens if it had its own police outfit.

    “I want to call on the Federal Government and the leaders of this country again for us to, for once, decide to protect the lives and property of those we are leading because that is the primary purpose of government.

    “I appeal to the Federal Government to have a rethink on the issue of restructuring, especially the ones relevant to the security of lives and property.

    “The only way to do that is for all of us to sit down and agree to, within a space of the next two or three months, amend the constitution to enable the component units of this country to have their own security architecture, namely the police.

    “If the people of Plateau are empowered under the constitution to have their police, then you can place the blame squarely on the governor because he will have the responsibility to recruit sufficient police personnel to protect the people.

    “Right now, the responsibility is that of the Federal Government. There is little or nothing the governor can do about it.

    “I sympathize with the people of Plateau State, especially the communities, which lost their loved ones. However, I will continue to sound even like a broken record until the correct thing is done,” Ekweremadu said.

    The Senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, on his own said that the recent mass Killings in Plateau State stands unreservedly condemned.

    Sani noted that “it is tragic and most unfortunate that people are being killed every day in Nigeria while the interest and the attention of the ruling political establishment is more in power and politics of the 2019 elections.”

    The vocal senator lamented that while the governors danced and sang at Eagle Squaire, “the lives of the governed are wasted and the blood of the governed was soaking the territory they administer.”

    He said added, “Enough blood has been spilled in Nigeria to touch the conscience of people in power, if at all humanity matters.

    “In Nigeria today life of the poor is cheaper than peanuts and gala. We have become a nation in perpetual mourning and funeral service.

    “Until the ruling political elites raise the value of the life of the underprivileged to equal that of the powerful and the privileged, the systemic wastage of the lives of the poor will remain unabated.

    “The nation has lost its sense of outrage and we are tragically spreading red carpets and beating the drums of praises to leaders who woefully failed in their responsibilities.

    “My deepest condolences to the families of the deceased. May their souls Rest In Peace.”

     

  • After Dariye, who next?

    Former governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye, must have wondered what struck him on Tuesday last week, when he was sentenced to 14 years behind bars, after being found guilty of the charges of criminal breach of trust and criminal appropriation of the state’s funds running to over N2bn. Justice Adebukola Banjoko, the judge that many of the remaining corrupt public officials must be afraid of by now, in a six-and-a-half hour judgment, convicted the ex-governor on 15 of the 23 counts preferred against him in July 2007. Many corrupt officials would be afraid of having their cases tried by her because Dariye is the second ex-governor she would be convicting in about two weeks. She had earlier imposed 14 years’ jail term on ex-Governor of Taraba State, Jolly Nyame, on similar charges.

    Justice Banjoko said of the brazenness with which Dariye carried out the fraud: “I can’t imagine such a brazen act. Is it the transfer of as much as about half a billion naira from the state’s ecological fund into a personal venture account? Everybody is a victim here.” The judge added that from a random check of some documents tendered as exhibits, she discovered that “the defendant was, in fact, richer than his state.” How on earth can any sane person divert ecological funds, or any public funds for that matter? Everybody, as the judge noted, is a victim in this circumstance.

    One cannot but agree with Justice Banjoko that “there should be no compromise to corruption, by whatever shade or colour, or region, rich or poor; corruption will forever be corruption.” And it should be so treated. For every kobo that a public official steals, someone is being deprived of something; it could be education, it could be quality healthcare, good roads, jobs or even life. Moreover, investors run away from corrupt environments because it is antithetical to a good business climate.

    With these high profile convictions, those who have been accusing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of losing high profile cases to shoddy prosecution should begin to review their stance. So much waters pass underneath the proverbial bridge; it is beyond the argument of shoddy prosecution. Going by the impunity of many governors, who run their states as personal fiefdoms, especially their lack of regard for fiscal discipline, many of them deserve to be jailed even as incumbents, but for the immunity they enjoy.  As a matter of fact, to paraphrase a former chief of general staff, they should be jailed and thereafter prosecuted! Their recklessness is indescribable. They refer to public fund as if it is their personal money. “I don’t have money for this or that project”, they tell you with such arrogance. Does the money belong to them? As a matter of fact, one governor, in his heyday, was said to be telling the people of the state that he did this and that for them and that if they liked, they should not vote for him in the coming election, as if he was doing the people a favour.

    But it is heartwarming that our courts are waking up to the reality of the dangers we all face if people we put in positions of trust abuse such trust, and serving such persons their deserved comeuppance. We have ourselves to congratulate for this because, but for our strident calls for the needful in the judiciary, we probably would have been watching helplessly as people we all know as certified thieves would turn our judiciary to pawns, to our collective peril. But we all stood up against some of the so-called senior lawyers who, rather than use the law to get justice for the general good, would be fishing for technicalities to get their rich political thieves off the hook of the crime it is glaring they committed because of the hefty legal fees that such persons pay them. Our judges must be worried that criminals who committed crimes here in Nigeria get sentenced abroad when the case is still at preliminary stage back home here.

    Justice Kayode Eso of blessed memory it was who alerted us to the existence of ‘billionaire judges’ in our midst many years ago. Today, we have many billionaire lawyers who stumbled on their riches not necessarily because of their brilliance in law but because they are able to subvert the law through unnecessary interlocutory injunctions, with the connivance of some pliant judges. It is in this country that a governor who went into the state house yesterday in bathroom slippers can emerge today in golden shoes without anyone asking questions. The meteoric transformation of many public officials in the country calls into question the source of their sudden wealth. Unfortunately, our legal system puts the burden of proof on the prosecution and not on a public official whose salary all his lifetime, even without spending a dime of it, is not up to N50million but he can lay claim to property worth billions.

    We, the people will continue to shoot ourselves in the foot if we keep parroting and swallowing hook, line and sinker some of the arguments that our corrupt elite pass on to us without interrogating such positions. When they are haunted by their corrupt past and see they are about being brought to justice, they start shouting that the sitting government is victimising them due to political differences. I have always made this point; perhaps since the Obasanjo era when some people joined our ruling thieves in advancing this argument of political victimisation. I will not stop repeating myself because, until we go this way, we will be going in circles in the anti-corruption war. Let Obasanjo catch his own political enemies who are thieves. Let Goodluck Jonathan also catch his political opponents who have dipped their fingers into our collective pie. Just imagine the number of thieves that we would have taken out of circulation if this had been done. But we are waiting (thus playing into the hands of the big thieves) to catch all the thieves across parties before acknowledging that the anti-corruption war is working. The ordinary Nigerian must begin to reject this self-serving argument of the political elite. No doubt the best thing is for a true anti-corruption war not to have respect for religious, ethnic or political sentiments. But ours is still a fledgling democracy that runs on personalities and therefore should not be compared with places that run on structures. What should bother us is that the political opponents being arrested and tried are thieves; and not whether they belong to the opposition party or not.

    This is the way it should be in a country where big people engage in primitive stealing as if stealing is going out of fashion. For God’s sake, what does any sane person need N2.2billion that a former Chief of Air staff, Air Marshall Adesola Amosun, for instance, was asked to forfeit (temporarily) to the Federal Government? That is how sunk our country is. I keep having the feeling that the worst place in hell will be the final resting place of many of our elite rulers whose proclivity to dip their hands in the public till is without comparison. They are so heartless. Many Nigerians out there cannot afford a meal a day; yet these people who steal in billions are reluctant to review upward the paltry N18,000 minimum wage.

    It is because they are haunted by their dark deeds that they go about with security escorts that we, the oppressed, pay to keep. They know the harm they have done and they keep doing to the people and so cannot just be themselves in a crowd or in public without a retinue of security details. Yet, they claim to be democratically elected. What would they have done if we were in a military era?

    We must celebrate whenever any of these big thieves is convicted. The icing on the cake is that they are even not allowed an option of fine. Otherwise, their fellow thieves would rally round them to pay the fine, no matter how hefty because they expect the same treatment when their own convictions come. But, like a magnanimous judge once did, they could be allowed to pick and choose any prison of their choice to serve their terms upon conviction. That is magnanimous enough.

  • Man bags 2 years in prison for raping 4-year-old

    A Plateau State High Court on Thursday sentenced a 40-year-old man, Sani Usman to two years imprisonment for raping a minor.

    The judge, Justice Iliya Ashoms, handed down the sentence on Usman who had been on bail, after the court found him guilty of committing the crime.

    Ashoms however, gave the convict an option to pay a fine of N100, 000 for the second year prison term, adding that Usman must serve the first prison term without any option.

    He said that the sentence was to serve as a deterrent to those who might want to commit similar acts.

    During the arraignment, counsel to the convict, Mr Mahan Mahuyai, had prayed the court to be lenient on his client stating that he was a widower and had five children who needed parental guidance.

    Mahuyai, added that if long prison sentence was given, the children would be without parents in their lives which could lead them to get involved in social vices.

    Earlier during the arraignment, the prosecutor, Mr Ibrahim Saleh of the Plateau State Ministry of Justice, had told the court that the convict committed the crime at his residence located opposite Plateau Academy, Bukuru on November 11, 2014.

    Saleh said that the accused who was a neighbour to the victim lured the minor into his room and raped her.

    He said that the victim‘s mother was about to bath her to go for Arabic school at about 4p.m when the accused suddenly lured the little girl into his room and had carnal knowledge of her while the mother was outside the house.

    He added that the mother later saw the victim walking with difficulty, with blood gushing from her private part.

    Saleh added that when the victim was interrogated, she led her parents to the accused after which he was handed over to the police.

  • Amnesty International, greatest threat to humanity – Coalition

    An anti terrorism group, the Coalition Against Terrorism and Extremism (CATE) has accused international agency.
    Amnesty International of being a threat to humanity, as well as Nigeria’s sovereignty.
    Addressing journalists in Jos, the Plateau State capital, the national co-ordinator, Gabriel Onoja, said it is obvious that Amnesty International has continued to lead the psychological war on terror against the people of Nigeria, whilst Boko Haram and other dissident elements execute the guerrilla warfare against our people.
    According to Onoja, the latest of such unfortunate war against the Nigerian people and humanity is plans by the AI to embarrass the Nigerian military with cooked up reports about cases of rape allegedly carried out by men of the armed forces at the camps of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
    He accused Amnesty International, of succeeded in engaging in acts and comments that have seen it deteriorating from a group championing the cause of humanity to one that is defending criminals, criminalities, insurgency and terrorism.
    Onoja wondered how the military which it said has sacrificed so much to ensure normalcy returns to Nigeria’s northeast will now be subject to such reports being released by AI
    He said, “This allegation against the Nigerian military is unfortunate because the military as an institution is one that prides itself in the strict discipline and character moulding of its men from the day they enlist to when they leave.
    We have absolute confidence in the conduct of our military particularly those deployed on special operations and find it strange to come to terms with the current realities that Amnesty International has become another Army Against our troops.
    “it is public knowledge that no institution is responsive to reports of bad behavior, misconduct and other forms of indiscipline like the military.
    That is why within any military setting, you will find the full compliment for ensuring compliance with rules and regulations and for punishing acts of wrong doing like the appointment of provosts, RSMs , the building of guard rooms and the setting aside of tasking drills for punishment to erring men and officers.”
    He expressed concern that the AI allegations against the country’s military is coming at a time when the terrorists have been reduced to the barest minimum.
    According to him, Amnesty International may have done some good works in the past and elsewhere in the world, but it’s current intervention in Nigeria since the war against insurgency intensified leaves much to be desired.
    “who does Amnesty International protect? Who pays Amnesty International to execute these heinous briefs against our military?” he queried.
    “If they’re not complaining about the number of suspects arrested, they are busy alleging acts that never existed. We are all aware that the fight against insurgency is not a tea party,” he added.
    He said many innocent Nigerians including, women and children have been killed by these terrorists that even some of their initial supporters have come to realize their error and have come out, not only to condem their actions but distanced themselves from the activities of the groups.

  • Supreme Court refuses to hears suit seeking to sack Pinnick’s NFF executive

    Orders re-hearing of suit before Federal High Court, Jos

     

    The Supreme Court has refused to hear a suit seeking to sack the Amaju Pinnick-led executive committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

    Instead, the court, in unanimous judgment of a five-man panel, ordered the re-listing of the suit before the Federal High Court in Jos, Plateau State for it to be heard promptly on the merit

    The judgment was on an appeal marked:SC/731/2016 between Yahaya Adama and Obinna Ogba vs. Aminu Maigari and 3 others.

    The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onoghen, who headed the panel, wrote the lead judgment, which Justice Ejembi Eko read in his absence.

    The Supreme Court, set aside the judgment of the Court of Apeal which said the suit could no longer be heard having earlier been struck out by the Federal High Court, Jos.

    The apex court declined the appellants’ prayer that it invokes its powers under Section 22 of the Supreme Court Act to hear and determine the case on the merit.

    It noted that the appellants failed to meet the necessary conditions to warrant the court to invoke it’s powers under Section 22 of its Act to hear a case as a trial court.

    The court also said the conditions were put in place to discourage lawyers from flooding the apex court with requests for trying cases, which is the duty of the trial courts.

    Adamu and Ogba, on September 19, 2014 filed initiated the suit before the Federal High Court, Jos, praying the court to among others, hold that they, along with others elected on August 26, 2014, were members of the legitimate executive committee of the NFF.

    They listed as defendant, the NFF (represented by its President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari and Musa Adamu), the Plateau State Football Association representing the football association in the 36 states of federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the Minister of Sports.

    On September 19, 2014, the Federal High Court granted an ex parte order restraining the NFF from conducting its General Assembly.

    Despite the court’s order, the NFF proceeded to conduct the General Assembly where members of the Pinnick-led executive committee were elected on September 20, 2014.

    On September 23, 2014, the Federal High Court, nullified the General Assembly and the elections which produced Pinnick and other members of his executive for being held three days earlier in defiance of a pending suit and the court’s restraining orders.

    Due to a settlement talks said to be being brokered by then then President Goodluck Jonathan, Adama and Ogba, on October 30,2014, applied to withdraw the suit and the court promptly struck it.

    The court then set aside the previous injunctive orders made against the elections of Pinnick-led executive.

    With the talks said to have broken down the plaintiffs subsequently applied for the re-listing of the case, a prayer the court granted.

    The court in granting the prayer also restored all the injunctive orders set aside while earlier striking out the suit.

    But the Maigari-led executive and the Plateau State Football Association representing the other associations in the FCT and other states, appealed the Federal High Court’s ruling at the Court of Appeal in Jos.

    On July 25, 2016, the Court of Appeal delivered its judgment, allowed the appeal and nullified the Federal High Court’s ruling re-listing the case.

    The Court of Appeal also set aside the injuncitve orders which the Federal High Court restored.

    Adama and Ogba later appealed to the Supreme Court, through their lawyer, P.I.N Ikwueto (SAN).

    They the court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which set aside the order of the Federal High Court, re-listing of the case.

    They also urged the apex court to invoke section 22 of the Supreme Court Act by taking over the case and decide it on merit

    The respondents, represented by Festus Keyamo (SAN), objected to the appeal and urged the court to dismiss it.

  • Gunmen kill four construction workers in Plateau

    Gunmen on Wednesday killed four construction workers at Angwan-Rogo village in Jebu-Miango area of Bassa, Plateau State.

    According to reports the workers were fetching sand for an ongoing construction work when the gunmen attacked them.

    Confirming the attack, Mr Terna Tyopev, spokesman of the Police Command in Plateau, told our reporter that the attack took place “around 11 a.m.”

    “Yes, we received information of an attack on Angwan Rogo village; we can confirm that four persons were killed by the gunmen.

    “We can also confirm that the men were labourers excavating sand for their construction work when they were attacked,” he said.

    Tyopev, who claimed that the attackers were herdsmen, identified the deceased as Adam Sunday, 38, Jatau Akus, 39, Chonu Awarhai, 39, and Marcus Mali, 22.

    He said that the command had mobilised more personnel to beef up security in the affected area, adding that the corpses had been deposited at the Plateau Specialist Hospital, Jos.

    The Police officer said that investigation had commenced into the incident, and vowed to arrest those responsible.

    He advised Plateau residents to report any suspicious movement to the security agencies.

    NAN.

    Read Also: Gunmen abduct expatriate, kill policeman in Kano

  • CEPAN trains Plateau youths on peace building

    The Centre for Peace Advancement of Nigeria (CEPAN) in their quest for peace in various communities in the State has targeted 150 Youth to be trained on how to manage conflict and violent extremism amongs themselves across the 17 Local Government in Plateau State.

    The training which involve youths from three local governments from Plateau Central senatorial zone was attended by youths from Bokkos, Mangu and Pankshin local government areas respectively.

    Program manager of CEPAN Mr. Ephraim Emah said the CEPAN is a non-government and non-profit making organization that focuses on building peace and resolving conflict in communities.The program is to engaged the youth to cement what we have started.

    He said: “The vision of CEPAN is to have a society where there is peace based on the justice, and harmony based on the people’s recognition of their strengths, and beauty of diversity based on sustainable development in communities, and our mission is to create peaceful communities by promoting peace building and development via dialogue, conciliation services, training, research and diseminating accurate and reliable information on peace and development.

    “One of the reasons why we focused on the youth is because of the fact that we have some of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the North Eastern part of Nigeria in Plateau. In order to stop or avoid this people from recruiting our youth into violent extremism, there is an urgent need to educate them on this. And to strengthen local capacities for peace building, conflict prevention, mitigation, transformation and management.

    “Our target is to train 150 youth, but now as I talk to you we are having over 170 registered participants because they were eager to be ambassadors of peace in their different communities. The main aims is to avoid violent extremism and radicalisation amongs youth in three LGEs of Bokkos, Mangu and Pankshin in Plateau Central Senatorial District.

    Speaking on the theme: “Religion: A Source of Violent Extremism and a Resource Deradicalisation”, the keynote speaker, Senior Special Assistant to Plateau State Governor on religious matters Dr. Sumaye Hamza said, “Both Christian and Muslim preach peace, therefore, religion should be used as positive tool to resolved all the crisis we are witnesssing in Nigeria and Plateau State by using the Holy scripture we claimed to believe in, to preach peace and promote oneness, and tolerance of one anther without discrimination.

    “Government should try to checkmates the types of messages preached by our religious leaders to their teeming members in making sure there are free of hate speeches that is capable of setting the entire Country on fire.

    “Most of the crisis we are experiencing today in Nigeria is purely polititical, but the minds of Nigerians has been shifted towards religion as the main causes of our problem. The crisis has a political coloration and people, especially youth should be carefull in managing the situation. This is because, the Youth, Children, Women,and Ageing ones are more vulnerable”.

    On the ways forward and recommendations, Sumaye said that they should be constant dailogue amongs the two main religious practice we have in Nigeria, adding that they should also be common activity established to unites or brings them together as one body.

    “We should go back to our old ways of doing things; when we respected our value and culture, when a child respected not only his parents but those who were of his parent’s age, teachers in the School, and even respected one another irrespective of the religion background. That is the only way we could achieved this Peace”, she added.

    In his opening remarks, the Chairman of Mangu LGE Hon. Haruna Danjuma said we are one; no one should use religion as a yardstick to divide us as a people.

    On behave of the Chairman, the District Head of Bokkos, HRM Monday Adanchin urged the youth to put the lessions learnt from the  program into work so they could replicate them in their various communities.

    Meanwhile, the CEPAN has been working in the State for over Four years. And the Organisation seeks to promote collaborative action by communities and social actors in the three LGEs to prevent youth engement in exreme violent and radical behaviours that would be detrimental to the peace and development in communities.

     

  • PLSG embarks on completion of road projects

    Plateau state government says it has embarked on the completion of various road projects in its works sector to boost infrastructure development in the state.

    Mr Pam Botman, Commissioner for Works said this on Tuesday in Jos during the inauguration of the state’s board of Road Maintenance Agency.

    He disclosed that most of the ongoing road projects in the state had been completed and inaugurated, adding that those yet to be completed were near completion.

    Botman called on members of the board to work as a team and avoid interfering with the day to day activities of the agency.

    Read Also: PLSG decries increase of women in child trafficking

    He also called on them to use their wealth of experience and be proactive in the discharge their duties.

    Mr Amos Dickson, the Chairman of the board, thanked the governor and the commissioner for counting them worthy of being members of the board.

    He assured the governor and the commissioner of members of the board would discharge their duties proactively.

    NAN

  • Plateau to improve health indices – Commissioner

    The Plateau state government, says it will improve on its health indices by strengthening partnerships with international partners and other organisations in line with its Strategic Health Development Plan.

    Dr Kuden Deyin, Commissioner for Health, said this on Wednesday in Jos, during the inauguration of boards of agencies under the ministry on Wednesday in Jos.

    The agencies include; the Hospital Management Board, Plateau Aids Control Agency ( PLACA ), College of Nursing and Midwifery, Vom; College of Health Technology, Zawan; College of Health Technology, Pankshin and the Primary Health Care Development Board (PHCDB).

    “The state is working assiduously to ensure that it remains buoyant in the provision of qualitative health care services to its people by strengthening its human resource for health.

    “This, it will do by infrastructural development through the continuation of all ongoing projects in the health sector.

    Read Also: Governor, minister at war in Plateau

    “I urge you to work as a team and in harmony with the Chief Executives and Management of their respective parastatal agencies by acting as an advisory body and not to be involved in the day to day running of the organisations,’’ he said.

    Dr Nandul Durfa, who spoke on behalf of others, thanked the government for finding them worthy to execute the job and assured that they would be proactive in the discharge of their duties.

    He pledged not to interfere with the daily running of the agencies while he also appealed to the CEO‘s of the Agencies and Parastatals to avail them of vital information and documents that would enable them execute their obligations.

    NAN

  • FG working to end open defecation – Lai Mohammed

     

    The Federal Government is doing everything possible to end open delectation in the country, the Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed has said.

    Mohammed posited that open defection was responsible for majority of diseases and high mortality rate among under five children in Nigeria.

    He spoke on Tuesday stated in Jos, Plateau state, during a two-day media dialogue on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects organized by the Federal ministry of information in conjunction with United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).

    The minister who was represented by a Deputy Director, Mr. Olumide Osanyinpeju, said the federal ministry has great concern on the wellbeing of Nigerians, particularly of children who are vulnerable to communicable diseases.

    He stressed that the government was desirous to ending open defecation in the country by year 2030 as a means of ensuring better healthcare services.

    Read Also: Contrary to fake news on social media, Buhari is revamping Nigeria – Lai Mohammed

    He said, “Open defecation is incredibly dangerous, as contact with human waste can cause diseases such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, polio, diarrhoea, worm infestation and under nutrition. We must double our current efforts in order to end open defecation by 2030.”

    Declaring the workshop open, Plateau state Commissioner for Water resources and energy Ja’afaru Wuyep, said there are positive results in the lives of the people; assuring that the state government will continue to invest on its people.

    The commssioner stated Plateau state government with UNICEF “our partnership wirth UNICEF is necessary, we have seen positive results on our people, UNICEF are everywhere in the rural areas assisting our people.

    “When we invest in children, we are correcting the past, and making the future right,” he added.

    He commended UNICEF for coming to their aide and standing in the gap where government could not reach it citizens.

    He said, “UNICEF has been the major partners to Plateau state in our human challenges, as a government, we will continue to partner UNICEF.”

    UNICEF chief for Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) in Nigeria Zaid Jurji, in a paper presentation revealed that 60 million Nigerians do not have no access to portable water.

    He also said 88 percent of the diarrhea cases in the country was caused by open defecation and lack of portable water.

    He urged Nigeria government to invest more in water and sanitation as it goes a long way to impact on the wellbeing of the people.