₦airaland Forum

Lol I guess public indecency isnt illegal in Osun. This guy is only a victim of his gullibility believing in magic rituals. Im impressed the police tracked down and caught some of suspects and recovered his cash. We going to have laws on licensing these herbalist soon.

Ritual prayer by fake herbalists is a booming trade in which unsuspecting citizens lose billions across Nigeria annually, and the police have spent years combating its spread by regularly smashing hideouts of syndicates

Bump

Bump

These guys are still mining illegal gold after the huge lead poisoning incident. After getting violence under control the government should look into attracting investors into mining space.

In the bad Spaghetti Western that is now Zamfara, cattle rustling is not the only profitable enterprise. Abakar, the former farmer, is now an artisanal gold miner. It’s a job that carries significant risk as gold deposits here are usually found next to highly toxic lead.

Ps: If the article is too long get text to speech app. It's easier listening to stories than reading then.

Daji was viewed as a solution to the crisis. In a case of poacher-turned-gamekeeper, he was put on the state government’s payroll at the end of 2016 to help stop the violence he himself had stoked.

Wow this situation is insane. I see why Yari is in favor of state police if he's already cool with arming vigilantes and paying off bandits. If the cash was used for policing it would be better they wouldn't have with blowback. Part of the situation is the economy is terrible on top the lack of police presence.

Unless the bandits taken off the streets they will move neighbouring states or across the border. State governors have already mentioned the bandits escaping into their states during millitary operations. They need permanent police presence.

It was a set-up and Buharin Daji walked right into it. The notorious cattle-rustling kingpin had arrived for a meeting in the northern Nigerian bush, ostensibly to settle differences with one of his senior lieutenants, but instead was shot dead.

Daji’s murder in March has had consequences in an already deeply troubled Zamfara State, where years of building unrest have claimed thousands of lives and driven whole communities into destitution.

This underdeveloped yet agriculturally rich region has been unstable for many years. What began as unresolved clashes between Hausa farmers and Fulani pastoralists over access to land has transformed into a lucrative illicit economy of banditry and cattle-rustling dominated by men like Daji.

Zamfara is different from highly politicised farmer-herder clashes in other parts of Nigeria where largely Muslim pastoralists push south in search of pasture and meet increasingly populated Christian farming areas. Instead, Zamfara is overwhelmingly Muslim and, human rights groups argue, the violence here is fundamentally about the government’s abdication of its responsibility to protect its citizens.

According to Amnesty International, more than 370 people have been killed by the outlaws so far this year. Others have been kidnapped and held for ransom – payments are encouraged with phone calls to loved ones as those being held undergo torture.

Daji was viewed as a solution to the crisis. In a case of poacher-turned-gamekeeper, he was put on the state government’s payroll at the end of 2016 to help stop the violence he himself had stoked.

The idea was that Daji would use his influence to rein in other brigands and help with a gun amnesty drive, all in exchange for a salary and impunity. But this didn’t address the underlying causes of Zamfara’s lawlessness, and the state government’s dysfunction prevented it even from making the regular payments to Daji, Adamu Abubakar, director of the Centre for Community Excellence, a local NGO, told IRIN.

The death of Daji was the final blow to already frayed attempts to forge peace. With him gone, Zamfara risks unravelling further and faster.

Roots of lawlessness

Northwestern Nigeria has a long history of banditry. The first recorded case occurred somewhere between “western Hausaland” and the Niger border in 1901, when a 12,000-strong camel train “laden with assorted grains” was attacked and 210 merchants killed.

The tragedy for modern-day Zamfara is that more than a century on, there are still ungoverned spaces where the state is incapable of stamping its authority.

Control is so weak in some regions that bandits can come into rural towns, typically three-up on a motorbike, unchecked. In some areas they lay down the law and become the local authority: “It’s fast justice, and there is no appeal,” explained Abubakar.

Hausa and pastoralist Fulani communities coexist in Zamfara, with competition over land and water sources historically managed through mediation. Banditry has introduced a new level of friction between the two, with the Fulani, marginalised from local political power, more closely associated with brigandage – men like Daji being an example.

Nigeria is a big country that is thinly policed. In Zamfara’s rural districts there are likely just two poorly equipped and under-motivated policemen to serve many inaccessible communities, according to Zamfara State government spokesman Ibrahim Dosara.

Historically, state governments have turned to vigilantes to deliver the manpower and local knowledge the federal police lack. In Zamfara these groups are provided with some motorbikes, uniforms, and locally made single-shot hunting rifles, but little other support to meet the rising tide of banditry.

Payment of allowances is often late, they are outgunned, and some vigilantes turned on the people they were supposed to protect – stealing and extorting – while also murderously targeting Fulani. “Along the way, part of the vigilante became part of the bandits,” said Abubakar.

Killing fields

Aisha is just one face of the emerging crisis. Until a few weeks ago her home was the village of Kagara in central Zurmi district. Now it’s a disused petrol station in Zurmi town, where she and her extended family rely on the hospitality of the station owner and the generosity of the town’s people, who help with food when they can.

Aisha is here because Kagara was attacked by bandits who killed her husband and then beat her with rifle butts when she tried to protect her younger brother by covering him with her hijab. They shot him and four male cousins dead as they burned and looted, combing the village for homeguard vigilante who had formed to protect the village with locally made muskets.

The bandits had turned up on motorbikes, armed with AK-47s, speaking both Hausa and the Fulani language, Fufulde, with some taking care to cover their faces. Aisha recognised none of them. She suspects some might have come from neighbouring Niger or further afield, in a transnational criminal free-for-all.

Asked why she thought they’d attacked Kagara, Aisha gave a now-familiar response: “Only God knows.” But “they have our phones and call us to say they will kill us if we go back,” she added.

The bandits, seemingly able to move at will, took over three districts in Zurmi in June, a total of some 18 villages and towns. But now the state government is insisting the thousands of people displaced by the rolling violence should go home.

When IRIN visited Zurmi the authorities had just closed a camp for those displaced by the violence in the local secondary school. Aisha has no intention of going back anytime soon, but her 19-member extended family was unsure what to do.

Bala Aruna, the petrol station owner, stepped in after he spotted them by the roadside. “I said, ‘I have a place you can shelter out of the rain’,” he recalled.

“Only God knows when this problem will end,” he said. “Yesterday, [the bandits] attacked people that had returned home, just three or four kilometres from here.”

Government failure

Despite the chaos, which helps keep Zamfara the poorest state in the federation, Governor Abdulaziz Yari is frequently absent. He is loudly criticised for spending much of his time in the federal capital, Abuja, where he chairs the powerful Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

“Banditry is a failure of the state to fulfill its primary purpose of providing security,” Chidi Odinkalu, of the Open Society Justice Initiative, told IRIN. “Yari should go back to Zamfara and do his job and govern his people.”

The state government spokesman, Dosara, insisted that Yari is “fully engaged” with the affairs of the state.

At the paramilitary Civil Defence Corps headquarters in Zurmi, a bare, solid low-rise building, the commanding officer spoke candidly about the IDP camp closure being premature. His alarming analysis was that the bandits in this region were trying to clear a corridor along the border with Sokoto State and north to Niger – which includes Aisha’s village.

“That’s their base. Anyone they kidnap, that’s where they keep them,” he said. “[If there’s trouble] they run into Niger or Sokoto.”

The federal government last year responded to the crisis by sending in an army battalion. When that didn’t work it deployed an Air Force special forces Quick Reaction Groupin June, complete with helicopter gunships.

Although that deployment is having some success, “the military can only suppress the problem, they can’t resolve it,” said Abubakar, the NGO director, describing a balloon effect that means wherever they squeeze the outlaws just pop up elsewhere.

Crime pays

Banditry exists because it is profitable. From around 2011 there was a surge, which some commentators linked to increasing regional livestock prices. Rustling is now an entrenched and thriving underground business, with stolen cattle kept in the forests that dot Zamfara’s border regions (including the equally troubled Binan Gwari area of Kaduna State) before being discreetly sold to meet the ever-growing demand for beef in southern cities.

“Before, it was the Fulanis that were rustling cattle, then the Hausas joined in. Now, every criminal in Nigeria has come to Zamfara,” said Suleiman Abakar – a wealthy farmer, until his 60 head of cattle were stolen. “There is no other way to make money as quickly as rustling.”

In the bad Spaghetti Western that is now Zamfara, cattle rustling is not the only profitable enterprise. Abakar, the former farmer, is now an artisanal gold miner. It’s a job that carries significant risk as gold deposits here are usually found next to highly toxic lead.

The more immediate danger is not lead poisoning but being shaken down by bandits. “They take whatever they want,” said Abakar.

The insecurity induces an understandable paranoia. Everybody IRIN spoke to knew at least one victim of the violence, and in every conversation mention is made of shadowy “informers” who spy and sell out their neighbours for a share of the loot.

The guessing game of who the masterminds are protecting the bandits runs the gamut from senior state officials to traditional rulers – an assumption of high-level impunity and corruption exposing the deep distrust people have for those in power.

To tackle the broader problem of farmer-herder clashes in Nigeria, recent studies call for effective systems to track livestock movement and trade, new strategies to curb illicit firearms, coherent political approaches to address rural insecurity, and policies that promote rural development and diversification.

There’s little evidence of any of this happening in Zamfara.

Source: http://www.irinnews.org/news-feature/2018/09/13/zamfara-nigeria-s-wild-northwest

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If there were pictures people would have been more interested in topic.

He said that the base has provision for office and residential accommodation in addition to being a holding facility for the detention of irregular migrants.

Lol glad you guys are waking up to that fact. The money for vehicle purchases and joint cooperation should help. Anyway how far with reactivating the air patrol unit? Dambazau aleo said he was considering joint air patrol unit for Niger border.

“We have to patrol the borders, not where human beings are but the bushes because we are bush officers.

“We are paid to be border officers; patrol the flank of the borders, not to disturb people in the cities,” he said.

Front page: Lalasticlala

It wouldn't be a bad idea. What is the happy medium though? The favorite smuggled items are either on import ban/restrictions list or have high tarrifs on them. The government government would have to make price of importing around same cost of local.

It won’t be a bad idea if we set a different tariff on goods constantly being smuggled so that those involved in such nefarious activities would be forced to legitimise their businesses once it becomes almost unprofitable for them to smuggle.

Benin official pushes for stiffer penalties 

Indications are that Nigeria and its neighbouring West African country, Benin Republic, lose an estimated $3billion annually  to cross-border crimes, especially due to  activities of smugglers and unscrupulous businessmen operating across both countries.

According to a recent report by the World Bank on smuggling in Nigeria, about N1.45tn worth of different goods are smuggled into Nigeria annually through Benin Republic alone.

Top on the list of items being smuggled into the country include but not limited to rice,  frozen foods, textile materials amongst other fast moving consumer goods.

Expectedly, Nigeria had recently resolved to fully implement the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Benin Republic to tackle the menace.

The Minister of Interior, retired Lt.-Gen Abdulrahman Dambazau, restated the nation’s commitment to curb smuggling at a meeting with the Ambassador of Benin Republic, Ms. Adjovi Paulette recently.

In a related development, the Senior Minister of Planning and Development, Dr. Abdoulaye Bio Tchane, Benin Republic has impressed on the governments of both countries the need to put in place stringent measures to curb the activities of economic saboteurs whose nefarious activities could said to be having a rippled negative effect on the economy of both countries.

Tchane, who was guest speaker at the public presentation of the book, ‘Revolution of Accountancy Profession in Nigeria: History of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) by Omooba Olumuyiwa Sosanya’, noted during an interview on the sidelines that the quantum of revenue loss from the Nigeria/Benin corridor was significant enough to warrant urgent attention by all concerned about the progress and growth of countries within the sub-region.

The minister, who was represented by his aide, Abdulrafiu Yakubu, while acknowledging the close ties between both countries was however, quick to admit that there is room for improvement as far as plugging all loopholes responsible for dwindling revenue generation in Nigeria and Benin Republic respectively.

Specifically,  he said,  “There is need to set up a high-powered task force to tackle the issue of revenue loss because it is very huge.”

Expatiating,  he said,  “Instead of losing this revenue to the activities of smugglers and economic saboteurs,  let them pay for those goods.  It won’t be a bad idea if we set a different tariff on goods constantly being smuggled so that those involved in such nefarious activities would be forced to legitimise their businesses once it becomes almost unprofitable for them to smuggle. I think such a measure will go a long way in boosting revenue for both countries. “

Source: http://thenationonlineng.net/nigeria-benin-lose-over-3b-to-cross-border-crimes-annually/

Front page: Lalasticlala

Got to hand it to Buhari administration for doing something about border secruity. Every other administration seemed to ignore it to our detriment. There's lots of work that needs to be done but we have to start somewhere.

The choices for pilot states make sense. The Benin border is where nation blees money. Jigawa would be logical choice since the smugglers wat to get goods to Kano and Kaduna. Zamfara also a big issue, that can of worms deserves it's own thread.

Cc: SSGN

The Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, on Thursday inaugurated the country’s first operational border patrol base of the Nigeria Immigration Service in Katsina.

The base, sited at Mazanya community in Jibiya Local Government Area bordering Niger Republic, is part of measures by the NIS to effectively secure the country’s borders.

Represented by Mohammed Umar, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr Dambazau said the facility would help the nation’s fight against irregular migration and cross-border crimes.

He said, “The responsibility of securing the territorial borders of a vast country like Nigeria is quite enormous and overwhelming.

“This is why establishing border patrol bases is timely as a means of supporting existing border patrol structures by intensifying surveillance along notorious routes and enforcing our immigration laws.

“It is our belief that the operation of this patrol base and others that will come on stream, add impetus to the fight against trafficking in persons, smuggling, proliferation of small arms and light weapons and other forms of cross-border crimes across our borders.”

He stated that the current administration was working on all fronts to ensure internal security, with effective border policing as one of the priority areas.

While lauding the NIS for the initiative, Dambazau urged officers who would man the bases and other border patrol units to continuously create awareness of their roles.

He stressed the need for them to work closely with other security agencies, especially in the area of information sharing and joint operations along the border, when necessary.

The Comptroller-General of Immigration, Muhammad Babandede, said the project was a demonstration of the agency’s commitment towards effective patrol and monitoring of the nation’s lengthy borders.

“In addition to the Mazanya Border Patrol Base, the NIS has also established three others; we are running a pilot project: one in Ogun (Oja Odan), one in Jigawa at Maigatari, another one in Oyo at Shaki.

“What we are saying is that it will no longer be possible for immigration officers to stay at the border waiting for migrants to come.

“We have to patrol the borders, not where human beings are but the bushes because we are bush officers.

“We are paid to be border officers; patrol the flank of the borders, not to disturb people in the cities,” he said.

Mr Babandede said the Jibiya axis was one of the major routes of trans-Sahara migration into the country.

He explained that the base was designed to extend command and control of border patrol units and to provide support for immigration operations.

He said that the base has provision for office and residential accommodation in addition to being a holding facility for the detention of irregular migrants.

The Controller of Immigration, Katsina state Command, Joshua Ajisafe, revealed that the state is host to an approximately 203.5km borderline with Niger Republic.

NAN

Source: https://dailynigerian.com/fg-inaugurates-immigration-border-patrol-base-in-katsina/

Front page: Lalasticlala

The administration of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, in keeping with its concerted efforts to encourage speedy intervention on the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, by the federal government, yesterday announced its plan to constitute a stakeholders’ committee that would look into and resolve all issues around the expansion of the airport.

The committee members, according to a statement by the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Ogbuagu Anikwe, will comprise officials of the          Federal Ministry of Aviation, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, and the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority.

The State Ministries of Lands & Infrastructure, Commerce & Industry, and the management of the ENPOWER Free Trade Zone will join the committee, the statement added.
The state government, which noted the importance of the International Airport to the people of the South East geo-political zone, reiterated its commitment to continue to support “every effort required to be made in order to get it functioning at optimum capacity and efficiency”.

The statement explained that the stakeholders would have to unravel what appeared to be a disagreement among federal authorities operating in Enugu State regarding ownership of vast hectares of land that the state government has so far approved around the airport for their use.

It said: “If at the end of the meeting, it is established that any of the parties still needed more land, especially for the airport project, the Enugu State government will promptly attend to this need.
“At the moment, it is important to emphasize that Enugu State has donated vast tracts of land for the airport expansion project and is also working to relocate further identified encumbrances such as a local market, in order to encourage the federal authorities to speedily complete the project”.

Source: https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/09/11/ugwuanyi-constitutes-committee-expansion-of-enugu-airport/amp/

The company website isnt working. We'll probably get more updates later on.

docadams:
No site mentioned? Where could a dry port be located in Edo state? Still thinking.

Edo is getting a dry port, river port and industrial park. The state government is doing great.

President Mohammadu Buhari will inaugurate Edo Inland Container Dry Port (Edo-ICD) in December.

Charles Akhigbe, the Project Initiator, disclosed this on Monday to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin City, the state capital.

He said the ICD would be the first of its kind in the South South geo-political zone.

He said the project, in its last stage of completion, would play host to four federal government agencies for on the spot final assessment on September 17.

Mr Akhigbe said the federal agencies would include Nigeria Shippers Council, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) and the Federal Ministries of Transport and Finance.

He said the agencies would review, among other things, work done so far on the project site and assess to the project location in the bid to grant of final concession to the Atlanque Marine Engineering Services (AMES), the promoters of the project.

He said this would facilitate the submission of a report to the Minister of Transport on the state of readiness of the ICD to commence receiving containers as an import and export dry port.

Mr Akhigbe said the ICD would help to decongest Lagos ports.

He also said it would create more than 15,000 direct and indirect jobs and serve as a one-stop shop for import and export activities in the state in particular and the South South region in general.

(NAN)

Source: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/south-south-regional/283056-buhari-to-inaugurate-edo-dry-port-in-december.html

Front page: Lalasticlala

Do they have money to do so? The free marjet worksbetter than command economy's. The government shouldn't be deterning companies investment. If it was so easy to do that why not make local farmers set up processing plants or oil drilling companies build refineries?

If they could make cash they would set it up. They probably dont see reward so wont or dont have means. You can read the financial report to determine what you think it is.

omoiyalayi:
Would it have been wrong for FG to compel them to set up a factory here and the finished products consume locally or be export

Will the foreign firm still not make their money while jobs will be provided for our people?

People first nigeria first

The company was granted 25 year mining lease because they applied and met requirements. Any company domestic or foreign can get same opportunity. The company usually annouces discovery before governments say something. The government only makes sure they meet all laws and regulations.

Why do you assume the money genersted wont be accounted for. They ministry has been genersting more revenue. Besides this type of companies will pay up unlike illegal miners. Let the private sector work the government has messed up enough in mining sector.

omoiyalayi:
I don't know what is even wrong with this our government they've already signed a contract of about 25yrs of mining with this foreign company

And it took the company to reveal this before FG star telling us about it

We are shouting no jobs for our youth and the quick thing the FG could do after discovering this minerals was to signed an agreement to start taking this resources away why the money generated will not be accounted for.

The processing sector held back by power. You can just as easily spply it food procesing like cashews. They are plsnning to have mineral processing as part of ERGP.

I doubt this junior miner has cash to set up processing plant. Maybe someone else could if the conditins are favorable.

omoiyalayi:
Exactly my what's on my mind

What is wrong with the FG after discovering dis minerals get a company that can set up factories here in nigeria and start producing whatever can come out of it so we can export the finished product in large quantities

omoiyalayi:
In my opinion if this foreign company so value this minerals like that why would FG not ask them to set up production factories here to provide jobs to the unemployed instead carting it away ? or get a company that is willing to do so

Lol You can go to the Australian firms website and confirm story. They're listed on stock exchange. Inform the Australian authorities of their crime if you really believe they're lying. If not I'll just assume your s sadist that dislike development.

sotall:
As usual...another propaganda discovery in the north..

I understand your message just fine. You're simply whining that mining benefits wont spread out which is untrue. Bessides the state and federal government already doing right thing. Your just being pessimistic even when its going right.

TheUbermensch:
This is funny.

Obviously you can read but cannot comprehend.

What are you crying about. The benefits have been spread far and wide. Those "privileged few" invested their time time and money to the projects success. If you want to benefit do the same by purchasing stock in the company.

TheUbermensch:
All this exploration that we won't still see the benefit. All the money accrued from this would just find their way into the accounts of a "privileged few".

What a sad country.

FYI the website put wrong compay name. Its Symbol Mining not Symbol Mineral.

If the rail system were adaquate at dry ports they reduce shipping cost. Kaduna is close to Bauchi and Nassarawa. They would export to China and Europe all the same. Maybe their investors will ask them about it.

Guy calm down symbol mining already has all the neccessary approvals. They arent like the illegal miners in Zamfara. They got lead poisoning because they didnt take safety precautions. Check their website for more information.

olawalepopoola:
This is not a matter of joke. Zinc deposits may bring in large amount of wealth but it is not comparable to the lives that may be lost. Anka in Zamfara state lost approximately 600 to 700 children in a day in 2012 which worth more than billions generated from gold deposit in the area.
EIA will be highly needed in this area.

Front page: Lalasticlala

A higher Zinc grade has been discovered in large quantity along the Benue Trough by an Australian mineral firm, Symbol Mineral, the company has announced.

The Zinc, is about 300 percent above the global grade and already exploration activities have commenced in some sites, the Minister of States for Mines and Steel Development, Abubakar Bawa Bwari said yesterday.

Symbol Mineral, Chief Executive Officer, Tim Wither said in a presentation made at the World Mining event titled: Africa Down Under 2018 at Australia at the weekend that the firm obtained a 25- year license to explore the minerals in 510 km2 of exploration tenement along the Benue Trough.  He said one of the projects titled: Imperial, has 30 priority targets, most of them have shallow historic workings with visible ZINC mineralisation. “The Diamond Drilling Results confirms exceptional high grades of Zinc and the company has already commenced application of modern geophysics”, said Wither

He said another project site called: Tawny located approximately 150 km east of Abuja, 4 kilo mitre from major highway, along the Middle Benue Trough is a 7km2 exploration license.

He explained that all the projects have no funding challenges as the company adopted self-funding exploration model.

Minister said who revealed the exploration project at the Nigeria Metallurgical Industry Stakeholders Forum in Abuja yesterday said, Nigeria is now regarded as the most focus on minerals among all the African countries.

Bwari however said the greatest challenge of mining investors in Nigeria is lack of funding from the financial institutions. He said most of the international and local investors at the event lamented poor funding of mining activities by banks in Nigerian. He said the banks also have low understanding of mining operations in the country which limited their capacity to participate in such activities.

In as much as government is paying attention to mining, there is the need for banks and other participant to play their roles in order to promote mining activities.

Zinc, a blue-gray, metallic element, is a moderately good conductor of electricity.  The most common alloy is brass, which is a mixture of zinc and copper.

Zinc is relatively non-reactive in air or water. Consequently, it is applied in thin layers to iron and steel products that need to be protected from rusting. This process is called galvanizing.

Zinc is used in making rubber and paint, chemicals, agricultural applications, in the rubber industry, in TV screens, fluorescent lights and for dry cell batteries.

Source: https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/firm-discovers-high-quality-zinc-in-bauchi-nassarawa-minister.html

Some people have weird mentality. They want government to provide all sorts of services but want to pay for anything. It's ridiculous to that state let these guys keep drawing water without paying. If you dont pay bills you dont want service it's that simple.

Water utilities are usually profitable for city or state that provides it since people need it. Hopefully they expand grow IGR this way.

He said that the huge debt was hindering the corporation from fulfilling its mandate of providing potable drinking water to the 20 Local Government Areas of the state.

Bauchi spends 900 million on water yearly. The cost have to be passed on the consumers assuming they like clean water. Please tell me where these guys sourcing clean drinking water to monthly for less thsn 500 naira a month? I think bill itself looks very cheap. 500 naira per how many litters after all that work put in.

“Capital Cost" takes care of infrastructures like treatment plant, reservoirs, pipes, vehicles and other things while the "Operating Cost"  involves the cost of treatment chemicals and additives like alum, soda ash, chlorine, chlorine powder, electricity, salaries and other miscellaneous expenses.

PrimadonnaO:
That run-down state! How did they manage to accumulate such debt?

It's like a village farmer owing someone 1billion naira. Preposterous!


*Modified*

It's an internal debt. The residents are mostly poor, though. That's why they can't pay 500 naira for water.

The fastest and easiest way to senstize these guys is to cut off service. Mail the delinquent customers notices they'll straighten up. If they are having financial difficulties maybe the water utility can work something out but they have to be responsible.

He expressed willingness to collaborate with the CSOs in sensitising customers on the need to settle water bills.

Residents and corporate bodies in Bauchi State are owing the State Water and Sewage Corporation (BSWSC) over one billion Naira of unsettled water bills.

Aminu Gital, the Managing Director of the BSWSC, disclosed this at a meeting between the management of the corporation and some civil society organisations (CSOs) in Bauchi on Wednesday.

He told the CSOs that the corporation registered over 22,000 water consumers in the state, but only 1,020 of them settled their monthly bills regularly.

“Water rate in the state is one of the lowest in the country because we charge N500 for high density areas, N750 for housing estates and N1000 for residents of the GRA, but despite this gesture, water consumers remain reluctant to settle this meagre bills,” he lamented.

He said that the huge debt was hindering the corporation from fulfilling its mandate of providing potable drinking water to the 20 Local Government Areas of the state.

Mr Gital outlined other challenges facing the corporation to include huge maintenance cost associated with payment of NEPA bills, fueling of generating plants and purchase of chemicals.

He expressed willingness to collaborate with the CSOs in sensitising customers on the need to settle water bills.

“We are ready to partner the CSOs in our efforts to sensitise the public on the need to settle their bills in view of the fact that supply of potable drinking water has the potential to reduce the cost of treatment of water borne diseases,” Mr Gital said.

Earlier, Coordinator of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Project (USAID supported project), Soni Elisha, had listed areas of support from the CSOs to include water source monitoring, water treatment monitoring and water quality measurement from source to end point, among others.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that at the end of the meeting, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the management of BSWSC and Network of Society for Water and Sanitaion (NEWSAN), an umbrella body of CSOs working on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Bauchi.

(NAN)

Source: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/nnorth-east/282619-bauchi-residents-corporate-bodies-owe-n1-billion-water-bill-official.html

Bump

These guys are refusing to be thrown under bus. If the equipment is there the state should move asap. The only project that will take time is the dam. Getting Qatar Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways and Air Peace on board would be great if these small changes is all it takes.

The state government had in March, assured the Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi Sirika, that it would clear the area where approach light and other equipment would be installed to upgrade the airport to operate night service.

Front page: Lalasticlala