₦airaland Forum

Governors of Nigeria’s 36 states are set to meet on Wednesday to perfect plans to demand a financial bailout from the Federal government to pay salaries.

Dozens of states owe their workers for several months, and their governors blame the dismal revenue they receive from Abuja.

The monthly allocations dwindled since 2014 due to falling price of oil.

The governors, who are meeting under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, would be discussing as a unified group for the first time after its election of 2013 broke the NGF into two factions led by former governors Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers and Jonah Jang of Plateau states respectively.

The NGF meeting is to take place at the Lagos/Osun Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja by 10 a.m.

The governors had earlier on Tuesday met on the platform of their parties, the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Both meetings discussed the precarious financial situation across the states and resolved to present a common request for help to the Federal Government.
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Member of the House of Representatives have elected Yakubu Dogara, who represents Bogoro/ Tafawa Balewa federal constituency in Bauchi state, as the Speaker of the 8th Assembly.

Mr. Dogara defeated Femi Gbajabiamila, who represents Surulere federal constituency, Lagos state, in a keenly contested election.

Mr. Dogara scored 182 votes while Mr. Ggajabiamila polled 174.

Mr. Dogara is emerging the speaker against the wish of his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, which had on Saturday conducted a mock election to choose Mr. Gbajabiamila as the party’s official candidate.
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Bukola Saraki, a former governor of Kwara State, has been elected the president of the eighth Senate.

Mr. Saraki of the All Progressives Congress, APC, defeated his party’s preferred candidate, Ahmed Lawan, to emerge the Senate president.

He was nominated by Sani Yerima and seconded by Dino Melaye.

Mr. Saraki has been sworn into office.

The election for the office of Senate Deputy President is still ongoing. Immediate past deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, is contesting against Ali Ndume from Borno State.
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The Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF), Samuel Ukura, on Tuesday blamed the inability of his office to publish the report of the forensic audit on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over the missing $20 billion oil fund on presidential interest.

He said the the Goodluck Jonathan presidency had far more special interest in the matter than his own office and the auditors.

Several months after PriceWaterhouseCoopers Limited completed investigations into the allegation of unremitted oil revenues, the report was not released to the public despite demands by Nigerians.

On Sunday, April 27, President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, had threatened that his administration would probe the allegations on assumption of office if the report was not made public.

Apparently reacting to Mr. Buhari’s threat, President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday ordered immediate release of the report to Nigerians.

Presidential spokesperson, Reuben Abati, said the decision to release of the full report was to demonstrate that the present administration had nothing to hide over the matter.
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Over 200 Chibok schoolgirls abducted in April 2014 by Boko Haram militants were not among a group of women and girls rescued by the Nigerian army in Sambisa forest Tuesday, the army has said.

The Nigerian military said troops rescued 200 girls and 93 women from the vast forest which served as a hideout for Boko Haram, the insurgent group that has killed nearly 20,000 people.

It could not however confirm whether the girls were students abducted from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, on April 14.

The military said the girls were being “screened and profiled” to determine where they came from.

“Troops this afternoon rescued 200 girls & 93 women from Sambisa Forest. We cannot confirm if the #ChibokGirls are in this group,” the defence headquarters said on Twitter Tuesday evening.

“Troops captured and destroyed 3 terrorists camps including the notorious Tokumbere camp in the Sambisa Forest Operation.
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The federal information ministry has ordered the board of the News Agency of Nigeria to immediately commence investigations into over a dozen allegations of corruption and highhandedness against the agency’s boss, Ima Niboro.

In response, the board has raised a three-man committee, led by a board member, Ossai Ifeanyi, to thoroughly investigate the allegations against Mr. Niboro and report back to the board without delay.

The board will in turn furnish the information ministry with details of its findings with a view to determining whether Mr. Niboro is innocent or guilty of the allegations and whether he should be allowed to remain in office or be removed.

Sources at the information ministry also told PREMIUM TIMES Tuesday that the ministry, which described the allegations as “grievous”, has already queried Mr. Niboro, asking him to respond to the charges.
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One Mohammed Kabiru Jafaru, 35, a supporter of President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday embarked on a journey from Kaduna to Lagos to thank the Yorubas for supporting Mr. Buhari.

Mr. Kabiru, a resident of Hayin Malam Bello, in the Rigasa District of Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna state, commenced his journey to Lagos at exactly 6: 35 a.m. at the palace of the Sarkin Hayin Malam Bello, Kabiru Gangarida.

Mr. Kabiru, in an interview with journalists, said he decided to embark on the journey to Lagos to thank the Yoruba people, especially for their immense support and contributions that led to the victory of Mr. Buhari.
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President Goodluck Jonathan deliberately humiliated Police Inspector General, Suleiman Abba, out of office Tuesday, delivering his decision on Twitter without an advanced communication, and leaving Mr. Abba, one of Nigeria’s most criticised police chiefs, at work several hours after his dismissal, PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively report.

By 11.23p.m. Tuesday, more than 10 hours after his removal was announced via the internet, Mr. Abba was yet to receive any brief or correspondence from the president or his representatives informing him of his removal, this paper can confirm.
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"Since you were appointed the Acting Inspector-General of Police by the President of the Republic on July 31, 2014 the Nigeria Police Force has been involved in partisan politics to the detriment of law and order in the country."
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President Goodluck Jonathan has fired Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba.

The sack was announced by the president’s spokesperson, Reuben Abati, in a tweet on Tuesday.

No reason was given for the sack. A Deputy Inspector General of police, Solomon Arase, was appointed to act in his stead. The sack is with immediate effect.
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Members of the Federation Account Allocation Committee rose from a late meeting Monday night with a resolution to probe the circumstances surrounding the delay by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to remit to government the $1.48 billion (N294.5 billion) uncovered by a recent forensic audit.

The forensic audit conducted by the audit firm of PriceWaterHouseCoopers on behalf of the Federal Government on the operations of the NNPC had indicted the management of the national oil company for various questionable transactions.

The audit followed an allegation that the NNPC had failed to account for $20 billion oil money.

The audit only found $1.48 billion was missing, the Nigerian government said, after releasing some details of the report.

The government has refused to make the full report public.
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The chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, John Odigie-Oyegun, has written the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega, urging the replacement of electoral officials in Imo State ahead of rescheduled governorship elections in parts of the state Saturday.

Mr. Oyegun said the APC may not take part in the election if the commission retains the current INEC team, which he said was “compromised”.

In a letter sent Monday, Mr. Oyegun said the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Imo State was desperate to manipulate the election by attempting to order new vote in areas where results had already been declared, all in an effort to help the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, win.
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The United States government appears set to sanction a former Niger Delta minister, Godsday Orubebe, and governor of Katsina State, Ibrahim Shema, and other Nigerians accused of either disrupting the just concluded elections, or instigating violence.

The U.S. said Monday, that it will impose visa restrictions on any Nigerian found to have incited violence or interfered with the electoral process.

The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said in an op-ed that the U.S. will shut its doors on people involved in any form of violence during the polls.

“Anyone found to have incited violence or interfered with electoral processes will be unwelcome in the United States and subject to visa sanctions,” Ms. Thomas-Greenfield said.
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Tension is building up in Ekiti State as Governor Ayo Fayose asked the people to defend the mandate they gave to him following the impeachment process initiated by the All Progressives Congress lawmakers in the state assembly.

Already three groups, the Okada Riders Association, Road Transport Workers Association of Nigeria and National Union of Road Transport Workers have put their members on notice to look out for the APC lawmakers apparently to forestall their impeachment.

The 19 APC lawmakers in the Ekiti State House of Assembly had two weeks ago served a notice of impeachment on Mr. Fayose, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, who was sworn into office last October.

The lawmakers were away from the state until recently, following the victory of the APC in the presidential election. During their absence, seven PDP legislators were performing legislative duties which many consider illegal.
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On 14th April, the world commemorated one year in bondage of the 219 Chibok Girls. It was a dreadful day because no one imagined that the girls would be in captivity for so long. I listened to comments around the world and the words that recurred were “the irresponsible and corrupt Nigerian Government” that simply refused to prioritise the search and rescue of the girls. We had been demanding that the Nigerian Government #BringBackOurGirls for one year and all we have seen is the “I don’t care” and “clueless” attitude of the Jonathan Administration. The Chibok Girls became a huge statement about the Nigerian State because it revealed to the world a clear narrative about the Nigerian State that was shocking and went way beyond the issue of the girls, and it is important to restate the narrative.
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President Goodluck Jonathan has denied spending N2 trillion to for electioneering campaigns for his Peoples Democratic Party in the recently concluded general elections.

The presidency stated this in an official reaction to a story published by Punch Newspapers that Mr. Jonathan was concerned about how campaign funds were spent without the desired victory in the polls and has called for a probe.
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South Africa on Friday in Pretoria sought diplomatic support from countries across the continent to tackle the ongoing anti-immigrant violence in the country.

This was as a result of series of complaints by foreign nationals that the South African police are failing to protect them.

They said the crisis was stirring hostility to South Africans working abroad.

South African Foreign Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, told a reporter after the African diplomatic meeting in Pretoria, that there was urgent need to nip the crisis in the bud.

“We believe that working together we can defeat this demon,” she said.

Malawian Information Minister, Kondwani Nankhumwa, said on Friday that the country has hired buses to repatriate 500 of its nationals from South Africa.
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A video has surfaced showing Nigerian pastor, T.B. Joshua, warning South Africans of a “youth revolt” in their nation which would result in deaths of “certain people”.

The clip, uploaded to Joshua’s popular YouTube channel Emmanuel TV, says the controversial cleric prophesied about the deadly xenophobic attacks spreading across South Africa on Sunday 28th July 2013.

“In the nation, South Africa, we should help them in prayer because I am seeing youth revolt,” the clip quotes Mr. Joshua as saying. “It will be very serious. A situation where youth will come out and… you learn that there is a protest. Some people were killed – certain people.”
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The Ondo State Government is working hard to control a strange disease which suddenly broke out in the Ode-Irele community of Ondo state, leading to the death of no fewer than 28 people in the past three days.

Residents say the disease broke out three days ago and spread rapidly around the community, killing its victim within 24 hours.

The cause of the disease remained unknown.

Experts say preliminary reports from victims revealed neurologic clinical symptoms: blindness, and loss of consciousness.

Ebola Alert, an evidence-driven group of volunteer professionals who helped with the Ebola Virus Disease interventions in the country, said 28 people have died from the disease.
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The Peoples Democratic Party on Wednesday expressed confidence that it would effectively dislodge the All Progressives Party from power in four years time and reestabilsh its dominance in the nation’s political horizon.

Olisa Metuh, the party`s National Publicity Secretary, stated this while speaking with journalists at the end of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) meeting.

The meeting was the first after it lost the presidential election to the APC.

He reassured PDP members across the country that the NWC had put machinery in place to re-engineer and re-focus the party, in keeping with the collective determination to consolidate its support base in states of the federation.
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Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged the President-elect Muhammadu Buhari to realize that Nigerians are expecting a lot from him when he eventually takes over power May 29.

Mr. Obasanjo is currently in Sudan as an AU observer in the country’s presidential election.

PREMIUM TIMES spoke to him, Wednesday, on Mr. Buhari’s victory.

Mr. Obasanjo said he was not ready to “say too much” about the election but noted that Nigerians have passed a message to the retired general by asking for change.

“Nigerians have done what needed to be done,” he said.

He also called “what has happened” Phase 1. He said Phase 2 would be how the new government establishes itself.
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Human Rights group, Amnesty International, on Tuesday said no fewer than 2,000 women and girls have been abducted by Islamist group Boko Haram in the past 15 months.

The group, which said this is in a report based on almost 200 witness accounts, added that many of victims were being trained to fight.

“Young women and girls are abducted, imprisoned and in some cases raped, forcibly married and made to participate in armed attacks, sometimes on their own towns and villages,’’ the group said.
A 19 year-old girl, Aisha, told Amnesty how she was abducted during a wedding in September along with her sister, the bride and the bride’s sister.

Boko Haram took them to a camp in the town of Gulak in Adamawa where the bride and the bride’s sister were forced to marry insurgents.

She said herself and no fewer than 100 other women and girls were taught how to fight and kill.
“I was among the girls trained to shoot. I was also trained on how to use bombs and how to attack a village.

“Then they started sending some of us to operations. I went on one operation to my own village.

She said during three months of captivity she was raped, sometimes by groups of up to six fighters.
Aisha said she also saw Boko Haram members killing no fewer than 50 people, including her sister.
Amnesty documented war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Boko Haram, including the killing of over 5,500 civilians in north-east Nigeria in the past 15 months.

Boko Haram has killed an estimated 14,000 people since 2009.

It said the group would take the women and girls they abducted directly to camps or move them to houses in towns and villages.
They would later indoctrinate them with their version of Islam in preparation for marriage.
Men and boys are regularly conscripted or executed.

According to the report, Boko Haram attacked and raided over 300 towns and villages in the past 15 months.

The insurgents target the military or police, capture arms and ammunition which they then used against civilians.

They would shoot anyone trying to escape, rounding up and executing men of fighting age.
Alhaji, 18, told Amnesty he had been captured and was waiting to be killed after Boko Haram took over the town of Madagali on December 14.

“They killed 27 people in front of me.

“I was counting every one of them because I wanted to know when my turn would come,’’ Alhaji said, adding that over 100 men who refused to join the terrorists were executed that day.

A 15-year-old boy, spared due to his disability, said he witnessed ten stoning.

“They stone them to death on Fridays. They will gather all the children and ask them to stone.
“I participated in the stoning; they will dig a hole, bury all the body and stone the head. When the person dies, they will leave the stones until the body decays,’’ he said. (dpa/NAN)


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The Nigerian military will reclaim the expansive Sambisa forest reserve which has become a notorious Boko Haram stronghold, before President Goodluck Jonathan hands over power in less than two months, National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki said Tuesday.

Mr. Jonathan will on May 29 surrender power after losing the March 28 presidential election to Muhammadu Buhari.

After widespread criticisms over its inability to contain Boko Haram, the Nigerian military in the last few months has retaken several territories occupied by the group, dislodging the militants from key towns like Baga, Bama and Gwoza.
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Police are still trying to settle the problem at the Opebi Road polling unit. The voters are insisting that their votes must be counted.

According to Emmanuel Williams, a voter, everything had been going on well without irregularities.

"But now when they want to count the votes, the PDP agents are trying to misbehave.

"They are arguing, they don't want them to count it. No issues since. Why now when they want to count the votes?"

Another voter, Adeyemi Ayodeji, said that the party agents had been at the polling unit since morning and they didn't complain.
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There's chaos at the polling unit at Opebi Road after some PDP agents allegedly stopped the counting of votes.

The agents claimed that some ballot papers from Oshodi-Isolo and Ikeja were used to vote at the polling unit.

Police have arrived and formed a blockade around the ballot box.

Voters are chanting "count out votes."
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Hoodlums on a motor bike have snatched a ballot box at a polling unit PU 014 in Epe.

INEC have cancelled the election there.
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The governorship candidate of APC, Umana OKon Umana, has just called for the cancelation of the governorship election in Akwa Ibom State. He cited election irregularities as the reason for the call. According to Mr. Umana, election materials at his polling unit was incomplete. He said only 450 ballot papers were brought to the polling booths while there were 1570 registered voters. The situation almost degenerated into a riot before the police in the local government area came to take the officials away so that angry voters do not pounce on them.
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Gunmen suspected to be political thugs in the early hours of Saturday shot and killed Emeka Nworie, the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ishielu LGA in Ebonyi state.

The late PDP chairman was attacked in his house in Ezzagu in Ishielu LGA and shot severally by his assailants on different parts of his body until he died, the police said.

Police spokesperson, Chris Anyanwu, confirmed the incident to our reporter. He said the incident took place at around 3 a.m. in the morning.

He said the assailants asked for money, which was generously given to them, yet they proceeded to shoot him to death.
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A former Minister of Defence and wartime military officer, Theophilus Danjuma, has blamed the late Biafran warlord, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, for the bloodshed that took place during Nigeria’s civil war, saying Mr. Ojukwu failed to concede defeat as President Goodluck Jonathan recently did to Muhammadu Buhari.

Speaking Wednesday after a meeting with President Jonathan in Abuja, Mr. Danjuma praised the president for giving up on the elections after it became clear he had lost. Mr. Jonathan had visited Mr. Danjuma at him home in Abuja.

The former military chief charged African and world leaders to emulate Mr. Jonathan, saying the president had set a record in Africa by conceding defeat and congratulating the opposition candidate, Mr. Buhari, even before the final result of the poll was announced.
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As Nigerians and the international community continue to praise President Goodluck Jonathan for conceding defeat to his main challenger, Muhammadu Buhari, in the March 28 presidential election, PREMIUM TIMES has received exclusive details of how the president took the decision of making the historic concession telephone call to Mr. Buhari.

Reliable officials, knowledgeable about the drama that unfolded at the presidential villa that March 31, said Mr. Jonathan was pulled by two contending forces: loyalists who kept pressuring him to concede defeat and congratulate Mr. Buhari, and hawks who insisted he and his party should strongly challenge the APC candidate’s victory.
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The prevalence of HIV/AIDS is by far higher among female police personnel in Nigeria than among their male counterparts, and the lead cause is sexual exploitation by male officers who deliberately toughen police routines to make the women vulnerable to sexual abuse, an internal police assessment has found.

A study of the incidence of the deadly virus within the Nigeria Police Force concluded that male officers deliberately issue tough regulations that make their female counterparts desperate and willing to gratify them with sex.

The report also blamed the high incidence of HIV on female personnel who deliberately offer sex to their male colleagues, and those who indulge in “transactional sex”.

In all, a key catalyst for the spread, the study found, was the indiscriminate sexual behaviour of male officers who retained several partners and often avoided the use of protection, such as condom.
The study, conducted in 2010, but only available to the public now, said on the average the incidence of HIV among female officers was more than double the rate among male officers.

Titled, “Integrated Behavioural and Biomedical Surveillance Survey”, IBBSS, the study was first carried out in 2007.

Remarkably, within the three years span, the police force recorded a cut back from 3.6 percent to 2.5 percent in overall HIV prevalence, the report, triggered by the Police Action Committee on AIDS, PACA, found.

But on gender-based spread, the report said HIV/AIDS was rampant among female police officers in Nigeria than their male counterparts, and was higher than the rate in all the armed forces (Army, Navy and Airforce) combined.

On state basis, the study found that female police officers in Abuja had the highest prevalence of 12.7 per cent compared to 5.6 per cent for male officers. The Abuja rate for female personnel was the highest in the country, the report added.
It said populations especially at higher risk of contracting the virus are police officers on peace keeping operations, border patrol police, special anti-robbery squad, mobile police, anti-terrorism unit, highway patrol police and medical units.
On the cause, the report noted, “Strong regimentation within the force to compel female officers agree to sex, as well as others who gratify male colleagues with sex and others who engage in ‘transactional sex’”.

It did not provide further details.
Mohammed Abubakar, the Inspector General of Police at the time of the study, acknowledged in a preface to the report that the police was aware of the slant against its female personnel. He however did not say what the force was doing to reverse the trend.

Police spokesperson, Emmanuel Ojukwu, told PREMIUM TIMES the Police was doing lot to fight the scourge of HIV, although he denied knowledge of the details of the report.
“I don’t have the report, I don’t know what the recommendations are, but I do know that a lot of efforts are being made towards getting better accommodation for officers and men of the police force,” Mr. Ojukwu said.

He said while HIV is a national issue, the force was making every effort to make sure police officers are HIV free, and that those infected receive adequate treatment.

He did not provide a specific answer to the issue of sexual harassment, beyond saying the current police chief, Suleiman Abba, was working hard towards generally addressing the welfare of personnel.

Nigeria Police and HIV/AIDS

Nigeria’s 350,000-strong police force, is now deploying the report as the plank for an action plan to roll back HIV/AIDS between 2014 and 2016.
The overall goal is to prevent new infection and reduce to its barest minimum the impact of HIV/AIDS on the force within the period.
The report proposes “Gender policy, Gender sensitive programs, Right protection policies” as ways to stem the tide.

But the 2010 study, spearheaded by the National Coordinator, PACA, Grace Okudo, a Commissioner of Police, in partnership with United States Agency for International Development, USAID, National Agency for Control of AIDS, Nigeria, NACA among others, provides other telling findings.

While it blamed the high prevalence of the virus among female police officers on high sexual activities among personnel, it also pointed at the relationship between HIV and the use of alcoholic and psycho-active substances in the police and the military.
Overall, the report noted that even with the high use of psycho-active substances in the armed forces, HIV prevalence among military personnel was much lower than the police.
The report said the disparity may be attributedted to the relatively better funding of the HIV/ AIDS response programme in the military.

More girlfriends, less protection

The report said besides HIV, other Sexually Transmitted Infections were also higher among police officers than the armed forces.
It also blamed the accommodation standard among the junior cadre, which constitutes 77.7 per cent of the work force.
“The Police Barracks environment possesses several factors that can promote risky sexual behaviour. Some of these include congestion, excessive sharing of facilities and absence of recreational facilities,” the report noted.
“The Police Barracks also holds great potential for repeated and sustained exposure to target individuals and sub-populations to HIV/AIDS interventions like Behaviour Change Communication (BCC).”
The IBBS report also said that multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships among officers was high.
Surprisingly, it noted, even with high occurrence of multiple partners, there was low use of protection such as condoms among regular partners, especially with the fact that 31.5 per cent of police officers had been away from their home or family “consistently” for one year preceding the survey.
The report said the use of condoms in regular relationships was higher among armed forces personnel than police officers.
“Condom use among girlfriends of Police Officers is 45.4% and is considerably lower than the Armed Forces, at 64.7%. This high risk behaviours puts police officers at more risk than their Armed Forces counterpart.
“Sexual relationship with boy/girlfriend was the most commonly reported non-marital sex among police (36%) in the last 12 months. Reported sex with more than one non-regular partner (casual, commercial and girl/boyfriend) in the 12 months was 14.4%.
“Condom use at last commercial sex was low among Police (58.9%) compared to the Armed Forces (86%). Condom use at last sex with casual partners amongst Police was low (56.2%) compared with the Armed Forces (76.3%),” it said.



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The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, John Oyegun, has said the party leadership has slated a crucial meeting to decide the power sharing formula after Saturday’s governorship and house of assembly polls.

Mr. Oyegun, who stated this in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Monday, said the major agenda of the meeting would be to take a decision on which of the zones would produce the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

With the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, from the North West and his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo for the South West zones, the South East zone was expected to produce either the Senate President of the Speaker of the House of Representatives in the APC-led federal administration which begins May 29.
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