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The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Burata, says the military will continue to engage in kinetic approach in dealing with banditry in Zamfara State while supporting non-kinetic approach of the state government.

He said this when he paid a courtesy visit to Governor Bello Matawalle at the Government House in Gusau on Monday.

While commending the peace effort of the government, he reiterated the commitment of the Nigerian army to dealing decisively with the menace of banditry in the northwest and parts of North Central. According to him, there is a need to achieve the major success and have the upper hand so that those that are causing the trouble will understand the seriousness of the government and all the state agencies He called for the support of the civilian populace in the area of intelligence and information from the grassroots towards the planning of operations diligently and successfully.

“We appreciate you for your non-kinetic approach but at the same time, we will still continue with the kinetic approach to be able to achieve the desired results quickly.

UAE 44th National Day - Union Flag Copy video url Play / Pause Mute / Unmute Report a problem Language Mox Player “In doing that, we’ve flagged off today, the Exercise Sahel Sanity which is aimed at carrying out operations across the northwest and parts of north-central which include Kaduna and Niger states.

“This is to rid this part of the country of the marauding bandits and other criminal elements and this I assure you God’s willing, we’ll achieve that within a very short time’’ he said.

Responding, Matawalle said that his peace effort had yielded positive results, adding that over 1,000 kidnapped victims had been released from bandits’ captivity since the inception of his administration. He said that his administration had also achieved disarmament of a number of repentant bandits, saying that more were surrendering on a regular basis.

He said that the vast nature of the state required more deployment of security personnel to the state, adding that the government was ready to support the security agencies with logistics. (NAN) Related

The police in Sokoto have arrested one Shuaibu Aliyu, for allegedly impregnating a 14-year-old girl and dumping the baby in a bush.

Sokoto State Commissioner of Police, CP Sani Kaoje disclosed this while briefing journalists on the arrest of suspects of various crimes, adding that the culprit was nabbed for rape and attempt to commit an offence of culpable homicide.

Alhaji Hamisu Abubakar of Kalambaina area, Wamakko LGA, Sokoto State, reported at Wamakko Police Station, that sometime in November 2019, one Shuaibu Aliyu, of the same address, lured a 14-year-old into his room and forcefully had sexual intercourse with her.”

“As a result she became pregnant. She took the child to the suspect who went together with his friend, one Nasiru Attahiru now at large, and threw the baby in the bush at Gidan Boka village, Wamakko LGA of Sokoto State.”

The CP added that a Good Samaritan found the baby and kept her through the Director Social Welfare, Wamakko LGA, who alerted the police. He said the suspect was arrested and had confessed to the crime.

The CP said effort was on to apprehend the other fleeing suspect. He said the case was still under investigation and that it would be lodged in the court after investigation.

In another development, the police commissioner said one Ahmed Alhaji Dahiru Maibuhu, of Rumbukawa area, Sokoto, had lured a 12-years-old girl into a shop at Illela township and had sexual intercourse with her.

The suspect was arrested and had confessed to the crime, the CP stated. He added that the suspect would be arraigned in court after investigation.

A foremost Nigerian businessman and politician, Chief Suarau Alani Bankole, described imposition of candidates by political parties as the bane of Nigeria’s politics and therefore asked the leading parties in the country to stop the practice in the interest of the populace.

Chief Bankole, who is the father of a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, spoke yesterday in an interview with Daily Trust in Abeokuta, Ogun State. He noted that parties often imposed “wrong candidates” during elections, leaving the voters to choose between “two evils”. He said, “Imposition of candidates has become the bane of Nigerian politics.

It’s so bad because it’s nearly impossible to win an election without belonging to either of the two main political parties. So, people believe they should put their own people there for their own benefit. Whereas, it won’t be out of place to expect somebody when he gets to power to do certain things for some people who supported him, but at the same time it should not be at the expense of the public.

“I think what we should be talking about in Nigeria today is to stop imposition of candidates so that we chose popular candidates within their own parties to enable the electorate have choice between good candidates, because if all the parties impose wrong candidates, the populace will have no choice than to pick one of them, and that one may not be good.”

The Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has said he is not nursing the ambition of running for the office of the President of Nigeria. Gov. Wike stated this while featuring in a television programme monitored in Port Harcourt.

He said the speculations linking him to presidential ambition were distractions. He further said, “Right now, I am focusing on delivering the dividends of democracy to the people of Rivers State.

“Recall that in 2018 and 2019 when I was supporting my friend, Aminu Waziri Tambulwal, it was speculated in the media that I was going to run with him. That was my first tenure, and I had not even completed it and they wanted me to give that away.

“To clear every speculation, let me state that I am not going to run for the office of the President of Nigeria for now. I am concentrating in developing Rivers State. I am not a party to anybody saying that the problems in PDP is about 2023.”

Commenting on a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar’s aspiration to contest for the presidency 2023, Wike said it was a fundamental right that could not be denied.

On zoning of PDP presidential ticket to the North, Gov. Wike said the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party had not taken a final decision.

He explained that, “We will come together to resolve issues because we are a family. Outsiders cannot do things that will divide us. What we are interested in now is how we can remain united to take over power from APC that has failed Nigeria.”

Every morning, a group of women files out of an abandoned, uncompleted housing estate in Goronyo Local Government of Sokoto State. What they have in common is that they are all widows living in a makeshift camp for displaced persons.

Originally conceived as resettlement estate for persons displaced by the 2010 floods in Goronyo, the abandoned, uncompleted estate now houses 500 persons displaced by bandits’ attacks in Malanfaru, Riyojin Tsamiya and Kamitau villages in Goronyo.

Of the 50 widows in the camp, 28 lost their husbands in the bandits’ attacks. All of them now have to fend for themselves. So every morning, they file out of the camp to gather firewood which they sell to buy food and other essentials that they and their children need.

For the past 11 months, since their displacement, this has been their lives. The memories of the homes they came from are still fresh in their minds. “When the bandits attacked our village, some women and I fled to the bush and on our return, I discovered the corpse of my husband among the 21 killed,” nursing mother, Azima, 25, said. “My baby was 40 days old when the father was killed.”

Hindatu Bawa, clutching her one-year-old daughter, Rahina, looked dejected, unkempt and sad. Bandits had gunned down her husband, a farmer, on the day they attacked their village. “My child was just one month old when the bandits attacked our village and killed 21 dwellers, including my husband. After I identified his corpse, I joined the other women and trekked over 30 km to this camp,” she said.

At the camp, life has not been ideal. There are food and water shortages and a lack of security worries the displaced persons in Goronyo, especially as increasing bandits’ activities in neighbouring villages portend danger. “The need to make a living compels us to trek for miles into the bush looking for firewood to sell and feed.

It is what we do to survive this life of uncertainty,” Hindatu said. The search for firewood is a team effort for the widows. About 20 of them set off each morning for this hunt.

“We leave camp about 9 am and return around noon,” another widow, Jimma Ibrahim, 40, said. On a good outing, Jimma gathers N600 worth of firewood. On other days, she makes about N400 daily. “

We sell the firewood within the camp where retailers and households buy them,” she said. The money she makes helps cater for her five children in the camp. It is no way near enough. “We are in dire need of food and cloth for our children.

We need support to survive the hard times,” she said. For Zainabu Abu, another widow, her encounter with the bandits revealed to her their motive and foretold her future.

"When the gun-wielding bandits came, they met me outside and the leader said it is your husbands and sons we want to kill and then put you in poverty,” she said. “They burnt houses and killed our men.”

She and the other survivors trekked for close to four hours before arriving at the camp in Goronyo to live in the poverty that the bandits had wanted for them. Spokesman of the IDPs, Samaila Garba, 40, said some of them could not bear the dreadful conditions of life in the camp and decided to go back home to face whatever would befall them. Their homes are not in any way safe since bandits are still grazing their rustled livestock around the villages.

“We have our families here, and we have been struggling to provide for them,” he said. “For me, I use my motorcycle for commercial purposes while others took to menial jobs in the town to survive the situation.” Garba, who makes about N500 daily, said, “We are in a serious problem. We need the government’s assistance, especially on security.

Every day, we hear about people getting killed or kidnapped in surrounding villages and no one bothers to look our way.” It is the rainy season and for most of the IDPs, this is supposed to be one of the busiest times of the year as they prepare and plant their farmlands. However, now, they can only languish in self-pity while scraping for a living.

“We cannot risk our lives going back to the village,” Garba said. “But if we can get a piece of land on lease [here], we can make use of it.” Umaru Garba, 45, along with his wives and 10 children, fled from Malanfaru village after the attack. Life in the camp has been really hard. “We have spent over 11 months at the camp and the situation is quite challenging,” he said.

Umaru engages in petty trade at the camp’s entrance and feeds off the proceeds. With the limited chance of farming, it is hard finding another way to live and feed his family. “We suffer a lot to get even water to drink and the camp where I live with my family of two wives and ten children is not secured,” he said.

“We are at the mercy of the gun-toting kidnappers and bandits who are terrorizing nearby villages. We are afraid of another attack,” he said. Abubakar Musa, 35, often goes into Goronyo town to look for menial jobs to feed his wife and three children.

“I usually visit construction sites where I can get something to do. Any job available, I can do it to feed,” he said. Others have found ways of doing handwork within the camp. One of them is Samaila Garba, 40, from Riyojin Tsamiya. He is the only tailor in the camp and moves from place to place, mending clothes.

“I don’t sew new clothes but mend old ones, and I can make about N300 a day. I also sew children’s cloth,” the husband of two wives and father of 10 said. For the children, life in the camp is very strange and difficult.

Shuaibu, 11, said people go indoors as soon as it is 7 pm. “Life here is quite challenging compared to the one at our villages,” he said. When probed on what he meant, he said, “Food was more available at home. We barely get enough to eat here.”

Yet, in this hardship, while grieving the dead and their loses, the IDPs are bringing new lives into the world with 30 births recorded since the camp was established.

Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State Tuesday updated the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, on the security situation of the state.

The governor said that security agencies were working hard to tackle the menace of banditry and violent crimes in the state.

State Speaking with State House correspondents shortly after the closed-door meeting in Abuja, Matawalle said that his government had intensified efforts towards restoring peace to all the troubled parts of the state. He said: “I am here to see the Chief of Staff to the President because of the issue currently bedevilling Zamfara.

“We discussed intensively about the security issue in Northern Nigeria, not just in Zamfara. “We met in the National Security Adviser’s office with northern governors and the Inspector-General of Police and other security agencies. “We discussed extensively on the issue of insecurity.

“I was invited here by the Chief of Staff to the President to come and brief him on the issue of insecurity in my state, which I have done, and we have understood where we are going.

“The Zamfara government and the security agencies are doing their best to make sure that we curtail this issue of insecurity.” According to the governor, government is using the carrot-and-stick approach in handling security issues in the state, adding that repentant bandits are profiled and re-integrated into the society.

“You know that in handling security issue, we have to adopt so many methods.

“So we are using both stick and carrot to achieve maximum result. “There are some repentant bandits who have already subscribed to the peace initiative; we are using them; but those who refused to key into the dialogue initiative, we are fighting them,” he said.

He expressed the optimism that the ongoing military operations in the state would be successful,” he added (NAN)

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to “wake up” on domestic and diplomatic issues such as attacks on Nigerians living in other countries.

The party specifically asked President Buhari to take decisive action over the demolition of the Nigerian Embassy in Ghana which it described as a “huge contempt.”

Attacks on Nigerian mission in Ghana criminal – FG 27 amnesty beneficiaries evacuated from Ghana, quarantined in Abuja Some armed men reportedly invaded the Nigerian High Commission in Accra, Ghana, on Friday, destroying some apartments under construction. The affected buildings were reportedly being constructed to house staff and visitors.

A Ghanaian businessman had accused the Commission of encroaching on his land. But the PDP in a statement on Monday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan argued that Buhari has failed as a result of sheer incompetence and incapacity to articulate and project Nigeria’s pride and integrity before other world leaders.

“The PDP described as disheartening that since the incident, President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC have not demonstrated effort to preserve the nation’s integrity, beyond the tepid statements by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyema.

“This situation has further explained why attacks on Nigerians and Nigerian interests in foreign lands had escalated under the Buhari administration, with Nigerians being harassed and killed in various parts of the world by assailants, who take advantage of the incompetence and weaknesses of the current government in Nigeria.

“The PDP particularly recalls how the Buhari administration exhibited unpardonable weakness and failed to protect innocent Nigerians who were being killed in violent xenophobic attacks in South Africa last year,” the party said. The foreign minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, on Monday, summoned a senior Ghanaian diplomat, Ms Iva Denoo over the incident.