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PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014
News
Niger Delta women demand empowerment By Ikechukwu Okaforadi
W
omen societies from the Niger Delta region have urged the Niger Delta Ministry to come up with policies and programmes which would empower women from the area with skills, formal education, and business opportunities. Briefing the Niger Delta Minister, Godsday Orubebe,
during a ‘women civic reorientation and empowerment summit’, which was held in Abuja yesterday, the women, led by Christy Okanze, said that if women are not empowered with skills and education, they hardly fit into the society. They emphasised the need for the ministry to come to their aid, pointing out that women from the region are facing hard times in
their efforts to eke out a living in the region. While demanding that the women needed to be carried along by the Niger Delta ministry, they also demanded for a slot in the list of those who will send delegate at the upcoming National Conference. Some of the women who spoke at the summit said, “Niger Delta Muslim women are not being
carried along. “We want to build schools for Muslim kids, the Muslim women in the Niger Delta are being taken for granted in the region, and it was a Muslim that brought amnesty to the Niger Delta region”, one of the women said. Speaking earlier, Orubebe, represented by the Minister of State, Darius Ishaku, said the summit will help to direct the
Malam Ishak Hadejia. The order for the arrest was announced by the Jigawa state Police Commissioner, Mr. Kayode Theophilus, while speaking at the post-election interactive session with other security chiefs and journalists. He said Hadejia’s planned arrest was to get the politician prove his allegation that police had actually snatched ballot boxes during the last Saturday’s council elections in the state. “One Ishak Hadejia would
answer questions over his interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) Hausa service that our men snatched ballot boxes. He would also have to tell us where he saw a uniformed police officer or even if it was not police with evidence to prove his claim”, the commissioner said. Mr. Theophilus denied the involvement of any uniformed personnel in ballot box snatching or assisting in any
election misconduct during and after the elections. According to him: “I and the AIG were in Hadejia and Malam Madori on the election day; there was nothing like that”. The JISIEC had cancelled the Hadejia and Malam Madori local government elections over alleged ballot box snatching, and other election irregularities. The two local government where elections were cancelled are strongholds of the opposition APC.
Jigawa LG polls: AIG orders arrest of APC chieftain From Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse
F
ew days after the cancellation of Hadejia and Malam Madori local government council elections by the Jigawa state Independent Electoral Commission (JISIEC), the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone I, Mr. Tambari Yabo Muhammed, has ordered the immediate arrest of an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in the state,
L-R: Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Dr. MacJohn Nwabiala, Supervising Minister of Education, Barrister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, Mission Director in Nigeria, US Agency for International Development (USAID), Mr. Michael Harvey, and Team Leader, Education USAID in Nigeria, Dr. Jill Jupiter Jones, during the minister’s and USAID Team partnership meeting on quality education in Nigeria, yesterday in Abuja. Photo: Justin Imo-Owo
Niger Delta women towards selfconfidence and independence, among others. He also said the ministry has designed a Niger Delta Action Plan (NDAP), which will focus on environmental degradation, unemployment and poverty, among other challenges faced by women in the region. Speaking on the import of the summit, he said, “the summit will provide opportunity to discuss the modalities for women engagement as mediators that could help in negotiation and peaceful settlement of disputes in the various communities”. Meanwhile, the minister has promised to open a record of “serious” women organisations, with a view to maintaining a regular relationship with them, such that they will serve as change agents in the region.
CJN pays tribute to late Justice Saidu Kawu
T
he Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloma Mukthar, yesterday said the late Justice Saidu Kawu had been immortalised through his contributions to the Nigeria law reform. The CJN revealed this when she paid a condolence visit to the family of the late jurist at his Ikokoro family compound, off Niger Road in IIorin, Kwara state. The CJN, who said she first met the late Justice Kawu in 1962, described him as a complete gentleman. She prayed God to grant him eternal rest and give his family the fortitude to bear the loss. The Acting Kwara Grand Khadi, Justice Olohuntoyin Mohammed, offered special prayer for the CJN and for the repose of the soul of the deceased. The CJN was accompanied on the visit by some justices of the Supreme Court, as well as judges of the Court of Appeal and Kwara High Court. Late Justice Saidu Kawu died on Dec. 25, 2013 at the age of 90 following a brief illness. He was one time Chief Judge of Kwara and joined the Supreme Court bench in 1984. (NAN)
Council boss seeks FG’s intervention on Tiv farmers’, Fulani herdsmen’s incessant clashes From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi
C
hairman of Makurdi local government council in Benue state, Godwin Donko has appealed to the federal government to intervene in the incessant clashes between Tiv farmers and Fulani herdsmen that has resulted in the deaths of several people. Donko, who made the
appeal during an interview with newsmen yesterday, lamented last Sunday’s killings in Adeke community, admitting that the council lacks the capacity to handle the crisis. “It is a pathetic situation. There seem to be no solution to this crisis. I have been confronted with this crisis since I assumed office as chairman. The local government lacks the capacity to handle the situation.
“All measures and efforts put in place by the state governor in resolving the crisis has not yielded any positive result. So. I plead with the federal government to intervene”, he appealed. The council boss suggested that grazing reserves as well as ranches should be set up with all facilities in place for the herdsmen to rear their cows. While frowning at the lukewarm attitude shown by
the police during the recent crisis, he accused the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in the area of complicity and bias, noting too, the frosty relationship existing between the mobile police officers and residents of Adeke. Meanwhile, a meeting of Tiv stakeholders with the Ter Makurdi, Chief Sule Abenga, as well as chairmen of Gwer and Makurdi local government areas
was yesterday convened by the Benue state Commissioner of Police, Adams Audu. The Benue police spokesman, DSP Daniel Ezeala, told our correspondent on phone that the police commissioner urged the stakeholders to go back and preach peace amongst their people, hinting too that a similar meeting would be held with the Fulani leaders as well as other tribes resident in Makurdi.