Some farmers in Katsina State have decried the negative impact of banditry on farming activities in the state.
According to them, bandits have stopped them from going to their farms to cultivate food items.
The farmers, in an interview with Daily Trust, stated that bandits stormed their farms to either abduct them, kill them or tax them before they could even cultivate on their farms.
They further said every household in the Batsarin-Alhaji area had to pay N500 to the bandits from the last farming season.
Thereafter, the bandits demanded that the villagers supply them with fertilisers.
The villagers had to tax themselves to purchase the fertilisers.
A 65-year-old farmer, Sa’adu Nuhu Batsari, said he stopped tilling three of his farms of 20 hectares each for over two years due to insecurity, lamenting that the heightened banditry is driving both big and subsistence farmers out of farming.
“Once you’re on the farm these people would come and abduct, kill or harass you. I abandoned my farms that are deep inside the bush and now work on the one close to town that is only two hectares. The constant threat stopped me from going to the farm,” he said.
The Chairman of Batsari Local Development Association, Sani Muslim Batsari, lamented that he has been forced to stop cultivating his big farms in the bush in the last two years due to the worsening insecurity situation in Batsari.
“I was harvesting almost 300 bags, but now I harvest only 50 bags or less in my small farm that’s closer to the town.
“Bandits have taken over many forests and cleared them for farming. Some of them can harvest 3,000 bags of grains. Some villagers confided in us that these bandits have hijacked their farms without paying a kobo to them.
“Their activities are taking a toll on our well-being; they have led to a shortage of food and skyrocketing prices and lack of menial jobs for your youth as the large-scale farmers that employ hundreds of them have since abandoned the farms.
“President Buhari had, during the onset of the rainy season, assured us that we would go back to our farms this season. Alas, that has remained a mirage! I can categorically tell you that now more than 70 per cent of farmers in Batsari LG have stopped farming,” he lamented.
Another farmer in Nahuta village, Muhammed Auwal, said from the last farming season, farmers in his village were asked to pay tax to bandits to access their farms but that didn’t protect them from attacks by the bandits.
“They’d seize our cattle or motorbikes. This season, they asked our neighbouring village, Kasai, to contribute money and buy fertilizer for them which they did.
“Last season, every household in Nahuta had to pay N1,000 and we contributed more than N2 million as tax for the bandits which we delivered to them before they allowed us to farm. But this season, we’re lucky because they didn’t ask for tax from us maybe because soldiers have been deployed to our community. But villages surrounding us are still battling with these insecurity issues.”
50-year-old Dahiru Usman Wada, from Kurawa community, confirmed that bandits confiscated his two hectares farm and planted on it.
“They made ridges and planted crops; their motive is to kidnap me if I went there, so I had to leave the farm to them. I have now relocated to Batsari town and got a small farm close to the town” he said.
At least 20 soldiers have been killed and several others missing after an ambush by militants from the Islamic State-backed faction of Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), formerly known as Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād in the Marte area of Borno State.
A military source told SaharaReporters gathered that the attack took place in Marte town on Friday.
According to him, the soldiers were on their way to Maiduguri, the state capital before the terrorists struck.
He also stated, “There was another ambush again on Friday. Ambush is the most difficult fight. We lost 20 soldiers. The ambush happened to Marte.”
The source added that two gun trucks were burnt and two others were stolen by the militants during the attack.
He said, “Two gun trunks were burnt, while two other gun trucks were taken by Boko Haram militants.”
Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province, have killed thousands and displaced millions in northeastern Nigeria.
The Nigerian military has repeatedly claimed that the insurgency has been largely defeated and frequently underplays any losses.
In the past months, soldiers have been targeted by the insurgents.
Hundreds of soldiers and officers have been reportedly killed since January 2021.
Some soldiers were killed during the year when two explosive-laden vehicles rammed into a military convoy in Wulgo.
The suicide bombers were identified as Abu Bakr al-Siddiq and Bana Jundullah. The group also claimed four military vehicles were destroyed.
In February, about 20 soldiers were also killed in Malari, Borno State by the insurgents.
SaharaReporters gathered that the soldiers were on patrol to clear some Boko Haram elements in the area following credible intelligence when they were ambushed by the group.
Bandits in Zamfara State, Thursday evening attacked Shinkafi town, including two police facilities, shooting sporadically in the process, Daily Trust Saturday gathered.
The attackers were said to have carted away arms from the ransacked police stations.
Details of the incident were sketchy at the time of going to press, as Shinkafi, like the rest of the state, is not reachable by phone due to the shutdown of telecommunication network earlier this month.
But a resident of the town who spoke from Sokoto confirmed the initial social media report on the attack, Friday morning.
He said the armed men arrived the town when residents were observing the magrib prayer at sunset and operated for over an hour.
The source stated that the attack came following a threat letter to the community earlier that day, where two bandits’ leaders near the community, Kachalla Turji and Halilu Sububu, announced a joint mission to attack Shinkafi and its environs.
Shinkafi is the last major town on the road linking Zamfara with the neighbouring Sokoto State. Bandits had in the past attacked the town at various times.
The Zamfara State police spokesperson could not be reached due to the telecom shutdown, while the spokesman of the Nigeria Police Force, CP Frank Mba, said he had no information about the attack.
The death of Dr. Obadiah Mailafia on September 19 touched me more deeply than I thought it would. He was an exceptionally smart, conciliatory, and gracious man who, in spite of appearances to the contrary, had no space for hate and grudges in his heart.
He and I publicly clashed on at least two occasions. On both occasions, it was he, a much older person, who privately initiated reconciliation with me.
Our first clash happened in 2016 at an online forum called the USAAfrica Dialogue Series where he expressed what I thought were unfair, conspiratorial, facts-free, anti-Muslim opinions. I challenged him with counter facts.
Dr Farouk Kperogi
Instead of responding to me on the forum, he reached out privately and admitted that said his thought-processes were probably distorted by the personal tragedies he had suffered in the hands of mass murderers who were Muslims.
He shared photos of his relatives who had been murdered but assured me that he had no animus toward Muslims or any ethnic group.
It was both touching and humbling.
Then in May 2018, he wrote a column that stereotyped Fulani people as inveterate aggressors whom no West African country wanted to allow into leadership positions. He made many other claims that had no basis in both historical and contemporary facts.
In my June 2, 2018 column titled “El-Rufai’s Hypocritical Xenophobia and Obadiah Mailafia’s Fulaniphobia,” I corrected his inaccuracies.
The column really incensed him, so he wrote a rejoinder that dripped with rage, which caused me to rejoin his rejoinder. Then he reached out to me privately again and, instead of anger, was full of overly flattering praises for me.
That took me aback. He said it was my associating him with El-Rufai that exasperated him and inspired his impassioned response.
He told me one of his younger brothers was a good friend of my friend Moses Ochonu and that he regretted that we had a public spat on the pages of a newspaper.
Ever since then, he would write to me to share his thoughts on my columns.
When he learned of my promotion to a full professor, he sent me one of the kindest, most delicately phrased messages of congratulations that I received from anyone. May his soul rest in peace
The United States prosecutors handling the case of Abba Kyari and co-conspirators in the multimillion-dollar fraud masterminded by Ramon ‘Hushpuppi’ Abbas have accused the disgraced police office of being at large.
Officials said they would proceed with the trial of three other co-conspirators in the international wire fraud and money laundering case that will commence in October and may last until May 2022.
Mr Kyari has been hiding behind Nigeria’s corrupt police system to obstruct his extradition to the U.S. to face trial after his indictment in July.
The police in Nigeria have set up three different panels to examine and reexamine the case filed by the FBI against Mr Kyari.
Last week, police minister Maigari Dingyadi said only President Muhammadu Buhari has the power to determine the disgraced deputy police commissioner’s case.
The minister’s comments quickly met rebuttal from legal experts, who said it was more of an attempt to help Mr Kyari escape justice because his extradition process could easily be handled by the attorney general’s office.
“Defendants Abdulrahman Imraam Juma, Kelly Chibuzo Vincent, and Abba Alhaji Kyari remain at large,” Tracy Wilkinson, a top American prosecutor in charge of the trial, told the trial Judge Otis Wright in a process filed on September 24, 2021, and seen by Peoples Gazette.
The prosecutors and the defence attorneys have agreed to proceed with the trial of Motunrayo Fashola, Bolatito Agbabiaka and Yusuf Anifowoshe, the three co-conspirators already arrested and released on bail.
CAN members during a Protest against killings in Nigeria
By Steven Kefas
When Gideon Akaluka, an Igbo trader was gruesomely murdered and dismembered in Kano on the 26th of December, 1994 by some irate muslim youths, some of whom prison authority said scaled the fence of the Goron Dutse prison in the ancient city of Kano to carry out the barbaric act, many like myself where toddlers or were not even born and didn’t have any knowledge of what the scenario looked like on that day.
Even though the murder of Akaluka may have been forgotten by many, recent events that have to do with religious killings in the Northern city of Kano bring to mind what happened in the past, what is happening today and what may likely happen in the future if nothing drastic is done.
Slain Reverend Shuaibu Yohanna
On the night of 22nd September, 2021 Christians who are minority in Kano were visited with the news of another gruesome and barbaric murder of a Christian missionary by name Reverend Shuaibu Yohanna who until his death was the chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Sumaila Local government area of Kano state. His murder is a reminder to the fact that Christians are now an endangered species in Northern Nigeria.
The slain Reverend, a Northeastern Evangelist of the New life Church, lived in a village called Massu in Sumaila local government area of Kano state with his wife and children.
Testimonies abound about his exploits in the vineyard of the Lord. Mobilising funds to build schools, providing potable water to both Christians and Muslims in his community.
His good works couldn’t make him immune to the barbarity of the Kano Muslim youths who at the slightest or no provocation descend on their victims with utmost cruelty even before ascertaining their guilt.
Reverend Shuaibu, believed to have facilitated the conversion of many Muslims in the area to Christianity met his untimely death when some muslim youths, over 50 in numbers according to his daughter, accosted him and began butchering him like ram to be used for barbecue.
Eyewitness accounts revealed that the Missionary was killed because, one of his converts who recently got converted but neither attends church service nor mosque had a fight with his sister in-law (brother’s wife) and he hit her with a piston and she died.
Why would Reverend Shuaibu pay for a crime he didn’t commit? Why wasn’t he given the opportunity of being tried by a court of competent jurisdiction? These are questions begging for answers.
Late Mrs Bridget Agbaheme, beheaded in Kano
Just like Reverend Shuaibu, 74 years old Mrs Bridget Agbaheme was on the 2nd of June, 2016 beheaded by some muslims in Kano for allegedly blaspheming Prophet Muhammad.
Mrs Agbaheme, who sells plastics at the local market, was in the company of her husband when she was murdered.
According to some eyewitnesses, Mrs Agbaheme’s only crime was refusing a Muslim co-trader from performing ablution at the entrance of her shop, an act the Muslims in the market deemed blasphemous and punishable by death.
The suspects responsible for her murder were eventually, reluctantly arrested but instead of facing the capital punishment for murder, the five suspects were on 3rd November, 2016 released from detention. At a court session on the day if their release, the Chief magistrate, Mr. Jibrin Muhammad discharged the five suspects and terminated the case ‘in line with the directive of the attorney-general of Kano state’.
The Kano state government also failed to tell Nigerians why the suspects were not arraigned before a higher court considering the gravity of the offence.
Gov. El-rufai during a visit to Francis Emmanuel in the hospital
Few days after the murder of Mrs Agbaheme, a carpenter by name Francis Emmanuel, 41, was stabbed by some youths along Sokoto Road in Kakuri area of Kaduna South on Tuesday for not participating in the ongoing fast accoeding to a dailytrust publication of June 9, 2016.
Francis, a witness said, had gone to buy food from a woman along the road in the afternoon after taking a break from his cabinet making work when four young men accosted him as he was eating and asked him why he was not fasting.
A fight soon ensued after some exchanges and one of the four boys was said to have brought out a dagger and stabbed Francis in several parts of his body.
Even though the Kaduna state government condemned the attack on Francis and also a high powered delegation led by the governor, El-rufai and the then Deputy Governor, Bala Bantex went to see Francis in the hospital, no suspect was arrested.
Late Evangelist Eunice Elisha, slain in Kubwa, Abuja
One month after the gruesome murder of Mrs Bridget Agbaheme, in July 2016, a 42 years old Christian preacher and mother of seven, Eunice Elisha in Kubwa, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory. Kubwa is just about 20 minutes drive from the Presidential villa in Abuja. Mrs Elisha had on the day of her killing gone out topreach the gospel like she does every MORNING, unfortunately she met her untimely death in the hands of Muslim fanatics.
Suspects were arrested by the police but like in the case of Mrs Agbaheme, they were released by the police in Abuja in January 2017. The police concealed the identities of the suspects all through the investigation and said they were released because they could not be linked to the murder.
“What happened is that when the incident occurred, arrests were made. But during the course of the investigation we found that the persons arrested could not be linked to the said murder. And we cannot keep them if we do not have any case against them,” Mr. Anjuguri told PREMIUM TIMES on January 14th, 2017.
“They were released under the condition that they will be invited for questioning whenever the need arises. The commissioner has instructed the Divisional Police Officer for that region to intensify efforts on the matter; the case has not been closed. The investigation is still ongoing,” said Mr. Anjuguri.
The police claimed that the suspects could not be linked to the murder of Evangelist Eunice Elisha contradicts her earlier statement that the suspects were helping in the investigation.
Nigeria, theoretically ought to be a secular state with freedom of religion and other forms of association guaranteed by the constitution but that is not the reality as Christians are oftentimes attacked either as a community or individuals.
Hundreds of Christian communities in Northern Nigeria have been held under siege by Fulani terrorists. Killings of Christians in genocidal proportion have continued unabated with no one being prosecuted for such crimes against humanity. The Nigerian Fulani government headed by Maj. Gen. Muhammad Buhari Rtd has done nothing serious to put an end to the carnages against Christians in the Northern part of the country.
With the Nigerian government’s poor handling of the crisis, the international community must as a matter of urgency begin to call out the Nigerian state for abating genocides in the country.
The porousity of the open grazing has led to farmers and migrant/ indigenous herders crisis.
This barbaric practice has led to infiltration and horrific insecurity in indigenous villages in Nigeria. In the 21st century, herders, are in possession of AK 49 and other dangerous weapon, the modern herders now have the guts while pastoring to deliberately encroach and feed on farmer crops.
The indigenous Middle-belters has suffered so much excesses from the 21st herders.
They say, Drastic actions calls for Drastic measures; Today, the South-South/South-West Governor’s has taken it upon theirselves against any personal interest but chiefly the security interest of their people to have taken such decision to enact the Anti- open grazing law, taken cognizance of Ranching as an alternative. For me, this is all leadership is all about. “The security and well being of people first”. I hope to see northern governor’s follow-suit.
Shamelessly and cowardly, Governor Elrufai is attacking these governor’s for taking such decision. I mean, this is a governor of a state where insecurity has become the epicenter of the state he pilot’s. “IT IS NOW CENTRE OF INSECURITY NOT CENTRE OF LEARNING”
A state where every day citizens are grusomely killed, kidnapped, abused and butchered.
“CITIZENS IN THE STATE HAS BECOME MORE IMPOVERISHED BY CONSISTENT PAYMENT OF RAMSOM TO KIDNAPPERS”
There is no single day that goes without a recurring decimal of insecurity.
The frequency and severity of insecurity at Chukun and Zango-Kataf LGA amongst other LGA’s speaks volumes.
He hasn’t put any measures to restore peace and sanity of his state but rather poke-nosing serious minded security decisions of some governors. Face the business of your state!
For me, Erufai’s reaction to the Anti-Open grazing Law incorporated by his colleagues is a function of his chronic sentimental jingoism and prmitive ethnic certification. No wonder, years back he used our tax payers money to compensate them.
It’s just so sad and disheartening that we have a governor like you.
The leading CIVIL SOCIETY GROUP- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has condemned the illegal and gestapo operational modalities of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which are detrimental to the enjoyment of the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental human rights recognised in chapter four, and all relevant international human rights laws just as the Rights group says the officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (HURIWA) are by their provocative and illegal actions enticing Nigerians to stage a nationwide protests similar to the #ENDSARS PROTESTS # against the misconducts of the EFCC.
“The EFCC is a creation of the law and so it must be law abiding but the modalities of operations in which the operatives armed to the teeth go into people’s houses in the dead of the night like armed robbers and kidnappers, breaking into people’s houses and climbing in through the fences like hired assasins are antithetical to the law and the principle of the rule of law and these unlawful actions are definitely aimed as triggers to instigate the masses to stage the kinds of demonstrations that will be almost unprecedented in dimension and massive in scale.
The Rights group through the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko said Section 36(5) of the constitution is very clear that even persons charged for criminal offence before the courts of law are deemed as innocent in the eyes of the law until a contrary determination is reached by the competent court of law. It is therefore unlawful that the operatives of the EFCC will continue to behave like outlaws or persons who are above the laws of the land. EFCC is subject to the law and must be seen to be operating in compliance with the precepts of the law and in strict compliance with the RULE OF LAW”.
HURIWA said there have been over a dozen clandestine operations by the EFCC in which these officials of the law have been seen defecating on the fundamental principles of the law and have abused with reckless abandon the Rules of Engagement as if Nigeria is a Banana Republic and these kinds of crude, debased and bakward application of brute force by the operatives of the EFCC are therefore absolutely condemned as despicable, reprehensible, outrageous and provocative and must be checked otherwise the EFCC should watch and see that in the fullness of time the masses will demonstrate to say enough is enough.
This same EFCC is around when the President gives red carpets reception to suspected high profile politically exposed persons who jump from one political party to the All Progressives Congress but the EFCC has now become agents of witch-hunt targeting largely young offenders and this body has started operating as if it is a reckless, lawless and primitive contraption but this is not so. The EFCC must be called to order to adopt law based procedures to go after suspected offenders and observe all the tenets and precepts of the fundamental human rights and indeed must adopt clinical and professional modus operandi that will be in compliance with all the rules of Engagement. Why not use surveillance and intelligence gathering to go after suspected offenders in the day time and make lawful arrests instead of behaving like armed robbers or armed Fulani militia members?”
HURIWA recalled that Norah Okafor, a journalist, has narrated how officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), stormed her residence at an ungodly hour.
In a social media post, Okafor said masked men robed in black and armed to the teeth stormed her apartment like armed robbers, at exactly 1:36 am on Thursday.
She said they destroyed properties, assaulted residents, and forcefully collected car keys, mobile phones, and computers.
“At exactly 1:36am, I was alerted by my brother that there were armed robbers at my gate trying to make their way into the compound. Because it was an electric fence, I didn’t bother enough because I felt they can’t make their way in.
“Alas, I was wrong. 2am on the dot they made their way into the compound. They came prepared. Over 25 of them with two hilux buses, masked and dressed in black upon black.
“A huge one climbed the fence, with a plier and immediately cut off a few of the wires, jumped into the compound and with an axe, broke the gate key open and zoom they made their first entry into my apartment.
“As a nude sleeper, while they tried to make their way into the compound, I found something to wear while my brothers and I were thinking of a way of escape. The worst case scenario for me is that they will rape or take the only valuable available (a car key) so I prepared my mind.
“The next thing I realized was that about 7 of them were already in my room with shouts of “lie down, face down, on the light, where’s your phone, where’s your car key? Where’s this and that.. Confused me. Seeing over 25 hefty men with different kinds of guns, mhen, e don be, be that. I handed the phone to them with the key, before then, they have already taken hold of my laptop.
“I turned to be sure these were armed robbers, and they asked for my passwords to all the devices collected with masking tape to identify each. Still in shock, I heard someone destroying everything in the kitchen, my room, that of my brothers and all the drawers. I was still asking myself what’s happening? They asked me to stand and follow them downstairs, lo and beyond, they unmasked themselves, hmmmm… are these kind criminals? I asked. All my neighbours were already going through the same pain as I.
“They have already given my brothers a beating of their lives, carried my neighbour downstairs and tried unlocking all the cars in the compound. And after searching all the phones and laptops, three of their men walked in, lo and behold, it was EFCC. What? I screamed. Shut up, was the next thing i heard and when they couldn’t open my phone, they asked me to, I did and after a while I just asked, please where is your office so I can come pick up my things on my way to work, they asked me what I do and I said “journalist”, asked my neighbour he said “lawyer”, the other “doctor”. They looked at me, handed over the phones and said, “we just wasted our time.
“These fools, spent over one hour molesting and destroying things in this compound. I feel so pained and embarrassed right now. Is this how EFCC operate? How did we get here? Who is the informant? I am just confused right now. Thank God my mum isn’t here.”
HURIWA recalled too that the Economic and Financial crimes commission, EFCC, allegedly invaded the house of the Big brother Naija celebrity, Dorathy Bachor.
Dorathy, who emerged the 1st runner up of the Big Brother Naija, Lockdown season, condemned the act.
Expressing her anger via a post on her Instagram page, the busty Delta state indigene shared some pictures of the supposed EFCC officials.
Operatives of the EFCC on Tuesday violently seized access cards and broke into hotel rooms in an overnight raid in Lagos, Peoples Gazette has learnt.
Dozens of hotel guests were left traumatised after anti-graft agents breached their privacy at Parktonian Hotel in Lagos affluent Lekki neighbourhood, witnesses said.
Many of the guests, including couples, were passing the night at the mid-size hotel when EFCC agents broke in at about 4:00 a.m. Some of them said they were naked under the duvet when agents broke in and were not even allowed to dress up before being interrogated by the officers, who said they were on a manhunt for suspected Internet fraudsters.
“The officers broke into my hotel room as I was sleeping,” a victim told The Gazette on Tuesday afternoon. “The incident that played out was just too traumatic for me to narrate.”
The witness said the officers started breaking into rooms after collecting the master access card to open all rooms from the management at gunpoint.
“They broke into the hotel and threatened to shoot the receptionists and management if they didn’t immediately release the master access card to them,” a witness said. “So the hotel workers had to comply immediately.”
Another witness who narrated his ordeal described it as “embarrassing and traumatising,” as he was unclad when operatives barged into the room.
Many foreigners, including some potential investors who came into the country to carry out preliminary studies on a cable manufacturing project, were caught in what witnesses described as “violent and uncivilised conduct” of the operatives, who were about two dozen.
The victim pleaded strict anonymity to avoid being victimised by EFCC agents. Some witnesses had previously reported being physically attacked by EFCC operatives for providing information about illegal and corrupt raids to the media.
“They continued to search other rooms. They went away with about 13 occupants,” he said. “I was naked, and I had to beg them (for me) to put something on. I am actually hypertensive, but I put myself together because I am not a criminal in any way.”
He described the experience as “embarrassing and traumatic,” noting that “nobody wants to sleep in a hotel where their privacy and security cannot be guaranteed.”
The witness added, “I am not going back to that hotel. They won’t go to Transcorp where people who are looting Nigeria’s money are staying.”
The hotel owner, Obinna Obiora, told The Gazette that he would comment on the matter later. The Gazette could not immediately confirm whether or not the officers had a warrant to invade the hotel.
When contacted by The Gazette, the spokesperson for the anti-graft agency, Wilson Uwujaren, claimed he was unaware of the raid.
“I haven’t got any report of such, but I’ll confirm from the Lagos office if there was any raid,” Mr Uwujaren told The Gazette over the telephone.
Controversial raids of public and private spaces have become increasingly common amongst EFCC officers in recent months. The department was established to fight economic crimes, but it has recently retooled itself towards a relentless crackdown on suspected Internet thieves, widely known as Yahoo Boys.
Earlier this year, an unidentified man jumped from the seventh floor of a storey building located at 1004 estate at Victoria Island, Lagos, during a raid by EFCC officials.
Few weeks back, a similar incident played out at Oasis Park Estate, Osapa London, Lagos, where EFCC operatives frightened residents when they broke into homes in search of a purported Internet crook, who was not even around at the time of the raid.
HURIWA accused the EFCC of not just violating the laws but also abusing with reckless abandon the UN declaration on adherence to the Rule of law.
HURIWA said the midnight raids by EFCC offends the Declaration adopted on 24 September 2012 by the United Nations General Assembly at the High-level Meeting on the Rule of Law at the National and International Levels reaffirmed that “human rights, the rule of law and democracy are interlinked and mutually reinforcing and that they belong to the universal and indivisible core values and principles of the United Nations”.1 Indeed, government responsiveness to the interests and needs of the greatest number of citizens is strictly associated with the capacity of democratic institutions and processes to bolster the dimensions of rights, equality and accountability.
If considered not solely an instrument of the government but as a rule to which the entire society, including the government, is bound, the rule of law is fundamental in advancing democracy. Strengthening the rule of law has to be approached not only by focusing on the application of norms and procedures. One must also emphasize its fundamental role in protecting rights and advancing inclusiveness, in this way framing the protection of rights within the broader discourse on human development.
A common feature of both democracy and the rule of law is that a purely institutional approach does not say anything about actual outcomes of processes and procedures, even if the latter are formally correct. When addressing the rule of law and democracy nexus, a fundamental distinction has to be drawn between “rule by law”, whereby law is an instrument of government and government is considered above the law, and “rule of law”, which implies that everyone in society is bound by the law, including the government. Essentially, constitutional limits on power, a key feature of democracy, require adherence to the rule of law.
The National Youth Service Corps has advised members to be ready to pay abduction-for-ransom syndicates currently on rampage across Nigeria.
A security advisory introduced in March 2021 asked college graduates serving as corps members to inform their family members and friends before embarking on a road trip. This would enable them to prepare sufficient ransom that may be required if abducted and save them from untimely and brutal death in the hands of the violent criminals.
“When travelling in high risk road such as Abuja-Kaduna, Abuja-Lokoja-Okene or Aba-Port-Harcourt road, then alert your family members, friends and colleagues in order to have someone on hand to pay off the ransom that could be demanded,” Security Awareness and Education Handbook for Corps Members and Staff said between pages 58 and 59.
The NYSC issued a statement to deny the manual as fake news after it circulated on social media on Thursday, boosted by known personalities, including UK-based medical doctor Olufunmilayo Ogunsanya.
“Management wishes to emphatically state that the clause quoted is not embedded in NYSC Security Tips pamphlet which was put together by a highly respected retired security expert,” the NYSC said in a statement sent to The Gazette on Thursday night.
But corps members who spoke with Peoples Gazette confirmed the manual, sent screenshots of their own hardcopies and separately confirmed receiving the handbook from their respective camps in Taraba and other states in March 2021.
“I received my own copy in March 2021 before I left the camp,” said John Elochukwu, who recently concluded his youth service. “I did not even read the document until I saw online comments and I went to open my own copy to check and found that the paragraphs were exactly the same as those posted online.”
The handbook also warned corps members to desist from travelling with their laptops, tablets and mobile devices, saying whatever banking information found on such devices might be used to examine a victim’s financial worth.
Kidnapping has become a multibillion-naira venture in Nigeria, with thousands of youth streaming into the criminal act. A ransom could range from about N50,000 ($100) to as high as N20 million ($40,000).
Security agencies and state laws imposing death penalties for abduction convicts have failed to curb the crime.
Youth corps members have fallen prey to kidnappers along Nigerian highways in recent years, with many losing their lives in the process. The crisis has prompted many to call for a review of the NYSC statute, which was first introduced in 1973 to institutionalise national unity after the Nigerian Civil War, 1967-70.
The Nasiru El-rufai led government has issued a demolition notice to the Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ) Kaduna state chapter over what the government tagged ‘ absence of planning/building permit’
The demolition notice was contained in a letter sighted by MBT. The letter, dated 23rd September, 2021 was written by the Kaduna state Urban Development Authority (KASUPDA) and signed by Ismail Dikko on behalf of the director general of KASUPDA.
The Nasiru El-rufai led government has had numerous battles with journalists in Kaduna since it came onboard in 2015. Some journalists in the state were jailed over their reportages and sometimes comments on social media.
Efforts to speak with the NUJ state Chairman proved abortive as at the time of filling this report.
