President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday ordereĺd the military to completely rout out Boko Haram insurgents from all their hideouts in the Northeast.
He asked that the battle should be taken to them.
The President gave the order in response to the killing of 43 rice farmers in Borno State at the weekend..
The President’s latest directive was revealed by a federal government delegation who visited Borno state Governor Babagana Zulum at the Government House Maiduguri, over the slaughtering of 43 farmers by Boko Haram insurgents in Koshebe, Mafa local government area of troubled Borno State.
The Senate President, Dr Ahmed Lawan, who led the federal government’s delegation, said the visit was at the instance of President Muhammadu Buhari to commiserate with government and people of Borno state over the “senseless killings.”
He assured that fighting insecurity remains top priority of government, noting that all the needed resources will be provided to prosecute the war on terror in Borno and other criminal activities in different parts of the country.
He noted that the President had ordered that the battle should be taken to all the hideouts of the insurgents.
In his response, Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum said the security situation had evolve from what it was in 2015.
He appealed to the federal government to recruit more youths of the state into the armed forces and other security agents.
He also said the services of security forces from neighbouring countries should be engaged to clear the remnants of the insurgents from the shores of Lake Chad, even as he asked that high calibre equipment should be provided to Nigeria Police.
He equally called on the National Assembly to increase budgetary allocation to the Northeast, he said the N45 billion appropriated for capital projects to the Northeast in the 2021 fiscal year was not enough.
Others in the delegation include Chief of Staff to the President, Ministers of Federal Capital Territory, Communications and Digital Economy, Minister of State Agriculture and that of Works and Housing.
The delegation while in the state visited the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Abubakar Garbai Elkanemi.
They were also at Zabarmari to condole with families of victims.
Becheve, a community in Obanliku Local Government Area of Cross River is an eight hours drive from Calabar the State Capital but it is stuck with an age-long bizarre culture.
Covered with thick vegetation, Obanliku sits on a mountainous terrain thousands of meters above sea level. Behind the cloudy terrain are the heart-wrenching stories of young Becheve girls sold into marriage in exchange for goats, food items, and in settlement of their parents’ debt.
Becheve is a large community in Obanliku with 17 tribes. Despite sharing location with popular Obudu Cattle Ranch and Resort which attracts tourists from across the world, men in this community have refused to give up the ancient custom.
The ancient custom is called ‘Money Marriage,’ and the victims are called ‘Money Woman’ of ‘Money Wife.’
Becheve girls are sold into ‘Money Marriage’ for cash as low as N10, 000. Food items like tubers of yams; livestock like goats and pigs – all depending on the bargaining power of the ‘groom.’
My Parents Told Me Money Marriage Was A Thing Of Prestige
Faith Ikpe was eager to narrate her story. The story of how her parents sweet-talked her into money marriage. She was a primary four pupil when her parents sold her into marriage to a man old enough to be her father.
Her marriage to the man, however, did not kill her dream of going to school. The desire to go to school was so strong that she sold bananas to buy books. But her ‘husband’ saw education as a great threat that he had to squelch any sign of it by constantly flogging her.
“I wrongly thought money woman was a good practice. I was sold when I was in primary four. My mother and my dad deceived me that if I follow the man he will send me to school.
“First term and second term went and they didn’t allow me to start school. I then sold bananas to raise money to buy a few books so I can go to school.
“However my husband didn’t allow me. Every time I tried to go to school he will beat me. I will pass through the window and run to school. Every time I return from school, he will beat me.”
Sounding helpless she begged for government’s intervention. Ikpe also prayed for an end to the demeaning practice and expressed believe that the government can help end it.
“I want to beg the government to put an end to this money woman practice. Those of us who have experienced it, we have discovered that it is all about suffering. I don’t want other young children to experience this.
“Government should please help put a stop to this practice.
“It is very bad for a young girl to be sold into marriage to an old man and the girl used as a slave on cocoa farm.”
The United Nations (UN) has retracted its initial casualty figure of farmers killed in Borno state.
On Saturday, suspected Boko Haram members attacked Zabarmari community in Jere local government area of the state and killed farmers.
Babagana Zulum, governor of the state, had said more than 40 residents were killed while they were working on their farmlands.
But the UN had released a statement, on Sunday, which quoted Edward Kallon, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, claiming that “at least 110 people” were killed in the attack.
The UN statement went viral and was published by major newspapers in the country.
In a statement on Monday, the UN clarified its earlier position, saying the figure was not yet confirmed.
Eve Sabbagh, UN’s head of public information in Nigeria, said the “110 casualty figure” was not properly sourced.
The UN had also published another statement, replacing the figure with “tens of civilians”, while other parts of the piece remains the same.
“Please note the number of 110 civilians killed on Saturday’s attack is an unconfirmed number and the correct version of the statement by the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator is the one published yesterday on Reliefweb and used on OCHA Nigeria’s Twitter account,” Sabbagh said.
ABUJA – A Court Martial in Abuja has convicted the former Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj. Gen. Olusegun Adeniyi.
The tribunal on Monday found Adeniyi guilty of violating military social media guidelines and ordered his demotion by at least three years.
Adeniyi’s aide, Private Tokunbo Obanla, who was prosecuted alongside the general, was also found guilty and sentenced to 28 days in jail with hard labour.
Both convictions are subject to confirmation by the military authorities.
Sources said Adeniyi pleaded guilty to three-count of unlawful use of social media, and damage to service property amongst other issues.
The verdict came eight months after a video of Adeniyi complaining about a lack of military equipment to combat Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East went viral.
He also complained that insurgents were outgunning troops, noting that intelligence failure was responsible for an attack by insurgents that claimed dozens of soldiers.
Embarrassed by the revelations, the major-general was removed from the front and also suspended by the military authorities.
The Nigerian Army subsequently filed charges of military social media guideline violations against him.
Adeniyi had denied any wrongdoing, stating that he did not leak the video, adding that his phone was in Obanla’s custody at the time of the incident.
Obanla had in his statement allegedly admitted to posting the video on social media in error.
Adeniyi’s lawyers have vowed to appeal the judgment. (The PUNCH)
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – Abdulrasheed Maina, the wanted former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) was on Monday evening arrested in Niger Republic by the operatives of Niger Republic intelligence service in collaboration with Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
A top intelligence officer said that the arrest was made on an existing mutual relationship and security agreement between the two countries.
The former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) is facing a 12-count money laundering charge filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
According to the EFCC, Maina used his firm to launder about N2billion.
He allegedly used part of the proceeds to acquire properties in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Maina jumped bail, a situation that prompted Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court to order the remand of his surety, Senator Ali Ndume.
The Borno South lawmaker was freed last Friday.
EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, said he was yet to be briefed on Maina’s arrest.
…As Family members accused Police, Katsina Govt of attempts to Poison Him
BY Maryam Musa
While the controversy over the arrest and illegal incarceration of business man, human rights activists and former newspaper columnist, Mr. Mahdi Shehu is on going despite efforts by police authorities at Luis Edit House in Abuja to conceal the illegal arrest and to ensure zero publicity against gross violation of due process and rule of law, the owner of the Dialogue Group of Companies through family sources have raised serious concerns to DESERT HERALD about his safety and how IGP Mohammed Adamu was used to illegally incarcerate him.
DESERT HERALD can now confirm that Mr. Mahdi, a vocal critic of the Katsina State Government and also a whistleblower was indeed arrested on the orders of Governor Aminu Bello Masari on Tuesday 27th November, 2020. A family source who pleaded not to be mentioned told this reporter that since then precisely one week now all efforts to secure his bail was frustrated even though the complaints that was forwarded by the Katsina Government despite abuse of Court processes are bailable offences.
He told DESERT HERALD that Mahdi’s life is in danger as there was attempts to poison him while in police detention. The failure of the Police to arraigned Mr. Mahdi within 48 hours as stipulated by the law and the manipulation of a Magistrate Court to secure a questionable order for the extension of his stay in incarceration was widely condemned by Nigerians.
The arrest of Mahdi took the following intriguing steps. On October 2, 2020, the Attorney General of Katsina State took the following steps. He wrote a direct criminal complaint against Mahdi to the Katsina State Commissioner of Police notifying him of the intention of the Governor to have Shehu Madi arrested.
Consequently, the Commissioner raised a First Information Report (FIR) on the Whistleblower and went to a Katsina Magistrate Court 1.
While the case is still subsisting at the Magistrate Court and in an abuse of Court process, the Katsina State Government again hurriedly went to a Katsina State High Court 7 with virtually the same allegations that was earlier filed at the Chief Magistrate Court.
Not done, the Katsina State Government rushed to a Sharia Court and without waiting for a court ruling the Government dashed to the Upper Sharia Court, GRA Katsina and filed same suit with the same complain, word for word.
Thus in a space of one week, the Katsina State government had filed 4 cases against Dr. Mahdi and in the same week, while the case was still subsisting in at the Chief Magistrate Court 1, the Kastina government initiated moves for his arrest.
It has become obvious that even after filling four cases the process will be too low for the government to tolerate and that the general conclusion is that before the cases are over Mr. Mahdi will continue to do more damage to the government and its key officials notably the Secretary to the State Government, SSG.
DESERT HERALD gathered from authoritative sources at the office of IGP Adamu and through one of the wives of the detained activist that the IGP was subjected to intense pressure before he finally ordered for Mahdi’s arrest. Our credible sources confided that Governor Masari was personally at the Force Headquarters together with the owner of Max Air, Dahiru Mangal, the embattled Katsina SSG, the Katsina State Attorney General and Senator Bello Mandia.
Also in the powerful encourage to see the IGP includes Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje. At the Police Headquarters, this paper learnt they filed the same complaint as they did in Katsina and reportedly insisted that Mahdi must be arrested even though the cases are all in Court for hearing, determination and judgement.
This paper gathered that the embattled Mahdi Shehu was in Abuja last Tuesday to deliver a paper at the J.K.Gadzama Chambers as the guest speaker in an annual lecture. Within minutes of his arrival at the venue the police numbering over 50 surrounded the area and threatened to arrest him and to stop his presentation.
When the convener of the conference, J.K. Gadzama SAN resisted attempts to arrest his invitee, the police then extended invitation to him to report to the Force Headquarters and thereafter monitor his movements closely. His formal arrest was effected at the Police Headquarters.
Since last Tuesday, DESERT HERALD can reveal the police have move Mahdi from one place to another, denying all efforts to secure his bail. During a visit to Mr. Mahdi by DESERT HERALD, he confirmed reported attempts to poison him and told this paper that whatever happens to him in incarceration or even after, the police and Katsina government should be held responsible and vowed never to stop his campaign of injustice against the people of his home state of Katsina and what he referred as “unprecedented looting of their treasury”.
DESERT HERALD further learnt that the Police on Monday had succeeded in getting what Mahdi referred to as illegal and fraudulent order from a Chief Magistrate Court to enable them detained him for additional two weeks. This paper can authoritatively confirm that Mahdi is presently under detention at the Force CID Headquarters at Area 3, Garki, Abuja.
During a visit by Mahdi’s lawyer to his detention centre at Garki, Mahdi was quoted to have said “it is an irony that the current IGP was once a victim of injustice and in fact that was why he was sent to the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Jos as a punishment but Allah safe him from injustice but now he is the same man being used to perpetrate injustice against innocent people.
Don’t he fear retribution?
Don’t he fear the law of tamar?
Does he think he is going to remain as the IGP permanently?
In another development, even as Mahdi remains incarcerated, credible sources confided in this paper that the Director General of the DSS, Mr. Bichi has also extended invitation to him regarding same matter.
Also, three months ago Governor Masari has reportedly met the National Security Adviser, Gen. Babagana Monguno and convinced him to write a security report against Mr. Mahdi describing him in that report as a security risk. Most likely because the security report has no substance the President did not act on it.
Speaking about Madhi’s arrest, the National President of Campaign For Democracy, Abdul Bako said, ” it amounts to abuse of court process and smacks of conspiracy to silent a man that has been fighting for good governance.
Where is the rule of law? Clearly, the IGP is being used otherwise he should have allowed the courts to determine the guilt or otherwise of Mahdi Shehu. The purpose of all these harassment is to silence him.
We are holding them accountable if anything happens to him”. Bako further added, “if after today, Madhi is not charged to court or release, we the human right bodies would take legal steps to guarantee that he is released”.
From left— Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa; Executive Director, Women Advocates Research & Documentation Centre, WARDC, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, and other rights activists, at the presentation of a 10-point demand signed by 241 women groups during a solidarity walk to the state House of Assembly in commemoration of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, in Lagos, yesterday.
Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/11/241-women-groups-storm-lagos-assembly-demand-expansion-of-domestic-violence-law/
By Josephine Agbonkhese No fewer than 241 women groups, on Monday, stormed the Lagos State House of Assembly, demanding the expansion of the state’s Domestic Violence Law (2007). The women said the law, in comparison with the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (2015), has several gaps in ensuring the protection of women and girls from violent acts. By Clever Advertising The women presented a 10-point demand signed by five EU-UN Spotlight Initiative partners including Itoro Eze-Anaba, Executive Director, Partnership for Justice; Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, Executive Director, Women Advocates Research & Documentation Centre; Tinuke Odukoya, Executive Director, Centre for Women’s Health and Information, and Barr Phil Nneji, Lagos Chairperson, Federation of Women Lawyers. The rights activists, who held the event in commemoration of the ongoing global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, said the current law had little or no punishments prescribed for several acts of violence prohibited.
Reeling out the 10-point demand to the Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Musdashiru Obasa, who received them, Akiyode-Afolabi, among other things, said: “We demand that adequate resources are made available for ensuring prevention, protection and effective response to gender-based violence in the state. “We also require adequate funds for the establishment of shelters for survivors of domestic violence in areas where none exists, as well as adequate funding for making the existing ones effective. “We demand the allocation of funds for the expansion of state hotlines for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, the legislation of sex-offenders register, the publication of names of sex offenders and funding support for designated special courts on sexual violence in Lagos State.” In response to their demands, Obasa, who promised to present it to the House, lamented the ongoing spate of gender-based violence in the country.
The Speaker said the Lagos State Assembly was currently working on a bill on the Domestic and Sexual Violence Law. “This is a societal menace that affects both women and men. I read recently of how a 60-year-old man sexually abused a minor; I think it is a psychological problem. “It is commendable that everyone is doing so much to create awareness, and also teaching school children about their body parts. “The Lagos State Government is also doing a lot with regards to funding. “We will look do our best to look into the demands presented because we must all play our roles to eradicate this menace from our society.”
Last night, I was searching for something to read. Something out of the ordinary everyday knowledge. It was a mistake. Certain knowledge can be quite burdensome as I stumbled on the Breast Tax called Mulakaram.
This is one of man’s inhumanities to man in the name of religion and culture that will shock anybody to the marrows.
In the 19th Century India, the Breast Tax (Mulakkaram) was a tax imposed on the lower caste (Shudra) and untouchable (Dalit) Hindu women by the Kingdom of Tranvancore ( Kerala) if they wanted to cover their breasts in public, and it was in place until 1924.
According to this stupid law, lower class women should move about barebreasted before upper class people as a sign of reverence to the upper caste. And to help differentiate them from the rest.
The breast was bared as a symbol of respect to higher-status people only. A society where men even stare at the cleavage, these women faced the oppression with naked breasts.
Torn Self respect, deteriorated confidence and the noxious stares eating the very pieces of diligence everyday. And those who can’t afford to pay this obnoxious tax will have no option that to move about barebreasted.
But if members of the lower caste and untouchable women want to cover their breasts when they go out in public places, they’d pay the government a tax on their breasts, as soon as they started developing breasts.
The tax collectors would visit every house to collect the Breast Tax from any lower caste women who passed the age of pubert. But the most disgusting aspect of this law is that the appropriate amount to be paid as tax was evaluated by the tax collectors depending on the size of their breasts.
And to carry out this evaluation, the tax collectors (men) had to to take their time to touch the breasts to feel its weights, circumference and also total bust size and any whimper or complaint from the woman can lead to the cancelation of the evaluation, and the process started all over, a process many officials were said to love so much.
This continued until Christianity started making inroads into the region and offered these lower caste women the opportunity to escape both religion and taxation. More women readily embraced Christianity and started covering their breasts without paying the tax.
But when the leaders realised the advent of Christianity is bad business, they caused a revolt which led to rioting with many churches burnt down. In that state of lawlessness lower caste men formed militias to attack upper caste people and their businesses.
This continued until a woman named Nangeli protested against this law by cutting off her breasts and presenting them in front of the officer, she died of blood loss, which eventually resulted in mega protests.
Till date, Nangeli is regarded as an icon in Kerala India.
The leaders were eventually forced to scrap the stupid Breast Tax law.
Women’s Rights and Health Project, an NGO, has said that wife battering topped the number of Sexual and Gender Based Violence cases recorded in Alimosho area of Lagos from May 2017 to May 2020.
Bose Ironsi, Executive Director of WRAPH, disclosed this while speaking with journalists on Monday to commemorate the 16 days of activism against SGBV, themed; “Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect”.
Ironsi said that WRAPH recorded 309 SGBV cases in the area within the period, comprising 124 cases of wife battering, 36 cases of defilement and rape; neglect and abandonment, 54; child physical abuse, 44 and others 51.
According to her, the NGO keeps up-to-date record of information about reported cases by survivors who walked into the organisation and are referred for support.
“The majority of cases that are reported at WRAPH involve single perpetrators, with just 10 survivors reporting cases involving multiple perpetrators.
“All the survivors also reported that the perpetrators were known to them.
“These include spouses, trusted family members, friends, employers and neighbours,” she said.
The executive director said that WRAPH was using the above insights and data to strengthen its interventions, support and referral services for survivors of SGBV.
She said that women and community members faced many challenges in accessing protection from SGBV.
“Majority of cases involving women who reported their husbands for the first time for threatening behaviour or abuse often ends up with their husbands released without penalty, punishment or compensation to the women.
“Emotional or financial dependence, fear or family or social pressure usually causes women to abandon the case and forgive the aggression.
“Law enforcement agencies are saddled with other security issues and are therefore not properly addressing cases of gender based violence,” she said.
Ironsi, therefore, called on community leaders, law enforcement agencies and elective government officials to support the effective implementation of SGBV protection laws such as the 2007 Lagos State Domestic Violence Law.
She said that this could be achieved by taking a clear position that violence against women was unacceptable.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Monday, in Makurdi, the Benue State capital advanced the reason why Boko Haram activities may continue unabated, saying that Nigeria has been denied access to acquire adequate weapons to fight terrorists.
Speaking to journalists after he paid a courtesy visit on the state governor, Samuel Ortom, at the government house, Mohammed said “Nigerians will remain at the mercy of terrorists”.
The minister described the killing of rice farmers as ‘unfortunate’ but noted that to decimate the terrorist group, the country needed more support from global partners as well as acquiring adequate weapons to fight them.
The minister said, “When we talk about terrorism, people don’t seem to appreciate that terrorism is not a local issue, it is a global issue and there is no part of the world that doesn’t experience its own pocket of terrorism.
“But you must also note that we are dealing with terrorists who are financed globally and we also need more support from global partners, for instance, Nigeria has made an attempt to acquire a better and more effective platform to deal with terrorists but for one reason or the other we have been denied this platform, these weapons and without adequate weapons or platform we remain at the mercy of terrorists.
The minister further said, “You see fighting terrorists is not a joke because what actually happened in Borno State is unfortunate but you must also look at the strategy of the terrorists.
“Terrorists use media and publicity as oxygen, so when they go on this kind of mindless killing of people. It is not that the government is not doing enough, terrorism whether in Afghanistan or anywhere in the world has the same concept, a group of people who are extremist in their thoughts who don’t think that you and me should be alive.”
Governor Samuel Ortom commended the federal government for the deployment of Operation Whirl Stroke to the state.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Monday, in Makurdi, the Benue State capital flanked by Gov. Ortom and his Deputy, dressed in Benue traditional attires
Our site uses cookies. By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you direct Law and Society Magazine to store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Statement: cookie policyACCEPTREJECT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
