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GBV: Group Sensitises Religious, Community Leaders On Measures To Tackle Menace

Published

10 months ago

December 4, 2024

Inter-faith Dialogue Forum for Peace (IDFP) on Thursday, sensitized religious and community leaders on measures to tackle the menace of Gender Based Violence (GBV) in Bauchi state.

Speaking at the sideline of the programme, Ms Faith Johnny, the Programme and FundRaising Development Officer, IDFP, said that the purpose of the sensitization is to develop a compendium for faith-based actors on prevention of GBV.

“This period is the sixteenth day of activism against Gender Based Violence and IDFP in collaboration with the UN Women have come up with a one-day engagement forum.

“What we mean is that, we have come to Bauchi today, where we will be hosting 10 faith-based actors who will be giving us 10 names each to make a hundred and at the end of this project, we are going to be having several other actors in a compendium so that if any organisation or individual wants to do something on GBV in Bauchi state, they have a list of people to contact.

“They have their numbers, they have cases, they have what has come after the cases and further actions to follow up.

“What we are expecting from this engagement is to have a comprehensive compendium of faith-based actors. This will now serve as a tool for other organisations to use in their further engagement in GBV issues,” she said.

Johnny however, urged both parents and guardians to closely watch their children and wards, talk to them, ask them what they are going through and this, she said, would serve as a variable tool in ending GBV.

Also speaking, Aminu Mohammed, one of the community leaders present, said this kind of sensitization of the faith-based actors both Muslims and Christians would go a long way in addressing GBV in Bauchi state.

“This is to make an advocacy to them as regards to Gender Based Violence because it’s something that is happening and so rampant in the state.

“There are several cases and in order to tackle it, you have to involve the religious and the community leaders because they are the grassroot members that can influence some of the members of the public.

“We are having problems of conspiracy of silence whereby the victims or their parents or relations will not like to open up and without opening up, you can’t be able to address the issue completely.

“Sometimes, stigmatization is another factor as to why they don’t want to open up and that is why we are making this advocacy and we want to expand it to the grassroots,” he said.

In his submission, Pastor Sunday Simon, Director, Christian Affairs in Bauchi state, opined that the engagement is one of the good ones they were looking forward to.

He said “this is because there is an issue that has been lingering in the whole country for a very long time and you will find out that the region’s people are not engaged the way they are now going to be.

“This programme came at the right time and with the right people and by engaging these religious and community leaders, it will also help the programme to reach the grassroot.

“The reason for the programme is to get the acceptance of these region people and also the leaders so the messages will go to the grassroot because before, when a programme of this nature comes, it will just die without achieving its goals because it didn’t include these people.

“IDFP is an organisation that has national and international outreach. It’s an organisation that has come to stay because it deals with all the faiths in the country,” he said.

Simon added that IDFP has broken the barrier of not including the religious and community leaders in this kind of programmes, saying these are the kind of people that when they talk, the people listen and respond positively to them.

News

Why I Was Absent At Council Of State Meeting – Wike

Published

3 minutes ago

October 14, 2025

Editor

The FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, has explained his absence at the recent Council of State meeting, where Prof Joash Amupitan was nominated as Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The minister stated this during the commissioning of the Access Roads in Sector Centre B, Dakibiyu District, in Abuja on Tuesday.

Wike explained that he had directed the Minister of State, Dr Mariya Mahmoud, to represent him at the meeting, while he attended to previous engagements already put in place, describing reports that he declined to attend the meeting because his nominee for the position of INEC Chairman was ignored as “unnecessary propaganda and blackmail”.

“Sometime last week, Thursday, we had a flag off. And I told the Minister of State, FCT, to represent me at the Council of State meeting. I had already told Mr President that I would not be available because of other engagements we had already put in place. And so, the Honourable Minister of State represented the FCT in that meeting.

“That is why we have to be careful when people carry unnecessary propaganda and blackmail. But in spite of those things, be focused; you will achieve your results. They said I did not attend because I was not happy that my own nominee was not taken,” he said.

The Minister’s comments come days after the Council of State meeting, on Thursday, October 9th, 2025, where Prof Amupitan was nominated INEC Chairman, pending his confirmation by the Senate.

Meanwhile, online media platform, Sahara Reporters, stated that rifts between the Minister and President Bola Tinubu had deepened, causing the Minister to boycott the meeting and send the Minister of State in his place.

The report also stated that Wike had allegedly reached out to other Heads of State to boycott the meeting, and reportedly pushed for Justice Abdullahi Muhammad Liman, a justice of the Court of Appeal, to be nominated and appointed as INEC Chairman.

However, Wike insisted that he worked for President Tinubu and that his delivery of projects in the FCT had silenced the critics.

“I work for Mr President. Mr President’s judgment, as far as I’m concerned, in this country has always been how to put this country in the right perspective. Be focused. When you start delivering, the achievement will silence all critics. Today they have nothing again to say,” the Minister stated.

Wike also commended the President for providing the right leadership, which he stated was responsible for the achievements made by the FCT Administration.

“I have always said, when you have the right leadership, you can achieve the expected results. Mr President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Grand Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, has shown the right leadership. People are talking about the achievements we have made. It is because we have the right leadership. When you have the right leadership, you get things right,” he said.

News

Delta Crack Squad Arrests Suspected Drug Dealers, Rescues Kidnap Victim

Published

8 minutes ago

October 14, 2025

Editor

The Delta State Police Command has arrested two suspected drug dealers and rescued a kidnapped woman in separate operations, the force confirmed.

SP Bright Edafe, spokesperson for the command, said that operatives of the Crack Squad, acting on credible intelligence, raided a hideout in the Government Reserved Area (GRA), Effurun, in the early hours of 12 October 2025. Two suspects, Igwe Samson, 33, and Abalum Sunday, 39, were arrested.

During the operation, a search conducted on the suspects’ Sienna vehicle led to the recovery of a large cache of illicit drugs, including 450 bottles of CSP Codeine, 188 bottles of Bargadine, 208 sachets of Tramadol 100mg, 100 sachets of Tramadol 500mg, 300 sachets of Swinol, 50 sachets of Rophynol, and a bag of weeds suspected to be cannabis.

According to the police, preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects had been in the illegal drug business for about two years, sourcing their supplies from Onitsha and transporting them mostly at night to evade security detection.

“Efforts are ongoing to apprehend other members of the syndicate, including their suppliers and buyers,” Edafe stated.

In a separate incident, operatives of the Ovian-Aladja Police Division foiled a kidnapping operation and rescued a woman who had been abducted from her home in the early hours of the same day.

The Divisional Police Officer (DPO), CSP Friday Ekundayo, reportedly acted on a distress call received around 2:00 a.m. and immediately led his team in pursuit of the kidnappers.

The suspects were tracked to a forest along the Iyara community, where the combined pressure from police operatives forced them to abandon their victim and flee.

The woman was safely rescued and has since been reunited with her family, while efforts are ongoing to arrest the fleeing suspects.

News

Presidential Pardons Undermine Rule Of Law, Says Amnesty

Published

15 minutes ago

October 14, 2025

Editor

International human rights organisation, Amnesty International Nigeria, has faulted the pardons granted by President Bola Tinubu to 175 individuals, noting that granting clemency to persons convicted of human rights crimes prevents reparations of victims.

Country Director of Amnesty International, Isa Sanusi, in a statement on Tuesday, said the association was “deeply concerned” by the pardons granted by President Tinubu, noting that the way the exercise was carried out seemed to prioritise the perpetrators, rather than access to justice and effective remedies for victims and their families.

“We are deeply concerned by the clemency and pardons granted by the government of President Bola Tinubu to some persons convicted of human rights crimes, as the pardons for these crimes prevent reparations for victims.

“The way and manner Nigerian authorities carried out the exercise seemed to prioritise the perpetrators instead of access to justice and effective remedies for the victims and their families,” the statement partly read.

Tinubu had on Friday, October 10th, 2025, granted pardons to 175 convicted persons, including Herbert Macaulay, Ken Saro Wiwa, former Minister of the FCT in the Babangida regime, Major-General Mamman Vatsa (retd), among others.

However, controversy trailed the release of the full list of persons who received the presidential prerogative of mercy, after it was discovered that the list also included the names of convicted drug offenders, and several others jailed for various crimes, including Maryam Sanda, who was convicted in 2020 for killing her husband, Bilyaminu Bello.

Amnesty argued that the government’s actions had the potential to undermine the rule of law, prevent the emergence of truth, and entrench impunity for human rights crimes.

Sanusi, therefore, called on the President to reconsider the pardons for those who were convicted of human rights crimes and ensure the rights of victims and their families.

“The actions of the government have the potential of undermining the rule of law, preventing the emergence of the truth, the determination of guilt or innocence by a court and reparations for victims, as well as entrenching impunity for human rights crimes.

“President Bola Tinubu should reconsider his government’s pardons for those convicted of human rights crimes and uphold and ensure the rights of the victims and their families,” he stated.