The Federal Government has charged the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members across the Northeast sub-region to play an active role in curbing the spread of Small Arms and Light Weapons, SALW, across the region.

Northeast Zonal Director of the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, (NCCSALW) under the Office of the National Security Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Maj.-Gen. Abubakar Adamu (Rtd), gave the charge yesterday at the NYSC Orientation Camps in Potiskum, Yobe state and Maiduguri, Borno state.

Maj:-Gen Adamu (Rtd), represented by Mr. Aminu Saleh Mohammed, Assistant Director of Strategic Communication and Information of the Centre, said the active involvement of youth, especially corps members, would significantly help to tackle insecurity.

He explained that the NCCSALW, established in 2021 under the Office of the National Security Adviser, serves as the institutional framework for regulating and controlling Small Arms and Light Weapons in Nigeria.

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While sensitizing the corps members on camp in Yobe state on the dangers of the proliferation of arms and weapons on the society, the Zonal Director said such weapons fuels banditry, kidnapping, cultism, political thuggery, insurgency and other crimes.

“When you get to your places of primary assignment, be good ambassadors of your parents, NYSC, your state and yourself by reporting anyone in possession or involved in the fabrication of small arms and light weapons,” he urged.

According to him, Small Arms and Light Weapons hinders development, increases black marketers of arms and ammunition, causes undue exposure of young people to armed-violence, heightens transborder insecurity, create fears in the minds of the people and many other vices in the society.

He called on all parents and guardians to take full responsibility of good child upbringing in all ramification, educate children on tolerance and peaceful co-existence and warn against violence.

He advised them to also observe and closely monitor behavioral changes for prompt correction.

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Similarly, at the NYSC Orientation camp in Maiduguri, the Centre’s Northeast boss called on scholars and clergymen to teach and sensitize their congregations on the dangers of proliferation of SALW, tolerance and peaceful co-existence.

“They should caution their congregation against the use of illicit SALW, facilitate reconciliation among extremists and victims for successful reintegration and surrendering,” he said.

He also called on the Northeast Coordinators of NYSC to partner with the Centre to establish a Small Arms and Light Weapons Community Development Service (CDS) group in the states, similar to one already operational in Borno.

In their separate reactions, the NYSC Coordinators in Yobe and Borno states, Mr. Edison Ohuoha and Mallam Nasir Bello, welcomed the proposal, assuring that efforts would be made to set up the CDS group to support the campaign.

They promised to work closely with the Centre in order to fight and eradicate the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons within the region by carrying out sensitization in strategic locations.

The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, has suspended Guinea-Bissau from all its decision-making bodies following the military takeover in the country.

The suspension was announced after an emergency virtual meeting of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council, MSC, late Thursday.

The session was chaired by Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, who also leads the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government.

In its communiqué, the MSC said the decision was taken in line with the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance (2001), stressing that Guinea-Bissau would remain suspended until full and effective constitutional order is restored.

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The coup unfolded on Wednesday, barely three days after the country’s contentious presidential and legislative elections.

The mutinous officers halted the electoral process, shut the nation’s borders and stopped the release of official results.

ECOWAS strongly condemned the takeover, describing the detention of several individuals, including incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, widely projected to win the election, as unacceptable.

“The MSC condemns in the strongest terms the coup d’état perpetrated on 26 November 2025 and calls for the immediate restoration of constitutional order,” the statement read.

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It also rejected any arrangement that would legitimise the disruption of the democratic process or undermine the will of the people of Guinea-Bissau.

The regional bloc demanded the prompt release of all detained political actors, including President Embaló, electoral officials, and other arrested figures.

ECOWAS also insisted that the electoral commission be allowed to announce the results of Sunday’s vote without interference.

Despite regional pressure, the coup leaders have named the army’s chief of staff, General Horta N’Tam, as transitional head of state for a one-year period.

The Federal High Court sitting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State has dismissed the preliminary objections by the Shell Petroleum Development company in suit filed by the A’Ibom Oil Producing Development Network (AKPICON), demanding payment of compensation and remediation of battered environment over decades of hydrocarbon pollution occasioned by oil and gas emissions from corked and uncorked oil and wells in various parts of the state.

AKIPCON serves as a mechanism for the realization of environmental justice and protection of human rights of the people over a period of time.

The organization had, through its lead counsel, Dr Dada Awosika, SAN, of Awosika partners in conjunction with Barr Ndifreke Akpan, written to the Managing Director of SPDC demanding payment of N140bn compensation to alleviate the sufferings of the impoverished farmers, fishermen and allied business owners

The letter reads in part, ”Your company owns corked and uncorked oil and gas wells which spread over Akwa Ibom State particularly in Mkpat-Enin, Ini, Ikot Abasi, Onna, Uruan, Esit-Eket, Iket, Uyo, Eastern Obolo, Nsit-Antai, Etinan, Mbo, Okobo, Essien Udim, Ikot-Ekpene Local Government Areas and others.

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”Over the years there has been increased leakages and emissions of crude from your company’s corked and uncorked oil and gas wells and facilities which continually discharge toxic hydrocarbon into farm lands and water bodies in the environment where our clients operate.

”The said leakages/emissions arise from your company’s negligence in the maintenance of your corked and uncorked oil wells. Most often your expired, aged and rusted pipes installed in the early 1950s erupt, discharging crude oil which washes itself into water bodies and farmlands of our clients, resulting in colossal damage to their farmlands and water bodies.

”The activities of your company in this regard has brought untold hardship, economic losses, unemployment, redundancy, insecurity, frustration, abject poverty, phycological trauma and health hazards with attendant human rights consequences to our clients.

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”Flowing from the foregoing, it’s our instruction to demand that your company pays N140bn, only to our clients being compensation for the age-long degradation of their environment and damage caused to their property and means of livelihood arising from your company’s activities. In addition, we demand that you take immediate steps to clean up and remediate our battered environment caused by your operation for decades to return the environment to its pristine state”

But the SPDC, in No: FHC. UY/CS/85/2024 argues that AKPICON does not have the legal rights to institute the case. It also contended that the case is status bar by Akwa Ibom limitation laws on oil spills as the said spills occured over 70 years ago.

However, ruling on the matter on Thursday, the presiding judge, Justice MA Onyetanu, dismissed the SPDC’s preliminary objections for lack of merit and adjourned the case to February 5th for commencement of trail.