TheNewsGuru

Tag: Niger State

  • Aftermath of NAF jet crash: Bandits flee into Niger State forests

    Aftermath of NAF jet crash: Bandits flee into Niger State forests

    Aftermath of the NAF helicopter crash in Niger, bandits in the state have started to relocate into the forests in the state.

    TNG recalls that the Chief of Defense Staff had last week during the burial of the fallen officers vowed that the deaths of the country’s gallant soldiers must be avenged.

    Monitored reports claimed that the bandits have begun to release some abductees in their camps.

    It was gathered that some of the farmers abducted about five months ago around Kaffin Korro, Munya and some parts of Shiroro have now been released.

    Speculations are that the bandits who are anticipating the onslaught following the recent crash of a military helicopter linked to the Gide Dogo bandits group are retreating to neighbouring states.

    A national newspaper quoted a source from the communities around the Shiroro axis where the bandits had held sway in the past three weeks to have said the assailants were no longer coming out bracingly to operate as they did in previous weeks.

    The development is coming on the heels of the disclaimer by the Niger State police command that no notorious bandit had declared himself governor in the state.

    The police command in a statement by its spokesman, Wasiu Abiodun, said no bandit had declared himself governor as reported in some mainstream and social media.

    He said; “The command wishes to state categorically with all sense of responsibility that such publication is false in its entirety, and it only exists in the figment of the imagination of the author.

    The joint security teams in the state in collaboration with the state government are working assiduously to address the security challenges at hand, while tactical teams are placed at strategic locations within the volatile areas for security coverage.”

    He called for calm and advised members of the public to ignore the publication, as it was an attempt by mischief makers to cause problem.

  • We’ll avenge killing of our Troops in Niger State – Defence Chief vows

    We’ll avenge killing of our Troops in Niger State – Defence Chief vows

    The Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa has vowed that the death of soldiers killed by bandits in Niger State will not go unavenged.

    TheNewsGuru.com, (, TNG) reports Musa made this vow on Friday after laying wreaths on the graves of 20 deceased soldiers and presenting the national flags to their next of kin at the Military Cemetery, Abuja.

    The Defence Chief said the Nigerian Military will avenge the killing of its soldiers, stating that none of those involved in the massacre will go scot-free.

    Musa also joined the family members in their grief, adding that the deaths of their loved ones would not be in vain.

    He said: “Those that did this, and those that have continued our men, wherever they are, we will get them out, we will smoke them out and we will ensure that they never have any other opportunity to kill any other person, that I assure you.”

    TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) had earlier reported how soldiers engaging terrorists were shot dead while an aircraft on a rescue mission subsequently crashed in the Chukuba area of Shiroro, all in Niger State.

    Reacting to the development, the military had last week stated that a total of 36 personnel of the military died during the ambush.

  • Niger state: Buhari sends condolences over death of soldiers

    Niger state: Buhari sends condolences over death of soldiers

    Former President Muhammadu Buhari has sent his condolences to  President Bola Tinubu, the Armed Forces of the Federation over the death of 36 soldiers in an ambush and the crash of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) MI17 helicopter in Niger State on Monday, August 14.

    Buhari made this known in a statement issued by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, on Saturday, August 19, 2023.

    The former president said: “I am saddened by the helicopter accident following the tragic ambush in which we have lost our brave army personnel. My thoughts are with the bereaved families. I hope those injured recover at the earliest.

    “My heartfelt condolences to the President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the Armed Forces of the Federation and the families of the deceased.

    “With the soldier discipline in our troops, it is a matter of time before they overcome.”

    The Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Edward Buba, while briefing newsmen on Thursday, had disclosed that three officers and 22 soldiers paid the supreme price in the ambush in Zungeru general area while seven were wounded in action.

    Buba stated that the NAF helicopter was on a mission to evacuate the deceased and wounded troops when it crashed at Chukuba area of Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.

    He said the crashed helicopter was conveying 14 bodies of the previously killed soldiers and the seven wounded ones as well as the two pilots and two crew members on board.

  • BANDITRY! I am ready for dialogue – Niger State Gov, Bago

    BANDITRY! I am ready for dialogue – Niger State Gov, Bago

    Apparently peeved by the state of insecurity under his watch, Governor Umar Bago of Niger State has said his administration will dialogue with bandits.

    This was as Bago said his administration had put in place a non-kinetic mechanism against bandits.

    Bago revealed this to State House Correspondents after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    The Governor, however, vowed to activate military action if the non-kinetic approach fails.

    According to Bago, we are looking at two options: first, non-kinetic, as a government, we have put in machinery to start talking to the bandits.

    “We have also created a ministry for nomadic, and pastoral affairs to look at the issues of Fulani herdsmen.

    “You also need to understand that Niger State has the largest congregation of Fulani.

    “Niger State is 8.3 million hectares of land with bodies of water, and the environment is very good for grazing.

    “A lot of Fulani across the world, not just Africa, converge in Niger State, so we don’t want them to leave, We don’t want any major military activities, We want to talk to them.

    “But if we don’t get to that level of dialogue, then probably, we have to go fully military.”

  • Uncertainty in Niger as bandits killed 21 troops

    Uncertainty in Niger as bandits killed 21 troops

    Confusion in Niger state as no fewer than 21 military personnel including senior officers were reportedly killed by the suspected bandits at Kundu via Zungeru in the Wushishi Local Government Area (LGA) of Niger state.

    It was gathered that 13 of them were killed in an encounter on Sunday, while eight others were killed on Monday in an ambush in which a captain and a major were reportedly involved.

    According to reports, the security operatives were trying to block the Kundu route of the criminals who were about to cross with some rustled cattle when they were ambushed, leading to the casualties including five vigilantes who were injured with bullets.

    It was reliably gathered that the bandits had rustled several animals from several communities and tried to cross from Akere to the northern parts of the country.

    An eyewitness told Channels Television that the corpses of the 21 military personnel were deposited at the same Zungeru hospital where the injured vigilante group were receiving medical treatment.

    An injured vigilante, Sani Adamu, in a phone interview, said they had a gun battle within a range of less than 100m but they were challenged because the criminals’ weapons were more sophisticated than theirs, leading to casualties.

     

  • Breaking! Nigerian Airforce aircraft en route Niger crashes

    Breaking! Nigerian Airforce aircraft en route Niger crashes

    Report reaching TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) has it that an aircraft belonging to the Nigerian Air Force has crashed.

    It was gathered that the aircraft took off from Kaduna en route to Minna, the Niger state capital when the incident occurred.

    ALSO READ || NAF breaks silence on crashed helicopter in Niger

    It’s not clear for now if there are casualties as a result of the crash.

    Details concerning the crash  are still sketchy as of when filing this report.

    Efforts are ongoing to ensure that a more detailed information about the crash is served much later.

  • Forced marriage booms in Niger State

    Forced marriage booms in Niger State

    … foul cries follow Investigative Reports

    … Govt urged to save young girls

     

    Niger state government has been urged to rise in defence of young girls being forced into marriages by their families, as well as ensuring perpetrators of the illegal act are sanctioned.

    The call for Governor Mohammed Bago-led Niger State to frontally tackle the spate of forced marriage is coming on the heels of an investigative report by the International Center for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) exposing how young girls are married off against their wishes in villages in Gbako and Lavun Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Niger State.

    Legal practitioner & gender activist Yewande Ogundipe led the call for enforcement of child rights laws and punishment of offenders during an anti-corruption radio programme, PUBLIC CONSCIENCE, produced by PRIMORG, Wednesday in Abuja.

    Ogundipe lamented that despite orientation and reorientation over the years, the situation is worsening due to a lack of consequence for those forcing underage children into marriage, emphasizing that the way out is “sanctions and enforcement.”

    She stressed that some sections of the Nigerian Constitution had not helped the fight against forced marriage in the country as “it on one breathe prohibits and on another supports child marriage,” allowing some people to exploit the constitutional lacuna and continue marrying underage girls.

    “The constitution of Nigeria in use currently is not helping the matter. There is more to be done. There are a lot of dead letter laws. Child rights laws have expressly prohibited marrying children, but who has enforced them? Who has been jailed for marrying a child? The constitution is confused about the issue.

    “Every state in Nigeria should be made to ratify and domesticate child rights law, have your own child rights law that will protect the children better, NGOs should go to the grassroots and deal directly with women and children in distress, let them know if this (child marriage) happens to call this phone number, we would come and rescue you, there is a level of fear and compliance when they know an organization is involved.

    “Lawyers in Niger state, what are you doing about child marriages, have evangelism concerning this issue. It’s a fight for all,” Ogundipe advised.

    Similarly, Senior investigative journalist at TheICIR, Olugbenga Adaniki, joined the call for the Niger state government to sanction perpetrators of forced marriage, stressing it will deter others with such intentions.

    Adaniki called for the collaboration of faith-based organizations and religious leaders against the unlawful act, insisting that the political will of the state governor to punish offenders of child brides will send the right signal.

    He added: “Niger state government can also deploy and stick approach by rewarding communities that deliberately work towards eliminating child marriage while sanctioning those found culpable.”

    The journalist revealed that young girls interviewed during the investigation had terrible experiences. Some resorted to spending days in forests to escape their abusers. He said that in some cases, parents of the victims hypnotize their children to make them sleep with the man they have been married off to.

    Adanikin emphasized that the abuse young girls are facing through forced marriages is worrisome and happening not only in the northern part of the country but also in other regions, hence urging that there should be a national campaign against child brides.

    The investigation also revealed that both Child Rights Protection Agency in Niger state and Bida Emir’s Palace alluded that cases of child marriage are recurrent in the state.

    Public Conscience is a syndicated weekly anti-corruption radio program PRIMORG uses to draw government and citizens’ attention to corruption and integrity issues in Nigeria.

    The program has the support of the MacArthur Foundation.

  • Police inspector jailed 22 years for impregnating his teenage daughter

    Police inspector jailed 22 years for impregnating his teenage daughter

    In Niger state, an Inspector of police, Gbenga Fajuyi has been sentenced to 22 years in the Minna Correctional Centre by the Senior Magistrate Court for allegedly putting his 13-year-old biological daughter in the family way.

    In a cruel manner, Fajuyi was also accused of strangulating and killing the baby his daughter delivered.

    According to the Police First Information Report, marked SMC/MN, CR/06/2023 stated that Gbenga Fajuyi, age 47, sometime in 2019, in the Ungwan Nasarawa area of Tafa LG, lured his biological daughter, an SS1 student of Government Day Secondary School Sabon-Wuse, into his room and forcefully had sexual intercourse with her.

    During the police Investigation, you, Gbenga Fajuyi, confessed to the commission of the offense. After delivery, you took the new-born baby to a nearby river and strangled the baby to death”.

    The police prosecutor, Inspector Lawrence Owette, told the court that the three-count charge contravened Section 18 (2) of the Niger State Child Right Law 2010, Section 390 25 (3), and 397 B of the penal code.

    When the charges were read to him by the Presiding Senior magistrate, Christy Barau, the suspect pleaded guilty to the charge.

    However, the court insisted that due to the serious nature of the offense, and asked the police prosecutor to prove his case and bring along his witnesses and evidence to enable the court to give him the maximum punishment in accordance with the offenses he committed.

    Hence, the prosecutor called the investigating police officer, who invited both the mother of the girl, and the girl, and they claimed the father had canal knowledge of his daughter at age 12 until she got pregnant at the age of 13.

    Delivering judgement, the court’s presiding senior magistrate, Senior Magistrate Christy Barau, described the convict as a monster who, as a law enforcement officer that was supposed to protect the little girl, ended up putting her into adulthood.

    She then pronounced that he was to spend the next 22 years in prison without the option of a fine, and the sentence was to run concurrently

  • Pandemonium as terrorists abduct village head, 49 others in Niger State

    Pandemonium as terrorists abduct village head, 49 others in Niger State

    There was pandemonium in Fugge community of Rijau local government area, Niger State, on Friday after terrorists stormed the community and abducted the village head, Mallam Abdullahi Zaure.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the terrorists also abducted 49 other persons along with Mallam Zaure when they stormed the community.

    It was learnt that the incident occurred on Friday afternoon when the terrorists invaded the village on several motorcycles, shooting sporadically into the air and causing panic among residents.

    According to a report by the Nation, majority of the abductees were women and children with few males while several cattle were rustled.

    It was also gathered that fighter jets descended on the terrorists when they were moving with the abductees which resulted in the death of several of the bandits and rustled cattle.

    Some of the residents claimed to have seen some bodies of the terrorists and corpses of cows killed or injured by the airstrike.

    The residents claimed that the terrorists have gone into their den which is located in the forest, bordering Niger State and Kebbi State.

    Efforts to contact the Niger Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Abiodun Wasiu, and Commissioner of Internal Security, Emmanuel Umar proved abortive.

  • Niger judiciary fires judge, demotes two

    Niger judiciary fires judge, demotes two

    Niger State Judicial Service Commission (NJSC) has dismissed from service the Magistrate Court Judge of Salka in Magama local government council of the state, Mohammed Bako Iya over gross misconduct and abuse of Judicial power.

    Announcing the development at a press briefing in the state capital, Minna, the Secretary of the commission, Abdulrahman Ahmed Garafini, also stated that the Commission has demoted two sharia court judges by one grade level.

    They are Abdullahi Nasiru, the Sharia Judge of Kotun Bola, Minna, and his colleague in Badeggi, Mohammed Baba Enagi.

    They were accused of misconduct and abuse of office.

    The NJSC secretary said the sanctioned judicial officers would also serve a tutelage of one year in other courts.

    The decisions of the commission, he said, were taken at its 136th meeting this month after consideration of the recommendations by the committees set up to investigate petitions against the judges.

    According to him, out of seven petitions, three were against the dismissed judge, adding that two were sufficiently proved by the petitioners.

    He told reporters that the report and recommendations of the Justice Mohammed Mohammed-led committee also indicted Mohammed Bako for “practically jettisoning his call as a judicial officer” by representing and shielding a suspect, Saba Idris, from arrest by police and the court.