Niger Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello has announced a shut down in the state, declaring restriction of movement from 8am to 8pm.
The restriction of movement, according to the Governor in a state broadcast on Monday, would begin from Wednesday.
He said that this move became necessary due to the new cases emerging from Abuja, of which Niger state is very close to.
Details shortly…
A man working for a transport company has become the first patient in the West African country of Niger with Coronavirus (COVID-19).
The man travelled to the Nigerien capital of Niamey from the Ghanaian capital Accra, passing through Abidjan in Ivory Coast and Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, the Health Ministry said in a statement read on national television late on Thursday.
Out of those four countries, only Niger had not yet had its first COVID-19 case. The patient is in stable condition, according to the ministry.
Niger is the 36th among Africa’s 54 countries to have a confirmed case.
The continent had been largely spared from the pandemic for weeks but has now recorded more than 700 cases and at least 17 deaths, according to the World Health Organisation.
There are concerns that weak national health systems in Africa will be quickly overwhelmed by the outbreak.
Federal High Court in Abuja has rejected objections by Niger and Kogi states to the execution of a judgment which granted financial autonomy to the judiciary.
The January 13, 2014 judgment given by Justice Adeniyi Ademola (then of the Federal High Court, Abuja), in a suit by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), prohibited the piecemeal release of budgetary allocations to the judiciary at the state and federal levels by the executive.
Justice Okon Abang, in two separate rulings yesterday, dismissed two sets of applications filed by both states, and another one by the judgment creditor – JUSUN – for incompetency.
The first ruling was on an application by Kogi State Governor and the state’s Attorney-General, where they prayed the court to set aside the January 13, 2014 judgment. They argued that they were not served the originating processes in the suit and were not heard in the proceedings leading to the judgment.
Justice Abang held that the application (listed as the 45th and 46th judgment debtors/applicants) were incompetent, having not been filed in accordance with the provisions of Order 19 Rule 3 of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules.
The judge said the court’s rules provides that an application to set aside a judgment given behind a party should be made within six days after the judgment or such other longer period as the judge may allow, a provision the applicants failed to comply with.
He noted that the applicants did not only file their application outside the time allowed, they also lied about their claim that they were not aware of the judgment.
Justice Abang also faulted the affidavit, filed along with the application, on the grounds that it was deposed to by the wrong person.
He said it was the parties, who denied being served with court processes that ought to personally depose to such affidavit, and not a third party, as was done in this instance.
“This application is a hopeless and unpardonable abuse of court process. The application dismissed. N50,000 is awarded against the 45th and 46th judgment debtors applicants, to be paid to the judgment creditor (JUSUN) before the next adjourned date,” he said.
In the second ruling, the judge dismissed another set of applications by the governors of Kogi and Niger States and their Attorney Generals, listed as 45th, 46th, 53rd and 54th judgment debtors/applicants, on the grounds that they were incompetent.
The four applicants had urged the court to set aside the proceedings leading to the grant of garnishee order nisi in the garnishee proceedings initiated against them by JUSUN in execution of the January 13, 2014 judgment.
They also urged the court to declare the proceedings as a nullity and set aside the order nisi on the grounds that there were not served with the order nisi.
Justice Abang, in dismissing the applications, held that the applicants could not query the competence of a garnishee proceedings just because they have not been served with an order nisi.
The judge also dismissed an application by the judgment creditor, with which it had urged the court to make the order nisi absolute.
Justice Abang held that JUSUN’s application was not within the powers of a judgment creditor to apply that a garnishee order nisi earlier granted be made absolute.
He noted that the order nisi, granted on November 21, 2018, by Justice Babatybde Quadri (also of the Federal High Court) was vague as it did not stipulate the amount of the judgment debt to be attached.
The judge held that the judgment creditor was at liberty to file a fresh application for a garnishee order nisi after computing what amount is due to it from the judgment.
He said: “The judgment creditor will, as a matter of urgency, calculate what it is entitled to by virtue of the judgment made on January 13, 2014. Once the amount is ascertained, the judgment creditor will be at liberty to file a fresh ex-parte application to attach the accounts of the judgment debtors.
“The judgment creditor should serve the order nisi on the debtor and garnishee after filing a fresh application.
“In the final analysis, the three applications by judgment creditor and debtors are incompetent and are struck out.”
The judge adjourned till April 7 for the garnishee proceedings.
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Niger has confirmed the death of six persons in a road traffic crash that occurred on Monday on Kutigi – Mokwa road in Mokwa Local Government Area of the state.
The FRSC Sector Commander in the state, Mr Joel Dagwa, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna that the accident occurred at about 1.45 p.m.,15 kilometers to Afuwagi village.
According to Dagwa, the accident involved a tanker with registration No. GBL 25 XA and a Sienna bus with registration NO. LSD 262 GC.
Dagwa said that the tanker was bound for Lagos from Maiduguri while the Sienna was conveying passengers from Lagos to Maiduguri.
” The accident involved 10 people, four males sustained various degrees of injuries while six persons died.
“The six corpses have been deposited at Kutigi General Hospital morgue,” he said.
The sector commander attributed the accident to wrongful overtaking.
The sector commander said that the Corps would continue to monitor road users to guard against dangerous driving.
“We will sustain our ongoing aggressive patrols across all major highways to ensure that road users adhere strictly to traffic rules and regulations to avoid road accidents,” Dagwa said.
Twenty-three people have been feared dead in a stampede during a food distribution by the Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum at a refugee camp housing Nigerians in Niger Republic.
Over 120,000 Nigerians displaced by Boko Haram terrorists have taken refuge in Niger Republic.
Officials of the Borno State Government were engaged in the distribution of the food items to Nigerian refugees living in Niger Republic, but Zulum was said to have travelled to Diffa, a border community in Niger Republic, where he met over 120,000 Nigerians who fled their homes some years ago.
The 120,000 are among the millions of Nigerians who have been displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency in North-east Nigeria.
The Nigerian refugees in Niger
The rice and oil given by the Borno Governor Zulum to the refugees
According to government sources, Monday’s stampede occurred hours after Zulum left Niger Republic for Maiduguri.
Zulum had on Sunday supervised the distribution of the food items to about 30,000 refugees before he left with an instruction that the state emergency agencies should continue to distribute the materials.
It was learnt that the stampede happened on Monday morning as refugees began to protest the delay in the continuation of the food distribution at the two distribution sites called the MJC Boys and Girls Club in Diffa province.
Female refugees in Niger
“The distribution supervised by Governor Zulum on Sunday was successfully carried out as the entire 30,000 that received the meal token, all got their food and clothing,” the witness said, asking not to be named as he was not authorised to talk to journalists.
“After the governor had left, the official continued the distribution at a venue called Gidan Wasa, where over 6000 refugees received their shares. But things went out of control the second day when some local Nigeriens got wind of the distribution exercise continuing on Monday.
“They rushed down to join the Nigerian refugees at the distribution locations; and in attempts to be the first to get the relief items, a serious stampede ensued,” the official said.
The source said of the 23 persons that died, 19 were Nigeriens, while four were Nigerians.
“Most of those that died were aged women and children,” the source said.
The official said the fact that Nigeriens were involved in the stampede “explains the fact that there is serious poverty and hunger in that axis.”
When contacted, the spokesman of the Borno State governor, Isa Gusau, confirmed the development.
He said the government will not be making any official comment on the matter now, “until the governor receives a detail report” of what transpired from the committee handling the distribution of the items to the refugees.
Despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to the Air Force to provide aerial shield for vulnerable communities in Niger State, the bandits and have struck again.
Scores of them, armed and riding motorbikes attacked Gurmana, old Gurmana, and Ashirika communities in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, in central Nigeria on Saturday.
Reports said the bandits double as members of the Islamic State of West Africa.
According to reports, the armed men stormed the communities at about 10:00 am on Saturday, with some on feet and shot sporadically into the air.
Witnesses said the attack started in Gurmana where they reportedly killed two persons and injured four others before moving to old Gurmana where they rustled more than 200 cows.
The Senator representing Niger East, Sani Musa confirmed he had received reports of the attacks.
President Muhammadu Buhari on 27 January ordered the Air Force to bombard camps where the bandits and terrorists are hibernating.
It appears the measure is not working.
According to the directive, Buhari ordered the Nigerian Air Force to deploy its fighter aircraft to check the attacks by the bandits-terrorists attacking Niger state communities.
In line with this directive, according to the presidential aide, the Nigerian Air Force is setting up refuelling facilities at Minna, Niger state, to support the air operations.
Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said: ”President Buhari has received assurances that with the harmattan dust gradually easing its hold on the skies, fighter aircraft would this week join the efforts to provide effective air attacks against bandits, kidnappers and cattle rustlers that have been attacking remote communities around Dogon Gona forest in Niger State.”
He added that the Police Command in Niger had equally given assurances that ”the planned dedicated air raids to complement the police helicopter gunship operations remain the best approach given the lack of motorized roads in the areas constantly under attack”.
The Imam of the Emir of Borgu Palace Mosque and 19 others have been kidnapped in early morning raid by bandits on some communities in Borgu local government area of Niger state.
The bandits, who had blocked the Road from Ibbi to New Bussa were armed with guns, cutlasses, and knives and were shooting sporadically.
The bandits were said to have blocked the road from Ibbi to New Bussa, attacking villagers going and coming from the markets.
Sources said the incident occurred at about 5.30 pm on Saturday when the villagers were returning from the markets.
The Imam was noticed to have been among the kidnapped victims when the bandits called the Emir to demand N20 million ransom for his release.