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Tag: taraba state

  • Seven passengers returning from burial ceremony perish in Taraba

    Seven passengers returning from burial ceremony perish in Taraba

    Seven people have died following a motor accident involving an 18-seater bus in Taraba State.

    The accident took place on Saturday in Sauwa Community of Bali Local Government Area. The victims of the accident were said to be returning to Jalingo from Kurmi Local Government Area where they went for the burial ceremony of a traditional ruler Kum Ndola, Enoch Tanko Tabena.

    According to eyewitnesses, the tyre of the 18-seater-bus burst while in motion, resulting in a somersault of the vehicle.

    The Chairman of the Council, Musa Mahmoud, confirmed the incident.

    Musa disclosed that two of the victims died at the scene while five others died at the Bali General Hospital where they were taken for medical attention.

    ”When I got a distress call on the incident, I immediately mobilised health workers and stakeholders to the scene. On arrival, we found two persons dead but succeeded in taking those alive to the Bali General Hospital.

    ”Out of those we took to the hospital for medical attention, five died due to how bad they were hit by the incident and inability to access quick medicare ”

    ”It was a pathetic scene to behold and I sympathise with the family of the victims,” Mahmoud explained.

  • BREAKING: Taraba’s top traditional ruler dies

    BREAKING: Taraba’s top traditional ruler dies

    The Paramount and Supreme Ruler of the Jukun Race and Chairman Taraba State Council of Traditional Rulers, His Majesty, Dr Shekarau Angyu Masa Ibi, Kuvyo II CON has joined his ancestors.

    This was contained in a statement issued by Jolly Agbu Masa-IBI, SA Media to Aku-Uka on Sunday.

    The Aku Uka joined his ancestors at the age of 84 after leading the Kwararafa Race for 45 Years.

    All traditional rites in accordance to the Jukun tradition has since commences.

    The final traditional rites for Aku Uka’s transition from the Palace to Puje would be announced in due course.

  • What caused flood to submerge over 300 buildings in Taraba – NIHSA

    What caused flood to submerge over 300 buildings in Taraba – NIHSA

    The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) has clarified on what caused flood to submerge over 300 buildings in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports no fewer than 300 buildings were submerged in a flood that ravaged several communities in Jalingo on Saturday.

    While no lives were lost, residents watched helplessly as their business centres, vehicles, worship centres and schools were submerged by the flood.

    Earlier reports had it that the flood was aggravated by the release of water from the Cameroonian Lagdo Dam built within the Cameroonian portion of River Benue.

    However, according to the NIHSA, the flash flood was caused by localized heavy downpour that occurred from the night of Friday, 9th July till around 4 am on Saturday, 10th July, 2021 in Mayo Goi area of Jalingo town.

    Report from the NIHSA Yola Office stated that poor or lack of drainage systems, buildings erected within the flood paths, etc, aggravated the flood, and not release of any water from Lagdo Dam in Cameroon.

    “It should be noted that at this period of the year, impoundment of water into the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon for hydropower generation is still in progress.

    “Under normal circumstances, it is usually around the 3rd week of September that the Lagdo Dam reservoir approaches an elevation of 213m.

    “Spillage of water can only take place once the reservoir level approaches 216m. Therefore, no release of water from Lagdo Dam ever took place.

    “For purposes of clarity, it should be noted that Jalingo in Taraba State is downstream Adamawa State.

    “Before any flood arising from the release of water from Lagdo Dam could submerge any town in Taraba State, the following towns in Adamawa State, upstream Taraba State, would have been submerged, namely:- Wuroboki, Lau, Jimeta, Ibbi, Numan, Yola, etc, all in Adamawa State,” NIHSA stated.

    TNG reports the NIHSA is the agency of the Federal Government at the upstream sector in the prediction and issuance of flood early warning alerts in Nigeria.

    The agency had earlier in the year predicted that Yorro, Gassol, Ardo-Kola, Lau, Jalingo, Wukari, all in Taraba State, fall within the Highly Probable Flood Risk LGAs in the country in 2021.

    This was contained in the Agency’s 2021 Annual Flood Outlook (2021 AFO) publication which was presented to the general public on the 6th of May, 2021, by the Minister of Water Resources, Engr Suleiman H. Adamu.

    “The public presentation was followed up with letters to all the Governors of the 36 states of the Federation and the Honourable Minister of the FCTA, intimating each of them on the specific LGAs in their states that are susceptible to flooding in the course of year 2021.

    “From the recent updates on 2021 Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP) by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), some parts of the country are already witnessing delayed onset of rainfall and there is a likelihood of early cessation of rainfall.

    “Under this climatic condition, there is the possibility of most parts of the country experiencing shorter period of rainy season.

    “Therefore, when the spread of rainfall is over a shorter period, there is the tendency to experience more flooding incidents in the event the rainfall within these few months is of high intensity,” the NIHSA stated.

  • Police orderly killed as bandits open fire on Taraba council chairman

    Police orderly killed as bandits open fire on Taraba council chairman

    A police orderly attached to Mr Shoban Tikari, Chairman of Takum local government council of Taraba, was on Saturday killed by suspected bandits who opened fire on the chairman’s vehicle in Dogo-Gawa village in Takum LGA.

    The deceased policeman was of the 67 Mobile Police Squadron, located in the area.

    Tikari, who confirmed the attack, said the militia, in their numbers, launched an attack on his motorcade while on his way to Takum, claiming the life of the deceased in the process.

    The chairman, who declined giving the name of the deceased, called on the Federal government to deploy more security personnel to the area.

    Takum and Wukari councils, in southern Taraba have in recent times witnessed a surge of bandit attacks leading to death of civilians and security personnel.

  • Bandits attack police checkpoint in Taraba State, One officer feared killed

    Bandits attack police checkpoint in Taraba State, One officer feared killed

    One police officer has been feared killed as bandits attacked a mobile police checkpoint at Dogon-Gawa community of Takum Local Government Area, Taraba State.

    The Chairman of the Council, Shiban Tikari, confirmed the incident to Channels Television noting the gunmen struck in the early hours of Saturday.

    He added that he was there when the attack took place with over 200 of the bandits surrounding them.

    According to him, there was a heavy gun duel between the police officers and the bandits leading to the death of one officer.

    Tikari alleged that the Tiv militias comprising of remnants of late Gana boys are responsible for the series of attacks in the southern zone of Taraba.

    As at the time of this report, phone calls and text messages to the police public relations officer David Misal were not responded to.

    This attack on police checkpoint Dogon-Gawa community comes days after gunmen killed four people in separate attacks carried out between Wednesday and Thursday in Taraba State.

    The gunmen in their numbers first attacked Tor-Larshager a suburb community of Wukari Local Government Area killing a 70-year-old man and setting ablaze his residential apartment at about 9:00pm.

  • Warehouse invasion: Taraba Govt. imposes curfew in Jalingo

    Warehouse invasion: Taraba Govt. imposes curfew in Jalingo

    The Taraba Government has imposed a curfew on Jalingo, the State capital, following the invasion of government warehouses by hoodlums on Saturday.

    The Deputy Governor of the State, Alhaji Haruna Manu, announced the order in a state wide broadcast in Jalingo on Saturday night.

    Manu expressed worry that some hoodlums invaded government warehouses containing palliatives and carted away items meant for distribution to members of the public.

    “Some hoodlums and vandals forced their way into government warehouses and looted items meant for distribution as palliatives.

    “The government has therefore imposed a curfew on Jalingo from 11 p.m. on Saturday to 8 a.m. on Monday.

    “After this period, the government may decide to review the situation; our intention is to forestall further breakdown of law and order,” he said.

    He directed security operatives to ensure strict compliance with the order, warning, “we cannot allow the situation to degenerate”.

    The deputy governor urged youths in the state to channel their energies into meaningful ventures capable of promoting societal growth.

  • Taraba Govt declares 3-day holiday for LG poll

    Taraba Govt declares 3-day holiday for LG poll

    Taraba Government has declared Monday June 29, Tuesday June 30 and Wednesday July 1, as public holidays to enable residents of the state participate in the local government council poll slated for June 30, 2020.

    This was contained in a statement by Alhaji Hassan Mijinyawa, Chief Press Secretary to Gov. Darius Ishaku, on Monday in Jalingo.

    “The public holiday is to enable civil servants to travel to their respective wards and vote during the local government election slated for Tuesday, June 30, 2020.

    “The governor also urged people of the state to be orderly, law abiding and conduct themselves peacefully while discharging their civic responsibilities,” he said.

    Meanwhile, a coalition of Civil Society Organisations under the auspices of Eyes on Democracy of Nigeria (EDON) has activated a situation room to monitor the election to ensure that it was free, fair and credible.

    Alhaji Muktar Madaki, the State EDON Chairman, in a statement on Monday, said that a comprehensive report on the electoral process would be made after the election.

    “We have been observing the preparations by Taraba State Independent Electoral Commission (TSIEC) and we are so far satisfied with the preparations.

    “It now behoves on the people to come out in large numbers to exercise their franchise as responsible citizens.

    “We are also calling on security agencies to be civil during the conduct of the election and operate within the ambit of their engagement in regards to electoral matters.

    “We also call of TSIEC to ensure that the election is credible, peaceful, free and fair,” he said.

  • Darius Ishaku blows hot, says Nigeria’s democracy is embarrassing

    Taraba State Governor, Darius Ishaku on Tuesday labelled Nigeria’s democracy as “embarrassing and insulting”.
    He made the statement while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after he received a former Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Aisha Alhassan, who paid him a congratulatory visit at Government House.
    Ishaku noted that the decision of the police to lay siege to his private residence in Abuja was “unaccountable, nonsense and disgraceful”.
    Ishaku said, “I feel very bad that the democratic government of the All Progressives Congress is not living according to the tenets of the constitution, it is disgraceful, embarrassing and insulting.
    “I am shocked that only my party (the Peoples Democratic Party) voiced out in condemnation of the police siege. The APC didn’t talk about it. Don’t they have governors? Can somebody walk into an APC governor’s house and search it?
    “They broke the door of the gate, broke all the doors of my house, threw out my children who I begged for two years to come back to Nigeria. One of them has gone back; I’m still begging him to come back to Nigeria. This is nonsense.”
    Alhassan, who was Ishaku’s main contender in the 2015 and 2019 governorship elections in the state, vowed to work with the governor towards the development of the state.
    She said, “I believe that leadership is ordained by God and we cannot all be governors at the same time. Therefore, I have accepted my fate for losing gallantly.
    “My visit to you is to demonstrate oneness as we all contested to better the lives of our people upon emergence, but we cannot emerge at the same time.
    “It becomes expedient to team up with you to move the state forward. Although I have not defected to the PDP, my supporters and I are ready to assist whenever there is a need for us to render assistance.”
     

  • Benue,Taraba Govs offer amnesty to criminals

    Govs Samuel Ortom of Benue and Darius Ishaku of Taraba have resolved to grant amnesty to criminals operating along the border of the states.

    The offer is part of the resolution at the end of the joint security meeting between the two states held at the Federal University Wukari in Taraba.

    Ishaku, who read the communique at the end of the tour of some border communities of Abako, Sai and Dogon-Gawa, said the amnesty window took effect immediately and would expire by the end of January 2019.

    “We are willing to give amnesty to criminals who are willing to renounce criminality and surrender their weapons so that we can give them better jobs and reintegrate them into the society.

    “Criminals willing to surrender, including those that defaulted in the past, are free to contact any of us (governors), traditional rulers and security agencies.

    “Elections are around the corner and we will like to do this between now and end of January so that we can secure our places and synergise for peaceful elections,” he said.

    The meeting condemned the spate of kidnappings, armed robbery and banditry involving youths in the states at the border.

    It stressed the need for job creation as a fundamental tool to reduce unemployment which made youths to take to criminality.

    It called for adequate provision of logistics support to the security agencies by both the federal and state governments to sustain surveillance.

    The meeting called on the people of the areas to report all forms of criminality to appropriate authorities and not shield criminals in their domain.

    “The governors have resolved to constitute a joint security committee made up of people of proven integrity and locals of the area between the two states to address the security challenges and a joint security forces to be constituted with a police station at Sai.

    “The joint security meeting mandates the Boundary Committees of the states in conjunction with the National Boundary Commission to meet and ensure that boundary issues involving the two states are resolved,” he said.

    Ortom called on the people of the states to report criminals in their domain to security agencies, be law abiding and shun acts capable of dividing them.

    The security meeting was attended by heads of security agencies from both states, traditional rulers and top government functionaries from the states, including the immediate past governor of Benue, Dr Gabriel Suswam.

     

  • Former women affairs minister, Alhassan, wins Taraba UDP governorship primaries

    Former Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Aisha Alhassan, on Wednesday, emerged winner of United Democratic Party (UDP) governorship primary elections.
    The primaries, conducted under the supervision of the National Chairman of the party, Chief Godwin Okoye, at Shield Hotel, Jalingo, where Alhassan got unanimous endorsement of all the 224 delegates from the 16 local government areas of the state.
    AbdulRazak Gidado, the only governorship aspirant of the party before the former minister joined last week, had earlier announced that he was stepping down for Alhassan.
    Ballots were, however, cast by each of the 224 delegates before the emergence of the former minister as candidate.
    The National Chairman of the party commended the unity of purpose of both the old and new members of the party which, according to him, has improved the chances of the party to capture power in Taraba in 2019.
    Okoye said that Alhassan’s wealth of experience and her large followers who joined the UDP in the last one week was the beginning of good things that would happen to the party nationwide.
    He assured them of equal opportunities and the support and cooperation of the UDP National Secretariat.
    Alhassan thanked the UDP and the followers for believing in her.
    She said “I assure you that I will work round the clock to ensure that our enemies are put to shame by winning the governorship election in Taraba in 2019.”
    She urged Taraba people to rally round the UDP, “because it is a party with great potential for the development of the state.