News Agency of Nigeria (Nan)
Agonising Parents Of Slain Aid Worker Hopeful
In the climax of world’s outrage to the killing of a second aid worker, Hauwa Liman, by a faction of Boko Haram, her distraught family are still hopeful she is alive.
Hauwa, who works with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), was reported killed by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), the second aid worker to be killed by the jihadists after Saifura Ahmed.
Her father Mohammed Liman says the heart-breaking news, barely a month after another aid worker – Saifura Ahmed – who was abducted with her in March was killed, is hard to believe.
“We feel so bad and we are in doubt if she is dead or alive because we didn’t expect her to be killed so suddenly,” Liman told Channels Television at the family home in Maiduguri, Borno State.
The family had expected that the insurgents would give the government time to meet their demands.
“In fact, we are in doubt because, unless we see her corpse or any evidence that shows she is dead, we still believe that she is living.
“She is living,” her father insisted with her mother and other women in the home breaking down in tears intermittently.
Struggling to keep his emotions in check, Liman appealed to the insurgents to understand that Hauwa was not a warring party and should not have been made to face the ordeal she faced.
“I appeal to the insurgents to release her because she is not a warring party. She is a humanitarian worker. She treats the young and the women and she is so helpful, even to them; not only to the whole society – even to them,” he said.
As many across the world struggle to make sense on the ever-more brutal approach adopted by the terrorists that have ravaged Nigeria’s northeast, Hauwa’s family wants the government to help them get closure.
“We appeal to the government, if she was dead at all, we want the corpse to be brought and we bury her. That will give us peace of mind. Otherwise, we will never forget such an incident in our lives,” her dad pleaded.
Iyakachi Liman weeps in reaction to the news that her daughter had been killed.
Hauwa’s mother, Iyakachi, like her dad, is struggling to make sense of the nightmare she has had to endure.
Despite repeatedly break in down in tears before speaking to Channels Television, she remains hopeful.
Speaking in Hausa, she explained that she did not expect that it would come to this.
“Up to this moment my mind has not told me that my daughter is dead. Because if you see what happened, these people want money. Now after Buhari agreed that he’d give the money, why is the gap between when he gave his consent and when this incidence happened so close?
“If a person wants money and they agreed to give him the money is he supposed to do this? Another thing is they (Hauwa and her colleagues) are humanitarian workers and are not supposed to be killed, and they are women.
“Why were they killed? And the ICRC had already pleaded with them to spare their staff and they even rendered them help as humanitarian workers. If this truly happened then it’s wrong. And, me, I strongly believe, that my daughter is not dead.”
“The government should investigate; if this girl is still alive, they should just bring her back. I don’t need anything except my child. If they can try and confirm that my daughter is well and alive, they should bring her back; that’s all,” she said.
Hauwa and two other aid workers – Alice Loksha and Saifura Ahmed Khorsa – were abducted by ISWAP on March 1, 2018.
While Hauwa and Saifura functioned as health workers with the ICRC, Alice worked with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).
They were captured from Rann, a small town in Borno where thousands of internally displaced persons live in an IDP camp.
The raid that led to their abduction was a bloody one with three other female aid workers and some soldiers killed.
Two of the aid workers killed in the attack were contractors with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), working as coordinators in the camp believed to contain up to 55,000 IDPs who fled their homes because of the Boko Haram insurgency.
Hauwa Parents Exclusive Interview
Sourced From: News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
By Abujah Racheal
Nigeria has recorded 87 new cases of the COVID-19, bringing the total infections to 1,182 , according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
The NCDC, in a tweet via its official handle, said 33 of the new infections were recorded in Lagos, 18 in Borno, 12 in Osun, nine in Katsina, four each in Kano and Ekiti, three each in Edo and Bauchi and one in Imo.
“As at 11:55 pm April 25, there are 1,182 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in Nigeria. The country’s total deaths from the virus now stand at 35, while 222 have been treated and discharged,” it said.
The centre said as at 11:55 pm, April 25, Lagos has 689, FCT-138, Kano-77, Ogun-35, Osun-32, Gombe-30, Katsina-30, Borno-30, Edo-22, Oyo-18, Kwara-11, Akwa Ibom-11, Bauchi-11, Kaduna-10, Ekiti-8 and Ondo-4.
Others are Delta-six, Rivers-three, Jigawa-two, Enugu-two, Niger-two, Abia-two, Zamfara-two, Sokoto-two, Benue-one, Anambra-one, Adamawa-one, Plateau-one and Imo-one.
87 new cases of #COVID19 have been reported;
33 in Lagos
18 in Borno
12 in Osun
9 in Katsina
4 in Kano
4 in Ekiti
3 in Edo
3 in Bauchi
1 in ImoAs at 11:55 pm 25th April there are 1182 confirmed cases of #COVID19 reported in Nigeria.
Discharged: 222
Deaths: 35 pic.twitter.com/La5xzZZe2z— NCDC (@NCDCgov) April 25, 2020
Sourced From: News Agency of Nigeria
President Muhammadu Buhari has publicly disagreed with the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress over the right of aggrieved members to seek redress in court.
In a statement by Femi Adesina, the president’s media adviser, President Buhari stressed that if anyone is displeased with the way and manner anything has been done, and feels deprived of his/her rights, then such a person is at liberty to approach the courts for redress.
It was the president’s first public reaction to the discontent within the party over the conduct of primaries, in the selection of candidates for elective offices.
Until now, President Buhari had tried to appease members behind the scenes, begging and cajoling aggrieved members to bury the hatchet.
In a different reaction, the NWC of the party headed by former governor Adams Oshiomhole forbade members from dragging the party to court. It even went further to threaten the litigants.
President Buhari disagreed with the party:
“We can’t deliberately deny people of their rights. We agreed that party primaries should be conducted either through direct, indirect or consensus methods, and if anyone feels unjustly treated in the process, such a person can go to court. The court should always be the last resort for the dissatisfied. For the party to outlaw the court process is not acceptable to me.”
In the statement, President Buhari still favoured non-legal approach for reconciliation of the aggrieved as he urged them to embrace the party’s reconciliation panels.
According to Adesina, President Buhari advised members to work with the reconciliation committees empanelled for the six geo-political zones by the APC, and not a purported Presidential Committee on Reconciliation, stressing that the Party is the only body authorised to constitute such committees.
The APC had threatened aggrieved members who have headed to the courts, saying that: “The Party intends to activate constitutional provisions to penalise such members as their action is capable of undermining the Party and hurt the Party’s interest.
“We hereby strongly advise such members to withdraw all court cases, while approaching the appropriate party organs with a view to resolving any outstanding disputes. In addition to this, aggrieved members are urged to take full advantage of the reconciliation committees the Party has put in place.
“APC members should understand that as a progressive party that operates on the principle of change, it is not a matter of choice to keep to the rules.”
Sourced From: News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
By Taiye Elebiyo-Edeni.
Over 1000 workers will be employed for the Warri-Itakpe standard gauge rail corridor, Mr Fidet Okhiria, the Managing Director, Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) said.
“It’s about 320km, about 12 stations and we have to engage people that will maintain the tracks, people that will work in the stations and sell tickets.
“Also, technicians that will examine the train. So, we are going to engage close to over 1000 to maintain about 320km track, both junior and senior.
“New employees can’t just be sent there; they must be trained.
“In order for them to be trained, we will be moving people from the existing staff, but we have to replace them. So we have to fill up those positions before the new people will be trained and certify to be part of the train operations,” he said.
NAN reports that NRC operates one-year training programme for graduate staff and three months for the junior staff.
According to Okhiria, the 12 stations for the train service are still under construction, adding that temporary stations would be used pending completion.
He, however, assured that the stations would be completed by the first quarter of 2019, noting that some of the houses at the railway village were renovated recently for workers.
Okhiria said that a lot has been achieved, especially in the rail system under the current administration, with the purchase of more rolling stock and wagons.
Sourced From: News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
By Jacinta Nwachukwu/ Bukola Adewumi
Mr Loveday Ogbonna, Head, Corporate Communications, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) says registration for the National Identity Number (NIN) is free of charge to all Nigerians.
Ogbonna, who made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja, said that the commission had never charged anyone for NIN registration.
Some residents in Kubwa, Abuja, had claimed that they were made to pay N200 for logistics before being registered at the ongoing NIMC registration.
But, Ogbonna said that it was not the responsibility of the enrollees to pay money to fuel generators at registration centres.
“The commission absolutely condemns this, it is not right for enrollees to pay money for fueling of the generators before being captured but people also react based on how urgent they need NIN.
“Our staff would have told them that there was no light which is not under their control; however, you know that electricity is not under our purview just like the internet.
“Therefore, if you come to a place that we don’t have electricity and people on their own volunteer to contribute money to fuel the generator, it is out of their own free will.
“Although we don’t encourage it, because that will lead to corruption, but if the people on their own decide to contribute we cannot stop them.
“All these issues are due to paucity of fund, if there is enough money available for the exercise or steady power supply all these things will not happen,’’ Ogbonna.(NAN)
Sourced From: News Agency of Nigeria (NAN
Nigeria records 55 new COVID-19 infections, total now 165,110
Military, Police Ring Abuja to Forestall Boko Haram Attack
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