A former governor of Niger state, Mr Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, and two others standing trial along with him at Niger State High Court for alleged corruption since 2017 have been declared not guilty.

The two others are former Chief of Staff, Government House during Aliyu’s administration, Mr Umar Nasko, and the state’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman, Mr Tanko Beji.

The trio were being tried for alleged diversion of N2 billion ecological fund.

The case had lingered for over three years and had witnessed three separate trial judges presiding over it at different times.

Last month, counsels to the plaintiffs - Niger State government and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) - announced their withdrawal from further prosecuting the case before the court.

However, the defence counsel insisted that the prosecution should equally declare it had similarly withdrawn from the case to determine its fate before the court.

At three different sittings of the court, the prosecution counsel did not appear before the court, neither did they send any representation to pursue the case. The three lead defence counsel - Mr Ayodele O. Ayodeji, Mr Ibrahim Ishaku, and Mr Mike Mamman - had urged the court to discharge and acquit their clients because the prosecution had failed to appear before the court on three previous occasions.

At the court sitting on Monday, the trial judge, Mr Mukha’ila Abdullahi, said the court had diligently followed the arguments of the defence counsel and had arrived at the conclusion that the court could not act or serve as prosecutor in the case.

Newspot

Northern Nigeria accounted for 87 per cent of all poor people in Nigeria in 2016, World Bank has disclosed in a new report.

The report titled ‘Advancing social protection in a dynamic Nigeria’, released on January 28, 2020, was described as a ‘detailed analysis of the social protection sector’ in the country.

The report noted that social protection measures implemented by the government in Nigeria had not been able to address the high level of poverty, as well as the negative impact of conflicts and natural disasters.

In the comprehensive report, obtained by one of our correspondents, World Bank observed that although Nigeria was a richly endowed country, it had a larger proportion of the world’s extreme poor than any other nation.

The report further noted that most of the poor in Nigeria were found in the Northern part of the country.

Northwest, specifically, was described as home to almost half of all the poor in the country.

President Muhammadu Buhari is from Katsina, a state in the North-West, which like other parts of the North, has produced a larger proportion of Nigerian leaders.

Looking at inequality in the country, the report said, “Nigeria experiences high inequality along geographic lines, with poverty mostly concentrated in the North and in rural areas.

“Poverty in northern regions of the country has been increasing, especially in Northwest.

“Almost half of all the poor lived in Northwest and the North accounts for 87 per cent of all the poor in the country in 2016.”

“Poverty rates in the southern zones were around 12 per cent with little variation across zones. Southsouth zone saw the most significant drop in poverty from 2011-2016.

“Poverty was significantly higher in rural areas of the country in 2016. An estimated 64 per cent of all poor lived in rural areas and 52 per cent of the rural population lived below the poverty line in 2016. In contrast, the poverty rate in urban areas remained stable at 16 per cent between 2011 and 2016.”

Painting the picture of a relatively prosperous South and an impoverished North, the report stated, “Regionally, the North lags far behind the South in every human capital outcome.People in the Northern regions are also more vulnerable to falling into poverty. The report established a link between poverty in the North and the Boko Haram insurgency.

According to the World Bank, most of the youth recruited by Boko Haram are jobless, a development which made them more prone to radicalisation. It noted that activities of Boko Haram insurgents in Northeast since 2014 had created a sense of ‘failed political promise’.

It added, “Disasters and conflict have displaced many Nigerians, especially in Northeast. According to estimates provided by International Displacement Monitoring Centre, there were more than two million internally displaced persons in Nigeria as of 31 December 2018.

“In 2018 alone, more than 600,000 Nigerians were displaced due to natural disasters and more than 540,000 were displaced due to conflict and violence.

“In Northeast, the emergence of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram since 2014 has not only caused large scaled displacement, but also several incidences of kidnapping, death, and injuries, and the erosion of social contract due to widespread perception of a failed political promise. Poverty and deprivation have played a central role in fostering a social divide.

“The youth used by Boko Haram to partake in the conflict are jobless, without skills, or trades, and are easily susceptible to radicalisation,” the report said.

World Bank added that besides conflict, climate related factors had caused additional displacement in the North and the Middle Belt regions of the country.

In 2018, flooding affected 80 per cent of the country and triggered more than 600,000 new displacements.

The report said, “Social protection measures in the country are neither well-suited to respond to conflict, nor well-placed to anticipate and mitigate the risks of natural disasters caused by climate change.”

Weak governance, lack of basic infrastructure, poor quality of education, and poor social service delivery, were identified as some of the reasons for the high level of poverty in Nigeria.

According to the report, “Poverty remains high in Nigeria due to its dire social service delivery outcomes and lack of basic infrastructure.

“Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children of primary school age in the world with nine million children out of school.

“There has been little change in vaccination rates over the last 25 years and Nigeria is set to overtake India as the country with most under-five deaths in the world.”

World Bank added that 71 million Nigerians lacked access to improved water, while 130 million people did not meet the Millennium Development Goal standards for sanitation.

However, the situation is worse in the Northeast and Northwest, where only around 25 to 28 per cent of households have access to basic services such as electricity, water, and sanitation.

World Bank further observed that number of Nigerians living in extreme poverty went up from 2011 to 2016.

The poor in Nigeria lag far behind the rich in every human capital outcome, according to World Bank Human Capital Index, where Nigeria ranked among the worst seven performers.

It noted that the rate of poverty in Nigeria increased from 35.0 to 38.8 per cent of the total population from 2011 to 2016.

In the same vein, the report pointed out that, despite Nigeria’s middle-income status, almost four out of 10 citizens lived below the national poverty line in 2016.

Between 2011 and 2016, the total number of people living in poverty increased from 57 million to 74 million, World Bank added.

Punch

At least 30 persons, mostly travellers, stranded outside the military-controlled entrance gate of Maiduguri were on Sunday night killed by suspected Boko Haram insurgents.

Governor of Borno State, Mr Babagana Zulum, confirmed the gruesome massacre of the travelers on Monday when he visited the site of the attack in Auno, a village 24km away from Maiduguri city centre.

The insurgents also abducted many travelers mostly women after setting vehicles ablaze.

Recently, soldiers of the Nigerian military in Borno State erected a gate that they lock at the curfew time, which is 6 pm.

Often, long distant travellers are forced to spend the night outside the barricade till 6.a.m. the next day, when the gates are opened.

The military mounted gates, designed to check the influx of Boko Haram insurgents at night, have been widely criticised by members of the public who worried that making travelers sleep in the bush could expose them to serious danger.

On Sunday, many travelers had to pass the night in Auno, after the soldiers locked the highway.

Witnesses in Auno said the attackers crept out in large numbers around 10 p.m.and opened fire on them while they were sleeping inside the vehicles.

“The gunmen killed more than a dozen and injured others,” a survivor said.

“They also burnt 18 buses and cars and took away other travellers.”

Zulum, who visited the scene early Monday morning, met some of the vehicles still burning.

“Some of the vehicles had charred corpses of travelers, including children,” said a government official who does not want to be named.

“We were told more than 30 persons were killed.”

Zulum, accompanied by Garrison Commander 7 Div Nigerian Army, sympathised with the victims and assured them of his and President Buhari’s administration’s “commitment towards ending the war. ”

“I saw some three bodies that were burnt on the ground. I counted about 21 vehicles that have been burnt,” a commercial driver, Mr Yunusa, who witnessed the incident, said.

PT

The Borno State Government has said about 1,400 repentant Boko Haram suspects have been released by the military and rehabilitated into the society.

The Borno State Commissioner for Information, Babakura Jato, made this known in an interview on Monday that 1, 400 had been released in three tranches since the ‘Operation Safe Corridor’ programme began.

The media reports that although the programme began in 2016, it wasn’t until 2018 that the release of the suspects began.

Jato said most of the persons released were not actually Boko Haram members but were relatives of terrorists or persons found in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The commissioner said, “There have been a series of releases. They were released in three tranches. The first set was released during Governor Shettima’s time while two sets have been released under Prof. Zulum.

“The total number of persons released is 1,400. Out of the 1,400, the majority of them are cleared suspects.

These were people who were suspected of being members of Boko Haram and it was discovered that they were not.

“The rest are children of Boko Haram or actual Boko Haram members. I cannot give you a breakdown of the figure now for security reasons.”

The government’s spokesman said he was aware of allegations that some of those released had gone back to terrorism but argued that most of these allegations were mere speculations.

Jato said after the training, they were handed over to the Borno State Government for proper integration into their communities.

He stated that if any person was rejected by his community for being a former Boko Haram member, the government would resettle that person.

When asked if there were recorded cases of someone going back to join Boko Haram, he said, “I have not heard of that but we have had cases whereby people in the community rejected them. So, they return to the rehab centres and we change their location.”

Meanwhile, the President, Military Widows Association, Mrs Vera Aloko, has expressed satisfaction with the Operation Safe Corridor programme.

Aloko said military widows would support anything that would restore peace.

She said, “It is true that our Vice-President, Mrs Idith Opesanmi, faulted the Federal Government’s decision to release more repentant Boko Haram members. However, she spoke in her personal capacity and not for all military widows. We support the government and any policy that can restore peace.”

Punch