The webinar panel features leading editors, reporters, academics.and advocates who have extensive experience working with Haitian communities on the island and in the United States.
They will present tips and critical information for those interested in knowing more and carrying out trauma-informed reporting on the country and migration.
Journalists interested in carrying out trauma-informed reporting on Haiti can register for a free webinar.
The online event will be held on January 31, 2023.
Registration is ongoing and interested applicants can apply here.
ON May 29, Muhammadu Buhari will cease to be Nigeria’s President and will, expectedly, hand over to his successor.
When he hands over, it will be without disclosing the identities of individuals and companies that his administration said it had uncovered as financing terrorism in Nigeria and had promised to expose.
On assuming office in 2015, President Buhari promised to make security and the economy the focal points of his administration, as he admitted that insecurity was part of the major challenges facing the country.
He vowed to defeat Boko Haram insurgents in the north of the country by providing government forces with better equipment and lots more.
“I will urgently secure the territorial integrity of the nation. I will never leave the defence of the nation in the hands of hunters, children, and civilian JTF,” were some of the promises of the Buhari campaign that ran on a ‘CHANGE’ mantra.
Almost eight years after, Nigeria continues to face multiple challenges posed by various terrorist groups with devastating human costs that are difficult to assess.
In spite of government counter-terrorism efforts, the prevalence of insecurity in Nigeria had risen, from the Boko Haram insurgency and its splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), to the proscribed separatist group, Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and the Yoruba self-determination agitators under the platform of Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide (IOOW), to the killings and abductions witnessed around the country.
On July 5, 2022, armed men attacked a minimum security prison in Kuje, a community in the Federal Capital Territory, about 40 kilometres from the city centre, and freed about 900 inmates that included more than 60 Boko Haram suspects. One of the terrorist groups, ISWAP, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Again, on July 25, unidentified assailants killed six officers of the presidential guard brigade responsible for protecting the President, in Bwari, another community in the FCT where a campus of the Nigeria Law School is located.
The ICIR reported that a terrorist group in the Northwest threatened, in a video, to kidnap President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State.
These incidents, as well as many others on kidnapping, spread fear, panic and apprehension among the citizens.
In 2020, the Federal Court of Appeal in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) sentenced six Nigerians for funding the Boko Haram terrorist group.
Also, in March 2022, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) named and blacklisted six Nigerians on its terror list for their involvement in sponsoring terrorism.
In Nigeria, the minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed in February 2022 at a press conference in Abuja that the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) had compiled a list of 96 financiers of terrorism.
Muhammed said about 123 companies and 33 bureaux de change were linked to terrorists, in addition to 26 suspected bandits/kidnappers and seven co-conspirators who had been identified.
He disclosed that an “analysis has resulted in the arrest of 45 suspects who will soon face prosecution and seizure of assets.”
However, till now, neither President Buhari nor Mohammed has disclosed the names of the terrorism sponsors. They have also failed to name the companies linked with terrorism.
With about 125 days to Buhari’s exit from office, the incoming President will be faced with the recurring and growing phenomenon of insecurity to grapple with.
Data shows fall in terrorism in Nigeria under Buhari
Nigeria has seen an increase in cases of insecurity since 2015 according to Nigeria Security Tracker (NST), a project of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) that presents data on violent incidents in Nigeria from 2015-2022.
The ICIR observed a growing trend in the number of deaths, attacks, mass abductions and the total number of kidnappings across the country.
Factcheckdone by The ICIR revealed that Buhari’s government registered more 41,000 insecurity-led deaths since he assumed office in 2015.
His administration has recorded the highest number of security-related attacks since 1999 when Nigeria transitioned from military rule to civilian rule.
However, terrorist attacks have reduced from what was recorded in 2015.
Terrorism deaths in Nigeria
Nigeria experienced an estimated 20,395 terrorism-related deaths and over 1,000 incidents between 2015 and 2022.
In 2015, Nigeria recorded 8,064 terrorism-related deaths, while the number of Nigerians kidnapped during the year was 508.
The following year, 2016, she recorded a decrease in terrorism-related deaths at 1,872 while kidnap victims declined by 34.
In 2017, the country recorded another decline in terrorism-related deaths at 1,792, but saw an increase in kidnappings at 166 victims.
While in 2018, the total number of deaths recorded was 1,819, the number of victims of kidnap stood at 283.
Recorded terrorism-related deaths increased in 2019 to 2,216, while kidnapping dropped to 92.
In 2020, terrorist-induced deaths were 2,053, while there was an increase in kidnappings to 657.
Kidnapped victims in Nigeria: 2015 – 2022
There was a decline in terrorism-related deaths and kidnappings in 2021, as 1,558 deaths were recorded and 216 people were kidnapped, while in 2022, terrorism deaths reduced further to 1,021, with 65 recorded kidnap victims.
Buhari government spends $1 billion on captured territories
Recently, at an award ceremony in Abu Dhabi, President Muhammadu Buhari said the Federal Government had spent $1 billion to regain some northern parts of the country that terrorists captured in 2015.
Despite investment to reclaim these territories, the nefarious activities of banditry and terrorism seem not to be abating, and security remains unstable.
Southern Kaduna has been a hotbed of waves of attacks and killings, which the Southern Kaduna People Union (SOKAPU) has severally tagged “ethnic cleansing” by terrorists.
In October 2022, the embassies of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia issued warnings on an elevated risk of terror attacks in Nigeria, specifically in Abuja.
The foreign missions, while issuing foreign travel advice to their citizens in Nigeria, noted that suspected terrorists would target government structures, marketplaces, worship centres, police stations, and international organizations.
“If you are going to campaign and rallies, wear your masks to get protected. These are things, we need to do together,” he said.
Tomori stressed the need for the Federal Government to test travellers at the point of entry to mitigate the surge in the number of COVID-19 infections
According to him, conducting tests at the point of entry is more effective than vaccinating people as they arrive the country.
He said, “There is no vaccine that takes effect the day you give me the injection, the fact that you vaccinated me today does not mean that I am developing immunity that day you gave it to me. It will take some time.
“I don’t see the rationale behind vaccinating people at the point of entry, there is no vaccine that takes effect a the point of entry. It does not have any immediate effects on the person at all.
“I don’t understand the scientific base of it. If one gets vaccinated it takes a week or ten days before one gets immunity, and it would have spread over the country. It doesn’t make sense to me at all.
“What we need to do is to test those who are not vaccinated at the point of entry, if you are positive, I will put you in isolation. If you are not I will tell you to monitor yourself for seven days.
“We need to take action immediately by testing travellers at the point of entry.”
He stressed the need for Nigerians to take proactive actions to prevent the spread of the virus.
“Get yourself protected; you are the most important person in this disease. When I travel in the country, I need to double-check myself.”
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) had earlier confirmed the resurgence of COVID-19 in the country with 13 additional COVID-19 infections between December 31, 2022 and January 6, 2023.
THE All Progressives Congress (APC) has said its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, did not blame President Muhammadu Buhari for the ongoing controversies surrounding the redesign of the naira and fuel scarcity across the country.
Tinubu had while speaking at the APC presidential campaign rally in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Wednesday, alleged that the redesign of the naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with Buhari’s approval, was a ploy to sabotage the 2023 general elections.
He also said that the ongoing fuel scarcity across the country was part of the plot to stop his supporters from voting.
The former Lagos state governor, however, expressed confidence that he would win the election, regardless of any efforts to disrupt the process.
Reacting to Tinubu’s comments, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said Tinubu was using the problems as an excuse for his imminent defeat.
Phrank Shaibu, one of the media aides to the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in a statement on Wednesday, said Tinubu was running from “pillar to post” despite claiming that he installed President Muhammadu Buhari in office.
“Frustrated by President Muhammadu Buhari’s unwillingness to attend some of his insipid rallies, Tinubu launched an attack against the president who doubles as the minister of petroleum,” he said.
“It is funny that Tinubu is just commenting over the fuel scarcity which started in different parts of the country as far back as February 2022. In Lagos, where Tinubu claims to be the landlord, the state has been witnessing fuel queues since last November.
“It is therefore dubious of Tinubu to try to extricate himself from the failures of his party because elections are 30 days away.
“Having seen his imminent defeat at the polls, he is already using the fuel scarcity and naira redesign as excuses.”
He called on Tinubu to throw in the towel or get ready to be disgraced on February 25.
But in a statement on Thursday, the APC chief presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, dismissed the position of the PDP.
He said Tinubu out his care for the suffering Nigerians were going through due to crisis from the naira redesign and fuel scarcity, was only drawing Buhari’s attention to saboteurs “possibly working in cahoots with the PDP”.
“For a presidential candidate who cares about the suffering of our people, he has a duty to warn the government that its efforts to make life better for Nigerians are being sabotaged on several fronts,” Onanuga said.
He wondered how an advisory genuinely made by Tinubu to protect and create goodwill for the government of his party become an attack, adding that it can only be so in the “jaundiced view of the PDP.
“It is in this light we found amusing the directionless Atiku campaign’s bagful of mischief in their hurriedly put-together press statement meant to gain shameful mileage from the suffering of Nigerians.
“PDP and Atiku should remember not to get high on their own smoke. No political blackmail and an attempt to create a conflict between Tinubu and his long-term ally, President Muhammadu Buhari can succeed.”
He stated that the PDP and Atiku are trying to create a conflict between Tinubu and Buhari to gain mileage from the suffering of Nigerians by misinterpreting Tinubu’s comments.
“The Atiku rudderless campaign, always seeking cheap shots and easy ways has again woefully attempted to make a mountain out of a molehill from the comments made by Asiwaju Tinubu in Abeokuta.
“As a patriotic and compassionate leader, Asiwaju Tinubu will not stomach seeing ordinary Nigerians being made to face excessive difficulties over mundane issues due to activities of petrol and currency hoarders.”
SOME shops at the Balogun market in Lagos State have been gutted by a midnight fire which began in the early hours of Thursday, January 26.
The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) confirmed this in a statement.
LASEMA Permanent Secretary Olufemi Oke-Osanyitolu who released the statement said the cause of the fire had not yet been ascertained. He also noted that there were no fatalities recorded as a result of the incident.
“The agency responded to distress calls concerning the fire. Upon arrival at the scene operatives encountered a fire involving some shops on the ground floor of a three-storey building.
“The cause of the fire could not be immediately ascertained. Fortunately no casualty was involved in the incident. The agency’s response team alongside two Lagos State Fire Service trucks, and the police are currently at the incident working together to subdue the inferno,” he said.
In October 2022, a section of the market went up in flames leaving several shops and goods destroyed.
In December 2021, another midnight fire razed several shops in the market.
Some traders had stocked up on goods worth millions of naira before the incident occurred.
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THE International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) and African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) have lauded the MacArthur Foundation’s support for investigative reporting in NIgeria.
They also criticized the Federal Government and its agencies for failing to take full advantage of investigative reports on corruption churned out by media organisations in Nigeria.
The ICIR and AFRICMIL, who identified the absence of a whistleblower law as a significant difficulty in the fight against corruption, made their positions known on Wednesday, January 25, during an episode of Public Conscience – an anti-corruption radio programme produced by the Progressive Impact Organization for Community Development (PRIMORG).
Speaking on the impact of MacArthur Foundation, the Executive Director of The ICIR Dayo Aiyetan said the organisation has massively impacted many journalists who are now enlightened, exposed and emboldened to report events and hold power to account, especially in rural areas.
According to him, one of the biggest problems of investigative journalism in Nigeria is the government’s lack of recognition for the constitutional role of the media which is to hold the government accountable.
According to Aiyetan, “Only about 20 to 30 per cent of investigative corruption reports get government reaction.”
Aiyetan lamented the government’s use of state security and anti-graft agents to harass and hound investigative journalists, a development that has further worsened their job and the overall fight against corruption.
“Ten or twenty per cent of our work gets the government’s attention, and that’s the tragedy of accountability reporting in Nigeria. Sincerely many of us who do investigative reporting work see our work as complementing government work, but rather than see us as partners, the government are using state institutions, that is the Department of State Security (DSS) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Attorney General’s office and all kinds of state agencies to harass us.”
He further tasked Nigerians to ensure they elect persons of integrity into offices, insisting that credible leadership is of utmost importance to the nation’s development and will influence governance.
Similarly, the Coordinator of the African Centre for Media & Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) Chido Onumah commended the MacArthur Foundation for supporting investigative journalism and advocacies on strengthening the whistleblower policy in Nigeria.
Onumah disclosed that the impact of the support from the MacArthur Foundation has been significant over the years and has gone beyond the fight against corruption and investigation to the development of journalists and members of civil society groups.
He said: “MacArthur’s support is not just in investigations, even capacity building, training for journalists, many of our journalists are better today: they are better able to write, better able to report, because of the kind of support and training they get from these foundations. Many of us in civil society are better able to understand advocacy. We can be frontiers for the rule of law and ensure accountability, taking on the government, taking on the institutions; it’s all thanks to the Foundation’s support”.
Onumah noted that there has been little progress in government’s reaction to corruption investigations.
He expressed optimism that a whistleblower bill recently approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) will be passed and signed into law despite the limited time left in the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to Onumah, Nigerians dread reporting corrupt acts because of the shortcomings of the whistleblowing policy.
“A national survey after two years of introducing whistleblower policy showed that thousands of people from all walks of life across the country dreaded risking their lives for whistleblowing.
“It’s a policy. A new government can change it any day, but if it’s a law, it can be taken to court and used as a basis for argument. So I think we can’t stop talking about the main imperatives of a law.”
Onumah emphasised on the need of whistleblowing tools in the electioneering period, stressing that it is as important as having the PVC.
THE former Director of Civil Society of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC), Najaatu Muhammad, has said the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, is physically and mentally unfit to govern Nigeria.
Muhammad resigned last week as a member of the APC-PCC.
Speaking on Arise TV on Thursday, January 26, she claimed Tinubu is suffering from health challenges which would affect governance.
According to her, Tinubu’s blunders during campaign rallies confirmed his ill-health.
“Asiwaju would not be contesting the election if he had not bribed anybody. When I met Asiwaju in London to ask about his blueprint for the North most of the time he was sleeping,” she said.
“Everything about him is based on lies and everyone can see everything. You see when he called Atiku, the governor of Anambra State. We don’t need a doctor to tell us Asiwaju is ill when somebody is not physically fit.”
However, Muhammad noted that ill-health, particularly dementia, is not anybody’s fault.
But she stressed that although the health challenges Tinubu is facing are natural, Nigerians should desist from voting with tribal or religious sentiment.
“It is nature. It is not as if it is his fault but it is not our fault and we don’t have to accept somebody that cannot deliver. That is the truth.”
Muhammad pointed out that Tinubu intentionally ignores political debates to hide his health deficiencies.
“Why is he not going to debate? Why is he not allowed to talk even in rallies? What they do now in campaigns is to drum and dance, why is he running away? He went to Chatham House and he was asking others to answer questions for him. Why was he allocating questions to other people? Are they the ones Nigerians will vote for?”
Muhammad further claimed that Tinubu does not have a blueprint to tackle the security challenges bedeviling the Northern region of the country.
“When I visited Tinubu in London, I asked him what he has for us in the North because we have serious security problems but he told me that he didn’t have a blueprint yet he wants to be President,” she said.
THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned a former General Manager (GM) of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Adebayo Adebowale Aderibigbe.
Aderibigbe was arraigned alongside Ogundele Mura Yisa-Yemi before Justice O. A Musa of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Jabi, Abuja.
Aderibigbe and Yisa-Yemi, a principal partner at a legal firm, M.Y. Ogundele & Co., were arraigned on a three-count charge bordering on conspiracy and obtaining the sum N60.4 million by false pretence.
One of the counts reads: “That you, Ogundele Mura Yisa-Yemi (Principal Partner, M.Y. Ogundele & Co Legal Practitioners) between 2014 and 2016 at Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did corruptly give the aggregate sum of N60,400,000(Sixty Million, Four Hundred Thousand Naira) to one Sir Adebayo Adebowale Aderibigbe(whilst being a public officer as GM/Head Legal Services of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund) on account of a contract awarded to you as a consultant for Processing and Regularizing of title deeds and survey plans for the property of the fund at Era village Oto-awori. Ijanikin, Badagry expressway, Lagos, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(1) (a) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under Section 8 (11) (b) of the same Act.”
The accused persons pleaded “not guilty” when the charge was read to them.
Counsel to the 1st and 2nd defendants, J.A. Karon and I.O. Salawudeen, prayed the court to grant the accused persons bail.
EFCC counsel, Faruk Abdallah, did not oppose the bail bids but prayed the court to set terms that would ensure that the two defendants present themselves for trial.
The judge granted the defendants bail in the sum of N50 million and one surety each in like sum.
The surety is expected to be a deputy director in a federal ministry. Sureties are also expected to deposit their letters of appointment and clear pictures of their residences showing them standing in front of the houses.
The judge adjourned the matter till February 21 and 23 for trial.
NSITF was created to provide compensation to insured employees who suffer from occupational hazards, or sustain injuries or disability from an accident at work or in the course of employment, whether at the usual place of work or outside of it.
THE Nasarawa State Police Command has said it is yet to identify those responsible for the airstrike that claimed several lives at the Nasarawa-Benue border.
Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Command Ramhan Nansel disclosed this to The ICIR on Thursday, January 26, adding that investigations into the attack were ongoing.
“I can confirm that there was an airstrike at Kwateri village, Nasarawa/Benue border. Twenty-seven corpses were recovered. Security have been deployed to the area and investigation has since commenced. We are yet to know who carried out the airstrike,” he said.
The deceased were returning from Makurdi, where they had gone to retrieve their cattle seized by the Benue Livestock Guards, at the time of the incident.
The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) quoted a higher figure of casualties in a statement by its National PRO, Muhammad Nura.
According to MACBAN, more than 30 herdsmen died in the incident.
Noting that the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) was responsible for two previous airstrikes against the herdsmen, the association demanded an investigation into the incident, and necessary punishment for those found culpable.
The association also blamed the airstrike on the Nigerian Air Force.
“This is the third time we have experienced such happenings. In the last two happenings it was clear that the Air Force is involved in strafing livestock between the border of Benue and Nasarawa states within the last one year.
“But in the recent one it is not clear whether it was a bomb blast, distant attack or an airstrike as reported by our Nasarawa State Branch,” the association said in the statement.
The ICIR reached out to the Nigerian Air Force to confirm if the strike was carried out by its operatives.
However, calls and text messages to the spokesperson for the Nigerian Air Force Edward Gabkwet were not replied as of the time of filing this report.
