ByTHE Katsina State Police command said it rescued about 20 victims in two kidnap attempts by armed bandits in the state on Saturday, December 7.
The incidents took place in Jibia and Faskari Local Government Areas (LGAs), the command posted on its X handle on Sunday, December 8.
The first incident occurred on December 7, 2024, at about 1900 hours, at Kwanar Makera along the Katsina–Magamar Jibia road, Jibia LGA.
According to the police public relations officer, Abubakar Sadiq Aliyu, a group of bandits, armed with dangerous weapons, AK-47 rifles, opened fire on a moving vehicle.
“The command’s operatives, who were alerted to the situation, quickly mobilised and stormed the scene, engaging the bandits in a fierce gun duel.
“Due to superior firepower, the bandits abandoned their heinous plan as they flee the scene, and all the passengers were successfully rescued,” he said.
Aliyu added that all 10 occupants in the vehicle were successfully rescued unhurt.I
In a similar incident, on the same date at about 20:30 hours, at Marabar Bangori, along the Funtua-Gusau road, Faskari LGA, suspected armed bandits laid ambush on a vehicle conveying passengers, attempting to abduct the occupants.
According to Aliyu, the operatives of the command attached to the Jibia divisional police headquarters, acting on a tip-off, swiftly responded and engaged the bandits in a gun duel, forcing them to abandon their mission and flee the scene with a gunshot.
The state commissioner of police, Aliyu Abubakar Musa, who commended the personnel, charged them to sustain the tempo in the ongoing fight against all forms of crime and criminality in the state.
According to the command, one of the rescued victims was rushed to the hospital due to severe assault inflicted on him by the assailants.
“The victim is currently responding to medical attention,” the command stated.
There has been a series of kidnap attempts and rescue missions by the security forces in Katsina.
In one of its most recent publications, The ICIRreported security forces, comprising the Police and Army rescued four kidnap victims in Dandume Local Government of Katsina State.
RESIDENTS of some communities in the Southeast part of the country, ravaged by erosion, are crying foul over the abandonment of projects meant to provide them succour. Investigations reveal that there is more to these neglected projects than meets the eyes.
Naze and Obibiezena, two communities in Owerri North Local Government Area (LGA) of Imo State, are less than 10 minutes away from the headquarters of the Anambra-Imo, River Basin Development Authority (AIRBDA). In fact, the agency is sitting on ancestral lands donated by these communities.
Sadly, for more than two years now, AIRBDA has failed to execute a flood and erosion project contract it awarded in the communities, making life difficult for residents and threatening economic activities.
Hon. IkennaElezieanya, the current Commissioner for Science and Technology, Innovation and Engineering Services in Imo state, had attracted the contract as a constituency project when he was a member of the House of Representatives representing Owerri Federal Constituency.
Available data on Govspend, an online tool that tracks and analyses federal government spending, shows that the project for flood and erosion control/rural access road, along Naze-Obibiezena road Owerri North LGA, was awarded to two different contractors, with amounts running into over N161million.
A project signpost at another community
A breakdown of released funds shows that on 24 March 2022, Bonita Bay Limited, registered on December 2, 2009, (with Uchenna Nwangwu and Uchechi Ndeze as directors) was paid over N152million (N152,591,371) while Headoarc Associates Limited, which was registered on Jun 16, 2008, (with Okafor Ifeanyi, Okafor Chike and Nwosu Jennifer listed as directors) received over N8.4million (N8,499,507) on 26 Jun 2023, for the 2.8km project.
However, multiple sources, including a community leader, who once worked as Elezieanya’s campaign coordinator in Naze, Ebenezer Ahubuibe, said that no proper construction work was ever done on the road apart from grading and a shallow and incomplete drainage system that has further worsened the state of the road.
On October 2, 2024, the member representing Owerri Municipal, Owerri West and Owerri North in the House of Representatives, Tochukwu Okere, sponsored a motion drawing attention to the unexecuted Naze-Obibiezena road which, according to him, was expected to boost agriculture in Owerri Federal Constituency.
“The road stretches over 50km to Etche in Rivers State and can serve as a bypass from Owerri to Port Harcourt, avoiding heavy traffic from the Owerri -Port Harcourt expressway. Also, people coming from Okigwe Aba and Umuahia can also find the road useful and faster as people coming from Imo State Airport have to pass through the heavy traffic of the Owerri-Port Harcourt expressway,” he reportedly said in the motion.
Headquarters of the Anambra, Imo River Basin Development Authority (AIRBDA), along Agballa
But this is not just a story about Naze and Obibiezena, it is a story that uncovers procurement law violations in AIRBDA- an agency that has become notorious for abandoning and sometimes poorly executing erosion and flooding projects across communities in the Southeast region.
Abandoned Naze Road, commuters’ nightmare
Interestingly, business owners and residents along the Naze- Obibiezena Road said that it was not entirely unusable when Elezieanya decided to capture it in the budget for funding. Although it was constructed without a drainage system 15 years ago during the time of a former senator representing Owerri Senatorial District, Eze Ajoku, the road still served residents.
“The road was always busy, with car owners and motorcyclists always plying through to get to their destinations, each time it developed potholes, community members came together and parched it,” Ahubuibe said.
But in 2022, AIRBDA came with trucks, scooped all the asphalt and took them away, Ahubuibe claimed. He added that residents were happy and hoped that the road would be properly constructed. Elezieanya made a post on his X, saying that he had handed over the road to a contractor.
Sadly, two years after the money was released, the project has remained uncompleted, making it impossible to drive through because of potholes that continue to widen. Whenever it rains, the entire road is flooded and the water does not recede for weeks. Only (big) trucks ply through the road.
Pius Aleke says farmlands are often flooded due to lack of drainage system
On Monday, October 28, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was sent to AIRBDA and Engr. Gerald Osuagwu, the Managing Director of the agency, requesting specific details of the contract, including the approved budgetary provision, the contract execution period, contract value, the amount paid and the level of completion. The headquarters of the agency was also contacted with the same letter on October 29, 2024, demanding answers to the same questions.
Osuagwu, first appointed in 2019, was the Managing Director of the agency when the project was awarded in 2021. He was reappointed after the expiration of his first tenure in June 2023 to serve for another term of four years.
AIRBDA did not respond to the specific questions raised in the FOI request. However, Arthur Iroegbu, who heads the legal department, claimed that the agency hardly abandons projects in communities. He claimed to be aware of the abandoned Naze project but did not avail the details.
“There was a time that the people got agitated about the project and even came to our agency; it was a big issue, but they were addressed”.
He further claimed that the road could have been abandoned due to a lack of funds or lack of transparency on the part of the contractors’ handling projects. However, this investigation revealed that this far from the truth.
Lawmaker gets a share, project subcontracted
While millions of naira were set aside for the project, findings show that not all of them were used for the project. One of the directors at Headoarc Associates Limited, who does not want to be mentioned for fear of victimization, alleged that the project was not originally awarded to the company but Bonita Bay which he claims, came through Elezieanya, the lawmaker who attracted the project.
He said that his company had an understanding with AIRBDA and Elezieanya on how much he (the lawmaker) would be paid from the money for the project so that Headoarc Associates could handle it.
“At the point of payment, a Power of Attorney (giving us the power to execute the project) was prepared and the payment was made to my company.”
“At first, we were concerned about payment since we were not the original owners. But one of the directors at the agency brokered the deal and told us how much we would pay Elezieanya,” he further claimed.
Ripples Nigeria contacted Elezieanya to respond to the allegations that he received some money from the project, but he denied it, claiming that the project was not subcontracted but handled by two contractors.
“There were two projects along the road, one of them was the drainage and the other was the road project itself. But along the line, AIRBDA got a new contractor because they did not trust the first one to handle the project,” he said, adding, “Whoever claims that I got money from the problem is lying, I do not know who the second contractor is.”
Speaking further he said, “It is not a crime to attract a project. If it fails, it is nobody’s problem. Except a proper drainage is constructed on the road, any road project will still fail.”
Bonita Bay could not be reached to react as there were no trace of the company’s contact details online. At Tunde Ogbeha Street, Adisa Estate, Agudu District, Abuja, where the company claims to have its office, a security man there said that there was no office at the location and that it was a residential address.
Meanwhile, residents observed that in January 2024, the agency brought trucks, loaded with white sand and chippings and poured on the road after which a bulldozer was used to scatter the sand along the parts that had developed potholes. This was after it constructed a shallow drainage system that hardly allowed water to pass through.
“When they came, we thought that they wanted to resume drainage construction. As the tipper was dropping off the stones, they were taking pictures to appear as though they were working. Some boys were using shovels to scatter the stones along the road after which they left. That was the last time we ever saw anyone come to work on this road,” Ahubuibe said.
The road diverted to Obieze already being washed by erosion
He said there was neither proper construction, nor blueprint for execution.
Whenever it rains, Ahubuibe’s house and that of other residents are flooded. Three years ago, all the rooms in his compound were submerged. This year, his house was submerged again.
“We do not feel the dividends of hosting the agency, said Ahubuibe, who claims to have safeguarded tractors, rollers and other machines brought for the construction but that were never used. “Our community cannot handle the project because of the cost implication.”
The asphalt that was washed away
In April 2023, Headoarc Associates Limited poured asphalt on the road and by the evening of that same day, when the rain came, everything was washed away. This much was confirmed by Elezieanya who, however linked it to a poor drainage system and not poor quality of work as claimed by his former coordinator.
According to Elezieanya, most houses in the community were built along water channels, a structural problem which makes it difficult for water to flow through the drainage channel constructed.
The company director also confirmed the failed asphalt but also blamed it on the lack of a discharge point for the drainage constructed and its inability to hold the amount of water in the area. He alleged that the communities did not allow his company to provide the discharge point.
“We already had our excavator, grader and pale loader waiting to open up the land where water can run into but they refused and because it wasn’t a state project, we couldn’t force it.”
Residents denied this claim, noting that the company did not request for any discharge point. They said that they were willing to give the contractor every support he needed.
While he acknowledged that the drainage system was the major problem of the area, Ahubuibe said that there was a borough pit along the road where water could be properly channelled.
Even with the claims about the challenge of channelling water along the road, questions have been raised as to why the project was approved without a proper environmental assessment of the area to determine potential risks and ways to mitigate them. Some have also questioed why AIRBDA released funds amounting to N161 million which was only used for the construction of an incomplete drainage system that only worsened the erosion situation in the area.
Iroegbu, the head of legal at AIRBDA said that some of the projects are also not one-offs because of their size and the funds involved.
“When we exhaust the funds available, we have to look for more funds and the project would have to wait. So, between that time and when it is captured in the budget and when the contractor will mobilise to the site, takes a lot of time,”.
Economic activities suffer setback
With the road abandoned, Naze, which once bubbled with economic activities, now feels like a sleepy town. Findings show that some business owners have relocated due to a lack of patronage because of the massive disruption caused by the very poor condition of the road.
Nwachukwu Christian, sells phone accessories by the side on the entrance into the road from Owerri. He said that he hardly makes sales these days because customers are hardly around. He adds that whenever it rains, nobody comes out as the entire road is submerged.
“When the road was still motorable, commuters driving past would stop and pick a few things, but now, we don’t see them again. They use alternative routes to their destinations and only trucks drive on the road now.”
Entering Naze, it is common to see motorcyclists packed on one end, but they are only waiting to carry passengers through Agballa, which is the alternative and long route to Obibiezena and other surrounding communities.
To prevent water from entering their shops, some business owners have constructed buffers. Christian said that they used to construct drainage systems yearly. But because water had overtaken major parts of the road, they could not continue this year. Instead, they are creating walkways with cement bags filled with sand.
Due to its deplorable nature, cement bags are used to construct walkways
Chidiebere Eze, who is into door repairs and owns a shop along the road, said that he is not surprised with the abandonment of the project. According to him, there are similar abandoned projects scattered across the state. He said that his landlord does not bother him and other tenants about rent payments because nothing is moving.
‘They told us when they were leaving this January that they would return to work on the project, but we have not seen them, “he said.
“When they first came in 2022, they took measurements of the road and wrote numbers on the walls of our shops, and we thought they meant business.”
Nkiruka Iruabanachi sells cooking utensils along the road. She hates to talk about the road project which she alleged was only being used by politicians to collect money and line their own pockets. Iruabanachi says she hardly makes sales because customers cannot cross over to her shop.
“Every year, we hear that money has been released, but nothing changes. For two years, we have been suffering, we are tired of talking, all we need is action because we have suffered a lot.”
Abandoned Ebonyi project hurts farmers
Travelling into Ndi Agu Ode and Ndi Agu Aleke, two predominantly agrarian villages in Okposhi Ngbo, a community in Ohaukwu LGA in Ebonyi State famous for cultivating rice, yam and cassava, it is common to see farmlands on both sides of the road.
Apart from being a major contributor to the state’s economy through agriculture, the Ndi Agu Road is one of the shortest routes to Ohaukwu and Izzi local governments headquarters and Abakaliki, the state capital.
But for far too long, farmers in this area have had to spend one hour carrying their crops on their heads to the Okwor market, – one of the busiest in Ngbo – on foot due to the lack of a motorable road. The road constructed over five decades ago had degraded and become unmotorable.
Even education has suffered due to the state of the road as teachers who got posted to the primary and secondary schools located in Ndi Agu Aleke always refuse to resume there considering the cost of transport into the community.
In 2022, in what looked like a ray of hope, Sydsun Global Services Limited, was awarded a contract by AIRBDA for the construction of flood and erosion control works at Ndi Agu Ode – Ndi Agu Aleke Road. The contractor arrived in the community in December 2023. Listed as directors of the company are Jude Sunday Muofunanya, Cynthia Nneka Ikealugbu and Temple Dimeke.
“When the contractor first arrived, we were happy, they told us that they would provide drainage systems and a good road network to ease our suffering, we thought that we had finally been remembered by the government,” said Pius Aleke, a resident of Ndi Agu Aleke.
According to data on Govspend, the company was paid N17,383,311 on 26, March 2024 for the project, four months after it had commenced work.
However, rather than begin the construction from Ndi Agu Ode, where the road starts, in line with the description and what it had told residents of the community, the contractor moved to Ndi Agu Aleke where it graded about a kilometres with one-sided drainage.
Ndi Agu Ode end of the road
Since then, the project has been abandoned, and continues to dilapidate due to erosion. A former councillor, Ubochi Augustine, said that the Ogwawo bridge, which links the two villages to other surrounding communities might collapse soon as a result. He said that the leadership of the community had written letters to the state government to draw attention to the imminent collapse of the bridge and the overall state of the road. Yet, nothing has changed.
The incomplete drainage system at the Ndi-Agu Aleke end now makes it easy for farmlands to be flooded and crops destroyed whenever it rains, a situation which residents say is affecting their income.
It has also become increasingly difficult for motorcycles, a popular means of transport, to ply the road which has led to a massive increase of fares. Chukwuma Ituma, a motorcyclist who operates in the community charges as much as N700 from the market to Ndi Agu Ode and N1,000 to Aleke. This should have been N400 and N700 respectively.
“As a result, we have continued to carry our crops on our heads or wheelbarrow to the market, oftentimes, we follow shortcuts. During the rainy season, the road is always flooded, and sometimes, we cannot even leave our houses,” he said.
“During the dry season, there is dust everywhere.”
A government worker who lives along the Ndi Agu Ode end of the road, which was neither graded nor provided with drainage, said that each time it rains, his house is often flooded because there is no way for water to pass.
“Now, we are creating channels to allow water freely flow into the bridge in the community, but our roads are still being flooded because there is only little, we can do as a community.”
Curiously our investigations show that Sydsun Global Services Limited also subcontracted the project to another company, Precious Joe Nig Ltd, (with Chijioke Agbagbuo Joe and Ngozi Agbagbuo-Chijioke as directors and shareholders). While subcontracting does not violate the procurement law, Vahyala Kwaga, Senior Research and Policy Analyst at Budgit – a Nigerian civil organisation, said that the money may not be utilised effectively for the project as the main contractor may demand a share.
“The project can even be abandoned as a result, “he said, adding, “These are the kinds of things that should be flagged by the civil servants handling procurement but that does not happen.”
At Suite D3, Mazado Plaza Ali Shettima Mungono Street, beside Berger Sales Yard, Utako, Abuja, FCT Abquja, listed as Precious Joe Nig Ltd’s address, the office was sealed with a court order bordering on failure to pay tenement rate. It was also observed that two different companies, C.D.O Bance Nigeria Limited and Ama Yaro Associates Limited, a civil engineering company occupied the office and not Precious Joe.
Project ‘diverted’ to another community in Anambra
For several years, residents of Umuanugo in Ifitedunu, one of the communities in Dunukofia LGA of Anambra State have endured the menace of erosion which has flooded houses, destroyed farms and impacted economic activities. Although it has not claimed any life yet, Patrick Ekwenugo, a leader in the community said that some residents have been swept away by massive erosion that often occurs in the area.
“There is no proper drainage system in the community. The road is often unmotorable. Farmers hardly find motorcycles that can take them to the market, oftentimes, they have to carry their crops and trek long distances before they can get transport,” he said.
In 2017, AIRBDA awarded a contract to help control flood/erosion in Umuanugo, Ifitedunu to Canpas Resources Consultants & Engineering Limited (with Nnagbo Kene, Nnagbo Uchenna, Nnagbo Chuba and Nnagbo Nneka listed as directors). Available data shows that the company received three different payments amounting to N82million (82,076,299) between 2018 and 2020. Canpas Limited received N43.7m on December 19, 2018, N28.5m on May 28, 2019, and N9.6m on November 20, 2020.
However, when our reporter visited the community, there was no trace of the project anywhere. Ekwenugo said that the contractor never showed up till this September when he came and started marking buildings for demolition.
Some buildings have been marked for demolition five years after
“They told us that they will soon come to begin the execution a week later, that is four years after the project was awarded. But we have not seen them. I know about the contract award, but I did not know why it took Canpas this long to come to our community.”
Unknown to Ekwenugo and other residents, the project had been diverted to Obieze, a different community located about 15 minutes from Umuanugo. Just beside the road leading into Obieze, the project signboard reads, “Flood/erosion control in Umuanugo, Ifitedunu, Dunukofia LGA, Anambra State.”
Although it was diverted, Canpas Resources did not also complete the project in the new location. The contractor abandoned the project where it was supposed to begin and moved towards the end of the community- where it laid some asphalt, part of which is already washing away- after constructing two incomplete side drainages.
This reporter could not speak with Canpas as the company’s contact was unavailable online. At Block 9 flat 3 no 9 Yenagoa Street Area 3 Garki, Abuja, where Canpas Resources Consultants & Engineering Limited claims to be located, two staffers said that the office was for Avasoft, a tech firm and not Canpas.
Many residents of Obieze-which is also impacted by erosion- are not aware that the project was not originally theirs. Nnamdi Afukwe, one of them, said that the last time they saw the contractor was in 2020. “We don’t know if he will return,” he said, ruefully.
With the project not executed in Umuanugo, residents have resorted to self-help, constructing drainages to help deal with the menace of erosion. But their efforts have not yielded much results as they still find it difficult to transport crops from their farms to the market. There are shops on both ends of the road. The owners say they hardly make sales whenever it rains, everyone stays indoors.
Procurement law violations
Apart from the non-execution of the projects, findings show that procurement laws were routinely violated in the award and execution of the projects. For instance, it was found that some of the companies to whom the projects were awarded failed to comply with basic provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, to file up-to-date annual returns with the commission.
Evidence of tax payment is part of the requirements for the award of a contract as provided under section 16 6 (d) of the Public Procurement Act of 2007. These companies include Sydsun Global Servies Limited and Precious Joe Nigeria Limited.
In the Anambra State project, the contractor violated the provisions of the act by diverting the erosion project to a different location.
Akingunola Omoniyi, head of the Network for the Actualisation of Social Growth and Viable Development (NEFGAD), a procurement advocacy group, says moving a contract to a different location requires an entirely new procurement process to gain legality.
“The diversion cannot be effected midway or after appropriation by any entity/authority, including the Permanent Secretary of any procuring entity,” he argues.
Reacting to findings by this reporter, Kwaga said that it is disturbing that fiscal transparency as regards the utilisation of funds and the implementation of public works is not done in a systematic way in Nigeria.
He noted that not having consequences following infractions of public finance management rules also creates instability in the system and signals that actions do not have repercussions.
When Headoarc Associates was grading the road with side drainages
“And where this is the (dis)order of things; resources, finance and commercial activity would generally be suboptimal,” he said, adding, “We don’t often measure the losses occasioned by the non-execution of projects in naira and kobo that politicians often get away with being irresponsible and the Executive believes it owes no duty to them.”
Kwaga however, recommended that specialised agencies handling financial crimes like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) must collaborate with other agencies and institutions such as the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF) and the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) to tackle the widespread corruption in the public finance management space optimally.
AIRBDA still waiting for MD’s approval
Aside from the FOIA request, which AIRBAD did not respond to, an engineer, John Udemezue, was contacted at the agency, who claims to know about the projects but he said that would not address the issues unless he got clearance from the Managing Director of the agency.
“We are ready with your demands, but it is only the MD’s directive that can make us hand such a serious official document to an outsider,” he said.
“If there are challenges that our benefitting communities are facing, we will not shy away from addressing them because that is our mandate, we are not doing shoddy jobs. Whatever you see us doing is to the best of our knowledge and technical capability and the funding for the respective projects.”
This investigation was supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR).
SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad has reportedly been overthrown by the armed opposition in the country.
The armed opposition in Syria announced the capture of the country’s capital, Damascus, on Sunday, December 8.
According to the reports, as of Sunday morning, al-Assad’s whereabouts was uncertain, but the opposition said he had fled the country.
Reuters quoted two army sources as confirming that the president’s plane left Syria for an unknown country.
The armed opposition, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was reported to have gained major victories in recent days, taking over major cities like Aleppo and Homs.
According to Al-Jazeera’s report, the commander of HTS, Abu Mohammed al-Julani, said the state institutions would remain under the supervision of al-Assad’s prime minister, Mohammad al-Jalali, until formal handing over.
The HTS and many of the opposition fighter groups are believed to be backed by Turkey, whose president has never hidden his disdain for al-Assad since the Arab Spring.
On Saturday, December 7, United States President-elect, Donald Trump, in a message on X, celebrated the loss of al-Assad.
He, however, asked the country not to get involved in the crisis.
The exit of Syrian President al-Assad could be a major blow to Iran and Russia, who have actively supported his government, deploying arms and personnel to fight alongside the Syrian army against the rebels.
It appears he has been unable to hold down the country on his own, with Russia bogged down with the war in Ukraine and Iran facing internal crises alongside a potential war with Israel.
Meanwhile, world leaders are already reacting to the overthrow of the Syrian president.
“What is important is that we are able to find a situation where there is a political way out of this,” United Nations Envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, said.
The German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, called al-Assad’s fall “a great relief” for Syrians, stressin: “The end of Assad represents for millions of people in Syria a great relief.”
Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister, Amichai Chikli, says the opposition advances in Syria “are far from a cause for celebration.”
THE Federal Government has allayed fears about the spread of the new COVID-19 XEC variant which it said has hit about 29 countries across the globe.
The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare doused fears in a statement on Saturday, assuring that no evidence of the strain of the newly detected variant has been found in Nigeria.
It noted that the COVID-19 XEC variant had first been reported in Australia and spread to 29 countries, raising alarms over its heightened virulence.
In the statement on Saturday signed by its Deputy Director of Information and Public Relations, Alaba Balogun, the ministry said, ” the good news is that there is no evidence of COVID variant XEC in Nigeria.”
It said that assurance came following misinformation about a supposed resurgence of COVID-19 in the country, urging the public to disregard rumours fuelled by a letter which has been widely shared online.
It further urged Nigerians to remain calm while adhering to universal health precautions and relying on verified information from official sources.
“In light of the above, the general public is advised not to panic but to continue with the universal precautions of observing personal hygiene, including regular washing of hands,” the ministry of stated.
It hinted that the federal government has ramped up its preparedness across federal tertiary hospitals and border entry points to mitigate potential risks.
It said the measures include establishing molecular laboratories, isolation centres, and intensive care units equipped with ventilators.
“The federal government has proactively upgraded our federal tertiary hospitals to ensure uninterrupted healthcare delivery to all Nigerians in the event of a disease outbreak,” it said.
The ministry said it was intensifying surveillance at Nigeria’s borders and entry points to detect and address any potential cases of the variant, stressing that proactive measures are in place to safeguard public health.
“Citizens are encouraged to continue their daily activities without disruption while prioritising hygiene and preventive health practices,” it added.
According to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the COVID-19 XEC variant was first reported in May this year, noting that it has been detected in 43 countries across Europe, Asia, and North America.
It had advised the African Union (AU) member states to continue to enhance influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory syndrome surveillance to monitor SARS-CoV-2 cases and emerging variants.
It said the XEC is a subvariant of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron strain and was currently being monitored by the health authorities in other regions.
Also, the World Health Organization (WHO) had, as of September 24, designated XEC as a variant under monitoring.
A similar virus ravaged countries between 2019 and 2020, leading to the death of millions of people and a total shutdown of the economies of of the world. Many countries are yet to fully recover from the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
GHANA’S New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate, Buhamudu Bawumia, has conceded defeat in Saturday’s presidential and parliamentary elections conducted in the country.
Bawumia, the incumbent Vice President, accepted his defeat by former President John Mahama and the candidate of the major opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Sunday morning as collation of the result was ongoing.
The Electoral Commission earlier announced that it had yet to get the results from any of the 276 constituencies in the country.
In an address at his residence in the Cantonments area of Accra, Bawumia said the results his party collated indicated that Mahama won the poll.
“I have just called His Excellency John Dramani Mahama to congratulate him as President-Elect of the Republic of Ghana. I said during the signing of the peace pact that I was sure of two things. Ghana will win and peace will reign. The people of Ghana have spoken.
“The people have voted for change at this time, and we respect that decision with all humility. I thank God Almighty for how far he has brought me, and I submit to His will. I am making this concession speech before the official announcement by the Electoral Commission to avoid further tension and preserve the peace of our country,” he said.
Bawumia called on investors globally to continue to see Ghana as an investment destination.
He submitted that his party never wished to lose the poll, adding that the loss was part of the democratic process.
“Ghana is more important than our individual political ambitions, and we must always put Ghana first.”
He promised that the outgoing government would ensure a smooth transition so that the government business would continue seamlessly, stressing that the NPP would offer the needed support to the new government.
“We have conceded defeat like any consummate democrat would do, but we have not abandoned the fight to transform Ghana and expand opportunities to all sections of our society. We will not be a disruptive opposition, even though we would subject government actions and policies to strict scrutiny in the interest of our beloved nation,” Bawumia said.
While appealing to his party to accept the defeat in good faith, he promised that the NPP would reappraise the loss, regroup and return stronger.
The ICIR reports that the NDC and NPP have been in power for 16 years apiece since the country returned to democracy in 1992. The two parties have rotated power for a maximum of two terms since the Fourth Republic.
The NPP has been in power since 2016 when it produced the outgoing Akufo-Ado who leaves office in January 2025.
The ICIR further reports that Bawumia and Mahama have faced each other in the past two polls as a candidate and running mate of the country’s two dominant parties, respectively.
Mahama lost at both polls. He lost while in power and while seeking a second term in 2016. He also lost to Bawumia’s principal – Akufo-Ado – in 2020.
FORMER President John Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) appears to be leading the race as results of Saturday, December 7, presidential and parliamentary elections in Ghana trickle in.
Already, the party has won some of the results collated at the constituency collation centres, trouncing its main rival and ruling party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The NPP member representing Sekondi, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, lost to the NDC’s Blay Nyameke Armah.
Armah polled 14,558 votes to defeat Mercer who secured 11,084 votes.
The NDC has also won the Assin Central parliamentary seat in the central region currently held by NPP’s Kennedy Ohene Agyapong.
The NDC candidate, Megyimah Shaibu Nurein, polled 16,343 votes to defeat the NPP’s Nti Godfred Amewu, who polled 15,926 votes.
This is the first time in 24 years that the opposition NDC has won the Assin central seat.
In Assin north, NDC’s James Gyakye Quayson retained his seat. He won 18,023 votes to defeat the NPP’s Charles Opoku, who polled 13,599 votes.
In Yendi constituency, the NPP’s Farouk Alliu Mahama lost his seat to the NDC’s candidate, Abdul Fatawu Alhassan.
Alhassan secured 30,707 votes to beat Mahama who garnered 29,819 votes.
Similarly, Lawrencia Dziwornu of the NDC won the Akuapem south constituency, polling 15,438 votes to defeat Eric Yeboah Apeadu of the NPP, who got 15,304.
The NPP’s member who currently represents Kwesimintsim constituency in the western region, Hamid Armah, also lost his seat to the NDC’s Philip Fiifi Buckman.
Buckman polled 15,927 votes to defeat Arman who had 13, 317 votes.
While the results are being collated across the country’s 276 constituencies for onward transmission to the regional collation centre and then to the national collation centre in Accra, The ICIR could not immediately see any NPP candidate win a seat as at 6.00 am on Sunday when filing this report in the country’s capital, Accra.
On the election eve, The ICIRreported that the NDC candidate and former President John Dramani Mahama, and incumbent Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, of the NPP were set for a titanic contest as 18.7 million Ghanaians who registered to vote would decide their fate.
The electorate also voted to decide who occupies the 276 parliamentary seats across the country’s 16 regions.
The election took place in 40,976 polling units and 328 special voting centres.
Mahama and Bawumia had faced each other twice in the presidential elections with Mahama losing in both contests.
Mahama lost as an incumbent seeking re-election in 2016 and in 2020 when he threw his hat in the ring again to face Bawumia’s principal, President Nana Akufo-Ado whose tenure ends in January 2025. Bawumia was Akufo-Ado’s running mate in the two polls.
This time, Mahama faces Bawumia, the first-ever Muslim to seek Ghana’s presidency on a major political party’s platform.
Should Bawumia win, he will become Africa’s largest gold producer’s first Muslim president.
Mahama and Bawumia are from Ghana’s northern region.
10 candidates vying for Ghana’s presidency
Ten candidates, including a woman, are seeking to be president. Eight of the candidates are sponsored by political parties while four are running independently.
Among the independent candidates is an entrepreneur, Nana Bediako, whom many see as capable of causing a major upset. He is very influential among the youth aged 18 – 35 years, who form a large population (10.3 million) of the country’s registered voters.
Elections marred by killings, violence, others
Though the election was largely peaceful on Saturday, it recorded some ugly incidents, with more crises recorded during collation at polling centres at night. Voting started at 7:am while collation and counting of votes began at 5:pm across polling stations. The counting dragged into the night at many of the polling stations, which helped troublemakers to have more advantage to unleash mayhem.
In Ahafo Ano, security agents fire shots to disperse angry crowds who resorted to vandalising properties because of the delay in results collation. The process was consequently suspended.
The election commission officials were relocated for their safety while security officials remained at the centre to contain the raging crowd.
There was also pandemonium in Okaikwei North Collation Centre when two EC officials collapsed after they were exposed to pepper spray during a fight between NDC and NPP supporters.
One person was reportedly shot in the Awutu Senya East Constituency of the Central Region and one other was injured.
The deceased was allegedly killed by occupants of a vehicle who opened fire on him while heading home after vote counting at the collation centre.
The ICIR reporter saw dozens of men on power bikes moving from one polling station to the other while votes were being counted Saturday night at the Pig Farm area of Accra. It was not immediately clear which party they represented.
There was also confusion in the Dome Kwabenya constituency of the Greater Accra region as supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) claimed strange result sheets were smuggled into the centre.
Some of the incidents recorded at several polling units when voting was ongoing include an event in Ablekuma West constituency where a viral video shows a police officer being assaulted after allegedly attempting to smuggle ballot boxes to the collation centre.
The officer was intercepted by an angry crowd who physically assaulted and jeered him.
Police in the Ashanti region seized fake ballot papers allegedly thumb-printed in favour of a major political party during the election. The authorities are probing the incident.
An NPP agent was allegedly arrested for sharing money at a polling station in Krowor.
Another person was reportedly shot dead near the University for Development Studies (UDS) campus in Nyankpala following gunshots between NDC and NPP supporters.
Police also reportedly caught a party supporter with a gun. The incident occured at the St. Theresa’s School polling Station in the Okaikwei South constituency. Police identified the man as Michael Allotey.
One person was reportedly shot dead near the University for Development Studies (UDS) Campus in Nyankpala following gunshots between NDC and NPP supporters. Police also reportedly caught a party supporter with a gun.
The incident happened at the St. Theresa’s School polling station in the Okaikwei south constituency. Police identified the man as Michael Allotey.
EC blames overcrowding at collation centres for delays, promises transparency
The Electoral Commission (EC) blamed large crowds at various collation centres for the delay in the collation and declaration of results for the elections.
Addressing a press conference around 2 a.m. at the EC headquarters in Accra, the deputy chairman in charge of operations, Samuel Tettey, decried the attitudes of party supporters at various collation centres.
He blamed overcrowding for delays in results collation and said party supporters were blocking the EC’s officials from doing their jobs.
According to him, all party agents of political parties were enough at the collation centres to enable the commission to hasten collation and announce results on time.
The EC had said earlier that it accredited over 10,000 journalists for the polls to guarantee transparency.
The ICIR reports that all things being equal, Ghana should know their new president by Monday, December 9 if a clear winner emerges.
What happens if there is no winner in the election?
Ghana’s constitution requires that a candidate wins more than 50% of the votes cast in a presidential election to be declared winner. If no winner emerges at the first ballot, a second election would be conducted within 21 days.
Article 63(3) of Ghana’s Constitution says: “A person shall not be elected as President of Ghana unless, at the presidential election, the number of votes cast in his favour is more than fifty per cent of the total number of valid votes cast at the election.
“Where at a presidential election there are more than two candidates and no candidate obtains the number or percentage of votes specified in clause (3) of this article, a second election shall be held within twenty-one days after the previous election.
“(5) The candidates for a presidential election held under clause (4) of this article shall be the two candidates who obtained the two highest numbers of votes at the previous election.”
GHANAIANS are anxiously waiting to know the president who will lead them for the next four years after voting in the country’s presidential and parliamentary polls on Saturday, December 7.
Over 18 million (18.7m) registered voters out of the country’s 33.4 million population were eligible to vote.
The election took place in 40,976 polling units and 328 special voting centres. It is also expected to decide who occupies the 276 parliamentary seats across the country’s 16 regions.
The election did not start in several polling stations at 7:00am, as directed by the electoral commission. However, the exercise recorded impressive voter turnout in the early hours.
Several polling stations visited by The ICIR had less than ten voters from 3:00 pm.
While the election was generally peaceful, it recorded some skirmishes, including reported killing, voter inducement and arrest of party members with weapons and cash.
Some of the polling stations visited by The ICIR include St. John’s Workers 2 polling station, at Pig Farm, under Ayawaso Central Municipal, Accra; Ebony Restaurant Pig Farm-1 polling station, at the Ayawaso Central Municipal, Accra; Services polling station 1, Ayawaso East, Kanda 1, Accra; and Lante DZAN WE Storey Building 1 polling station at Dadekotopon constituency, Accra.
Others are Apostolic Revelation Society polling station at Pig Farm, Ayawaso Central Municipal, Accra; and Christians Books Center polling station 1, East Legon, Ghana.
Both leaders had faced each other twice at the presidential elections with Mahama losing in both contests.
He lost as an incumbent seeking re-election in 2016 and in 2020 when he threw his hat in the ring again.
This time, he is facing the incumbent, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, the first-ever Muslim to seek Ghana’s presidency on a major political party’s platform.
Should Bawumia win, he will become the Africa’s largest gold producer’s first Muslim president.
Mahama and Bawumia are from Ghana’s northern region.
Bawumia flies the flag of the ruling party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), while Mahama, who seeks a second and final term of four years, is the candidate of the major opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
John Dramani Mahama (L) and Mahamudu Bawumia
Ten candidates, including a woman, vied for the presidency. Eight of the candidates are sponsored by political parties while four are running independently.
Among the independent candidates is an entrepreneur, Nana Bediako, whom many see as capable of causing a major upset. He is very influential among the youth, aged 18 – 35 years, who form a large population (10.3 million) of the country’s registered voters.
What happens if there is no winner in the election?
Ghana’s constitution requires that a candidate wins more than 50% of the votes cast in a presidential election to be declared winner. If no winner emerges at the first ballot, a second election would be conducted withing 21 days.
Article 63(3) of Ghana’s Constitution says: “A person shall not be elected as President of Ghana unless, at the presidential election, the number of votes cast in his favour is more than fifty per cent of the total number of valid votes cast at the election.
“Where at a presidential election there are more than two candidates and no candidate obtains the number or percentage of votes specified in clause (3) of this article, a second election shall be held within twenty-one days after the previous election.
“(5) The candidates for a presidential election held under clause (4) of this article shall be the two candidates who obtained the two highest numbers of votes at the previous election.”
Some lapses that mar Saturday’s poll
Though Ghana is renowned for conducting peaceful elections and has sustained a democratic transition of power since 1992 when it began its Fourth Republic, this year’s exercise was marred by some challenges.
In addition to the late commencement of the exercise in several polling stations visited by The ICIR, some of the incidents that undermined the election include the arrest of an NPP agent who allegedly shared money at a polling station at Krowor.
One person was reportedly shot dead near the University for Development Studies (UDS) Campus in Nyankpala following gunshots between NDC and NPP supporters. Police also reportedly caught a party supporter with a gun.
The incident happened at the St. Theresa’s School polling Station in the Okaikwei South constituency. Police identified the man as Michael Allotey.
Unlike in Nigeria and other African countries, there is no restriction to vehicular movements during elections in Ghana. The country’s outlook on an election day could best be compared to when a nation observes a public holiday. Businesses are open and motorists move freely on the roads.
There are no military or police convoys as seen in Nigeria and other African nations during elections. The ICIR reporter did not see any soldier on the streets during the poll.
Only police and other officers of paramilitary agencies manned polling stations and other strategic locations in the country.
THE police in Ghanaian have arrested one Michael Allotey for possessing a firearm at the St. Theresa School polling station in the Okaikwei South Constituency in Accra.
This is according to a live updates report from the Ghana News Agency on Saturday, December 7.
The reports said Allotey was currently in custody assisting the Police with their investigation.
Election in Ghana, unlike many African countries, does not impose restrictions on human and vehicular movements during election days. As a result, the streets around the polling units bustled with activity, with vehicles and pedestrians moving freely.
Michael Allotey. Source: Ghana News Agency
In a related incident, the Ghana Police Service arrested an Electoral Commission official, Dery Joseph, at Kintampo South Constituency in the Bono East Region for electoral offences during the ongoing general elections, according to the news agency.
The suspect is reportedly under investigation for issuing about 15 ballot papers to voters that omitted the first presidential candidate at the Ampesika-Bayere polling station.
Dery Joseph. Source: Ghana News Agency
The ICIR had earlier reported that delay marked the general elections in Ghana in some areas observed by its reporter including at the Ebony Restaurant Pig Farm One and Two Polling Units in Ayawaso Central Municipal, Accra.
At 7:15 am, polling officials were still setting up voting materials despite the scheduled start time of 7:00 am.
The two polling units, located directly opposite each other, witnessed some voters waiting patiently as electoral staff arranged materials.
Ghanaians are voting today to elect the country’s next president and parliament in tightly contested elections marked by economic hardship and widespread dissatisfaction with incumbent President Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration.
The presidential race features Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and former President John Dramani Mahama of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), among others.
In this report,The ICIR analysed how Mahama of the NPP and Bawumia of the NDC had set for a titanic contest as 18.7 million Ghanaians cast votes to elect their new president.
Bawumia and Mahama had faced each other in the past two polls as a candidate and running mate of the country’s two dominant parties, respectively.
Mahama lost at both elections. He lost while in power and seeking a second term in 2016. He also lost to Bawumia and his principal and incumbent President Nana Akufo-Ado in 2020.
Each party has been in power for 16 years since the Fourth Republic. The two parties have rotated power for a maximum of two terms since the Fourth Republic as the ruling NPP seeks to achieve an unprecedented consecutive third win.
THE Federal Government has directed all public and private health facilities in the country to attend to gunshot victims with or without police clearance.
The coordinating Minister of Health And Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, issued the directive in a statement on Saturday, December 7.
He said the ministry had received complaints on the rejection of gunshot victims by hospitals nationwide, which had resulted in loss of lives.
“It has come to the knowledge of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, of the slow or non-compliance by most medical facilities to provide for the compulsory treatment and care for victims of gunshots, and related matters.
“In recent times, society has witnessed a rise in the loss of lives as a result of refusal of some health facilities to attend to gunshot victims of chance who do not present police reports,” Pate decried.
He pointed out that gunshot victims come under emergencies that require urgent medical attention to save the lives of patients or victims as provided in the Compulsory Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act 2017.
“The Act further stipulates that every hospital in Nigeria whether private shall accept or receive immediate and adequate treatment with or without police clearance.
“Every person, including security agents, shall render every possible assistance to any person with gunshot wounds and ensure that the person is taken to the nearest hospital for immediate treatment,” he said.
The coordinating minister, therefore, called on all medical practitioners to comply with the directive by providing prompt treatment and care for victims to prevent loss of lives.
Pate hinted that strategies were being implemented by the ministry to ensure compliance with the Act by Nigerian healthcare facilities.
He also urged the Nigerian Police to comply with and enforce the provisions of the compulsory treatment and care of victims of gunshot in line with Act 2017 with promptness, as well as reassure the health facilities that treatment of gunshot victims is not illegal.
The ICIRreported in August how the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command appealed to medical doctors and other health providers in the city to treat every patient who approaches their facilities with gunshot injuries.
GUNMEN suspected to be bandits on Friday attacked the mother of the Taraba State governor, Jumai Kefas and his sister, Atsi Kefas, along the Wukari-Kente road in Wukari Local Government Area (LGA) of the state, according to Weekend Trust.
The chairman of Wukari Local Government, who confirmed the attack in a telephone interview, explained that men on motorcycles attempted to intercept the vehicle transporting the governor’s mother and sister, prompting one of the police escorts to fire a warning shot into the air.
“It is difficult to say if the men on motorcycles were bandits, kidnappers, or armed robbers. I wasn’t present when the incident occurred, but investigations are underway to determine their identities,” the chairman said.
The chairman did not disclose if any of the attackers had been apprehended.
According to Weekend Trust, Atsi Kefas sustained a gunshot wound during the attack. She was initially treated at the Federal Teaching Hospital in Wukari, where her condition was stabilised before being flown to Abuja for further medical care.
The spokesperson of the Taraba State police command, Usman Abdullahi, also confirmed the incident, stating that it involved a vehicle conveying individuals from the governor’s residence and that one person sustained injuries.
