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70% of Nigeria’s female students are sexually harassed – CSO

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A Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Gender Mobile Initiative (GMI), said on Tuesday that 70 per cent of the female population in the country’s school system have experienced sexual harassment.

The Executive Director of GMI, Ms Omowumi Ogunrotimi, said this in Abuja at a summit on “Anti-Sexual Harassment in Educational Institutions,” co-convened by the group and the Independent Corrupt Practice and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

Ogunrotimi said the collaboration with the ICPC was based on its zero-tolerance to sexual harassment and ensuring government’s participation in achieving the desired systems change through policy engagement.

“Perhaps the recent statistics quoted by the World Bank Group on women, law and business on the prevalence of campus sexual harassment needs to be re-echoed for us to understand the urgency required in addressing sexual harassment,” she said.

Ogunrotimi said that the past few years witnessed a global reckoning for perpetrators of sexual harassment, especially by abusers who wield significant power over the abused.

She noted that more stakeholders were needed on the frontline to fight the scourge and stem the tide of sexual harassment in the country.

“That 70 per cent of female students experience sexual harassment is an affront to our shared humanity and values as individuals and as a nation.

“While Nigerian tertiary institutions have become the centre ports for power-driven gender-based violence and harassment, the challenge has not received the required corresponding level of attention.

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“This spate of violence has been mainly attributed to lack of a comprehensive anti-sexual harassment policy, lack of confidentiality-driven reporting channels and poor institutional response,” Ogunrotimi said.

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According to her, investigations by prominent media organisations including the BBC Sex for Grade’s documentary elevated conversations on a pragmatic policy framework that should address emerging issues bothering social relations and integrity grading system among others, in our schools.

“We are not oblivious of the complexities of the systemic challenge we seek to address; we have all been working to nip sexual harassment in the bud before now.

“We know that different organisations are addressing different aspects of the problem,” she added.

Reacting, the Chairman of ICPC, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, said that the culture of silence out of fear of reprisal and stigmatisation had allowed sexual harassment to thrive in some quarters.

Owasanoye noted that with sensitisation and appropriate policy implementation things would gradually change.

“It is a deviation from the norm for an official of an institution to use his office or position to demand, receive, obtain or attempt to obtain any form of sexual gratification in order to execute his or her duties or as a reward for doing his or her duties.

“The ideal thing is for official duties to be done with integrity, good conscience and diligence without the expectation of any unlawful benefit, but it seems the reverse has almost become the norm.

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“It has become quite common for teaching and non-teaching staff to demand or expect sexual gratification from their students to whom they are supposed to serve as parents,” he said.

Owasanoye explained that the purpose of the event was to brainstorm and review the draft documents which the Commission and Gender Mobile had drafted.

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He expressed the hope that the documents would eventually be adopted as templates for educational institutions when drafting individual organisational sexual harassment policies.
Owasanoye said the Commission had done a lot in the area of prevention and prosecution of sexual harassment in the country.

“The Commission has carried out about seven training and re-training programmes for its officers in Operations, Prosecution and Education and Public Enlightenment Departments and the officers trained also conducted training for their colleagues.

“The Commission has also partnered with some CSOs to carry out training for students while the Education and Public Enlightenment Department has taken up the task of including talks on sexual harassment in its different engagements.”

The ICPC boss noted that the commission had received about 17 reports relating to sexual harassment with one conviction via plea bargain.

“One resulted in system study, as one criminal case was recently filed in court, while some other cases are still under investigation,” he said.

The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, promised that his ministry would ensure the distribution of the sexual harassment template to the concerned regulatory agencies in the country.

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Adamu who was represented by Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB Registrar, said that the ministry would ensure that teachers present the policy document to students at the end of each academic year.

He added that the purpose was for emphasis and assimilation as “each employee shall be given copies of workplace policy on sexual harassment.

“I must commend the ICPC and its partners on this programme for this laudable contribution to the education sector.

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“The ministry on its part promises to ensure that the policy document when fully approved, will be implemented through the provision of the enabling environment and ensuring compliance,” Adamu said.

On his part, the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege represented by his Chief of Staff, Dr Otive Igbuzor, enumerated some of the initiatives that the National Assembly had done in support of the war against sexual harassment.
According to him, the National Assembly through the deputy Senate President has worked on bills to tackle sexual harassment.

Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa, the ICPC-FORD Project Consultant, while presenting the Anti-Harassment Policies for Education Institutions in Nigeria, urged state governments to create policies on sexual harassment and ensure adequate consequences were provided for offenders.

Atsenuwa noted that the value of education in the country would be greatly affected if sexual harassment persist.

She commended the ICPC for driving institutional based policies on sexual harassment

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Police Inspector cuts off pregnant wife’s hand over N20,000

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LG chair, man arrested for plotting to assassinate Benue Speaker

An Inspector of Police, whose name has yet to be ascertained, has allegedly cut off his wife’s hand over what was confirmed as “a minor disagreement over N20,000.”

Sources familiar with the incident told Vanguard that the pregnant wife of the Police Inspector was still in the hospital.

The Inspector reportedly left the money at home in the Dong area of Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State.

By the time he returned to take the money, it was no longer where he left it, leading to an argument between him and his wife.

In the heat of the argument, he reportedly harmed his wife.

He has since been arrested and detained at the Plateau State Police Command Criminal Investigation Department.

Alabo, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, told Vanguard on the phone: “We are aware of the incident.

“The man is an Inspector.

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“Right now, he is at the State CID and the investigation is ongoing.

“He had a minor misunderstanding with his wife over some money.

“They had an argument over some N20,000 he kept in the house and he said he was looking for the money to do something and an argument ensued.

“The case is under investigation.”

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “The wife is pregnant.

“She refused to give the man N3,000 from N20,000.

“The argument was heated and before we knew it, the man cut off her hand.

“No one can say why he did that but we are concerned about her.

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“She was rushed to a hospital.”

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Three fake EFCC operatives arrested in Nasarawa

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The suspects

The Police Command in Nasarawa State says it has apprehended three fake personnel of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, DSP Ramhan Nansel, made the disclosure in a statement made available to newsmen on Wednesday in Lafia.

Nansel said that on April 17, at about 3:45pm, the command received a distress call that four persons in a green-coloured Toyota Corolla, with registration number: Abuja: YAB 509 TT, abducted a student of Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa.

“The suspects robbed and abducted one ND II student at their lodge behind Government College, Nasarawa Local Government Area.

“On receipt of the call, the police immediately gave the suspects a hot chase and a road block was mounted at Laminga junction to stop them from escaping with the victim, but they hit the barrier and fled.

“Police operatives at Anguwan Madugu mounted another road block, which the suspects sighted from a distance, abandoned their operational vehicle and the abducted student and fled,” Nansel stated.

The police spokesperson said that luck, however, ran out of one of the suspects, as he was caught and beaten mercilessly by an angry mob before the arrival of the police, while others fled.

He said that the suspect was rescued from the mob and rushed to the Primary Healthcare Centre, Laminga, where he died while receiving treatment.

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Nansel added that the operational vehicle of the suspects was recovered and taken to the station where a search was conducted and two identification cards identifying the fleeing members of the syndicate were recovered.

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He said that follow-up investigation into the case led to the arrest of three other members of the gang who were residents of Custom Quarters and Up Market area, Masaka.

The police spokesperson said that one iPhone 12 Promax, Huawei and one Tecno Spark 5 earlier robbed from some of their victims and fake EFCC identification cards were recovered from them as exhibits.

He said that the suspects had confessed to being the syndicate responsible for robbing and terrorising student areas in Keffi and Nasarawa Local Government Areas.

Nansel said that the Commissioner of Police in the state, Umar Nadada, had directed that the case be transferred to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Lafia, for further investigation.

The suspects, he said, would be charged to court upon conclusion of investigation.

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Senator Utazi decries killings in Uzo-Uwani

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Why I quit the PDP – Sen. Chukwuka Utazi
Senator Chukwuka Utazi, CON

The lawmaker that represented Enugu North Senatorial District in the 8th Senate, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, CON, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Peter Mbah to urgently halt the ongoing bloodbath in Uzo-Uwani Local Government of Enugu State.

He said the needless killings in the agrarian communities of Uzo- Uwani, as seen in the slaughter of four people in Nimbo last Sunday have turned the area to a killing field and engendered panic among residents.

Responding to the tragic killings of four people in Nimbo by suspected herdsmen on Sunday, Senator Utazi, in a statement made available to journalists on Wednesday, disclosed that the building of a Mobile Squadron Base at Nkpologu, which would have served as a swift response unit in the face of such security threats was politically thwarted by the past administration of Enugu State, thereby exposing the vast areas of Uzo Uwani to kidnappers and violent herdsmen.

The lawmaker expressed sadness that since the 2016 massacre at Nimbo, no week has passed without reports of killings and maiming of natives by rampaging herdsmen.

Senator Utazi, who was the Minority Whip in the 9th Assembly, recounted that in the wake of the 2016 massacre in Nimbo, he brought the matter to the Senate Plenaries, which prompted former President Muhammadu Buhari to dispatch IGP Solomon Arase to the scene. He noted that the IGP approved the commencement and building of the Mobile Squadron Base at Nkpologu and handed the letter personally to him to deliver to the Governor.

“Once on receipt of the letter, he convened a meeting to change the location to his preferred site and in the process robbed Uzo-Uwani LGA a project that would have put paid to the constant killings of our people,’ he said.

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The Senator noted that the prosecution of the five suspects apprehended in connection with Nimbo killings suffered setbacks due to lack of fund by the Enugu State Government for diligent prosecution of the matter in court.

He further recounted that the former Governor set up a panel of inquiry to unravel the immediate and remote causes of the 2016 Nimbo killings, but there were no follow-ups on the matter and his personal attempts to bring the issue to Governor’s attention met vicious attacks from political sycophants and hired online mob. He argued that if the suspects arrested in 2016 killings were properly prosecuted, last Sunday attack could as well be averted.

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Utazi explained that Uzo-Uwani has the largest landmass east of the Niger, with numerous water bodies and fertile lands which are major attractions to herdsmen.

‘That the Eastern Region Government sited Adarice Farm Settlement at Adani by Dr M.I Okpara, then Governor, was not by accident or lobby. It was because Adani and environs had comparative advantage over all other parts of the eastern region for agriculture”, he added.

In spite of the huge agricultural potentials of the area, the lawmaker noted with dissatisfaction that this year ranks as the worst farming season in the history of Uzo Uwani.

According to him, natives, farming settlements and migrant farmers have since abandoned their farms for fear of death in the hands of gun-weilding herdsmen.

“Adani, the seat of farming in Enugu State, is now a shadow of its former self. Opanda Nimbo, a cosmopolitan town thickly populated by migrant farmers from all parts of Enugu State and beyond is now totally deserted because of kidnappers and violent herdsmen’, he stated.

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Senator Utazi advised Governor Mbah not to follow the unacceptable path of his predecessor in offfice in finding a lasting solution to the constant killings of natives on regular basis.

The Senator also called on Mbah to facilitate the handing over of Nkpologu Divisional Police Station to the police in order to make the place functional.
He explained that he built the station, as well as residential quarters, and provided a functional borehole and Hilux vehicle as his contribution to fighting insecurity in Uzo-Uwani.

Utazi equally advised Governor Mbah to revisit the report of the panel of inquiry on the 2016 Nimbo killings and possible publish a white paper on it. He urged the Governor to direct the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice to track the matter of the five suspects arrested in connection with the 2016 Nimbo massacre and ensure diligent prosecution until justice is duly served.

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