Cult clashes claim five lives in Plateau
• Police debunk report • Nigerian, other troops join forces to end terrorism in N’east
NO fewer than five people have been killed in Jenta Adamu, Jos North Council of Plateau State, in clashes by rival cult groups. The Guardian gathered that two people were shot dead on Tuesday while at least three were shot in the head yesterday morning.
Though the police rushed victims of yesterday’s attack to the hospital immediately, they did not survive.
Yesterday, the area turned a ghost town, as the residents refused to come out.
But the Plateau State Commissioner of Police, Edward Egbuka, who briefed the press on the
Marrest of criminals terrorising the state, dismissed the report.
Egbuka enjoined journalists to ignore rumours, adding that nothing like that happened.
The Acting Police Public Relations Officer ( PPRO), M. M. Sha’aban, said what the police commissioner said was the true position. But yesterday, youths came out in the area in their numbers with arms in search of the cultists. EANWHILE, Nigerian troops are to join their counterparts from Chad, Cameroon and Niger Republic to fight Boko Haram in the North East. The joint aerial and ground military operations are aimed at ending the over a decade- long terrorism in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.
While announcing the new operations yesterday at the Special Super Camp 1, Ngamdu, Borno State, the Chief of Army Staff, MajGen. Ibrahim Attahiru, disclosed that the armed forces were working hard to restore peace in the North East.
His words: “We’re working with our Chadian, Cameroonian and Nigerien counterparts to see that we end Boko Haram in no distant time. The entire operational process involves taking over of the theatre command. Thereafter, you visit the troops under various commanders.
“I was briefed by their commanders and they have listed their problems in the front lines. We will go back and articulate and address these problems to end this insurgency that has claimed many lives.”
He expressed happiness with what the troops were doing, promising to address their problems to boost their morale in the theatre of war.
While thanking the troops for their resilience and professionalism, he said: “I am here to pay you a special thank you visit. The President and the Commander in Chief is happy with you and he has sent you his greetings.”
THE Lagos State Government, yesterday, launched environmental bees club and training manual to check uncoordinated environmental education.
The launching, performed by the wife of the governor, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo- Olu, was in consonance with the international celebration of Environmental Education Day.
Ibijoke Sanwo- Olu said there should be a sustainable environmental education with the involvement of the younger generation, including students.
She said that this could only serve as a panacea to the yearnings for greener environment through attitudinal change and selfmonitoring approach.
The first lady urged the students to become agents of positive change of the environmental consciousness.
“With the formal launch, students who are hope of the future are adequately updated and equipped with the skills and information to transform the environment into a greener one for the benefits of all,” she said.
She described the launch, which also featured the unveiling of an EBC training manual as a brilliant collaborative initiative, aimed at tackling environmental challenges that promote a sustainable environment.
Earlier, the Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tunji Bello, said the emergence of environmental bees club in state’s schools signalled a giant stride in enriching knowledge and the need to inculcate in the children the global agenda of sustainable environment.
According to him, the unveiling of the club is a milestone made possible by the support of the governor and his wife, stressing that it marked a new dimension to complete eradication of all environmental nuisances. He said the environmental education was geared towards developing a populace that is aware and concerned about the environment and its associated problems.
The Permanent Secretary, Office of Environmental Services, Mrs. Belinda Odeneye, said that the care for the environment could be achieved through knowledge acquisition, attitudinal change and development of individuals capable of taking actions on environmental issues towards achieving a sustainable environment.
ELDERS from the SouthWest, under the aegis of Conference of Concerned Yoruba Elders ( CCYE), have condemned the continuous sidelining of Igbo from the security management team, saying that the development has happened for the second time, having experienced the first in 2015 when no military officer of South- East extraction was in the security team composed by the President.
The elders, who applauded
President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing one of their illustrious sons as Chief of Air Staff, said the President’s gesture was a demonstration of his unwavering confidence in the South- West region.
In a statement signed yesterday in Abuja by their National Co- ordinator, Prof. Olusegun Ajibola and National Secretary, Dr. Catherine Adisa, the elders said having carefully followed the development since 2015, they felt constrained to voice their concerns over the matter.
They appealed to the President to review the appointment of security heads and accordingly accommodate the SouthEast for justice and equity, saying that all major regions of the country should be given equal representation in the security management. The group tasked Nigerians not to sit on the fence on the matter, challenging them to stand up for the Igbo by voicing their concerns, saying: “Injustice to one is injustice to all.”
“We have carefully followed the reactions and counterreactions trailing the appointment of the new service chiefs and concerns raised by Nigerians over the exclusion of South- East, and as critical stakeholders in the Nigerian project, we wish to add our voice to this growing concerns”.