NDLEA Arrests female bandits’ supplier with cache of ammunition Intercepts Colos consignment in boxing kits on New Year day

By: Michael Mike

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on New Year day, Monday 1st January 2024 intercepted at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos a consignment of Colorado, a very strong strain of cannabis, concealed in boxing kits imported from the United States of America.

A statement on Sunday by the spokesman of the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi said a weeklong intelligence-led operation to get the receiver arrested was consummated last Saturday following the successful tracking and arrest of 38-year-old Olorunfunmi Olakunle who distributes the dangerous psychoactive substance to dealers across Lagos state.

Babafemi said the consignment had arrived the country last Monday via Cairo on Egypt Airlines flight marked as boxing kits.

Olakunle during interrogation, disclosed that he has been delivering such consignments to different recipients whenever his childhood friend, US-based Sagir Salami sent them. The latest shipment has a total weight of 1.8 kilogrammes.

Meanwhile, a 28-year-old female supplier of ammunition to bandits, Bilkisu Suleiman came top on the list of 12 other suspects arrested by NDLEA operatives in new year interdiction operations in Kaduna, Lagos, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Borno, and Osun states.

Suleiman, according to the statement, was arrested last Wednesday by NDLEA officers on patrol along Zaria – Kano expressway in possession of 249 rounds of 7.62 mm live ammunition concealed in a black nylon bag kept in her lady’s handbag.

She was on her way to deliver the ammunition to an identified bandit in Kakumi village, Katsina state when she was nabbed after which she was transferred to the Kaduna state command of the Nigeria Police Force for further investigation.

The military authorities at the Bonny camp cantonment in Lagos last Tuesday transferred a suspect, Francis Suru, 37 and 63 jumbo bags of Ghana Loud, a strain of cannabis, weighing 2,104.2 kilogrammes and a truck to the Lagos state command of NDLEA.

Babafemi said the suspect and the drug exhibits were earlier intercepted by NDLEA officers on 12th December 2023 close to the gate of the military cantonment in Bonny Camp, Victoria Island.

According to him, some armed escorts resorted to sporadic shooting to obstruct the operation, a development which attracted soldiers from the cantonment, who eventually intervened and took custody of the consignment and suspect before transferring them to the agency.

In the same vein, NDLEA operatives in Niger state last Thursday during a stop and search operation along Suleja-Kaduna road intercepted a J5 bus coming from Ondo state to Zaria, Kaduna state with 23 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 219.5 kilogrammes. Two suspects: Umar Musa, 26 and Isachiru Abubakar were arrested in connection with the seizure.

Babafemi also disclosed that a female drug trafficker, Queen Onyema, 27, was arrested on Saturday 6th January in a commercial bus enroute Abuja along Okene-Lokoja expressway with 12 compressed blocks of cannabis weighing 4.6 kilogrammes and 0.046 kilogrammes designer drugs concealed in an indomie carton, another suspect Mubarak Sani, 20, was nabbed at Gadar Tamburawa area of Kano last Monday with 445.9 kilogrammes of the same psychoactive substance.

In Borno, four suspects: Zanna Alhaji Dala, 32; Musa Umar, 21; Mushe Ibrahim, 23, and Shehu Idris, 19 were arrested at Pomponari bye pass area of the state with 60 kilogrammes cannabis.

Also, in Osun, NDLEA operatives on patrol along Osogbo-Ode Omu road on new year day, intercepted a consignment of illicit drugs sent through waybill from Lagos to Osogbo. A follow-up operation led to the arrest of Ibrahim Olawale, 43. The drugs recovered include: cannabis sativa 10.8 kilogrammes; Loud 150 grammes; Colorado 19 grammes; Molly 5 grammes totalling 10.974 kilogrammes. A digital scale, N18,000 monetary exhibit and customized wrapping papers for Colorado were also seized.

Babafemi said NDLEA Commands across the 36 states and the FCT equally continued their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitisation lectures in schools, communities, work places and others.

The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Retd) while commending the arrests and seizures of the past week by officers and men of the MMIA, Lagos, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Borno, and Osun Commands, charged them and their compatriots across all formations of the agency to continue to remain vigilant and double their drug demand reduction as well as drug supply reduction efforts in the new year.

NDLEA Arrests female bandits’ supplier with cache of ammunition Intercepts Colos consignment in boxing kits on New Year day

Recruitment: Zulum Approves 4,000 New Teachers Shortlisted For Borno’s Primary, Secondary Schools 

… List to be pasted at secretariat, TSB, SUBEB 

By: Our Reporter

Governor Babagana Umara Zulum has given final approval for immediate recruitment of four thousand (4,000) new teachers already evaluated and shortlisted for deployment to public primary and secondary schools across Borno State. 

Governor Zulum announced the approval on Wednesday evening in Maiduguri. 

Of the 4,000 new teachers, a total of 3,000 of them are to be deployed to government primary schools across the state while 1,000 teachers are to be sent to government secondary schools also across the state. 

The 3,000 primary school teachers are mostly NCE holders who make up 77. 4%, Degree Holders- 22.2% and HND holders- 0.6%. 

The 1,000 secondary teachers include 5 masters degree holders, 658 bachelor degree holders (constituting 66% of all), 8 HND holders mostly graduates of technology, 130 NCE holders (constituting 13% mostly for subjects like French, English literature, Hausa, Technology, civic education etc which graduate-applicants couldn’t be found to teach) l. 

There are also 11 diploma holders of science, laboratory technology employed as lab attendants while there are 23 Matrons and 68 cooks to serve students. 

All the 4,000 shortlisted teachers were meticulously selected after they proved competent to teach in primary and secondary schools. 

A total of 19,305 persons applied for the teachers’ recruitment out of which 10,470 wrote the assessment examinations on various subjects taught in primary and secondary schools. 

621 applicants scored distinctions (A’s) in various subjects after they were scored while 162 scored merit (B’s) in various subjects. 

All those who scored distinctions and merit were shortlisted for recruitment while some of the best amongst those with less scores were shortlisted to teach subjects like French, Literature etc in which they were found competent to teach. 

It would be recalled that in February 2021, a committee set up by Governor Zulum to conduct 
Basic Literacy and Numeracy Competency Assessment of primary school teachers across Borno’s 27 Local Government Areas had found that of 17,229 teachers who were assessed, only 5,439 representing 31.6% were found to be competent enough to teach, while 3,815 constituting 22.1% were found to be incompetent to teach and untrainable. 

The committee found 7,975 constituting 46.3% to be trainable. 

The committee also found that Borno had 1,627 teachers with degrees, 8,153 NCE holders, 2,066 diploma holders, 713 teachers grade II holders, 2,281 SSCE/GCE holders while 2,389 constituting 13.9% of all the teachers were without any formal qualification. 

Governor Zulum directed that competent teachers be paid minimum wage while incompetent teachers be moved to non-teaching government establishments. 

He directed a committee to invite and shortlist competent teachers through rigorous assessment examination, from which 4,000 teachers have now emerged.  

… List to be pasted at secretariat, TSB, SUBEB 

Meanwhile, names of all shortlisted 4,000 teachers have been released by the committee on teachers recruitment. 

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The list is to be pasted as notices on public spaces at the Musa Usman secretariat, at the state’s Ministry of Education, the Teaching Service Board (TSB) and the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) all in Maiduguri. 

Shortlisted candidates are to cross check their data to ensure accuracy.

Recruitment: Zulum Approves 4,000 New Teachers Shortlisted For Borno’s Primary, Secondary Schools 

Nigeria: 1.5 million girls enrolled into schools in the north – UNICEF

By: Our Reporter

In response to the low levels of participation of girls in schooling, the Federal Ministry of Education, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK, and UNICEF implemented the Girls’ Education Programme Phase 3 (GEP3) across six northern Nigerian states of Katsina, Kano, Niger, Sokoto, Zamfara and Bauchi between 2012 and 2022.  

A statement from UNICEF said at the national closing ceremony of GEP3 held in Abuja on 24 November 2022, the partners reported that the programme’s investment of $109 million yielded positive results in enrolling an additional 1.5 million girls into school, far exceeding the project’s target. 

“The attendance rate of girls in primary schools in the six states improved from 43% to 70%, while gender parity improved from 0.73 to 0.97. 

“GEP3 worked to improve the quality of education for all children and helped girls gain better access to education and economic opportunities, breaking the cycle of poverty and disadvantage. ” The statement said.

“In our commitment to drastically reduce the number of Out of School Children, Nigeria appreciates the scaling of evidence-based solution in tackling  this menace as provided through the GEP3. As we continue on this path, we would leverage on the success of GEP3 to plan better, budget better, and make better decisions in putting more Girl- Child in school,” said Honourable Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu.

“GEP3 has not only been successful in getting more girls into formal and non-formal schools, but it has also improved learning outcomes. GEP3 has raised the profile of educated girls, created new positive social norms in many communities and enabled a transformational shift in mindsets about the importance of girls’ education. It is critical that we advocate scaling of the approach in all states,” said Cristian Munduate, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria. 

“I express the deep appreciation of UNICEF to the UK Government for this long-term commitment and funding for girls’ access to primary school in northern Nigeria. Together there remains much work to be done, to ensure that girls transition  to, and complete secondary education. This is important not only for the economic prosperity and wellbeing of the girl and her family, but to stem the high population growth expected in Nigeria. We see FCDO and the government of Nigeria as steadfast partners in this complex endeavour,” added Munduate.

In addition to surpassing its target enrollment figures, GEP3’s innovations, policies and best practices are contributing to improvements in Nigeria’s educational sector.

GEP3 has also built the capacity of Head teachers and teachers in the management of schools as well as delivery of effective learning for girls.

GEP3’s unconditional cash transfer programme supported over 23,500 girls and reduced the level of poverty in the household, enabling families to send girls to school and  enhanced the ability of women to generate additional domestic income. 

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Furthermore, community-based structures like Mothers’ Association, School Based Management Committees, and the High-level Women Advocates have been established as enduring platforms for community mobilization, mentorship and policy advocacy on girls’ education.

The programme was also instrumental in strengthening non-formal Qur’anic schools through the integration of foundational literacy and numeracy. To improve learning levels, the programme delivered an early literacy and numeracy intervention, the Reading And Numeracy Activity (RANA). RANA was designed to improve literacy and numeracy instruction in grades 1-3 in over 3,800 public schools and Integrated Qur’anic schools. RANA developed Hausa-language teaching and learning materials, built teacher capacity, mobilized communities and engaged local governments to improve early-grade reading policies. 

Overall, the GEP 3 programme trained over 67,000 primary school teachers, including those teaching in Integrated Qur’anic schools to improve their skills and ability to deliver quality education.

“The GEP 3 has been one of the UK’s largest bilateral Girls’ Education programmes globally. We have seen good progress in improving access for girls and moving towards gender parity but with an increasing population, Nigeria’s out of school children figures remain high, for girls and boys. We now need to ensure that we build on the successful interventions of GEP 3, supporting them to be scaled-up and sustained to ensure they are catalysts for change in the wider sector,” said Catriona Laing, British High Commissioner to Nigeria.

Nigeria: 1.5 million girls enrolled into schools in the north – UNICEF