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Families of Missing Persons exchange experiences, discuss challenges, and support each other in an international conference

Families of Missing Persons exchange experiences, discuss challenges, and support each other in an international conference
By: Michael Mike
Families of Missing Persons from Nigeria participated in the 3rd edition of the International Conference for Families of Missing Persons, which took place between 21-23 November 2023.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hosted two conference hubs in Nigeria, in Maiduguri (Borno State) and Yola (Adamawa State) respectively, where families attended online global and regional peer-to-peer sessions and were granted opportunities to meet and exchange with other families from around the world whose loved ones went missing in similar circumstances.
Families gained inspiration on how they can continue to build and strengthen their family associations. Beyond supporting one another, family associations usually are those that raise awareness and advocate on the issue of the missing.
Engaging with peers brought useful insights on how families can be more strongly seen and heard by their peers, communities, and authorities. Families shared what it means to each of them to live while searching, and how to cope with the emotional, legal, economic, and social challenges, particularly when having a missing relative during an ongoing armed conflict.
“I still have hopes that my loved one will be found someday, and we will meet again,” said Sadiya Abubakar a member of the Family Association in Damare internally displaced community. “With the experiences shared in the conference I discovered that we are not alone on facing the pains of not knowing the fate of our family members who have been missing for long”.
The families also got the chance to meet with member states to the Global Alliance for the Missing, which Nigeria is member to. The Global Alliance for the missing is a group of states that has committed to raise awareness on the issue of missing persons and to collectively engage diplomatically on the issue.
A family member from Nigeria, the only member state from Africa, made a statement on behalf of the African continent, outlying the importance for other African States to join the Alliance. The statement urged states to work together to facilitate search and address the needs of families, adopt legislations on the missing persons and include the families in the process to ensure belonging, ownership, transparency, and accountability by ensuring access to information on how and where families can engage with authorities on the issue of the missing.
The conference brought together more than 700 families of missing persons from 50 different countries, in a hybrid format. Families physically gathered in 44 local “conference hubs” and joined multilingual online sessions tackling the most critical challenges they face around the world.
“The conference was an opportunity for families to gain the understanding that they are stronger together,” said Anne-Sofie Stockman, ICRC`s delegate in charge of searching for the Missing.
“Families continue to show extraordinary will to never give up searching for their loved ones, however long it takes.”
The ICRC works together with the Nigerian Red Cross Society to help and support families of the missing in their pursuit for answers. So far this year, we’ve been able to help locate more than 460 people missing due to the conflict.
Families of Missing Persons exchange experiences, discuss challenges, and support each other in an international conference
News
VP Shettima’s Agricultural Assessment Visit To Ethiopia

VP Shettima’s Agricultural Assessment Visit To Ethiopia
By: Our Reporter
An agricultural economist by training whose love for agricultural transformation and development has never been hidden, as demonstrated recently when he visited the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan for an on-the-spot assessment of the Institute’s crops and resource potentials, Vice President Kashim Shettima today embarked on an assessment of the popular Adama Industrial Zone near Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.
Farms visited by the Vice President for the on-the-spot assessment included the Adama Dairy Farms, Luke Avocado Nursery site, Shera Dibandiba Mojo Family Integrated Farm, Biyyo Poultry Farm, and the Bishoftu Pea Farm.
While speaking on areas of agricultural collaboration between both countries, the Vice President ordered specialised coffee beans seeds for massive production in Nigeria while also directing the immediate training of selected Nigerian agricultural extension farmers on the production of specialized avocado seedlings for the Nigerian market.
VP Shettima also sought an exchange of mechanisation technologies between both countries, stressing that the potential of both Nigeria’s and Ethiopia’s agricultural sectors was capable of capturing world markets, especially when fully harnessed and exploited.
VP Shettima’s Agricultural Assessment Visit To Ethiopia
News
Leboku-in-Abuja 2025 Festival Celebrates New Year Festival to Bolster Nigeria’s Rich Cultural Heritage

Leboku-in-Abuja 2025 Festival Celebrates New Year Festival to Bolster Nigeria’s Rich Cultural Heritage
By: Michael Mike
One of the nation’s most celebrated events, the New Year Festival would berth in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as the Kedei Seh Umor-Otutu, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy stage the Lenoku-in-Abuja 2025.
It promises to bolster Nigeria’s cultural heritage and showcase the rich cultural heritage of the Yakurr people in Cross River, the South-South and South-East in the nation and the world at large.

Addressing a pre-festival press conference in Abuja, President of Kedei Seh Umor-Otutu, a community-based association, Queency Patrick said the forthcoming festival with the theme: “A celebration of heritage, unity and harvest,” is one of the kind.
She explained that Lenoku-in-Abuja 2025 is an internationally acclaimed New Yam festival that is celebrated on August 30 in Abuja, under auspices of Kedei Seh Umor-Otutu, an association of Ugep people living in the FCT.

Patrick said: “Leboku-in-Abuja-2025 aligns with national goals of cultural preservation, inter-ethnic harmony and in promoting Nigeria as a cultural destination.
“The Federal Capital Territory provides the ideal backdrop to unite heritage and modernity, welcoming all who believe in peace, identity and pride of origin.

“For us, it is not just a cultural event, it is a call to national unity, peace and cultural tourism development.
“It is also an opportunity for us to showcase the rich cultural heritage of the Yakurr people in Cross River, the South-South and South-East in the nation and the world at large.”
She further explained that: “The event fosters appreciation of Nigeria’s diverse ethnic-root and culture. Leboku-in-Abuja is more than a festival, it is a stage for celebrating our cultural identity, building bridges through tradition and encouraging investment in the creative economy and tourism sector.”

According to her, Mr Obi Asika, DirectorGeneral/CEO of the National Council for Arts and Culture, had in a letter which formally endorsed the association’s collaboration with government described Leboku-in-Abuja, as annual New Yam Festival celebrated in Abuja by Yakurr people of Cross River.
Patrick further quoted him by saying the Leboku festival, deeply rooted in the traditions of the Yakurr people of Cross River, has long been a symbol of unity, celebration, and agricultural prosperity.
Asika, in the letter noted that: “Bringing this renowned festival to Abuja will provide a unique opportunity for cultural exchange, tourism development, and deeper appreciation of our diverse traditions.
“It aligns with the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda and NCAC’s mandate to promote arts and culture, as essential drivers or Nigeria’s creative economy,” Asika added.

Patrick revealed the event would provide platform for public lecture, economic empowerment, traditional food festival, cultural and arts exhibition, sports, agriculture, trade and tourism development.
The event scheduled to hold at the Bolton White event centre, Wuse Zone 7, Abuja is centered on promoting unity and peace with the toga: “One Yam, One People.”
Leboku-in-Abuja 2025 Festival Celebrates New Year Festival to Bolster Nigeria’s Rich Cultural Heritage
News
Crisis brews in Gombe SDP as Yakubu emerges acting chairman

Crisis brews in Gombe SDP as Yakubu emerges acting chairman
The Gombe State chapter of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has appointed a new chairman, Aaron Yakubu to serve in acting capacity following the suspension of its state chairman, Comrade Adamu Abubakar Modibbo, over allegations of mismanagement, lack of transparency, and misuse of party resources.
His suspension was announced at a news conference held in Gombe on Saturday by the party’s Welfare Secretary, Usman Yahaya, on behalf of concerned members of the state executive.
Reading the statement, Yahaya said there were countless complaints against the now suspended chairman, whom he said had side-lined party stakeholders and running the party like his personal property.
“Since Comrade Modibbo assumed office, the party has experienced no meaningful progress. Instead, the leadership claims he has used his position to witch-hunt loyal stakeholders and frustrated committed party members for his personal gain.”
He accused Modibbo of systematically “caging” the party’s executive members and aspirants, depriving over 90% of both returning and newly acting executive members of access to official SDP membership cards.
He further alleged that the selection of party candidates has been done without due process or consultation, with names being announced solely via national platforms involving prominent figures like Malam Nasir El-Rufai, thereby side-lining the state executive.
Yahaya also accused the suspended chairman of allegedly using his personal residence as the de facto party office.
This, the executives say, violates proper procedures and comes despite funds being made available to renovate the official state party office and rent offices across the local government areas.
“As it stands, the SDP in Gombe State does not have a functional or recognised operational office,”
In the light of the above weighty and numerous allegations against Modibbo, the Welfare Secretary said that the Gombe State chapter of the party has taken decisive action by suspending Comrade Adamu Abubakar Modibbo as chairman with immediate effect.
“In this regard, we hereby announce that the current State Secretary of the party, Mr. Aaron Yakubu, will now serve as the Acting State Chairman of the SDP in Gombe.
“Similarly, Ambassador Lukman Adamu Elkanem, previously serving as the Acting Assistant Public Relations Officer, has now been appointed as the Acting State Secretary of the party.”
Yahaya, on behalf of the state chapter of the SDP, appealed for intervention from the national body of the party to look into the allegations against the former chairman and to restore discipline, accountability, and credible leadership to the Gombe chapter of the party.
Speaking shortly in an interview, Yakubu said he would work to build inclusiveness in the party and ensure all party members were carried along in line with the constitution of the party.
He stated that out of the 13 working committee members of the party, nine were present and in support of the suspension of Modibbo.
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