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Supporting women farmers quickest route to attaining food security – Stakeholders

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Supporting women farmers quickest route to attaining food security – Stakeholders

The Small-Scale Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria (SWOFON), Gombe State chapter, has called on the state government to support women in agriculture as well as youths to boost food security in the state and country.

The State Chairperson, SWOFON, Mrs. Airudia Mamman, made the call in Gombe on Thursday while commemorating the 2024 World Food Day in the state.

Mamman said that the quickest way to achieving food security efforts of the government was to empower small-scale women farmers in the state to cultivate more farmlands.

She said that with increased investments in line with the Malabo target of investing 10 per cent of their national budgets in agriculture, the state would be better placed to boost food availability.

According to her, since small-scale farmers form the largest population contributing to crops cultivation, supporting them will ensure that more farmers are reached for increased productivity.

Mamman called for more supports to women and youth farmers in the state while also urging government to release budgetary allocations to smallholder women farmers in the state.

She commended the state government for its supports to farmers, adding that with continued support, more women would be empowered and more jobs would be created.

“We urge the government to ensure timely release of funds allocated to smallholder farmers in the state annual budget to SWOFON to enable us implement our work plan towards boosting food security and reducing poverty.”

The Chief Executive Officer of Hope Foundation For the Lonely (HFL), Mrs Sarah Yapwa said that small-scale women farmers held the key to unlocking Nigeria’s potential in agriculture.

Yapwa said with the huge population of women in agriculture, leveraging that number would be the best way out of the threat of food crisis.

She said such farming population in the state, who are also involved in agriculture value-chain the state would not only be boosting food security but empowering women out of poverty and also tackling malnutrition.

She said if the state and Nigeria must have food in the near future, then ignoring women would be threatening to the food security efforts of government.

Other SWOFON members who spoke to NAN urged the state government to revamp irrigation farming in the state as way of mitigating the impact of climate change on agriculture.

On its part, the Gombe State government commended the contributions of small-scale women farmers in the state to boosting food security.

Mr Barnabas Malle, the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and Cooperatives gave the commendation, noting that women farmers form the largest farming population in the state.

Malle said that the state government had initiated several programmes and extension services aimed at supporting farmers to increase food availability in the state and country.

Malle who was represented by Mr Jonathan Bulus, Assistant Chief Principal Superintendent at the ministry said part of efforts to improve the agriculture sector led to the subsidising of fertilisers and other farm implements.

Our correspondent reports that the theme of the 2024 World Food Day which was marked on Wednesday is, “Right to Foods for a Better Life and a Better Future”

The event to commemorate the day in the state was organised by the Gombe State chapter of SWOFON, Hope Foundation for the Lonely.

This was done in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry and Cooperatives with support from ActionAid Nigeria.

Supporting women farmers quickest route to attaining food security – Stakeholders

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DSS-led joint operation crushes ESN strongholds, kills top kingpins in Imo

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DSS-led joint operation crushes ESN strongholds, kills top kingpins in Imo

By: Zagazola Makama

A wave of coordinated security offensives in Imo State has barbecued the Eastern Security Network (ESN), the militant wing of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), with the killing of key kingpins and the dislodgement of notorious terrorist camps in forested parts of Njaba and Isu Local Government Areas.

Zagazola Makama understand that The offensive, which began on June 29, was spearheaded by the Department of State Services (DSS) in close collaboration with the Nigeria Police Force, special forces, and local tactical units.

It was launched after the arrest and detailed confessions of two ESN commanders Uchenna Opara, popularly known as Ntanta Miri, and Ozioma Ihedoro, a.k.a OZ, both natives of Umuaka community in Njaba LGA.

Acting on actionable intelligence, the joint team raided and obliterated several terrorist enclaves, including Umuele Umuaka, Ezioha, and Ugbele Umuaka, known safe havens of the separatist group.

A fierce gun battle ensued as operatives stormed the camps. Three ESN fighters were neutralised during the confrontation, while others reportedly escaped with bullet wounds. Their bodies were later recovered along the Ugbele Umuaka axis.

What followed was a methodical clearance operation targeting the B44 camp cluster, long considered one of ESN’s strategic base networks. The camps, codenamed B44 Tangle 2, 4, 5, 7, and 9, were all successfully dislodged by the joint force.

A caterpillar operator working with the team was tragically killed in the line of duty when the group came under sudden fire while approaching the B44 main camp. He was rushed to the Federal University Teaching Hospital (FUTH), Owerri, but later confirmed dead by a medical officer on duty.

Items recovered from the operation included:
One AK-47 rifle, 15 rounds of live ammunition, pump-action shotgun, two locally made IEDs, one human skull and a Biafran flag

In addition, two suspected ESN members were arrested during the combing of nearby bush paths. The duo Emeka Ogene Sabinus of Ezi Isu in Isu LGA and Nnabuike Emmanuel of Ohofia Oduma in Aninri LGA, Enugu State were said to bear tribal incisions associated with the proscribed militia.

The collapse of the B44 cluster was significant in the counterinsurgency drive in the South-East, where pockets of armed resistance have posed growing threats to residents, security personnel, and national assets.

“The terrain is difficult, but our operatives are relentless,” a senior official close to the operation said. “We are targeting leadership figures, supply chains, and safe havens.”

Meanwhile, efforts are ongoing to apprehend fleeing fighters, with mop-up operations continuing in adjoining forest belts across Orlu, Njaba, and Isu corridors.

The Imo offensive adds to a growing list of successes by joint intelligence-led operations aimed at stabilising regions grappling with armed separatist violence, kidnappings, and the weaponisation of local grievances.

DSS-led joint operation crushes ESN strongholds, kills top kingpins in Imo

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FCT police arrest three wanted kidnappers linked to killings, mass abductions

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FCT police arrest three wanted kidnappers linked to killings, mass abductions

By: Zagazola Makama

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command has arrested three most-wanted bandits and kidnappers operating across Abuja and neighbouring parts of Kaduna State.

According to a police sources, the arrests were carried out on June 29 between 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., by operatives of the Scorpion Squad led by ACP Victor O. Godfrey, following actionable and digital reconstructive intelligence.

The sources told Zagazola Makama that the suspects were identified as: Abdulkadir Abubakar, a native of Mpape, FCT, Mohammed Tasiu Sani, of Rigina, Kaduna State, Suleiman Jibrin, 27, of Sabon-Gayan, Kaduna State.

The three suspects, all Fulani by tribe, have been on the command’s most-wanted list for
their roles in multiple kidnapping and banditry operations, particularly in Jere, Kajuru, the FCT and its environs.

During interrogation, the suspects confessed to abducting victims and moving them to detention camps in Kachia and Rigina forests in Kaduna State. Some victims, they admitted, were held for months, while others were killed at will.

The sources revealed that one of the suspects, Abdulkadir Abubakar, provided disturbing details of internal executions within the gang, in which some members were killed by their own leaders over mistrust and betrayal.

An operational motorcycle, popularly referred to by locals as the “Boko Haram Motorcycle,” was recovered during the raid. The suspects are currently assisting operatives in ongoing efforts to recover arms and ammunition, and to track down other gang members still at large.

FCT police arrest three wanted kidnappers linked to killings, mass abductions

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Young farm labourer shot dead while fleeing Amotekun in Osun

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Young farm labourer shot dead while fleeing Amotekun in Osun

By: Zagazola Makama

A 20-year-old farm labourer identified as Solomon (surname yet unknown) has been found dead with gunshot wounds after he was allegedly shot by a member of the Western Nigeria Security Network, also known as Amotekun, along the Ilesa/Iperindo Road in Osun State.

The incident, which occurred on June 29, followed the reported confrontation between a local security operative and a group of five farm labourers on their way to a farmland.

According to Temidayo Olowookere, the employer of the deceased, the labourers were accosted around 11:00 a.m. by an Amotekun operative, one Ajayi Ibukun, who accused them of extorting money from passersby. Two members of the group were apprehended, while the remaining three fled into the bush.

Olowookere said the detained workers were later released to him in the afternoon. However, later in the evening, when two of the three fleeing labourers returned, Solomon remained missing.

A search party was immediately organised. His body was discovered in the bush with gunshot wounds on his back, raising suspicions that he may have been shot during the initial confrontation.

His remains were evacuated to Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesa, where he was confirmed dead and deposited at the morgue for autopsy.

Police say efforts are currently underway to trace and apprehend the security operative allegedly involved in the shooting, while the community continues to call for justice.

Young farm labourer shot dead while fleeing Amotekun in Osun

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