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UN Resident Coordinator Leads March Against Violence Against Women in Abuja
UN Resident Coordinator Leads March Against Violence Against Women in Abuja
By: Michael Mike
The United Nations Resident Coordinator, Mohammed Fall on Saturday led some prominent women activists in a march on major streets of Nigerian capital city of Abuja to demand for the end of violence against women.
The march was part of activities marking the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence (GBV) celebrated worldwide.
During the march which was organized in Abuja by the UN Women in conjunction with Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF), Medicaid Cancer Foundation, the UN Resident Coordinator alongside the women carried placards demanding for an end to violence against women and spoke against what they termed crime not only against women but humanity.
Addressing the media after the long walk, Mr. Fall said there was urgent need for an end in violence against women, girls and boys, insisting that everyone needs to be involved in the campaign as it affects the entire human race.
He lamented that the statistics of violence against women is still very much alarming and showed that it needed to be approached with all round strategies that would make people to know its harm and get offenders no hiding place.
Fall said there is still much told be done by government, law enforcement agencies and leaders in all sectors to build awareness against violence against women and to expose it for what it is: crime against humanity.
Speaking on the need to put an end to the crime, the former First Lady of Kebbi State and Founder of Medicaid Cancer Foundation, Dr Zainab Bagudu said with the law against violence against women in place, there is still need to fight on until the society shows it does not tolerate violence against women.
She said after the law, “then the next step becomes the implementation and general awareness, the mindset of the average, person from our environment, is that they don’t even understand what constitutes abuse. So we need to educate them, to make them aware, and most importantly, to combine the facilities that they need if abuse should take place, we focus on women and young adolescent girls, but boys are also victims of abuse, and they can turn out to be perpetrators once they have been abused.”
She said “there is continuous need
to organize educational classes in schools and different places, so that we can educate our boys and they can prompt be supportive.”
She noted that there is need for much more efforts at ending the violence against women, insisting that: “Well, it’s (campaign) never enough. We’re a very large country. The population is high, so we know the challenges that we have and different conflicting priorities. So it’s important that we don’t get tired, and one of the advocacies that we do, to call on government to provide more resources, and donor partners, to help us. The task can be quite big, and the police can sometimes not be as responsive as we would like them to be, due to other reasons, but we hope that they will be more acute to the trauma that this causes to women, children and some men when it happens, and that’s why we keep on advocating so it’s not enough. We need to have more. We need to have more action. We need to have more understanding. There are also programmes that focus on educating our security forces so that they really understand how they should be reacting. Every police station should have a desk against gender based violence and women should have the confidence, or abused victims should have the confidence to approach these desks, make their point without fear of stigmatization.”
On her part, the Mandate Secretary of the Federal Capital Territory, Dr. Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi, said the campaign was on in all parts of the Federal Capital Territory to drive the message to the grassroots.
She noted that: “We need to keep aggregating and scaling like what is happening today. We need to have more of this advocacy. We need to have more of the intentionality of collaborations between governments and private, public individuals, people who are able to invest and engage not just the interest, but in terms of the action and bringing interventions from messaging to the place of invested empowerment, of the mindsets of cultural traditional practices.”
Project Manager of WARIF, Adeola Potts-Johnson, on her part, said the campaign has been a success so far for it has grown from just being held in a city to many important cities of Nigeria and prominent cities across the globe.
She said WARIF would continue to push the bar until violence against women becomes history.
UN Resident Coordinator Leads March Against Violence Against Women in Abuja
Angwa-Rukuba Killings: Court orders suspects to remain in DSS’ custody
*Okays speedy trial
By: Our Reporter
A Plateau State High Court on Friday ordered that four suspects standing trial for their alleged involvement in the March 2026 killings in the Angwa Rukuba community of Jos North Local Government Area, remain in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).
The court also agreed to a request by the prosecution to speed up the trial. The matter was adjourned to May 26 to consider the report on the case management conference, and 1st and 2nd July for hearing.
The suspects, identified as Isa Umar Ibrahim, Auwalu Abubakar (also known as Auwalu Dogo), Musa Abubakar Ibrahim (also known as Yaroro), and others, are facing charges of terrorism and criminal conspiracy.
The charges were filed by the State Attorney General, Philemon Daffi, under the Plateau State Penal Code Law, 2017.
On Friday, Mustapha Shabbat (SAN), who announced his appearance for the defendants, objected to their continued detention in the facility of the DSS.
In a short ruling, however, the trial judge held it it remained the discretion of the court to determine where to keep suspects under trial.
“Considering the facts and circumstances of this case, this honorable court has jurisdiction to remand the defendant in the custody of DSS or correctional centr provided the place of custody is safe.
“The defendants are hereby remanded in the custody of the DSS. They must however be allowed to have access to his counsels while in detention pending the prompt conclusion of investigation,” ruled the judge.
Court: Case management has already been taken place in accordance with the provisions of the law. The case is hereby adjourned to 26th May for report of the court on case management and further adjourned to 1st and 2nd July, 2026 for hearing.
The particulars of offence read, in part “That you, Isa Umar Ibrahim, Musa Abubakar Ibrahim of Riyom Local Government Area, Auwalu Abubakar (A.K.A Auwalu Dogo) of Jos North Local Government Area, Musa Abubakar Ibrahim (A.K.A Yaroro) of Jos North Local Government Areas of Plateau State; and one Ado Ibrahim (Now at Large) of Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State, on the 28th day of March, 2025 at Farin Gada, Jos North Local Government Area, did conspire amongst yourselves to commit offences relating to terrorism when you planned, organized, facilitated, aided, and contributed money to carry out the attack in Angwan Rukuba, Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court; you thereby committed the above offence.
“That you, Isa Umar Ibrahim, Musa Abubakar Ibrahim of Riyom Local Government Area, Auwalu Abubakar (A.K.A Auwalu Dogo) of Jos North Local Government Area, Musa Abubakar Ibrahim (A.K.A Yaroro) of Jos North Local Government Areas of Plateau State; and one Ado Ibrahim (Now at Large) of Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State, on the 28th day of March, 2025 at Farin Gada, Jos North Local Government Area, did commit the offence of terrorism when you planned, organized, facilitated, aided, contributed and received money to carry out an attack in Angwan Rukuba, which led to the death of over thirty (30) people in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court.”
Part of the particulars of Alhassan’s offence read, “That you Adamu Isah Alhassan together with one Ibrahim Musa (Now at Large), Imarana Sa’idu (Now at Large), Yusuf Sa’idu (Now at Large) Aliyu Usaini (Now at Large), Yahuza Adamu (Now at Large), Mubarak Yunusa (Now at Large), Yakubu, whose surname is unknown (Now at Large) and others also at large between the months of January to December, 2025 and in January, 2026 at Gwang, Rin Ward, Bachit and Bangai Villages of Riyom Local Government Area and Vom in Jos South Local Government Areas of Plateau State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did commit an illegal act to wit: Culpable Homicide Punishable with Death, when you armed yourselves with guns, attacked and killed the residents of Gwang, Rin Ward, Bachit and Bangai Villages of Riyom Local Government Area and Vom in Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State, and you thereby committed the above offence.”
Angwa-Rukuba Killings: Court orders suspects to remain in DSS’ custody
*Okays speedy trial
Breaking; Court Dismisses Sowore’s no-case submission in DSS’ charges of Cyberbulling Tinubu.
*Fixes May 19 to open defence
Justice Mohammed Garba Umar of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday dismissed the no-case submission made by politician-activist, Omoyele Sowore, in the charge of Cyberbullying President Bola Tinubu brought against him by the Department of the State Services (DSS).
The Court upheld DSS’ charges against Sowore for allegedly calling President Bola Ahmed Tinubu a “criminal” in his social media handles. The judge fixed May 19 for Sowore to enter his defence in the charges against him.
Sowore had filed the no-case submission and prayed the court to discharge and acquit him from the 2-count charge.
In the long ruling, Justice Umar punctured Sowore’s arguments that the DSS provided only one witness, that the victim, President Bola Tinubu, wasn’t invited to testify. He held that the DSS successfully linked Sowore to the alleged crime, and that the defendant did not deny posting the offensive messages online.
The judge further ruled that the Supreme Court has long established that any evidence, no matter how small that links a defendant to an alleged crime is sufficient to establish a prima facie case established against the defendant to warrant his defence in the allegations against him.
Shortly after the ruling, counsel to the DSS, Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN, told the court that he was ready to proceed with the trial. However, Sowore’s counsel, Marshall Abubakar, rose to appeal to the judge that his client has something important to tell the court. Even though counsel to the DSS protested the move, insisting that the rule was that a defendant may be represented in court by a counsel or by himself, not both, the judge allowed Sowore use the microphone to address the court.
He began by openly accusing the Judge of bias, and asked the judge to recuse himself, as he wasn’t sure of getting justice in his court.
He alleged that the judge was in cohort with the federal government convict him at all costs so as to prevent him from contesting the 2027 general election.
His counsel, Abubakar echoed the same sentiment, asking the Judge to return the case file to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for re-assignment to another judge,
The DSS lawyer, Akinlolu Kehinde SAN who had earlier asked the Judge not to grant audience to Sowore but his counsel on record, prayed that the recusal application be discarded.
In a brief ruling, Justice Umar ordered Sowore to file formal application for recusal and state his grievances,
He thereafter fixed May 19 for the defendant to open his defense.
Breaking; Court Dismisses Sowore’s no-case submission in DSS’ charges of Cyberbulling Tinubu
Troops arrest five suspects Fulani during cordon-and-search operation in Plateau
By:Zagazola Makama
Troops under Operation Enduring Peace have arrested five suspects during a coordinated cordon-and-search operation in Jol community and surrounding areas in Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State.
Security sources said the operation was launched at about 071120A on May 7 following a manhunt for individuals linked to an earlier isolated attack in the area.
The troops, operating under Sector 6, conducted sweeping searches within neighbouring settlements in an effort to track down those involved and prevent further escalation of violence.
During the exercise, five suspects were arrested from different locations within the operational area.
The arrested suspects were identified as Ibrahim Mamuda, 60; Abubakar Ahmed, 50; Suleiman Yakubu, 19; Sale Musa, 62; and Babangida Saleh, 25.
The sources said the suspects are currently in custody and undergoing interrogation as part of ongoing investigations into the attack.
They added that further operations are being sustained in the general area to ensure the arrest of other fleeing suspects and to stabilise the community.
Security presence has been reinforced in Jol and adjoining communities to prevent reprisals and maintain calm.
Troops arrest five suspects Fulani during cordon-and-search operation in Plateau
Angwa-Rukuba Killings: Court orders suspects to remain in DSS’ custody*Okays speedy trial
Breaking; Court Dismisses Sowore’s no-case submission in DSS’ charges of Cyberbulling Tinubu
Troops arrest five suspects Fulani during cordon-and-search operation in Plateau
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