News
Verification: Zulum mulls pardon for erring workers

Verification: Zulum mulls pardon for erring workers
… ‘We are happy with Borno Govt’, says NLC chair
By: Our Reporter
Governor Babagana Umara Zulum on Monday met with labour leaders after which he revealed that he was considering government pardon for some categories of workers who have spent years in the civil service before they were identified with various irregularities during verification exercises.
Zulum said the pardon was to cushion the effects of economic difficulties being faced by citizens across the state, which he said was biting harder on families of persons either on suspension, without jobs or at the risk of losing jobs.
The governor had a closed door meeting with representatives of labour affiliates led by chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, in Borno State, Comrade Yusuf Inuwa, at the Council
Chamber of the Government House in Maiduguri.
The meeting was also attended by the acting Head of Service, Barrister Mallum Fannami.
While responding to questions he was asked by journalists, Zulum gave highlights of the closed door meeting.
The governor spoke in the presence of labour leaders:
“Generally, the labour union came to appreciate the government of Borno State for some of our activities concerning workers, particularly on the implementation of promotional benefits. All those officers that were promoted from 2016 to 2018 have received their promotional benefits. However, we have those that were inadvertently omitted. I have given a directive that all those that were omitted should be paid this month. We have paid workers promoted in 2016, 2017 and 2018, and then government will look into the possibility of paying promotional benefits for those promoted in 2019, and 2020, insha’Allah” Zulum said.
… Pardon for workers affected by verification
When asked by journalists on the fates of workers fingered by verification committees for different offenses such as fake employment letters, fake certificates and other documents et cetera, Governor Zulum had this to say:
“As you know, I have since set up a committee to review the fates of all workers with issues. The committee under the SSG is working hard to submit a report to me soonest. We have workers that were erroneously affected by the exercise and insha’Allah we are ever ready to correct all the anomalies and ensure that those that were wrongly affected are cleared for them to continue their work. And even for those that have committed some offenses, we are all human beings, and we all know that times are very hard now even for people who have jobs and get paid not to talk of those with issues at work. Insha’Allah, we will consider pardoning many with some categories of offenses. If someone has worked for 20 years or 30 years, we should listen to him or her and help. No one is beyond offenses”, Zulum said.
The governor urged all affected workers to be patient.
“Very soon we will look into their plight” Zulum said.
… ‘We are happy with Borno Govt’, says NLC chair
The Labour is happy with how Borno State Government under Governor Zulum has been paying attention to the welfare of workers, chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, in Borno State, Comrade Yusuf Inuwa has said.
Inuwa spoke to journalists shortly after a closed door meeting with Governor Zulum on Monday in Maiduguri.
The chairman said labour was happy with payment of promotional benefits outstanding since 2016, the governor’s compassionate decision to pardon erring workers, his regular payment of salaries, pensions and outstanding gratuities, allocation of houses to some workers and lots more.
Inuwa however noted that they raised issues of minimum wage for local government workers to start benefiting which Zulum has since been implementing for workers at the state level.
The governor had in response promised resolving the issues of minimum wage at the LG levels soon as committee in place completes its task of identifying the actual number of valid workers, and ascertaining the genuine cost of implementing the minimum wage because at the moment, there is no credible pathway to be relied upon for the implementation.
Verification: Zulum mulls pardon for erring workers
News
Airstrike Hits ISWAP Enclave in Tumbuma Baba, scores Nutrialised

Airstrike Hits ISWAP Enclave in Tumbuma Baba, scores Nutrialised
By: Zagazola Makama
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF), under the Air Component of Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK), conducted a successful Air Interdiction (AI) mission at a terrorists’ hideout in the Southern Tumbuns general area in the Lake Chad of Borno, killing scores of the terrorists.
Intelligent sources told Zagazola Makama that the precision air strike, which took place at about 2100 hours on 5 May 2025, targeted a major terrorists’ concentration camp located in the Tumbuma Baba axis of Lake Chad.
The sources said that the offensive was in continuation of a decisive Operation KALACHEN WUTA II, aimed at denying terrorists the freedom to execute large-scale attacks during the Eid el-Kabir period.
The sources said that Intelligence and Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) reports confirmed that several terrorists were neutralised during the strike, and key logistics under heavy foliage were destroyed.
The sources said that the strikes followed credible intelligence on planned coordinated attacks by the insurgents before, during, and after the Eid festivities. The mission was meticulously planned and executed to forestall such threats and sustain pressure on terrorist elements operating in the Lake Chad fringes.
“We observed significant secondary explosions, indicating the presence of arms and fuel storage. Multiple terrorists were seen fleeing the area, while several others were eliminated during the strike,” the source said.
The sources said efforts are ongoing to gather further feedback, as well as to assess the operational impact of the interdiction.
He added that preliminary signs suggest a high level of disarray and panic within the terrorists’ ranks, with reports of attempted regrouping under surveillance.
Airstrike Hits ISWAP Enclave in Tumbuma Baba, scores Nutrialised
News
Nigerian Air Force Neutralises Terrorists in Successful Air Interdiction at Maisani

Nigerian Air Force Neutralises Terrorists in Successful Air Interdiction at Maisani
By: Zagazola Makama
The Nigerian Air Component of Operation Hadin Kai have executed a coordinated strike on a major terrorist enclave located at Maisani in the Timbuktu Triangle general area of Borno State, killing several ISWAP terrorists.
Intelligence sources told Zagazola Makama that the air interdiction mission conducted on May 4, 2025, at approximately 1800 hours, was informed by credible intelligence and sustained surveillance, targeted terrorists’ structures cleverly concealed and camouflaged under thick shrubs in the area.
The sources said that using advanced platforms, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) conducted a focused Air Interdiction (AI) mission, resulting in the destruction of the identified enemy hideouts and the neutralisation of an unconfirmed number of insurgent fighters.
According to the sources, Post-strike Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) obtained from our Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms confirmed that the airstrike achieved its intended objectives, dealing a significant blow to terrorists.
Nigerian Air Force Neutralises Terrorists in Successful Air Interdiction at Maisani
News
Nigeria Looks to World Bank to Tackle Challenges of National Capital Accounting

Nigeria Looks to World Bank to Tackle Challenges of National Capital Accounting
By: Michael Mike
As the world marks the 2025 Environment Day, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has appealed to the World Bank for support on capacity building, data and in addressing the challenges poised by Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) in the country.
Head of Department, National Accounts Energy and Environment at the NBS, Dr. Baba Madu made the appeal at the 2025 Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) Conference on Thursday in Abuja with support from the World Bank in. collaboration with the NBS and the Federal Ministry of Environment.
Madu while noting that the NCA was a new area Nigeria must exploit to further boost the nation’s economy, said for Nigeria to grow and be at par with other developed nations, there was need to account for her natural resources.
He said: “NCA has been tasked with the crucial role of integrating natural capital into economic measurement. It is impossible to measure the economy accurately without accounting for natural resources. Issues such as environmental degradation, afforestation, desertification, and climate change all directly impact productivity.
“Productivity in turn, influences output—one of the core components of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). These environmental factors must be reflected across all economic activity sectors to present a more accurate picture of national output.”
While stating that Nigeria currently has data on NCA in Nigeria, the NBS official however raised concerns over the huge data gap from relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the environment sector.
He said: “We are not doing badly but we need to improve on what we are doing. In terms of data sources, I can tell you there’s a big gap because these are new areas needed to be exploited.”
Programme Leader on Sustainable Development at the World Bank, Vina Vutukuru, said there was need to jointly
explore the vital role of national accounting in national development plans and to brainstorm on how Nigeria could institutionalize it.
He said: “Establishing the national capital accounting as part of the national account system will allow us to measure the economic value of ecosystem services such as clean air, water and biodiversity which are essential for our well-being and economic prosperity.”
Vutukuru commended Nigeria for having “very bold ambitions” as far as responding to climate change was concerned saying, “That shows the commitment of the policy makers here towards the issue of climate.
“But I think to back up that aspiration and the aggressive goals that Nigeria has set for itself, the foundational thing for those goals to materialize those objectives to come true is a very strong natural account system.”
Head of Media, National Council on Climate Change Secretariat (NCCCS), Chioma Azie who represented her Director General, Dr. Nkiruka Maduekwe at the event, described Nigeria as a very ambitious country, stressing that natural resources was instrumental to achieving all the objective of climate action.
She said: “Technology, policy reforms, behavioral changes has a role to play but natural resources is very key because they’re underpinning the mitigation and adaptation for climate action.
“If you look at Nigeria’s NDC, the NCA is an avenue to provide raw materials that we could use to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies.
“If you look at what we have done in terms of this NDC in 2020.which is the second leg of the NDC, we identified a lot of mitigation activities within this mentioned sectors of ours. In agricultural sector we talked about smart agriculture. What is smart agriculture without natural resources?
“We talked about biomass, what is biomass without natural resources? We also spoke about land use changes and that is natural resources, we talk about natural solutions and we talked about also afforestation, reafforestation. Those are mitigation potentials of our NDC. So, we cannot achieve our NDC without SEEA.
“What you cannot be able to account for is recorded as if it is not done so if we know what is existing in terms of the reservoirs we have for natural resources, it can inform the scope of the mitigation activities we’re going to be imputing in the NDC 3.0,” she said.
Nigeria Looks to World Bank to Tackle Challenges of National Capital Accounting
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