Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi on Sunday revealed that several Boko Haram commanders are willing to surrender and urged the federal government to use proper engagement to negotiate with the group.

Gumi, who spoke to newsmen in Kaduna yesterday after hosting the released students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna also reiterated his call on the government to negotiate with bandits.

The cleric noted that information at his disposal revealed that many Boko Haram commanders were willing to surrender and be integrated into society.

He further disclosed that the bandits were also putting pressure on him to assist them with amnesty.

But with Boko Haram although we have reliable information from some contacts too that many of their commanders want to surrender; So, I think that with serious engagement and government involvement in these issues on a serious note, I think we will overcome. You see, in Nigeria, we are a tribal society. So, every group has elders that they listen to,” Gumi explained.

Gumi also disclosed that he had reached out to 80 per cent of the bandits’ leaders and they were willing to surrender, adding that the remaining 20 per cent were the ones still causing havoc.

He also argued that the government should engage the bandits and provide them with schools and amnesty so that they could live a normal life.

According to him, the bandits are not more than 100,000, adding that government should be able to provide for their needs.

The cleric revealed that the bandits that kidnapped the Kaduna Greenfield University students have also suspended their initial plan to kill the students and expressed the hope that they will also regain their freedom.

On whether ransom was paid for the release of the school of forestry students, Gumi said his team did not pay any ransom.

He, however, added that some parents, who were impatient, went behind his team to tell the bandits that they were willing to pay.

Gumi pointed out that he did not know if those parents paid ransom or not.

Reacting to the issue of whether the students were molested sexually or not, Gumi disclosed that a notorious bandit who wanted to take away a female student to unknown location to molest her was killed by his colleagues to prove the point that they were not irresponsible but were just agitating for better welfare

According to him, the bandits are different from the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the other groups agitating in the South because they believe in the government of Nigeria and other constituted authorities.

Earlier at the reception he held for the released Afaka students, Gumi asked them to put the ugly past behind them and pursue their education.

“My appeal to government is to engage with the bandits so that the bandits can abandon their ways.

They are already showing signs that they are ready. They have grievances, which I think if we come together we can cure this menace in a very short time,” he said.

He called for the cooperation of governments at all levels to resolve the security challenges.

“We want the cooperation of federal, state and local governments; the clergy and other well-meaning Nigerians should all come together to sit down and talk,” he said.

Asked how he secured the release of the students, Gumi said: “You don’t negotiate with your friend, you negotiate with your enemy. The first thing you do is to try and break the ice and break the barrier between you and the person you are negotiating with and also build confidence by demonstrating that you are not going to cheat them or deceive them.

“If there is that level of communication, then negotiation comes in the third phase.

These are people who have been involved in this kind of criminality for a long time, we have to use psychology on them because it is not possible over night to just consent.

“But preaching to them, admonishing them and showing them the way out of their problems helped a lot in getting them to understand and release these children.”

Also in his remarks former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was represented by Mr. Vitalis Ortese, congratulated everyone for making it possible for the release of the students and expressed the hope that “this will lead to the release of other persons in captivity.”

Speaking on behalf of the parents, Mr. Friday Sani, expressed gratitude to Gumi and Obasanjo for their roles in ensuring the release of the students.

He said: “We are here to appreciate the emancipating team led by Sheikh Gumi. He stood by us to the end. We are happy that our children are back to us.

“The leaders of tomorrow who will make this country proud. We want to give God the glory for what He has done for us.

We are praying that God will help them to overcome the trauma they went through.

“Some of us have been going in and out of hospitals for them to receive proper treatment.

“We need the support of the government to rehabilitate these children so that they will be fit enough to return to school. Today is a happy day for us.”

Meanwhile, the parents have dismissed speculations that the students were sexually molested while in captivity.

Meanwhile, a statement on Sunday in Kaduna, spokesman of the parents, Mr. Abdullahi Usman, said the speculations being circulated online that the students were sexually molested is not true.

Usman said while the parents were basking in the joy of having reunited with their children who were released unharmed.

“On behalf of the parents, we wish to set the records straight and hope that this will end the circulation of the fabrication of the stories. We state in unequivocal terms that none of the 37 kidnapped (now freed) Afaka students were sexually or homosexually molested by the bandits,” he said.

The Caretaker/ National Convention Planning Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is considering a 60-to-70-member strong convention planning committee.

Newsfocusng gathered on Sunday that while the Mai Mala Buni-led CNCPC has been putting finishing touches to the list of party officials to handle state congresses, it is also shopping for a chairman and members of its scheduled national convention.

A top-ranking member of the party caucus who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media on the issue, said, “The committee is finishing touches to the list of members of the state congresses which we expect them to release within a week or two.

“It is after this has been done that we expect the convention planning list to be made public.

“However, because of the shortage of time, a few things may be twerked to speed up the process because considering the variables, we really don’t have time on our side.”

In response to a question on the possible size of the convention committee, the source said, “We are looking at between 60 and 70, in order to accommodate as many of the tendencies within the party as possible.

“Of course, as has been the tradition, serving and former governors, Senators, members of the House of Reps, serving and former as well as serving and former party leaders will be given the opportunity to serve.

Exemptions will be made for those who are interested in contesting for any of the positions to avoid a conflict of interest.”

The source further said, “We are now very interested in how our congresses at the state level are held because it will determine a lot of things. Delates who will vote at the national convention will be elected from the Ward, Local Government and State levels. This is our procedure.”

Another top-ranking member of the party who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject said, “We are aware the opposition, especially the Peoples Democratic Party, is waiting for us.

“The truth is, whichever zone we pick our next National Chairman from will be a pointer to where our presidential candidate is likely to come from.”

The National Secretary of the CENCPC, Senator John Akpanudeoehe, declined comments on the time-table and schedule of activities.

However, our correspondent gathered that the party’s national caretaker committee will be meeting this week to finalise arrangements.

The committee is expected to present its proposal to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari and the caucus before it is made public.

Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) and the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond say Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has sacked over 60,000 workers since he took office in May 2015.

They, therefore, endorsed the five-day strike across Kaduna State which will begin on Monday.

ASCAB in a statement on Sunday called on all NLC affiliates and supporters to join the “essential strike” adding that a “firm action is needed to reverse the massive attacks on jobs and poverty induced insecurity in Kaduna State.”

Falana hinted that the economy of Kaduna was traditionally built around textile factories and the public sector but in the decade before the administration of el-Rufai, the last four major textile factories were closed with many of the workers not receiving any terminal benefits despite two of the factories being mainly owned by the governments of the northern states.

The activist said rather than seeking to address this economic decline, el-Rufai has retrenched perhaps 60,000 public sector workers and many have not received their due payments.

He further added that, “Kaduna State is now a dangerous state in Nigeria to live, work or visit in terms of the regularity of bloodshed, kidnappings and killings by bandits and ethno-religious inspired violence. The level of insecurity in Kaduna State today is a function of unprecedented, cruel anti-workers’ policy of the Kaduna State Government including repeated mass layoffs. The uncontrolled insecurity is, therefore, the ’harvest’ or product of the State’s anti-labour policies.”

The activist noted that in 2016, over 13,000 workers considered to be ghost workers, were dismissed. The following year another 40,000 public sector workers were retrenched.

Around half of these were teachers. The state arbitrarily pegged the pass mark for their competency test at an unprecedented 75 per cent. Many of these teachers did not receive any redundancy money.

From April of this year, the state government has been dismissing perhaps as many as another 17,000 workers. This includes 6,000 local government and primary health care workers who have all received their marching orders. The remaining 11,000 workers from the state ministries have been listed for dismissal on account of having spent 30 years and above in service and/or being on level 14 and above,” Falana said.

The senior advocate noted that pensioners who have earned pension for between five and 10 years and have ‘refused to die’ are no longer being paid.

He said the governor’s claim that these policies are necessary due to declining revenues is far from the truth.

“The state has plenty of money – ‘borrows’ from workers. Kaduna State Government has significantly increased its internally generated revenue over the last five years. IGR has increased by about 16 per cent a year in real terms (after taking into account inflation). So IGR is now about half the total income of the state despite the fact that the monthly FAAC allocations are now increasing again as crude oil prices have recovered from the Covid-19 dip,” he said.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mrs. Tomi Somefun has said that the bank will extend funding to 120,000 maize farmers.

She disclosed this while delivering a goodwill message at the unveiling of the first National Maize Pyramids and flag-off of wet season farming programmes held over the weekend in Katsina.

As a major stakeholder in the roll out of the CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), Unity Bank was invited to participate in the events marking the unveiling by the Maize Association of Nigeria, MAAN.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer who was represented by Head, Agribusiness unit of the bank, Mrs. Patricia Ahunanya, Somefun said the additional funding for 2021 wet season farming is “in furtherance to the Bank’s commitment towards supporting maize farmers” in the country.

She stated that the strategic partnership with the Maize Association of Nigeria commenced in 2019 with the financing of about 37,182 smallholder farmers, with the Bank increasing its financing tally to 70,604 smallholder farmers in 2020.

Commenting on the maize pyramid, Somefun stated that “The maize Pyramids will go down in history as the first maize pyramid in Nigeria which demonstrates not only the resilience of our farmers but also the commendable vision of the Federal Government of Nigeria through the implementing partners. This should be replicated in all states with a focus on the crops that have comparative advantage.”

She noted that with agriculture contributing over 26% to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, and employing about 50% of Nigeria’s working population in the rural areas, the Bank will continue to make strategic investments into the sector in line with the Federal Government’s quest to attain food sufficiency, diversify the economy away from oil, create jobs for the youth and reduce poverty.

She added: “Unity Bank is fully committed to its partnership with MAAN and this commitment will ensure the attainment of FGN/CBN target to meeting self-sufficiency in Maize production through the Association”.

Also speaking, the national President of MAAN, Dr. Abubakar Bello commended Unity Bank for its continued support of the farmers through its strategic role in providing the necessary financing to the maize farmers.

He said that; “We cannot appreciate enough our financing partners, especially Unity Bank. Today we have over 50,000 bags of maize in this pyramid, which will contribute significantly to Nigeria’s strategic grain reserves. This could not have been possible without the financing made possible by these partners. We commend them for this role and remain grateful.”

He restated the commitment of the association to continue to meet the financing obligations and sustain the drive for increased maize output in the 2021 wet season farming.

It would be recalled that recently, Unity Bank received similar commendation from Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, RIFAN over the Bank’s strategic role in providing the necessary support to the association to explore the opportunities provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme. RIFAN specially commended Mrs. Somefun for her leadership and doggedness in supporting the rice farmers through the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, which is playing a critical role in Nigeria’s quest to attain self-sufficiency in rice production.

The PDP Governors’ Forum is scheduled to meet today to review the current state of the nation.

The Director-General of the forum, Hon. C.I.D. Maduabum, said that the forum would deliberate on issues on national security and the economy.

Maduabum in a statement made available to newsmen on Sunday in Abuja stated that the governors elected under the platform of the PDP would meet in Ibadan, Oyo State.

The meeting will further review the current state of the nation, especially issues of national security and the economy, and also fine-tune strategies to support PDP as a viable and necessary alternative to the All Progressives Congress administration.”

Maduabum said that the meeting, expected to be attended by the 15 governors elected under PDP, would be presided over by the Forum Chairman, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, while Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State would be the Chief Host.

Imagine, the traumatic torture of pregnant women who daily see, hear of the deaths of a fellow pregnant women dying from complications relating to pregnancy and child births.

Unfortunately, Nigeria with over 160 million people contributes 10 percent of the world annual maternal death. The figure stands at 52,000 deaths per annum from complications relating to pregnancy and child births, this is alarming.

Statistically, 4,400 Nigerian pregnant women die on monthly basis, 144 die every day, making it 6 deaths every hour and 1 maternal death every 10 minutes due to pregnancy and child births which are preventable.

From these frightening figures, one is tempted to ask what the causes are, what the government is doing to effectively addressed the issue in order to reverse the inevitable death toll of our pregnant mothers.

To this end, Development Communications Network (DevComs), under its NOTAGAIN Campaign project, supported by MacArthur Foundation, recently conducted a field trip for health reporters with keen interest in Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) reporting.

The field trip is an activity under the MacArthur funded project to strengthen Maternal Health Accountability in Nigeria. The Maternal Health field policy tour focuses on selected low-income and underserved communities in Jigawa, Abuja, Kaduna and Lagos state in Nigeria. In Abuja, the field trip was to Katampe, a suburb of Mpape in Bwari Area council of the Federal Capital Territory.

As part of the team that visited Katampe, it was unbelievable at the sight of inhabitants of the community. In terms of structures and setting, Katampe can best be described as one of the dirtiest slum settlements situated on the outskirts of FCT.

Ironically, Katampe has Maitama, an FCT highbrow area as its nearest town, yet it is in the shadow of its own as it lacks several lives aiding social amenities. The houses are ramshackled, and the residents are in miserable living conditions. In front and back of houses as well as open places are heaps of refuse dumps with putrefying odour and flies hovering on them. With its macadamised road, movement during rainy season is almost impossible as evidenced by the red earth surface, which is always slippery and muddy when touched by rain.

During dry season, the reddish dust that comes from the red sand certainly will not allow people to pass through for fear of developing respiratory ailment as a result of inhalation of the dust. The population is intimidating as children, between ages five to nine years were seen in clusters playing with sand and dirty water while some of the women were seen with wrapper tide round their chest region discussing in groups.

As a result of the squalor and deplorable living condition of Katampe people, many believed that health facilities in the area will play host to a large number of villagers in search of medical attention. But that is not to be, as findings revealed that the villagers have no health facility. The only clinic situated in Mpape, is about 5km away from Katampe.

Imagining what life would be for inhabitants of a densely populated community like Katampe when hit by an epidemic and dire need for healthcare, informed further investigation into how pregnant women cope in the area. Village Head of Katampe,  Alhaji Adamu Diga lamented the absence of life aiding amenities in the village, particularly a medical facility.

 Diga also said they are in dire need of police presence in the area. He expressed dismay that since the origin of Katampe village, “there is no dispensary, no hospital”.

Speaking through an interpreter, the village Chief revealed that the nearest clinic is located in Mpape. “A times, we go to as far as Maitama, inside the Federal Capital Territory to get medical attention”.

On the issue of pregnant women in the village giving birth at home, the chief admitted that some women do put to bed at home instead of going to hospital. “Some pregnant women do give birth at home; we have some nurses residing in the village that help out during emergency” the chief stated. However, he said no case of death upon delivery at home has been recorded in the village.

Hadiza Sani, 26 years old, mother of three said she delivered all her children at home without going to hospital. Mrs Sani, who spoke in passable English said, “I deliver these my three children at home. There is no problem at all”.

She emphasised her not going to hospital to give birth is not for lack of money. “Why I deliver my baby at home is not because of money to pay for hospital, but because my husband does not permit me. May be it has to do with their tradition”. She said her last born is about two years, adding that she has not applied any birth control measure.

Another pregnant woman, Mrs Serah Tanko also said she does not go to hospital to give birth. The 39 years old mother disclosed that out of her five children, four were delivered at home. “I give birth at home, I do not go to hospital, and it is far from us. When labour comes, it is God that helps me, when am in labour late in the night and remember that our bad road to Mpape, i quickly go to the Nurse”.

Sometimes, when I notice signs of labour, before I will prepare to go to hospital, I will deliver in the house” Mrs Tanko said. She posited that, “If there is a clinic or dispensary in my village Katampe , honestly, I will like to give birth there”.

For Gloria Yusuf, another pregnant woman, “I deliver at the hospital. I normally register for ante natal at Mpape clinic, although it is a bit far in terms of when I am in labour, but it is the nearest hospital to us”. The mother of two kids said, “When I am in labour, I manage to look for motor bike to go to Mpape clinic. It is usually painful and stressful passing through that rough road but God is always on my side”.

More so, she admitted not to have witnessed any death of a woman as a result of child birth at home. However, Mrs Yusuf claimed that most of the women that like delivering their babies do so due to lack of money to settle hospital bills.

Eight months pregnant lady who simply identified herself as Godiya said she would not like to put to bed at hospital.

Although she confirmed registering for ante natal at Mpape hospital, Godiya said, “this is my first pregnancy, I will like to deliver the baby at home”. Effort to make her state her reason proved abortive as she vehemently refused to utter any other word.

In view of the revelations made by some of the pregnant women interviewed, Daily Newswatch findings revealed that the acclaimed nurses are not professional midwives. In a chat with a medicine seller in the village popularly called nurse, she admitted assisting pregnant women in the village to give birth.

She said over the years, she has gained experience in assisting women deliver their babies, adding that she got her training in 2006 at a private health care centre in Anambra state. Mrs Jacinta relived how she carries out her child delivery session. “When a pregnant woman comes to me, I will first of all ask her series of questions as well as find out if she is in labour; if in labour, I will pray and then start the delivery process. I have a stethoscope, hand glove etc. “Most of the pregnant women usually come to me if labour hooks them in the night” she said.

“I normally charge N2000 per delivery, and if there is bleeding, I refer the woman to Maitama General Hospital. Since I started assisting the pregnant women to give birth, no death has been recorded except one baby that died after 2 days in the mother’s house” Mrs Jacinta revealed. She recounted a sordid experience she had last month.

“A pregnant woman came to me around 6:30am one Sunday morning. When she came I checked her and found out that she was in labour. When she was pushing, the ‘pikin’ (baby) was coming out through the back. We rushed her to Mpape clinic but they rejected her. It was at Maitama General Hospital that she was operated upon to save the mother and the baby” she narrated.

“After delivery, I usually advise them to go to the hospital to take BCG injection for the baby. Before childbirth, I conduct HIV test because I have the kit. Besides, I do not allow blood or body fluid of the pregnant woman to touch me, I put on gloves. In the last one month, I have delivered four women of their pregnancy” Madam Jacinta revealed. However, she appealed to government to train her professionally and provide equipment for her to carry on with her humanitarian services to pregnant women in the area.

For Esther Ologundudu, a pregnant mother of 3 children, she said only one was delivered in Katampe, but the other two were born in her village. She disclosed that the one she gave birth to in Katampe died after two years as a result of stomach upset.

According to her, “I will like to go deliver my baby here in Katampe because it is easy for me”. “When I am in labour, I will not have difficulty passing through that our bad road. If labour happens late in the night, what will I do?” Ologundudu queried. On whether she was tested for HIV during her childbirth in Katampe, Esther said, “I have not heard about HIV”.

In view of the predicament and agonizing way of life of the villagers particularly the pregnant women, most of the inhabitants said the only thing that would make life meaningful and worth living is when they have access to portable water, good roads and a health facility.