News & Announcements

According to the Federal Government, at least 15 million children are employed as child laborers throughout the nation.

Even as the ILO bemoaned the approximately 160 million children who were actively working as minors around the world.

Kachollom Daju, the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, said the government was not resting on its oars in its efforts to see that the fight against child labor and forced labor was reduced to the bare minimum, if not entirely eradicated, after learning that 15 million children were working as children.

In the interest of the nation, she noted, children who were viewed as future leaders shouldn’t be exposed to such practices at a young age but should instead be loved and given proper care.

Daju stated, “Child labour is a multi dimensional development concern. It cuts across various lines: economic, social, religious, cultural and regional divides. 

”The worst forms of child labour constitute exploitation and gross violation of human rights for both boys and girls, causing physical, emotional, and mental consequences for the child. Such violations take place at the household level, community level, institutions, and business areas.

“In Nigeria, child labour has become a scourge. Several children find themselves on the streets, forced to make a living, with others employed in industrial complexes and hazardous environments.

“This is attributable to various factors, such as poverty, ignorance, unemployment, absence of social security for the vulnerable, misinterpretation of cultural and religious beliefs and weak institutional framework.

“Statistics reveal that there are no fewer than 15 million child workers in Nigeria; this is according to the ILO, with the UN warning that the absence of mitigating strategies could see an exponential increase in the number of children engaged in child labour.”

“This, of course, will certainly have massive implications for the future.

“As a country however, we take pride in stating that giant strides have been made in dealing with this menace, most notably the adoption and ratification of ILO Conventions 138 and 182 on Minimum Age and Worst forms of Child Labour respectively; the passage of the Child Rights Act into law to domesticate the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by 35 state governments and the FCT; the review and the validation of the National Policy on Child Labour and the National Action Plan on the Elimination of Child Labour, Prohibition and Elimination of Forced Labour, Modern Slavery, and Human Trafficking in workplaces spearheaded by the Federal  Ministry of Labour and Employment, amongst many other achievements.”

Similar to this, the International Labour Organization (ILO) condemns the approximately 160 million children who are currently working as children worldwide.

At a stakeholders meeting over the weekend in Abuja, Ms. Venessa Phala, Director of the ILO Country Office for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Liaison Office for ECOWAS, stated that children have a right to better lives rather than being subjected to forced labor practices just to supplement their parents’ income.

The ILO Convention on the World of Work, according to Phala, is violated by the practice of employing minors as laborers.

She said, “We all know that the number of children engaging in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide, which is represents an increase of 8.4 million children when compared with the last report.

“In eradicating the scourge of child labour and force labour in Nigeria, concerted efforts are required from all stakeholders, part of which is the development of monitoring infrastructure to determine and measure its magnitude, distribution, dimensions and characteristics at the national and sub-national levels.”

The United Kingdom has criticised a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Mr Femi Fani-Kayode, over controversial comments made during the electoral season.

British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ben Llewellyn-Jones, during an interview with Nigeria Info, said the APC presidential campaign spokesman made derogatory remarks.

While marketing Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, presidential candidate of the ruling party who eventually won the election, Fani-Kayode came down hard on other candidates and their parties.

The Department of State Services summoned him after he tweeted that Atiku Abubakar, presidential flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party, had a meeting with some top generals before the elections.

Commenting on the events that shaped the polity in the build-up to the election, Llewellyn-Jones said, “Yes, let’s be specific, there were some people, like Femi Fani-Kayode, what is he saying and why is he saying it? I don’t understand.

“It is wrong from my perspective that he will speak on behalf of a party and that party does not distance itself from him and say stop doing that. It is wrong to say that.”

Llewellyn-Jones reiterated the fact that the UK government would issue visa bans to people undermining democracy.

According to him, there are about 10 persons already on the watchlist.

“We have a list, we are working through our list but we don’t publish those names. I know people say we should, but we have laws, and the law prevents us from doing that.

“At the moment the list is between 5 and 10 and it is growing,” he added.

Married cheating couple that was recently found sexually stuck, has been taken to a traditional healer after four prophets failed to separate the two despite them applying anointing oil on their private parts and drinking three cases of anointing water.

After failing to raise a K40, 000 which the husband to the wife caught was demanding, affected family members started looking for the husband who later switched off his mobile phone and is suspected to have gone back to his home country Tanzania.

Owner of the wife yesterday sent a message to his wife stating that he warned her against cheating and he could no longer stand the shame of living with a wife who allows sexual bluetooth connections with everyone.

The stuck couple which has attracted a lot of mixed reactions from society, was yesterday afternoon taken to a traditional healer Dr Jemba who is up to now still failing to separate the two despite demanding for K20, 000 which he got and used K6, 000 to get other unlocking charms from his friends which have not worked.

The couple say they are feeling unimaginable pain in their private parts and finding it difficult to urinate as the man is just urinating inside the woman.

‘We are using chambers to defacate in front of the people around because we can’t do it with the help of others,’ the couple complains.

Facts of the matter are that husband to the wife caught with another man was demanding for K40,000 cash to unlock them after they got stuck while having sex.

Family to the man caught with someone’s wife only managed to raise K18,500. 

Separating the two has failed by all means and only the owner of the wife has the magical key to unlock the two secret but now public lovers.

Sources familiar with the charm used say to separate the two, sperms from a half blind (has one eye 👁️) male black and brown dog, fresh faeces of a coloured female virgin, a dirty pant of the mother to the man caught and other charms from the bush are needed.

United States’ Vice President, Kamala Harris, would this weekend begin a three-country tour of Africa as the United States seeks to pitch itself as a better partner than China, which has invested heavily in the continent over several decades.

Harris will be in Ghana from March 26 to 29, and then in Tanzania from March 29 to 31. Her final stop is Zambia, where she will be from March 31 to April 1. She will meet the three countries’ presidents and plans to announce public and private sector investments.

Harris will discuss China’s engagement in technology and economic issues in Africa that concern the US, as well as China’s involvement in debt restructuring, senior US officials said.

Zambia, the first African country to default on its sovereign debt during the COVID-19 pandemic, is working with its creditors, including China, to reach an agreement.

“We’re not asking our partners in Africa to choose,” an official told Reuters news agency, describing the competition with China, although he added that the US has “real concerns about some of China’s behaviour in Africa” and its “opaque” business dealings.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Harris would discuss the best ways for the international community to address debt challenges faced by Ghana and Zambia.

The White House hosted an Africa Leaders Summit in December, and President Joe Biden is expected to travel to the continent later this year.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Ethiopia and Niger this March, less than a year after visiting South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Morocco, Algeria and Rwanda.

The slew of recent engagements is a deviation from Washington’s stance under Biden’s predecessor, Republican President Donald Trump, who largely ignored the continent, and it comes as Russia deepens military engagements across Francophone Africa.

Harris, who visited her maternal grandfather as a little girl while he worked there, is “looking forward to returning to Lusaka, which is a part of her family’s story and a source of pride”, one of the officials said.

On her tour, Harris will also meet young leaders and business representatives and discuss topics such as climate change and food insecurity.

In Imo State, three members of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps are said to have been killed by unidentified gunmen.

The village of Obiangwu in the state’s Ngor Okpala Local Government Area is in disarray as a result of the tragedy that occurred in the EkeIsu market.

The murdered corps were targeted early on Monday, according to a community source who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity.

He noted that security operatives had gained control of the neighborhood and claimed that the NSCDC officers were traveling in a vehicle when they were attacked and killed by their assailants.

As at the time this report was filed, it was learned that the victims’ dead remains were still at the scene.

The source said, “Three operatives of the NSCDC were killed last night at EkeIsu market in Obiangwu Community in the Ngor Okpala LGA of Imo State. They were ambushed while in their vehicle. Their bodies have not been evacuated as we speak. Soldiers have taken over the community.”

The state’s police spokesperson, Henry Okoye, who confirmed the deaths of the three NSCDC employees, said that security officers had entered the neighborhood and returned everything to normal when he was contacted.

He said he’d make a comment on the incident later.

A notorious militia in the eastern Democratic Republic Congo reportedly executed 17 hostages on Sunday, according to local sources.

According to local community leader Banguneni Gbalande, at least 17 prisoners held by CODECO insurgents in the Djugu territory, 45 kilometers (30 miles) north of Bunia in Ituri province, were killed.

The families of some of those killed, according to Gbalande, informed him of the situation.

Another regional traditional elder, Toko Kagbanese, told AFP that the “hostages are dead, they have been executed by the CODECO militia.”

The Cooperative for the Development of the Congo (CODECO) is one of the numerous military organizations present in the unrest-ridden, mineral-rich area.

According to a local in Bambu, one of the two villages assaulted on Saturday, the residents were held hostage after three CODECO members were slain in an altercation with an opposing militia. A pregnant woman was among those held hostage, according to the source, who wished to remain anonymous for security concerns.

In the gold-rich Ituri province, dozens of people have been slaughtered every week since the end of 2022.

30 individuals, including women and children, have died in a string of atrocities that have been attributed to CODECO fighters in recent days.

A militia known as CODECO claims to defend the Lendu community from the army and the Hema, a different ethnic community.

Many armed organizations, many of which are a result of local wars that erupted in the 1990s and 2000s, are present throughout Eastern Congo.

One of the high-violence areas is the province of Ituri, where attacks routinely result in the deaths of dozens of people.

Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, the PDP’s National Chairman, has been immediately suspended from the party.

The Gboko Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State’s Igyorov Ward of the party’s Ward Executive carried out Dr. Ayu’s suspension.

Dr. Ayu was suspended by the Executive for alleged anti-party activities, according to Mr. Vangeryina Dooyum, who spoke to the media yesterday on behalf of Kashi Philip, the ward chairman.

The National Chairman was suspended after the leadership examined his behavior following the recently completed general elections, according to a statement read by the Secretary that was signed by 12 of the 17 members of the Ward Executive.

Backed by the Chairman and other members, the Secretary said, “We observed with utmost dismay that, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu who is the National Chairman of the PDP worked against the success of the party in Igyorov Council Ward.

“It is on record that, he has also failed to pay his Annual Subscription Fees as provided under Section 8 (9) of the constitution of the PDP 2017 (As Amended).

“Further investigation also revealed that, he did not vote during the Governorship and State Assembly Elections held on March 18, 2023.

“It was also discovered that most of his closest allies worked for the opposition party, the All Progressive Congress, APC, and hence, the abysmal performance of the PDP in Igyorov Ward.

“In view of the foregoing, we hereby pass a Vote of No Confidence on Dr Iyorchia Ayu and suspend him as a member of our party with immediate effect. The suspension takes effect from March 24, 2023.”

Osun State’s current governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, claims that the state’s former governor, Gboyega Oyetola, failed to congratulate him on his victory at the Appeal Court.

Adeleke, who expressed a willingness to collaborate with the former governor, claimed not to have heard from Oyetola.

The governor made this statement on Monday’s episode of the Arise TV Morning Show.

“I contacted the former Governor Oyetola as soon as I heard about the Appeal Court (judgment) to ask him to help us move Osun forward. However, as of right now, he has not called to congratulate me, and I’m still hopeful that he will since we don’t have any other states here besides Osun State. So let’s work together to advance Osun State; I’m ready; my hands are open,” Adeleke stated.

Adeleke reversed his position on contacting Oyetola when asked what he would like to say to the former governor and said he never called him.

“Well let me correct it, I did not say I put a call to him, what I said is I’m still expecting him to call me so that he can congratulate me, and if he wants to do otherwise and go ahead to the Supreme Court, he has the right to do that,” the governor said.

He stated his desire to collaborate with Oyetola once more.

The governor added that he had God and his people on his side and that he was not scared of the Supreme Court.

Femi Fani-Kayode, a former aviation minister, confronted Ben Llewellyn-Jones, the British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, once more after the official criticized him for remarks he made during the just-completed election campaign in Lagos State.

On Sunday, Llewellyn-Jones bemoaned the failure of the ruling APC to disassociate itself from Fani-divisive Kayode’s remarks, to which the former aviation minister responded in a series of tweets on Sunday night by saying he wouldn’t be scared by a “British civil servant.”

Fani-Kayode, who is also a member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, dared the British envoy to do his worst in a new tweet on Monday morning, stating he had no fear of anyone.

He stated in the tweet, “Permit me to add the following addendum to my earlier personal response to the little Englander. I ask, who is this strange little British diplomat who believes he can tell us what Lagos state should be like in terms of ethnic make-up and how it should be run?

“He has accused me of hate speech and incitement simply because I said Lagos is not a no man’s land and that the Yoruba ought to be respected in their territory. Well let me say clearly and categorically that I have no apology for saying this and I stand by every word I said. We do not need any lessons from him. Foreign diplomats come to this country to enhance our relationship with theirs and not to give us lectures.

“They are not supposed to interfere in our internal affairs, to be partial, to tell us what to do or to tell us how to do it. They are meant to observe in studied silence and make their concerns and representations, if any, known privately. They cannot get into the political ring of fire.”

“Foreign ambassadors shouldn’t instruct people on how to vote, who to vote for, or even what deity to worship,” he continued.

Challenging the British envoy to do his worst, Fani-Kayode said, “That strange little bald man with slooping shoulders at the British Embassy has really got a nerve. I will take up this matter formally. His diplomatic immunity is not absolute: it is qualified. He is therefore subject to our laws.

“As for his threats, I challenge him to do his very worst. We are not your slaves. Nigeria is an independent sovereign nation. We are no longer a colony. To hell with him and those that are egging him on and licking his feet. I am FFK: I fear no-one and I bow before no man.”

He continued by claiming that the British government’s hands were also not free of dirt because their “strong economy was built on the blood, sweat, and tears of Irish, African, and Indian slaves.”

“The days of dictation are long gone. What they are trying to do in our country and to our country will not work. Bola Tinubu won a free and fair election and, whether they like it or not, he will be sworn in on May 29th 2023.

“Those that want to impose an ING on our nation and follow it up with a civil war in an attempt to dismember and destroy her shall not prevail. Nigeria shall remain united, shall be at peace, shall flourish, shall we excel and democracy shall be alive and well in our nation for many years to come,” he added.

Note that the UK Minister of State for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell MP, had stated last week that he was willing to take action against anyone who participated in or incited electoral violence during the just-completed general elections.

In a statement made yesterday, Llewellyn-Jones stated that the UK was already compiling the names of the offenders and would impose sanctions, “including preventing people from obtaining UK visas or imposing sanctions under our human rights sanctions regime.”

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), according to the All Progressives Congress (APC), is attempting to hide its involvement in the March 18 Delta governorship election rigging.

This was said in a statement made on Sunday in Asaba by Dr. Timi Tonye, the Deputy Director of Media and Publicity for the Delta APC campaign organization.

According to Tonye, the PDP presidential campaign council spokesperson and the state’s commissioner for information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, had expressed concern that the rigging might be discovered quickly.

“Aniagwu said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) issued stringent guidelines to state Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) on the issuance of Certified True Copies (CTCs) of electoral documents for litigation by parties and candidates.

“He said that INEC was specific in directing its RECs to compare the result in form EC8A with what is recorded on the IReV portal before issuing CTCs.

“Aniagwu is demanding from INEC, a blatant breach of the provisions of the Electoral Law which spells out clearly the process of collating and announcing the results of the governorship election.

“It is most ridiculous for anyone to request INEC not to implement the Electoral Law and INEC’s own rules in regard to issuing of the Certified True Copies of results of the governorship election in Delta,” he said.

He stressed, “It is even more absurd to impugn ‘circumvention of justice’ in the statement the PDP issued when in truth they are the people that are attempting to pervert justice by their now notorious BVAS by-pass in the just concluded elections.

“The impudence and mendacity of that demand is offensive and deeply insulting to the sensibilities of the Delta electorate, who have been cheated out of the true results of the election they keenly participated in.

“The PDP, their sympathizers and co-travellers are aware of the egregious falsifications of the results of the Delta governorship election and the utter falsehood in the announced results, wants the bogus and falsified results published by the collation officers in the state’s INEC office to stand and not controverted by the correct counts of accreditations recorded by IReV.

“The PDP does not want the upload of results from across the state into the national database BVAS to be used to verify the results published by the Delta collation officers.

”This is the reason PDP wants the Certified True Copy of the election result issued in Asaba.

“The fear of verification of the announced results has petrified the PDP. The sheer volume of the diabolism, rigging and other actions to steal an election PDP clearly lost must be resisted by every patriotic citizen of Delta.

“As we proceed to seek justice in the matter of the 2023 governorship election, we ask the citizens of the state to be vigilant, steadfast and rally around the APC to safeguard democracy in Delta and the integrity of the 2023 governorship election.

”We are determined to return the stolen mandate to the true winner of the 2023 governorship election”.