COURT REMANDS TWO WAZOBIA FM JOURNALISTS

TWO journalists and one other person were remanded in the police custody over a seven-count charge that included criminal conspiracy, abetment, inciting disturbance, intentional insult, defamation of character, obstruction of public servant in discharge of his duties, among others. Chief Magistrate Ibrahim Bello of Magistrate’s Court 17 Gyadi-Gadi ordered for the continued detention of Yakubu Musa Fagge, Mubarak Muhammad Sani of Wazobia Radio. And the other person was Abubakar Rabo Abdulkarim. The defendants pleaded not guilty of all the count charges. Their defence counsel, Musa Adamu Aliyu, applied for the bail of the defendants, citing relevant sections of the constitution and other cases. The prosecutor, Sergeant Sadiq Na-Abba, pleaded that the defendants should not be granted bail on the basis that the police were still investigating the case. The defence counsel assured that the defendants, when granted bail, would not interfere with police investigation. Chief Magistrate Bello ordered that they remain in police detention for the next two days, pending his ruling on the application of bail. He added that they should be given unconditional access to their families, their lawyers and all other constitutional guarantees. It would be recalled that last week Wazobia Radio, Kano, aired a programme locally referred to Sandar Girma (mixed-grilled programme), where the producer of the programme, Yakubu Musa Fagge, gave an account of how their reporter was manhandled by the aides of one traditional ruler and the interim management officer of one local council areas in the state. The said event took place in Abubakar Rabo’s residence, who rejected polio vaccinators to vaccinate his children. The dramatic encounter was aired by Yakubu Musa, where he warned that he would start disclosing what polio was all about to the hearing of the public. Coincidentally, two days after that programme, unknown gunmen killed nine female polio vaccinators. That also led to the arrest of the above-mentioned people, including the Head of Programmes of the Wazobia Radio station, Mallam Muhammad Sulaiman Gama. But Gama was released two days after their arrest. Meanwhile, the Jigawa State Police Command has challenged local council authorities along the Nigeria/Niger border towns to be more concerned on security by assisting security operatives in such domain with the useful information. The Commissioner of Police in charge of the command, Mr. Theophilus Kayode, who was speaking with Chairman of Birniwa Local Council Area, Alhaji Ali Idris Diginsa, during a working visit to the council headquarters at the weekend, appealed to the chairman to construct a fence for the Divisional Police Station in the local council headquarters. Kayode said it is not wise for the police station building to be left in the open space where it is exposed to security risk, adding that considering the current security challenges, it is instructive and expedient to provide conducive working environment for security operatives to be able to serve the people well. Also, the Niger State government has disbursed the N25 million donated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to victims of December 2011 bomb attack at St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Suleja area of the state. The church got N5 million while 47 victims whose property were destroyed by the blasts, shared the balance of N20 million. Director General of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), Alhaji Mohammed Shaba, handed over cheques to the beneficiaries on Monday at the church premises, explaining that the delay in the disbursement of the money was due to communication gap. Some victims got as much as N1 million while others got N500,000 and N350,000 according to the volume of losses. Minna Branch Manager of the bank, Alhaji Mohammed Danguzau, represented the CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, at the occasion. Danguzau expressed happiness that the donation got to the victims, adding that the delay was not intentional but due to communication error. He said the money was given out since March last year. He said CBN, being a responsible cooperate entity, has always come to the aid of disaster victims in the country and, therefore, advised the beneficiaries to make good use of the donations in re-establishing the businesses destroyed by the blast. Speaking on behalf of the victims, Mr. Emmanuel Ehiche thanked CBN for the gesture, adding that they appreciated the quick intervention from the state government and the CBN governor. The church priest, Rev. Father Isaac Achi, appealed to all those concerned to eschew bitterness and accept whatever amount of money they got from the CBN donations. He, however, maintained that the distribution of the money has put to rest the lingering crisis over the money resulting from the delay in the disbursement. The priest thanked the Niger State government and the CBN for assisting the victims morally and financially. < Prev Next >