Boy, Five Others Injured As Building Collapses

IN BRIEFS

SIX occupants of a storey building including a six-year-old boy were yesterday injured when the rear side of the building located along Salvation Army in the state capital collapsed.

While one of the victims was said to have been rushed to the University College Hospital (UCH) due to the seriousness of his injury, others, including the six-year old boy were rushed to a nearby private hospital where they were treated for wounds to the head, hands, legs and the body.

Three of the victims were writhing in pains when The Guardian visited the private hospital located at Oke Padre area of the city.

Co-residents said the victims were doing some home chores when the building suddenly gave way and crashed on them.

The incident threw the entire area into panic as cries for help by victims filled the air.

Sallah: Security Agencies Move To Check Crisis

IN order to maintain the fragile peace being enjoyed in Plateau State, the State Police Command has directed all types of motorcycles to keep off roads in the state from 6.am to 4.pm during the Eid-El-Kabir celebrations.  A statement by the Command said the one-day ban is part of the strategies to ensure peaceful and violence-free Sallah celebrations, adding that any one who flouts the directive will be arrested and prosecuted accordingly.  The State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Emmanuel Dipo Ayeni, has also announced the closure of more routes in Jos, the state capital. According to Ayeni, the Abattoir Road would be blocked. He said intending users should follow Dogon Karfe through Old Airport to the Fibre Mosque Playing Ground.

—Isa Abdulsalami

Violent Clash In Zango Kataf Again

LESS than 12 hours after two people were killed and several others injured by gunmen, another disturbance erupted on Friday night in Kurmi Bi village of Zango Kataf local government area, behind the Palace of the Agwam Bajju in Kaduna.

According to report, the disturbance, which started around 10.30 pm saw two people shot. One of the victims was reported to have died instantly, while the other was admitted at St. Louis hospital Zonkwa. .

The 12 people who sustained various degrees of injuries during the attack by gunmen on Thursday are still receiving treatment.

As at the time of this report, all the areas leading to the Southern part of Kaduna State have been cordoned off by security men carrying out checks on vehicles heading towards the area.

Meanwhile, relative calm has returned to the troubled areas in the state as leaders and traditional rulers were said to have called for a ceasefire between parties to the crisis. In a telephone interview, the interim chairman of Zango Kataf local government, Mr. Dominic Yahaya, confirmed the recent attack but said the situation is under control.

The police also said investigations are ongoing on why no arrest has been made.

Yewande Presents Bomboy

WHILE many busied themselves with preparations for the Muslim festival, it was fun mixed with literature at Jazzhole on Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos yesterday, when Yewande Omotosho serenaded friends, associates and book lovers to a reading session with her new novel, Bomboy. The novel straddles the past and the present, bringing into focus cultural beliefs while examining intimacies and complexities of bonds of family and friendship. The fiction is centered around Leke, a troubled young man in the suburbs of Cape Town, who develops strange habits of stalking people, stealing small objects and going from doctor to doctor in search of companionship rather than cure. Through a series of letters written to him by his Nigerian father whom he has never met, Leke learns about a family curse, which his father had unsuccessfully tried to remove.

Media Aide Condemns Attacks On Suswam By Predecessor

SPECIAL Adviser to Governor Gabriel Suswam on Media and Public Affairs, Dr. Cletus Akwaya, has described as baseless the recent negative comments on Suswam credited to the former governor of the state and senator representing Benue North-West District, Dr. George Akume. Akwaya in a press conference in Makurdi, said that all issues raised during a media briefing by the erstwhile governor against Suswam are mere falsehood and manipulation of facts about the performance of the administration and the political situation in the state. He stated that Senator Akume’s claim that Benue State is broke and that salaries are owed workers is a product of his imagination.

—Joseph Wantu