The Borno Police Command on Wednesday says it has recaptured a 24 year old Auwalu Aminu, also known as “Auwalu Kirkir.”

Aminu is an escaped convict who had been serving a jail term for criminal conspiracy and theft.

According to the Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Nahum Daso, Aminu was one of the inmates who escaped from the Medium Security Custodian Center in Maiduguri following a jailbreak caused by the collapse of the prison’s fence during the devastating floods in September this year.

Daso said that the police received a credible tip-off that Aminu had been sighted in Banki town, “a situation that motivated the Bama Area Command, Banki Divisional Headquarters, to promptly deploy a patrol team.

“Aminu was successfully apprehended on Oct. 16, and is now in the police custody.”

The command’s image maker explained that the escaped convict has been profiled and would be handed over to the Nigeria Correctional Service for further action.

He added that the Commissioner of Police, CP Mohammed Lawal-Yusufu, reaffirmed the command’s commitment to public safety and urged citizens to report any suspicious activity or information about fugitives. (NAN)

The Federal Government has refuted a report, which claimed that Nigeria had apologised over the recent maltreatment of Nigerian Football Federation officials and its senior national football team in Libya.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Yusuf Tuggar, made this known in a statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja by Alkasim Abdulkadir, his Special Assistant on Media and Communication Strategy.

It stressed that the report, which was published on Oct.

The statement added that the minister also expressed the Federal Government’s  strong displeasure over the incident and the said report.

According to Tuggar, the report deliberately aims at gaining political leverage and causing disaffection among continental football administrators and fans.

It quoted the minister as saying that the report was a blatant misinformation and misrepresentation of the telephone correspondence between him and the Foreign Minister of Libya’s Eastern Government.

“Nigeria remains unequivocal in expressing its displeasure and disappointment with how the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) officials were treated in Libya.

“It calls on the Confederation of African Football to urgently ensure that its Disciplinary Board investigates the matter and imposes appropriate sanctions based on its statutes,” Tuggar said.

The minister further explained that the Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) of Libya’s Government of National Unity had been summoned by the Ministry to seek an immediate end to the unfortunate incident.

It said that no diplomatic headway was made during the meeting with Libya’s acting Charge d’Affaires, Imad Aboud, who said the matter was not under the jurisdiction of Tripoli, which he represented.

It said that Aboud claimed that the matter was rather under the jurisdiction of Libya’s Eastern Government in Benghazi.

The statement further said that Tuggar immediately  contacted Abdelhadi Lahweej, the Foreign Minister of the Eastern Government, for prompt intervention   in order to end the debacle.

“After that, the aircraft was given the necessary permits to fly, aviation fuel was accessed, and both ministers agreed that the matter should be de-escalated immediately.

“Even when Lahweej insisted on rehashing untruth about the treatment of Libyan players in Nigeria, Tuggar once again corrected the misinformation about mistreatment of Libyan players during the Nigerian encounter.

“He did not apologise or regret the treatment of Libyan officials and players because the account was inaccurate,” the minister was quoted as saying.

“Lahweej proposed a joint statement, which the Ministry rejected because it erroneously misrepresented the facts of the incident.

“Above all, Nigeria only shares a diplomatic relationship with the government of National Accord and not with the Eastern Government,” the statement added. (NAN)

 The Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu, said the ministry has developed a New National Teacher Education Policy (NNTEP) to address critical issues such as career pathways, remunerations and teaching standards.

Sununu said this at a two-day 2024 online Conference of Registered Teachers organised by Teachers Registered Council of Nigeria (TRCN) on Wednesday in Kaduna.

The theme of the conference is: “Advancing Teacher Professionalisation in Nigeria Towards Education 2030: Challenges, Strategies and Prospects”.

The conference was supported by UNESCO, Partnership for Learning for All in Nigeria (PLANE), UKaid, Safe the Children International (SCI), TY Danjuma Foundation and DRPC.

Sununu said teachers needed professional preparations through adequate and informed exposure to training, conferences and seminars.

“This will increase awareness and new commitment for effective teaching that will match international best practices.

“The Federal Ministry of Education is making progressive efforts to ensure quality and functional education in Nigeria and restore the dignity of the teaching profession.

“Over 7,200 education bursary awards have been offered to students to study education courses.

“The education ministry’s DOTS policy will ensure that the nation’s educational system is equiped to produce competent and globally ready citizens,” he said.

Sununu also said the DOTS policy was packaged to achieve the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu.

He said the ministry’s  responsibility did not end in recruiting teachers and providing classrooms for teaching and learning.

Sununu said they ensured teachers training and re-training to help achieve major objectives of the nation’s educational system.

He said that this was  to equip learners with requisite knowledge and skills to enable and realise their potential and become globally competitive.

The minister also said the conference was apt in the ministry’s collective efforts to reposition the teaching profession toward achieving sustainable development goal (4) and Education 2030 Agenda.

He emphasised that national conferences were critical to all professional bodies which was a symbol of professionalism where people with great ideas rub minds to improve their profession.

Sununu commended TRCN for the milestone it had achieved by institutionalising the online annual conference for registered teachers in a digital era.

He called on all the stakeholders to work assiduously to ensure an enviable and enduring education sector that was imperative for national growth and development.

Also speaking to newsmen on the sideline, the State Coordinator of TRCN, Ms Esther Ayuba, said certification and licencing were major ingredients for the teaching profession.

She said every trained teacher was supposed to obtain a certificate and licence before being allowed to teach.

According to her, a trained, registered and licenced teacher is the most qualified to teach, believing that they can maintain the professional knowledge, skills, values and ethics that binds the teaching profession.

She lamented that many trained teachers were yet to register with the council.

Ayuba, however, said sensitisation by the council had gone far while enforcement was taking place to ensure that only registered teachers were allowed to teach.

“A lot of them have registered now, but have yet to receive their certificates because of the procedures.

”Every trained teacher in Nigeria, whether he/she is teaching or not, must register with the council.

“For professional pride, every teacher should register,”she said.

Describing teaching as the mother of all professions, Ayuba called on the government at all levels to encourage teachers with better welfare and remunerations as obtainable in other countries.

She said at the end of the conference, it was expected that the teachers would be proactive in their areas of specialisation.

This is by knowing that they were professionals and utilised their rights to make an impact and change the narrative in the society.

Earlier, Dr Stella-Maria Nwokeocha, the Registrar of TRCN, said a teacher was an important factor that could not be over-emphasised in the development of education.

She said Nigeria shared in the global concerns of teachers and teaching progression as raised in the global report on teachers by UNESCO on teachers/education 2030.

Nwokeocha explained that the report provided meaningful findings regarding teachers recruitment, retention and professional development.

She also recalled the interest of the AU Commission through its continental education strategy for Africa since 2016 to 2025.

”This is to ensure quality education system and training that would meet the efficient human resources need of the African continent and its core values,” Nwokeocha said.

She. therefore. said, it called for continuous dialogue, workshops, training and conferences such as the annual conference on registered teachers in Nigeria.

The TRCN boss said that the dialogues were aimed at providing necessary supports and encouragement needed to reposition the teaching profession to attain quality education and national building.

She equally said the annual conference was part of the TRCN’s efforts to fulfill its mandate of professionalisation of teachers in Nigeria.

Nwokeocha added that the central focus of the conference was to deliberate and proffer solutions to emerging issues in education and learning in Nigeria and improving teaching outcome.

Some of the participants, Mercy Andrew, a teacher at LGEA Narayi Primary School and Mr David Kunanza, said they were faced with overcrowded learners per classroom and other unfavorable teaching conditions

The duo also said employment of non professionals as teachers has negative consequences on children who end up not learning.

They called on TRCN to push further their plights to the appropriate authorities for actions.

Report says that teachers who participated in the conference attracted 25 professional credit points.