By Abubakar Rabilu Gombe

The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) field Officer Bauchi, Mr. Bhanu Pathak said that United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) would support, children educationally, Malnutrition and child Protection, adding that when children are in school, there would be no child labour and child abuse.

On the way forward, he said staff in the education

sector should initiate advocacy visits to the state governor and the commissioner for education to highlight some key issues affecting the programme implementation.

Mr. Pathak described girl-child education as something that is beyond getting girls into schools.

Mr. Pathak stated this in Gombe during the 2019 Mid-Year UNICEF Review Meeting for Gombe, Bauchi, Taraba, Adamawa and Plateau States that are directly under Bauchi filed office held in Gombe.

He added that it was not enough to get the girl child to school, but ensure that the girls are safe, learn and complete all levels of education to live a quality life before getting married.

 “The girls also need to learn socio- emotional and life skills, necessary to navigate and adapt to the changing world, make decision about their own lives and contribute to the development of their communities and the world at large.

Pathak further explained that the mid-year review meeting is to review the progress of the field office, update and summary of 2019/2020 work plan processes for Child Friendly Community Initiative.

He urged the government to enhance the education sector so that the children would access quality education and increase the enrolment of children and reducing the out of school children in the state which is about 600,000.

by Agbo Chris

Comrade Mohammed Abba Isa, APC Zonal Special Leader Northeast Nigeria and a person with disability was assured that Yobe state disability bill will become a law as soon as possible once the 7^th Yobe State Assembly is fully constituted. The bill will be the first item to be considered by the State Assembly. This happened during Mohammed’s continues consultation and engagement with relevant stakeholders in the state to speedily conclude work on the Yobe state disability bill.

As part of his effort to ensure disability inclusion in both leadership process and governance Comrade Abba Isa mobilized persons with disability across the length and breathe of the state to witness the inauguration of the 7th Assembly, where Hon.Ahmed Lawal Mirwa emerged as speaker.

Rt Hon Ahmed Lawan Mirwa who immediately after his acceptance speech despite heavy downpour still found time to meet with people with disabilities present. While congratulating the new speaker on behalf of persons with disabilities in the state he urged the speaker to urgently consider disability bill which is before the Assembly.

In his response Hon. Ahmed who couldn’t hide his joy profoundly the disability community for coming to celebrate with them and also having interest in the affairs of the state, he then promise that the first item the house would look into when its resume sitting is the issue of bill and he also promise to involved persons with disability in all activities of the house that henceforth disability inclusion must not only be heard in Yobe state but practically seen.

The occasion was another opportunity for persons with disabilities in the state to demonstrate their desire and passion for disability INCLUSIVITY.

By Yonette Joseph

LONDON — A British court has ordered an abortion for a mentally disabled woman against her and her mother’s wishes, with the judge calling the decision “heartbreaking” but in the best interests of the woman, who is 22 weeks pregnant.

The unidentified woman, who lives in London, is in her 20s and has the mental capacity of a 6- to 9-year-old child, according to evidence presented Friday at the court in London. The circumstances of the pregnancy were unclear, the court was told, and a police investigation was underway, according to news reports.

The decision was first revealed by the Press Association and other British news outlets, including The Catholic News Agency. The woman and her family were not identified, and neither her family nor her lawyers could be reached for comment. But a spokesman for the court confirmed public details of the case by email on Sunday.

Justice Nathalie Lieven handed down the decision at the Court of Protection, which hears cases on issues relating to people who lack the mental capability to make decisions for themselves.

“I am acutely conscious of the fact that for the state to order a woman to have a termination where it appears that she doesn’t want it is an immense intrusion,” Justice Lieven said in her decision.

But the judge said she had to act in the woman’s “best interests, not on society’s views of termination.”

The British charity Life, which says its mission is to create a society that “has the utmost respect for all human life from fertilization,” said in a Facebook post that the decision was “truly horrendous.” Commentators on the site described it as “terrible” and “devastating.”

“That is wrong on every level; doesn’t mean baby will have learning difficulties,” another person wrote on the Facebook page of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.

A spokeswoman for the British group Abortion Rights, which she said campaigned “to keep options open for the many women who willingly choose to end their pregnancies,” described the case in a telephone call on Sunday as not unprecedented but “really sad and complex.”

The group’s chairwoman, Kerry Abel, said in an emailed statement: “As heartbreaking as this case is, it is opportunistic for anti-choice organizations to use it to attack a woman’s right to choose. One in three women will have an abortion in the U.K. for many, many individual reasons, and we shouldn’t undermine free, safe, legal abortion based on one difficult case.”

The woman was under the care of a National Health Service trust, which sought the court’s permission for doctors to perform the abortion, the court was told. The council that employs the social worker had also asked for a decision.

Both the woman and her mother, identified by news reports as a former midwife from Nigeria, are against terminating the pregnancy, with the older woman offering to care for the child, according to the court and news media reports. The woman’s lawyers and a social worker also objected to terminating the pregnancy.

It was not immediately clear whether the woman and her lawyers had the option of appealing the decision.

Under Britain’s 1967 Abortion Act, abortions can be performed up to the 24th week of pregnancy. A section of the abortion act allows the termination of a pregnancy if there is a significant risk of the baby’s being born seriously disabled. Otherwise, abortions must take place during the first six months of pregnancy.

The Disability Rights Commission denounced that portion of the act in 2001, calling it discriminatory and “offensive to many people.”

According to the latest statistics from Britain’s Department of Health and Social Care, there were 200,608 abortions by residents in England and Wales last year, a 4 percent rise compared with 2017, the highest number on record. (The figure rose to 205,295 when nonresidents were counted.)

Last year, the British government announced that women in England would for the first time be legally allowed to take an abortion pill at home to terminate pregnancies, following in the footsteps of Scotland and Wales.

The judge in the Court of Protection said she made her decision based on consideration of the abortion law, the 2005 Mental Capacity Act and evidence presented at the hearing. There was no evidence in this case that the woman’s fetus is impaired.

But the court was told that the woman had been given a diagnosis of a “moderately severe” learning disorder and a mood disorder.

The jurist said that though she was aware that the woman wanted to keep the baby, she was not sure the woman had any sense of what having a baby “meant.”

“I think she would like to have a baby in the same way she would like to have a nice doll,” the judge was quoted by British news outlets as saying.

The judge noted the risks posed by the woman’s behavioral and psychological problems, and suggested that the grandmother, who vowed to care for the child, might have to leave the mother and the home at some point.

She also said she thought the woman would suffer more if the baby was brought to term and taken away to foster care or for adoption than if pregnancy was terminated.

The woman “would suffer greater trauma from having a baby removed,” the judge said, adding, “It would at that stage be a real baby.”( New York Times)

There is relief and excitement at the National Eye Centre in Kaduna nine of the 10 patients who went blind after receiving an injection have regained their sight. While some have been discharged, others are still recuperating in the hospital.

LEADERSHIP Weekend had last Saturday broken the news of how the patients became blind the same day they were administered a drug suspected to be fake.

Some of the victims confirmed to our correspondent that they were gradually regaining their sight. It was, however, learnt that one of the patients was still blind.

Some of the patients who visited the hospital for follow up, said that though they were yet to recover fully, they are beginning to see compared to the total blindness when they received the injection.

One of them, whose eye went blind after receiving the injection, HajiyaHajaraHusaaini, said: “The hospital since the incident occurred has been treating us for free and as at today (Wednesday) I can see with the eye slightly. The hospital still treats us and the doctors have assured us that all will be well.

Another victim, RosadeenRakiyaAkagwu, 71, said that she had seen significant improvement.

She recalled that “two of my eyes were injected and I could not see again thereafter, but following the treatment we have been receiving, I can see but not clearly yet. I can walk on my own now. The doctors told us that our sight will improve gradually. After the incident, I went to another hospital to find out if I could see again and I was told that I will see and today I am happy. I can see even though not completely clear. For two weeks after the injection, I could not see but I thank God today.”

Another victim, a banker who also suffered blindness from the injected eye, said: “When I came, two of my eyes had issues but only one was injected and only that eye went blind. It became reddish and painful; I came back and was taken to the theatre. In fact, this is not the first time I was receiving the injection; it was my fifth time, having received it for four times without any issue. I am gradually seeing now, the blurriness has reduced significantly”.

Another of the victims said she can now identify colours of her dress, described the situation as an accident and commended the hospital management for their show and sense of responsibility.

She however insisted that a thorough investigation t be carried out. “We need to know what led to the blindness. Was as a result of the contamination of the injection? Was it from the supplier, hospital or manufacturer? We were told that the full recovery could take up to three months and we hope so. At the moment I am not seeing fully except to identify colours very close to me.”

For Zachariah Idzy, his situation is yet to receive any significant improvement but assurances from the hospital management is that he will equally see in due course. He said: “I have gone through a series of operations since the incident happened but I am still not seeing. About four doctors have carried out various tests on me, but my situation still remains the same. A female doctor told me the healing will be gradual and I hope so.”

His wife, who spoke amidst weeping, said that being the bread winner of the family, the incident had caused them untold hardship. “I borrowed money to come to the hospital to see my husband. My daughter has left all she is doing to remain here with the father while I take care of the home.”

The hospital’s chief medical director, Dr Mahmoud Alhassan, reiterated the commitment of the management to do all it takes within the medical possibilities to address their situation.

Alhassan said that the hospital had been up and doing on their cases, working round the clock which has resulted in tremendous successes being achieved. “At least you have confirmed from those you spoke with, they can see now and their situation will keep improving; it’s a gradual process, even one of them that still has issues will also see; they all have different underlying factors and we are working on them one at a time.

“The reactions were not intended; we swung into action immediately to mitigate further damage. It is work-in-progress because we are trained not to lose hope. Everything medically possible is being done, including findings on the root cause. We are also awaiting the results of the analysis from the NAFDAC. We understand their pains, we equally share in their pains but we thank God their hope is being rekindled because their situation has improved and still improving. Some of them took the injection not once, not twice, some have even taken it more than four times with no issues,” he said. (LEADERSHIP)

A 27-year-old physically challenged man has been sentenced to 4 years in prison in hard labour by the Tema District Court for attempting to stow away on four different occasions to overseas via a vessel, without the consent of authorities in charge of those vessels. 

Narrating the details of the case to the court presided over by Mrs.Akosua Anokyewaa Agyapong, the prosecutor Sergeant Kleku Mensah told the court that the accused, Mohammed Hakeem aka Fredrick Abaka, aka Diamond is a barber and a resident of Tema New- town.

Sergeant Kleku Mensah said on 29th May this year, the accused was brought to Ghana by air with one immigration officer escort from Namibia and reported that the accused stowed away to Namibia and was arrested at the Namibia port and deported. 

Sergeant Kleku Mensah added that investigations revealed that about two weeks ago, the accused travelled to Togo where he entered the port of Togo and managed to get information about a vessel that was about to sail for the United Kingdom. 

Sergeant Kleku Mensah said the accused, armed with the information that a vessel was about sailing to the United Kingdom, went to the anchorage of Lome port with the aid of a canoe and manoeuvred his way into the vessel.

Sergeant Kleku Mensah said the vessel which was heading for United Kingdom sailed for 17 days and docked at the Namibian port. He said the accused thought the vessel had docked in the United Kingdom and came out from his hiding place, and was walking out from the vessel. 

Sergeant Kleku Mensah added that a crew on board the vessel spotted him; he was arrested and handed over to Namibian immigration, subsequent to which he was deported by air to Accra. 

Sergeant Kleku Mensah said after investigations, the accused was charged with the offence and arraigned before court. The accused pleaded guilty to the charges levelled against him. 

The judge having convicted the accused person on the same offence on four different occasions in the past decided this time, to sentence him to 4 years in prison in hard labour and a fine of GHC6,000. 

The judge added that a default in payment of the fine will result in additional 2 years in prison.