by Our Reporter

Many unexploded mortar bombs buried in trenches during the Nigeria Civil War have been recovered in Uzuakoli, Bende Local Government area of Abia.
The Humanitarian De-miners from the Ministry of Defence, Abuja made the recovery.

Mr Bala Yakubu, the leader of the group, made the disclosure to Newsday in Umuahia recently.
He said that the scanning of some selected areas in the country became necessary because Nigeria made use of both conventional and locally made landmines during the civil war.

Yakubu said that 11 selected local government areas suspected to have contained landmines and other explosive remnants of war such as Arochukwu, Ohafia, Bende, Isuikwuato and Umunneochi would be scanned.
He said that the group would scan selected local government areas in Abia Central, but noted that they might not work in Abia South due to the insecurity problem in the area.

``Already, many of the locally made landmines known as 'Ogbunigwe' have been recovered in Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi, Rivers and Enugu states, and we are likely to find a good number of them in Abia,” Yakubu said.
He said that the landmines had the potential to continue to kill civilians after conflicts.
Yakubu pointed out that landmines buried in the ground could last as long as 200 years waiting patiently to be detonated accidentally by innocent people for it to cause havoc.

“So far, we have recovered over 6,500 landmines, unexploded ordinances and other explosive remnants of war in the war affected states of the country, majority of it had been destroyed in Enugu , Owerri, Port Harcourt and Markudi,” he said.

He said that the deminers were charged with the responsibility of enumerating landmine victims for possible compensation by the UN.
The group leader urged landmine victims who had visible physically injuries and disabilities to report to their local government areas.

According to him, a group known as Deminers Charity Foundation has already procured scooters, clutches, wheelchairs and artificial limbs for some of the victims already enumerated in Rivers and Akwa Ibom.
Nigeria is a signatory to Ottawa Convention which placed total ban on the use of landmines in wars and that the United Nations (UN) required all member states to destroy all landmines buried in the ground in all states that had fought wars.

At the end of recoveries, there will be a blast-off and stockpile destruction ceremony in Umuahia, which would be witnessed by Gov. Theodore Orji of Abia and UN representatives.

AMAC To Demolish 64 Shops At Utako Market

by Our Reporter

The Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) plans to demolish 64 shops at the Utako Market as part of efforts to sanitise the facility.
Mr Musa Gwoza, the Vice-Chairman of the council, told newsmen recently in Abuja that about 86 shops would also be built to compensate the owners of those that would be demolished.

Newsday reports that the market was closed down on July 3 to ensure proper cleaning and removal of illegal structures.

Gwoza said that a lot of illegal structures had delayed the completion of the cleaning exercise, and promised that the market would be re-opened as soon as the job was completed.
He said: ``We consulted with both the traders and developers and agreed that the job will be done in seven days, but we decided to add another three days.

``When we closed down the market, the purpose was to sanitise the facility. The whole market has been taken over by illegal buildings. All the walls and staircases have structures on them which are not part of the original plan of the market.

``In removing the structures, we discovered that our machines were unable to reach them, so we decided to use manual labour in carrying out the job, and this have taken us about seven days.

``We are discussing with the traders and we will make sure that every shop demolished is replaced. Ours is a new administration and we don't want to come in and start demolishing people's shops.''

Gwoza reassured the traders that the shops would be released to them once they were completed, adding that proper guidelines would be put in place to avoid illegal structures from springing up again.

He said the council was losing a lot of revenue because of the deplorable condition of the market, which had made it impossible for motorists to drive into the area freely. He said that the ongoing efforts would create enough parking space and reduce the loss of revenue to the council.