• Youths protest at probe panel
Minister of Women Affairs, Senator Aisha Alhassan has decried alleged gender-based discrimination against women in Nigeria.
According to her, apart from various other forms of discrimination including those based on religion, Nigerian women are not given opportunities to hold command positions in the nation’s Armed Forces.
The minister spoke yesterday in a message she sent on the occasion of the 15th commemoration of the United Nations Resolution 1325.
Permanent Secretary at the ministry, Hajiya Binta Adamu Bello, represented the minister at the ceremony.
“The exclusion of women in decision making in the security architecture remains a daunting challenge.”
Also, in his message, Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari said his administration has secured a N3 billion loan facility from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for disbursement to women in the area as part of measures towards their economic empowerment.
Meanwhile, some youths in Katsina State staged a peaceful protest at the gate of the Local Governments Service Commission, venue of the inaugural sitting of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by the state government to probe the immediate past Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration in the area.
It was alleged that about N70 billion was missing from government’s coffers.
Masari raised the probe panel to, among other things, inquire what it describes as extent of loss suffered by government through its officials between 2011 and May 2015.
But the protesters described the probe panel as political, as some of the placards they displayed read, “Commission of disgruntled politicians,” “APC commission of inquiry,” “We are hungry, where is the government? “Where is the justice, ” among others.