JUST when efforts of the Benue State government to ensure peace in some troubled hinterlands of the state was paying off, an unanticipated explosive communal conflict erupted few days ago at a southern district of the state, an area that is renowned for its serenity and tranquility.

For residents of Zango, a surburb of Bauchi metropolis, the day will not be forgotten in a hurry. It was the day Abdullahi Shehu was brutally murdered. The slain man would be remembered as the hard working Aide De Camp, ADC, to Alhaji Abdumalik Mahmoud who was the former Deputy Governor of Bauchi State during the tenure of Alh. Ahmed Mu’azu as Governor.

THE Office of the Public Defender, OPD, was created by the former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in 2000 to render free legal services to the less-privileged in the society regardless of their status, cultural or political affiliation and also to those whose fundamental human rights are being trampled upon.

Meantime the Federal Road Safety Corps has said that it would soon embark on the ranking of the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory with regard to their commitment and funding of road safety campaign programmes. The FRSC said that the annual review of states which would entail the peer review of all the states of the Federation and Abuja would be conducted for the purpose of ranking the states according to their commitment to the provision of safety on their roads.

Emotion was high and the atmosphere sober recently in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, when the state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, reeled out the number of deaths recorded in two years through road accidents. According to Amosun, in 2011 a total of 722 people died and another 1,696 injured in 1,975 accidents in the state. The year 2010 recorded 649 deaths, 1,533 injuries and1,980 accidents.