WikkiTimes, a Bauchi-based investigative and data journalism outlet, had in the last three weeks launched its e-Paper, a Portable Document Format (PDF) version of the platform, purposely to archive its reports and give readers the flexibility to read stories at ease.
The major highlights of its fourth edition featured an Ethiopian story focused on how rape has been weaponised in the Tigray region of the country.
The gang rapes cases and other impunities followed months of tension between the country’s national ruling party, led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and the Tigray region’s ruling party called Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
READ: In This Week’s Edition of Its e-Paper, WikkiTimes Highlights Major Investigations, Impacts
The Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism (CCIJ) says between February and April 2021, when the state was in control of the Tigray region, over 1,288 cases of sexual violence were registered in the regional health facilities as a result of the war between Ethiopia’s national forces and the rebellious forces in the region.
The Ethiopian government says it has held some of its soldiers accountable for rape and other war crimes in the conflict.
This week’s edition has also featured how some officers of the Nigerian Police Force robbed a serving member of the National Youth Service Corps NYSC to the tune of N300,000 in Abuja.
The police spokesperson in Abuja, Josephine Adeh, told WikkiTimes that the matter was under investigation and the culprits would be identified and punished.
In Bauchi State, Police killed 12 persons suspected to be kidnappers and bandits in Alkaleri, a hometown of Kolmani oil drilling recently launched by President Mohammadu Buhari.
READ: WikkiTimes’ e-Paper: Highlights of the Second Edition
The development came a few days after the force refuted the report published by the medium that the kidnapping and banditry were exacerbating along the areas.
Another story in the fourth edition stated how a Yobe state civil servant allegedly faked an investigation against the Provost of the Federal College of Education Oji, Rivers state, Dr Owan Obodagun.
Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), says Garba fabricated a letter purportedly signed by the commission’s Director of Operations.
Major Hamza Hamza Al-Mustapha, the Presidential candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in the 2023 general election has alleged that the insurgency in northeast Nigeria is an investment orchestrated by the western organisations to continue mining and looting resources from the region, this is also contained in the fourth edition.
READ: Amid Continous Cyber Attacks, WikkiTimes Launches ePaper to Archive Its Stories
A-Mustapha, who was the former Chief Security Officer to the former military Head of State Gen Sani Abacha, said at the expense of poor Nigerians, NGOs working in the northeast disguised as aid agents to corner precious natural resources that are in abundance in the Lake-Chad region in Borno State.
From Sleep to Death — A Local Vigilante Answered Distress Call and Never Returned and ‘He’s Not Boko Haram, He’s My Husband’ are some of the headlines featured in the e-paper.
The e-paper also includes our impact over the week. Following a report by WikkiTimes, First Bank of Nigeria refunded a sum of N100,000 withheld since 2021. Also, Bauchi State Ministry of Education updated its website following a WikkiTimes’ story exposing how the ministry keep portraying Dr Aliyu Tilde as its commissioner even after he resigned some two weeks earlier.
The back page of the paper has opinions on Public Information Gaps, Participatory Journalism and the Case for Media Literacy for Citizens touching on many aspects of information gaps among the general populace.
You can download the e-paper here:
