In the conservative heart of Northern Nigeria, where purdah (the seclusion of women from public life) confined women to silence and politics was a forbidden arena, one woman roared loudly enough to shake the foundations of power — Hajiya Gambo Sawaba.
She was arrested no fewer than sixteen times, flogged in public, brutalized in jail, stripped naked, and tortured, and yet never silenced. History remembers her as the most jailed female activist in Nigeria’s history.
Born Hajaratu Gambo Sawaba on 15 February 1933 in Tudun Wada, Zaria, she was the daughter of Isa Amartey Amarteifio, a Ghanaian migrant who worked with the Nigerian Railway Corporation, and Fatima Amarteifio, a Nupe woman from Lavun, Niger State. She was the fifth of six children. By Hausa custom, any child born after twins was called “Gambo,” a name she bore for life.
From childhood, she displayed an untamable spirit. Folklore remembers her as a girl who always fought for the underdog. Whenever she saw children fighting, she would step in for the weaker one and declare:
“I have bought this fight from you.” Her clothes were often torn in these scuffles, until her mother, tired of constant repairs, began sewing her dresses from tarpaulin. Even as a child, Gambo revealed what would define her entire life: she was a fighter for the oppressed.
Tragedy struck early. Her father died when she was just 10 years old, and her mother three years later. Orphaned at 13, she was quickly married off to Abubakar Garba Bello, a World War II veteran. At 16, she gave birth to her only child, Bilikisu, but her husband abandoned her soon after, leaving her to raise her daughter largely alone. By 17, however, Gambo was already forging her own path in defiance of the strictures that confined Northern women.
In 1950, when Malam Aminu Kano founded the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) as a radical alternative to the conservative Northern People’s Congress (NPC), Gambo became one of its earliest female members. NEPU pushed for education, social justice, and women’s empowerment in sharp contrast to the NPC, which insisted: “We in the North are happy, our women are happy about their condition. We know what is right for women.”
Her fearlessness soon caught Aminu Kano’s attention. He gave her the name “Sawaba”, meaning redemption or freedom. An alternative story claims she earned the name after boldly addressing a rally in Jakara Market, Zaria, before the official male speaker arrived. When the councilman Alhaji Gambo Sawaba finally came, he declared that since she was the first woman to speak at a political rally in the North, she would henceforth be called Gambo Sawabiya. She, however, preferred the male version, “Sawaba,” and it became inseparable from her identity.
Her rise was meteoric. She was soon elected President-General of NEPU’s women’s wing, leading campaigns that shook the North. She went from house to house, speaking directly to women in purdah, addressed crowds in markets, and organized political meetings where no woman had dared to speak before. Her advocacy was fearless, she condemned child marriage, forced and unpaid labour, punitive taxes, and the denial of education and political rights to women.
But this activism came at a heavy price. In 1952, she was arrested in Kano and charged with “drawing women out of purdah.” She was sentenced to three months in prison, the first of sixteen prison sentences she would endure. She was jailed in Zaria, Kano, Kaduna, and Jos. Sometimes she was stripped naked and flogged several lashes; on other occasions, her hair was shaved off with a broken bottle. She was beaten so severely by thugs that she once lost all her front teeth, which had to be replaced with artificial ones. In 1957, she underwent surgery to remove her womb after brutal torture in prison.
Sawaba became so familiar with arrests that she always kept a blanket inscribed “Prison Yard” near her bed, ready for the next time police came knocking. Yet prison only strengthened her resolve. Crowds of women and men often packed the courtroom during her trials, chanting in her support.
Her fight extended to the ballot box. In 1956, she and other NEPU women marched to the office of Premier Sir Ahmadu Bello in Kaduna to demand voting rights for Northern women. He promised to consider their request but unfortunately he never fulfilled it. While women in the South gradually gained the franchise (1951 in Lagos, 1954 in the East, 1959 in the West), Northern women were told they would receive the vote only “in God’s time.” Sawaba mocked the excuse, declaring that had women been enfranchised earlier, she would have contested against these men. Ultimately, Northern women did not get the vote until 1976.
Her activism was not without personal sacrifice. After her separation from her first husband, she married three more times, a railway worker, a Cameroonian boxer (regularly threatened with deportation by her political enemies), and a businessman. None of the marriages lasted. She endured physical attacks, including one where six men beat her unconscious and left her for dead in the bush.
Despite all this, Sawaba remained a pillar of courage. Her home on Benin Street in Zaria became a hub for political meetings, filled with posters of Karl Marx, Thomas Sankara, and Samora Machel. She maintained an open-door policy, raising not only her daughter but also dozens of adopted children, relatives, orphans, and street kids. By the time of her death, she had taken in over 30 children, some from the hospital just days before her passing.
At home, she was warm and unpretentious. Her daughter Bilikisu remembered her love of cooking and her favourite dishes: Nupe dukuno, tuwo shinkafa, and sakwara. Yet beyond the domestic space, she remained an indomitable lioness of politics, blunt, non-conformist, outspoken.
In 1998, disillusioned by corruption and the loss of ideology in Nigerian politics, she formally retired, declaring: “Politics in the country has lost its flavour and is no longer a game of ideology, but a game of self-aggrandisement.” She died three years later, in October 2001, at the age of 68.
Her funeral in Zaria was attended by two former heads of state, a testament to her political stature. Tributes poured in, with the New Nigerian describing her as “the most tortured and jailed Nigerian female politician.” Her daughter Bilikisu summed up her mother’s life simply: “She never stopped hoping for a better society and remained optimistic that Nigerians, especially women, would be free from tyranny and dictatorial leadership.”
Hajiya Gambo Sawaba lived and died as she had always been, a fighter, a redeemer, a lioness who roared for the voiceless.
Today, her memory endures in monuments such as the Hajiya Gambo Sawaba General Hospital in Zaria, a hostel at Bayero University, Kano (BUK) named after her, and in the many statues raised in her honour.
Hajiya Gambo Sawaba fought, bled, and endured for the rights of women and the poor. She never asked for applause but her legacy roars on, immortalizing her as the true Lioness of Zaria.
Nollywood actress Destiny Etiko has revealed that she lost ₦5 million after placing a bet during the 2026 FIFA World Cup final, saying the experience has discouraged her from gambling again.
The actress disclosed this in a post shared on her Instagram handle on Monday, shortly after the conclusion of the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina.
“First time betting and I lost . Will never try it again. My 5M gone . In fact am done watching football. Anxiety almost killed me,” she wrote.
Etiko, however, did not disclose the particular bet she placed or provide further details about how she lost the money.
Earlier, during the World Cup final, the actress shared a series of updates on her Instagram Story, indicating she was backing Argentina to defeat Spain.
In one post, she wrote, “Argentina all the way. Who can’t wait?”
As the match progressed, she appeared increasingly frustrated with Argentina’s performance, posting, “This ball tough o. Argentina is pissing me off.”
She also praised Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez for keeping the defending champions in the game, writing, “The goal keeper is the savior oo.”
PUNCH Online had reported that Spain defeated defending champions Argentina 1-0 after extra time to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Sunday.
Substitute Ferran Torres scored the decisive goal in the second period of extra time to hand Spain their second World Cup title, 16 years after their maiden triumph in South Africa in 2010.
Argentina played the closing stages with 10 men after midfielder Enzo Fernández was sent off for a second bookable offence, while Spain dominated possession before eventually finding the breakthrough through Torres.
The self-styled Director-General of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), Adeniyi Adeyemi, was arrested last Tuesday by the Intelligence Response Team led by Chief Superintendent of Police, Moses Lohor.
It was learnt that Adeyemi was arrested between 11am and 12pm inside a building in the Ijebu-Ijesa area of Osun State.
The suspect’s arrest followed a bench warrant issued against him by a Federal High Court in Abuja after he allegedly failed to appear for arraignment on eight counts.
Giving details of the operation that led to the arrest, a senior police officer in the Osun State Police Command, in an interview with Punch, said Adeyemi’s location was first uncovered in the Aregbe-Fakule area of Osogbo on July 9 after evading tracking by the Department of State Services (DSS).
The police officer said Lohor’s team took over the tracking after the DSS withdrew from the case.
He added that the operatives eventually located Adeyemi in Ilesa and subsequently arrested him on Tuesday morning.
The source said, “The Moses Lohor team were in Osun for surveillance ahead of the August 15 governorship election. They were mapping hotspots and collating other intelligence. As a matter of fact, the Lohor team didn’t report to the Osun State Police Command. They operated from the area commander’s office at Oke-Fia in Osogbo.
“Adeyemi was already on their watch list, but they didn’t act because the case was being handled by the DSS. Adeyemi’s last known location tracked by the DSS was Ibadan, but they couldn’t apprehend him because he regularly switched off his phone.
“A senior police officer from Abuja informed the Lohor team about the DSS withdrawal on Wednesday. Lohor’s team then decided to track Adeyemi’s location on Thursday, July 9. Incidentally, he was located around the Aregbe-Fakule area of Osogbo.
“Luckily for them, late on Monday night, Adeyemi’s location showed he was around Ilesa, and the Lohor team intensified efforts, which led to his arrest on Tuesday morning. The team only informed the Osun State Commissioner of Police when they moved in to make the arrest.”
Adeyemi is reportedly being detained at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, from where he is expected to be arraigned on July 27.
Popular Nollywood actress in the Yoruba movie industry, Biola Fowosere, has opened up about the challenges she faced after her ex-husband left their marriage.
It was reports that Biola, during an interview on African A List, said her ex-husband abandoned her and their children despite not doing anything wrong in the union.
The thespian who broke down in tears during the interview said her ex-husband is the only person she would like to ask why he abandoned his family.
Biola also spoke about battling severe depression after the separation, spending one year and six months in the hospital while struggling to recover emotionally.
According to the movie star, she almost lost her sanity, adding that it has been seven years since they lost contact.
She said, “The only person I’d really want to ask a question is my ex-husband. I’d really like to ask him what I did wrong because I did nothing before he left me and the kids. I want to ask what my children and I did to deserve what he did to us,” she said.
“I spent one year and six months in the hospital battling depression after he left. I almost ran mad. We are not in contact. Since he left, we haven’t seen him. He blocked us seven years ago.”
