Lagos banker allegedly tortures wife to death

A bank worker, Olaoluwa Adejo, has been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command for the death of his 28-year-old wife, Maureen, at their home on Peluola Street, Oworonshoki, in the Bariga  area of the state.

The 32-year-old Lagos indigene was alleged to have tortured his wife of five years with a belt, as well as cutting her with a machete.

Their five-year-old son, Richard, in whose presence the incident reportedly happened, told PUNCH Metro that his father also forced a local insecticide, otapiapia, down the throat of his mother.

“I am Richard Adejo. I am five years old. My daddy beat my mummy with a belt; machete her here (shows arms), machete her here (shows legs). He used the belt on her here (points at face); forced my mummy to drink otapiapia (insecticide). My daddy took my mummy away.

“My daddy said my mummy should get out of the house. My mummy said no. In the night, my daddy woke my mummy up and said, ‘Mosquito is too much, let me go and buy otapiapia’. My daddy forced my mummy to drink it. She shook her head. She vomited.

“My daddy slapped my mummy. My mummy did not do anything to him. My daddy gave her one blow. My daddy kicked her. My daddy told her to get out of the house and carry her load. Small blood came out. My daddy slapped her, kicked her, machete her, blow her, and put otapiapia in her mouth and in the food,” Richard told our correspondent during an interview on Monday.

The victim’s mother, Mrs. Kate Jonathan, told PUNCH Metro that Richard had given more graphic details of the incident to family members, police authorities and officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice.

She explained that her daughter had packed out of her matrimonial house five days to the incident and was living with her when she decided to return for a party at the children’s school. She said she never returned alive.

She said, “I was called on the telephone by an unknown number around 4pm on Sunday, November 12. The caller said, ‘Your daughter’s husband has killed her at Oworo’. He dropped the call.

 “Around 5pm when I got to their house, I discovered that the house was locked up. There were two boys guarding the house and they refused to open the door to me, saying the owner of the house instructed them not to open the door.

“I didn’t see my daughter or her husband. I was begging them to open the door when I saw Richard jumping up through the window. He saw me and asked the boys to open the door, but they refused.
“I broke the louvers of the window. The boy climbed a stool and said from inside, ‘my father has killed my mother and taken her away.’”

She said she reported the case at the Oworonshoki Police Station, where she was told that the suspect had already reported that his wife committed suicide by taking local insecticide, Sniper.
Jonathan said after making her statement, she left the station.

PUNCH Metro was told that Olaoluwa had already deposited the body of his wife in the Gbagada General Hospital mortuary and had allegedly gone to obtain court documents to enable him to bury her.

Our correspondent learnt that he was asked to return to the police station for a certain document, which led to his arrest based on his mother-in-law’s complaint.

The suspect was said to have been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba.
However, the couple’s three children were said to have been taken to a family friend, a policeman, who lived in Agric, in the Ikorodu area.

Due to the insistence of the mother-in-law, the police were said to have demanded the release of the couple’s first child, Richard, for interrogation.
In a meeting at the SCIID, Yaba, Richard was alleged to have given an account of how his mother was allegedly murdered by his father.

The police reportedly ordered the removal of the corpse from the Gbagada General Hospital mortuary to the morgue of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
The victim’s mother, Jonathan, who claimed to have visited the mortuary, said Maureen’s body had machete cuts and other torture marks.

She said, “My daughter, who worked as the manager of my chemical company had, about a week to the incident, complained that her husband said we would soon see her obituary.
“I sent my eldest daughter to accompany her to the house to know what happened. The man  begged and said he was only joking. He said he really loved his wife. I insisted that she pack out of the house.

“She was in my house for three days before she said she wanted to return home because her children’s school would be having a cultural party. She left and went to the party with her husband on Saturday. It was that night that she was brutalised and killed by the husband. From what we saw in the mortuary, she had blood in her nostrils and deep cuts in her hands and legs.”

The victim’s mother asked that Maureen’s three children, namely, Richard, five; Henry, three; and Omowunmi, six months, be released to her.
The policeman with the couple’s two children, Ajisafe, said he believed Olaoluwa did not kill his wife.

He explained that the suspect’s aged mother handed over the children to him for safekeeping.
The 83-year-old mother of the suspect, Florence Adejo, also denied that her son murdered Maureen.
She said, “He came to knock on the door of my house late that night. He fell on the ground and started weeping and lamenting that his wife had destroyed him.

 A crowd gathered in front of the house where I am the landlady. They tried to console him. He said his wife took Sniper. He said he thought it was a joke until their son, Richard, went to bring the container of the insecticide.

“She was taken to a private hospital where she was initially rejected before she was taken to the general hospital where she died. I was told her mother sells the insecticide and she brought it home for mosquitoes. Why she decided to drink it is what is beyond my understanding. My son said they didn’t have any disagreement between them and she was not mentally ill.”

The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Chike Oti, said investigations were ongoing into the incident.
He said, “The man came to report that his wife committed suicide. The DPO put some questions to him.

We thought we should investigate further to know what really happened because there are some doubts we need to clear in the matter. The police are not accepting the claim of suicide hook, line, and sinker. The matter is at the SCIID and investigations are ongoing.”

Punch Report

Husband killer, Yewande Oyediran, bags seven years for manslaughter

A female lawyer, Yewande Oyediran, who was convicted of killing her husband Lowo, was on Monday sentenced to seven years in prison by Justice Muntar Abimbola of the Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan.

Yewande, a former staff of the Department of Public Prosecution in the Oyo State Ministry of Justice, was accused of killing her husband with a knife after a disagreement on February 2, 2016, at their residence in Akobo area of Ibadan.

She was arrested and arraigned in court, but she pleaded not guilty to the murder charge preferred against her.

The court said the convict was charged on a murder count and evidence pointed to Yewande as the killer of her husband; but witnesses presented by the defence counsel failed to establish the intent behind the killing.

The court held that going by the relationship between Yewande and her husband as husband and wife (at the time of the husband’s death), the killing was done without intent.
The couple had no child together.

The judge said that with the evidence before the court, the convict and her late husband had frequently engaged in domestic violence.

He also adjudged the evidence of the couple’s landlord and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Akinpelu, as credible.
The landlord and his wife had told the court that they saw the convict holding a knife, while the deceased was in a pool of blood.

“Having seen the defendant holding a knife and the defendant had earlier confirmed that she had earlier stabbed her husband with a pair of scissors a day before, I hold that it was the defendant that stabbed the deceased,’’ said the judge.

Abimbola also said that he took into consideration the autopsy report of Prof. Abideen Oluwashola, a consultant from the University College Hospital, Ibadan.


“According to the autopsy report, the deceased died as a result of shock from a deep wound caused by a sharp object,’’ Abimbola said.

The court said the evidence of the convict could not be relied upon, because her statement with the Police was different from her statement before the court.
Earlier, the defence counsel, Mr. Leye Adepoju, had, on the basis that his client was a first time offender, prayed the court to be lenient with the term of the sentence.

He added that imprisonment was not to ruin, but to reform.
“If it is too long, it would ruin the life and as well jeopardise the job of the defendant, being a legal practitioner,” he said.

The prosecution counsel, Mr. Sanya Akinyele, however, said he was leaving the issue of the sentencing to the discretion of the court.

In his judgment, Justice Abimbola convicted Yewande of manslaughter. Her sentence was to start running since the day of her arrest, the judge said.

The day of judgement was initially slated for November 24, 201, but the judge moved the day to November 27, 2017 because of other engagements at the Nigerian Judicial Commission.

Punch Report

Gunmen rob passengers, kill driver in Lagos

A yet-to-be-identified driver of a commercial bus has been shot dead by some suspected robbers in the Mile 2 area of Lagos State.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the victim’s vehicle had been hijacked by the robbers, who were taking turns to dispossess passengers of their valuables, but he  refused to let go of the bus.
He was said to have been shot and thrown out of the bus.

The assailants were reported to have abandoned the vehicle and fled after a team of the Rapid Response Squad pursued them on motorcycles.
A witness, Liberty Whitney, who was on the bus and had been dispossessed of her valuables by the robbers, told the police that the suspects were three in number.

The 20-year-old International Relations graduate of Lead City University, Ibadan, Oyo State, said the incident happened on Sunday, November 19, while she was on her way to school.
Whitney said she had boarded the bus at Oshodi en route to Mile 2.

She said, “It was around 9.30pm that I boarded the bus. I was the only passenger in the vehicle as of then. More people later joined and the bus had two vacant seats left.
“The bus left the park and was about to pick more passengers at Cele bus stop when two men in white native attires pointed guns at us. They asked that we remained calm and do as we were told. They then joined the bus.

“While other passengers were screaming and jumping down from the bus, I was held by a man that had joined the bus earlier when I tried to jump down as well. Like other passengers, I never knew the man was a member of the gang.

“When I made another attempt to jump down, one of the robbers pointed a gun in my face with a threat to shoot if I didn’t comply. One of them asked me for my phone, bag and money and when I was reluctant, he hit me in the neck with the butt of the gun. I couldn’t breathe well for some time. I handed over all I had with me instantly: travelling bag, polythene bag, laptop, phone, chargers and school certificates.

“I was allowed to jump down from the vehicle afterwards. A few minutes later, I heard a gunshot. A man was thrown off the bus. He had hanged on the back of the bus when he was shot by the side.”

She explained that after the gunshot, operatives of the RRS chased the vehicle on motorcycles.
The 20-year-old Warri, Delta State indigene said the robbers shot continuously into the air to scare the policemen who continued the chase.
Whitney, who claimed to have trailed the vehicle on a motorcycle, said she was relieved when the robbers abandoned the vehicle and fled at Mile 2.

She said she recovered all her valuables back, except for the phone which the gunmen took away.
The RRS said it was later discovered that the man who was shot was the driver of the bus.
He was said to have been rushed to the Critical Care Unit of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, where efforts to revive him failed.

“He was fighting for his bus, which was his only source of livelihood, when he was shot. The driver passed away on Thursday, November 23. He died of the gunshot injury he sustained,” the police said.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Chike Oti, who confirmed the incident, said investigations were ongoing.

“The case has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba, for further investigations,” he added.
Oti advised residents of the state not to endanger their lives by arguing with armed robbers.

Punch Report

12-yr-old maid roasted in Lagos for stealing N50

For stealing N50, a young girl came within an inch of death, as daylight was beaten out of her and most parts of her body––including buttocks, back and shoulders were disfigured with burns from hot knife until she ended up a horrifying sight that will make even the stonehearted cringe with horror.

The poor girl’s ordeal was cut short when she fainted and had to be rushed to the hospital. It was in such a poor state she was brought in to Siloan Medical Centre at 14, Muhammadu Akije Street, Ejigbo, Lagos State.

Hours after she was revived from death, she was still weak and writhing in pain.
Most annoyingly, her injuries were inflicted, not by an outsider, but by her relative, her second cousin named Bose Ola, who was her guardian.

The story becomes most unbelievable in the light of the offence that earned her such gargantuan punishment. Overall, there is hardly a word to euphemize the ordeal other than to call it by its name––child abuse.

Torture beyond comprehension
 
Speaking through an interpreter, Muyiba, 12, told Saturday Sun the incident of Saturday, November 18, 2017. “I saw N50 in the sitting room and I took it, not knowing that it belonged to Aunty Bose. Later in the day, when she asked about the N50, I denied seeing it, but when she said she was going to punish me, I told her the truth and apologised that it won’t happen again. I thought that the matter was over because she had accepted my apology.

But she asked me to pull off my dress including my panties. I obeyed. She ordered me to lie on the chair. She brought out a cane, belt and stick for turning garri. She called Brother Rafiu (her husband’s younger brother) to assist her and they descended on me. After that, she lighted the stove and heated a kitchen knife and started to use it to sear my body”.

According to her, she fainted in the course of the torture and was rushed to the hospital where doctors revived her. Some neighbours who could not stomach the inhuman treatment reported the matter at Ejigbo Police Division. The police wanted to handle the matter with levity, but for the intervention of the Crime Victims Foundation of Nigeria (CRIVON), Gbagada, Lagos, which lead to the arrest of Bose and her subsequent arraignment at the Ejigbo Magistrate Court on one count charge of child abuse.

Hunger induced theft

What did she do with N50? She told Saturday Sun: “I used it to buy biscuit and sachet water.” However, she refused to answer the question as to whether her madam starved her. The rest of her story can be read between the lines.

Muyiba––whose mother is reportedly the fifth wife of her husband––was living with her grandmother, but the family complained about her poor academic performance in school and sent her to live with her cousin, Bose.

Saturday Sun

Can of worms over Maina

•AGF indicts politicians, lawmakers for pension fraud

A fresh can of worms has been opened in the ongoing controversial Abdulrasheed Maina’s reinstatement saga, as fetid details of involvement of a “chain of pension predators,” has emerged.

The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, in a deposition he submitted to the Emmanuel Paulker-led Senate adhoc committee set up to investigate the circumstances surrounding the return of Maina, former chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms to the country and how he was readmitted into the civil service as a director, alleged the involvement of a powerful pension syndicate among them former top civil servants, the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, federal legislators and ex-government officials as members.

He also wrote that Maina has not accounted for about 270 properties he recovered from alleged pension fraudsters.

In the deposition, Malami raised some posers: “What happened to the monies recovered from the syndicate? What about the 270 properties comprising of real estate and motor vehicles, one of which is a mansion worth N1 billion situated at No 42, Gana Street, Maitama, Abuja, allegedly given to a senior lawyer meant to crave for his “buy in” in maximising media hype aimed at distracting the attention of the public pension fraud?

“There is perceived compromises in the investigation, prosecution and charges of real syndicate over the pension related matters.”
Another document obtained by Daily Sun said the 270 properties recovered by Maina’s team are domiciled with the EFCC.

“The properties, as we speak, have been shared among top officials of the commission, friends and family members, including lawyers of the agency,” part of the document read.

In the 13-page document dated November 14 submitted to the committee chairman, Malami said the alleged relooted properties included real estate and motor vehicles. He claimed that one of the said properties is worth N1 billion and situated at No 42, Gana Street, Maitama, Abuja.

Investigations by Daily Sun revealed that the said property in Maitama, was purchased by a Lagos-based Senior Advocate of Nigeria at a giveaway price of N600 million. The property was recovered from Dr. Shaibu Teidi. Teidi.

He was  a former Director of Pensions Account, Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation before he was removed and prosecuted in 2013 by the EFCC.

In addition, Malami told the committee, which is meeting behind closed doors that his signature on the said document which reinstated Maina, was forged.
He claimed that desperate people  out to smear his image were behind the forgery. He, however, failed to reveal their identities.

Malami who has so far appeared before the Senate adhoc committee thrice is expected to make more appearances to respond to allegations made against him.
Since he is the head of the ministry, which supervises EFCC, he is expected to aid the committee in recovering the alleged relooted properties recovered from pension fraudsters.

Meanwhile, the Senate has extended the sitting period of the adhoc committee as well as expanded its scope of work.

The committee is now expected to champion the recovery of relooted assets. The approval, followed a point of order raised by Paulker.
President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, who presided, sought the nod of his colleagues to approve the request. The committee was eventually granted the request.


…Oyo-Ita, Akande fault Malami over ex-pension panel’s boss
It was tensed moment at the investigative hearing  conducted by the House of Representatives adhoc committee.

The two-day hearing by the Aliyu Madaki-led committee started yesterday with the Head of the Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita, Minister of Interior, Abdulraham Dambazzau, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, saying all they know  about Maina’s reinstatement.

Malami denied ever authorising the reinstatement of Maina. He testified that he “kept in view” a letter presented for his signature by an unnamed line officer, to give legal advice that Maina should return to the civil service and that he was highly embarrassed with media reports that he wrote to Oyo-Ita to reinstate Maina.

Malami who explained that he first met Maina in the United Arab Emirate with the permission of the Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA), also alleged that a powerful pension syndicate which has Maina, other former top civil servants, the Nigerian Union of Pensioners, federal legislators and ex-government officials as members, were behind negative media reports against him.

He also blamed the Jonathan administration, the seventh Senate, former Senate President, David Mark, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other parties sued by Maina for not appealing judgments obtained against them between 2013-2014.

“Let me state that the incidental correspondence or legal opinion, if any, expressed by my office relating to the reinstatement of Maina, was offered free of any strings attached,” he said.
However, Oyo-Ita, faulted the account of Malami as she stated that she received letters from the office of AGF demanding the reinstatement of Maina.

She said Malami’s office wrote series of letters to her office to press for the reinstatement.
She said: “Maina, from records available to us, was dismissed in the year 2013 from the Federal Civil Service for absconding from duty.

“From the beginning of this year, we started receiving series of letters written by the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, addressed to the chairman Federal Civil Service Commission and copied to the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.

“As those letters came in, the Federal Civil Service Commission wrote to my office, directing us to request the Ministry of Interior to set up a Senior Staff Committee to review the directives from the Attorney General.

She expressed surprise that Maina was finally reinstated without the assent of her office.
“When I got hold of that letter of reinstatement, I held on to the letter because I needed more clarification of that letter, so I was surprised to find out that without officially conveying the letter of his reinstatement or any letter of posting whatsoever, the said Mr Maina was absorbed into the Ministry of Interior which I learnt through the media.

“I want to place on record here that I still have the original letters here with me. My office will never convey such reinstatement letter to Mr. Maina, so there is no way he could have resumed work at the Ministry of Interior if he had not being officially notified of doing so by the office of the head of civil service commission.”

Also testifying, the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service, Joseph Oluremi Akande, told the committee that the letter requesting the reinstatement of Maina emanated from the office of the AGF.

“Maina was declared absent from duty in 2013 and attempt to locate him proved abortive so the ministry informed the head of service and the head of service informed the commission and ordered that a query be given to Maina to explain why he has been absent from duty.

“Ministry of Interior gave the query and set up an investigative panel to hear the other side of the case but they were unable to locate him.

“When Maina was unable to respond to the query or attend the investigative panel, the SSC (Senior Staff Committee) of the ministry was conveyed to consider his case and after discussion and deliberation, the SSC recommended that Maina be dismissed.

When the letter was sent to us from the HoS, we sat on it and the commission agreed with the recommendation and Maina was so dismissed.
“Sometimes in 2014, Maina wrote to the commission appealing that they reconsider their decision and that they review the dismissal given to him.”

Mr. Akande said the commission started receiving letters from the AGF from early 2017.
“In 2017, the commission received a letter from the Attorney General dated 19th January 22017 demanding the reinstatement of Maina.

“Again, the AGF sent another letter to us 27th April. The third letter informing us that he is the chief legal officer of the country and that the basis of our dismissing Maina cannot stand because judge of High Court in Abuja has paused the warrant of arrest and therefore directed.

“The ministry of interior met through their SSC and recommended that he be reinstated. When we looked at it, we approved that he be reinstated.”

The main witness, Maina was absent. But his lawyer Mohammed Katu, who announced appearance on his behalf, said his client would only appear before the committee if he was sure he would be protected from being arrested by any of the security agencies or the EFCC.

Maina has been declared wanted by the EFCC, the Nigerian Police and INTERPOL. Katu shocked the panel when he disclosed that Maina was paid salary up until October, even as he treated 23 files minuted to him.

When asked to re-confirm his statements, by a member of the committee, Ayo Omidiran, Katu said: “Yes, Honourable, I can let you know that 23 files were sent to Maina for him to treat as acting director.”
According to Katu, Maina was reinstated via a letter signed by one Dr. R.K Attahiru of the Department of Human Resources in the Interior ministry. He displayed the original copy of the letter.

Daily Sun Report

Pastor’ hypnotises, detains students for years in Ogun

Operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Lagos State Command, have apprehended a professed pastor, Abraham Roland, for allegedly running a human trafficking camp in the Mowe area of Ogun State.

The NSCDC said the pastor allegedly hypnotised his victims, who were mostly admission seekers and students at higher institutions in Lagos, and took them to the camp.

He was also alleged to have sexually harassed some females among them.
PUNCH Metro learnt that many of the victims had spent between three and five years at the camp which Roland also used as a church and residence.

He reportedly struck relationships with the victims through a tutorial centre he ran at Kosofe, Lagos, where they respectively enrolled to prepare for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
Our correspondent learnt that in the course of the tutorial, Roland introduced the victims to a fellowship, which he later moved to his Mowe residence.

After some of the students gained admission, he was said to have lured them into the residence and brainwashed them into believing that their success was attainable through prayers rather than education.

He reportedly influenced two of the victims, who were students at the University of Lagos, Busayo Grilo and Tolu Daniel, to quit their studies at the institution.
Busayo’s elder brother, Goriola Grilo, told PUNCH Metro that it took a long time before the family discovered that she was being held at the camp.

He said the family suspected that Busayo had been hypnotised when she told them that she needed “clearance from the leader” each time she was asked to come home.

He said, “She went to a tutorial centre for students preparing to sit for UTME. That was sometime in 2013. All of a sudden, she told us that the coaching centre wanted to form a Christian fellowship. Giving the fact that we are Christians, the family allowed her. We felt it was better for her to combine academics with prayers.

“All of a sudden, she started talking about success camping, but our mother questioned the camping and warned her against it. After she got admission into UNILAG to study Guidance and Counselling, she started telling us about the success camp again.

“We did not know she had been brainwashed by the pastor. He carefully selected some intelligent members of the tutorial centre and turned them against their families and friends. It became very worrisome when my sister came home last year and said she had been rusticated from the school because she did not pass some courses. I was surprised because she is brilliant.

“She did not tell us that the pastor at the camp was also the tutor until a guy who recently escaped from the camp told to us that she was living in the camp. We thought she was in school; the  guy said he had spent nine years in the camp doing nothing with his life before he realised that he was hypnotised.

“He said the only time anybody left the camp was when they needed to get food from their families. That was when I realised why my sister rarely came home even when the school was on vacation.”
He said he subsequently wrote a petition to the NSCDC, Lagos State Command, which bust the camp last Wednesday and rescued 10 victims – seven females and three males.

“One of victims, Tolu Daniel, was studying Psychology at the University of Lagos, but he was forced to drop out at 200-level.

“Parents of the victims were at the NSCDC office in Ikeja last Wednesday.  There is a guy, whose parents had paid about N1m tuition fee after he gained admission into a university in Edo State. He has become a mental case at the camp,” he added.

A parent, Roseline Johnson, said her daughter, Olabisi, was lured into the camp sometime last year, after she enrolled in the tutorial centre.

She said her daughter always told her that she was going to the Redemption Camp on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, adding that it was when the pastor was arrested that she knew she was lying.

“She had a National Diploma certificate at UNILAG. She went for the tutorial because she wanted to further her education. The man collected their certificates and told them there was nothing like school,” she added.

An official of the corps told PUNCH Metro that the suspect located the camp near a bush on the outskirts of Mowe so that people would not get wind of his illegal activities.

He said, “We got a complaint that the pastor was into abduction and was sexually harassing his female victims. He had brainwashed about five of them to drop out of school. Some of them had been living with him for four years, while others had spent over five years. He added Abraham to their names.”

The Lagos State Commandant of the NSCDC, Tajudeen Balogun, said the suspect and the victims had been handed over to the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and other related offences, adding that the victims would be rehabilitated by the agency.

 He said, “It is a case of suspected human trafficking. The command acted on a petition from one of the relatives of the victims. We tracked down the pastor at a camp in Mowe. He was not ordained as a pastor. He lured the victims from a tutorial centre in Kosofe and hypnotised them.

“We urge parents to be vigilant about how their children move around. Some parents of the victims cried, saying their children had changed.”

Punch Report

Badoo cultists strike again, kill mother, 2 children

Badoo cultists have struck again in Ikorodu, killing a mother and her two children inside a church premises with stone.

The Lagos State Police Command on Tuesday said it had arrested two persons in connection with the killing of three family members in a church premises.

The Commissioner of Police in Lagos, Imohimi Edgal, who confirmed the arrest to newsmen, said that the incident happened at Temu village in Ikosi Ejirin Local Council Development Area of the state.

Although, Edgal said two persons were killed, some residents told newsmen that a mother and her two children were killed in the incident.
The Lagos police boss said: “It is a clear case of murder. The landlady has been arrested and an okada rider has been arrested.

“One of the victims watched television throughout the night with one of the suspects in our custody.
”It has nothing to do with ritual killing as speculated.

Edgal said that investigation had commenced into the killings.
Residents of the community disclosed that a woman and her two children were killed by suspected “badoo” cultists at about 2am on Monday.

The hoodlums, it was learnt, scaled through the fence and killed Iyabo (mother), David (4) and Rachael (8) with stones while sleeping, a trade mark of the badoo group.

A resident, Mr Adeshina Idowu, said that the death of the family took the community by surprise.
“The family just moved into the community six months ago; we were surprised when somebody came to me that Mama David is dead.

“When we got to the scene, the assailants had killed the woman and her two children who were with her in the apartment.
“How they entered into the victims’ compound without the guard knowing about it is a mystery to us,” he said.

Another resident, who simply gave his name as Tajudeen, said residents immediately reported the incident at Agbowa Police Division.
“Initially we thought it was armed robbery case.

“But when we entered into their apartment and saw stone used by the assailants, then we knew that it is the hand work of Badoo cultists,” he said
It was further learnt that policemen from Agbowa Police Division had evacuated the corpses to the mortuary.

PM NEWS Report

Chef drugs ex-minister, Kalu Idika, robs him of N10m

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested Peter Odion, the chef of a former Minister of Finance, Dr Kalu Idika, for his involvement in the robbery of his boss.

Odion lived with the ex-minister at 180A, Moshood Olugbani Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.
He had allegedly put some sedatives into a cup of coffee he served the ex-minister on a Wednesday morning.

After Idika slept off, Odion was said to have led his gang members into the boss’ apartment, where they made away with a sum of N750,000, a Blackberry, a Samsung phone and other valuables estimated at about N10m.

Odion was paraded on Monday at the police command office in Ikeja along with four others identified as Samuel Ogana, Joy Omagu, Uboh Obi and Sunday Emmanuel.

The state Acting Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, said operatives of the State Intelligence Bureau, tracked down the suspects.

The CP said the gang members had wanted to adopt a similar method to rob one Mrs. Augustina Akhibi, when they met their Waterloo.

He said, “The syndicate is made up of six members who specialise in getting jobs as cooks or home helps and while in service, gain the trust of their principals and inject their food with drugs to make them sleep off. They thereafter cart away their principals’ belongings.

“The first victim, Dr Kalu Idika, was robbed of items worth N10,943,000 on September 20, 2017, while the second potential victim, Mrs. Akhibi, was used by the police as a bait to bust the syndicate.”

He added that drug substances like Diazepam Injection, ground nitrogen (morgodon) table, and a syringe filled with some substances, were recovered from the gang.”

The chef, Odion, who admitted to the crime, told PUNCH Metro that he was desperate to get a sum of N60,000 his boss allegedly owed him.

He said, “I started working with the man some months ago. The man owed me N60,000 and he refused to pay. I told my friend, Samuel (Ogana), and he gave me the drug to put in his tea.

They came in when he was asleep and robbed him. I played along with them. Other workers in the house did not know I was involved. I got N100,000 from the proceeds.”
 Twenty-year-old Omagu said Emmanuel acted as an agent and contracted her as a housemaid to Akhibi.

“He gave me some sedatives to make the woman sleep, but I had not used them when the police arrested me,” she added.
But 38-year-old Emmanuel denied that he gave the drugs to Omagu, noting that he had got a housemaid for the woman in the past.

He said, “I only told her (Omagu) that the woman was wicked and that she could do whatever she liked to her. I don’t know anything about the drugs.”

Punch Report

Wife stabs ex-PDP chairman’s son to death

Bilyamin Bello, the son of a former Peoples Democratic Party Chairman, Haliru Bello, was on Saturday allegedly stabbed to death by his wife, Maryam Sanda.

Sanda is the daughter of embattled former Aso Savings Bank boss, Hajia Maimuna Aliyu.
The attack, it was gathered, resulted from an allegation of infidelity against Bilyamin by his wife after she saw a text message on his phone.

PUNCH Metro learnt that Maryam stabbed her husband in the neck and chest while he slept in the bedroom at their home in Maitama, Abuja.

After stabbing him, she was said to have taken him to a hospital where he gave up the ghost.
The couple had a daughter together.

A friend of the deceased, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said before the tragedy, Maryam had bit off part of Bilyamin’s ear, adding that he was treated at a hospital and later returned home.
He was reportedly advised to leave the house for some time, but he refused.

It was further gathered that the deceased was planning to divorce his wife before he was allegedly murdered.
Bilyamin, a real estate developer and businessman, was said to have complained several times about his wife’s violent tendency to some family members and friends.

“Maryam had attacked Bilyamin before the latest incident, which unfortunately led to his death. The two got married about two years ago when the former PDP chairman persuaded his son to marry Maryam. Everyone was shocked by Bilyamin’s death; it was sudden, unexpected and tragic,” a source said.

It was learnt that the deceased had been buried on Sunday.
The Federal Capital Territory Police Command spokesman, Anjuguri Manzah, confirmed the incident, adding that “a female suspect” was in custody.

He added that the case had been taken from the Maitama Divisional Police Station by the state command, noting that investigation had commenced into the homicide.

Punch Report

Notorious Lagos police station where no one is innocent

Sitting quietly on the wooden bench and resting his head on the wall in front of his master’s shop, Monday sure had a lot running through his mind, given the way he suddenly sprang to life when our correspondent said hello.

Two weeks ago, he had a taste of the brutality of the policemen at Pen Cinema police station in Agege area of Lagos State. And up till now, Monday, who runs a shop in Ogba, had been battling to stay alive and strong as the pain inflicted on him by the policemen-turned-attackers had yet to fade away, several days after.

With face swollen, eyes looking red and signs of torment in his shaky voice, it was obvious he must have gone through hell in the hands of the policemen, who invaded Anthony Ojekere and Bishop Hughes streets at about 8:30 pm and unleashed serious terror on everyone they came across.

Monday, who appeared to be in his mid-30s, told our correspondent that he was thoroughly beaten to the point of death for committing no particular offence. His submission was echoed by his neighbours who said it was by grace that he didn’t lose his life that night, given the way the policemen, about three of them – all in mufti – pounced on him.

Barely audible, he recalled, “It was on Friday night, two weeks ago. That should be October 27. It was around 8:30 pm. We were two in the shop and we were closing the shop already. As we were about locking the doors, three yellow buses suddenly pulled over in front of the shop.

“Immediately, three men jumped down and rushed to where I was standing. My colleague was able to escape, thinking they were thieves, but they dragged me on the floor to the bus and started beating me. I even thought they were armed robbers because everywhere was dark and they all wore black T-shirts.

“When one of them said they were policemen, I was shocked that policemen could be so inhuman. So, I asked what my offence was and then I told them to allow me to close my shop. But that angered them the more. They started beating me again until I could barely see anything.

They used everything in sight to beat me. They pushed me into the bus where I met a crowd – people they also picked up at different places. The bus was full already and we had to sit on one another.”
Monday said by the time they got to the Pen Cinema police station that night and everybody was forced down from the bus, they were about 150 to 200.

After detaining them for some time and taking down their names, they were later released to go home around 11 pm, but not without some scars and bitter experiences. Some, like Monday, lost their phones and others lost other valuable items. It was such a terrible time for most of them.
Whether in the past or recent times, there have been series of reports and allegations of brutality and maltreatment levelled against policemen attached to the Pen Cinema police station.

The already bad impression people seem to have about the police station was further exacerbated in 2012 when the serving divisional police officer at that time, CSP Femi Fabunmi, killed a protester, Ademola Aderintola Daramola, during the protest in Lagos against the removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government.

Apart from the manslaughter charge, the Lagos State High Court in Igbosere also found the DPO guilty of shooting three other persons – Alimi Abubakar, Egbujor Samuel and Chizorba Odoh, during the protest, thereby causing them grievous bodily harm.

He was arraigned by the state government on a seven-count charge bordering on murder, attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm. Thus, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2015, a decision that was upheld by the Appeal Court in December 2016.
Fabunmi, who was a Chief Superintendent of Police, has been dismissed from the police force and he’s currently serving his term.

But according to some Lagos residents and some persons who live around the police station, not much seemed to have changed about the police station. Our correspondent gathered from some people around the station that victimisation of innocent Nigerians is a regular occurrence in the station and that anyone brought into the station could only be set free by luck.

Across the length and breadth of the police station, including some motorists who ply the road regularly, they said police authorities in the state needed to monitor policemen in the station closely.
To some of the victims of the “violent” raid that night, the ranking of the Nigeria Police Force as the worst police organisation globally could not have come at a better time

The World Internal Security and Police Index International gave a pass mark to Singapore, Finland and Denmark as the first, second and third best respectively, noting that of all the 127 countries that were assessed, Nigeria police was the worst.

The report partly read, “There are 219 police officers for every 100,000 Nigerians, well below both the index median of 300, and the Sub-Saharan Africa region average of 268. This limits the capacity of the force to measure up to its law and mandate.
“In terms of process, legitimacy and outcomes, the story is not different; which makes the Force fall short of the required standards.”

Meanwhile, still on the same night when Monday was nearly killed for committing no offence – at least he wasn’t confronted with any throughout his travails in the hands of the policemen, some other victims of the raid also shared their “unpalatable” experiences with Saturday PUNCH.

One of them, who preferred to be identified as Ola, told our correspondent that the way he was beaten that night marked the worst experience of his life and that since then, he had not been able to sleep well because his body still ached.

He explained that he was on his way from work when he quickly delivered some drugs to his ailing dad and stopped to buy noodles from a mallam (aboki) on Bishop Hughes Street at Ogba. He said he had barely placed his order when the policemen suddenly stormed the shop and arrested all of them, leaving one person behind.

He said, “I left my dad’s house around 8 pm so the drama happened around 8:30 pm. I was on a call when I entered the shop, but shortly after, I saw that people started running. Before we knew what was happening, we saw that three big yellow buses suddenly pulled over in front of the shop. They didn’t come in their van and they were not in uniform, neither did they introduce themselves. It was later we knew they were policemen.

“They told everyone to go on the bus. They said we were under arrest. So, I was still telling the person I was talking to on the phone that we would talk later when one of them gave me a slap in the face for “making calls.” He said I was reporting them. That was how they started beating me. All of them pounced on me. They even wanted to collect my phone but I was able to resist.

“When I entered the bus, it was filled to the brim. In that bus, we wouldn’t be less than 50 because people already sat on one another’s laps. And that was the situation in the other buses.”
As if that was not enough, Ola said they started picking people on the street as they drove towards the station.

“From Bishop Hughes Street, they entered Anthony Ojekere Street, where they arrested Monday and some others. The way they beat Monday, all the pain I was feeling disappeared. It was as if they meant to kill him. I had to look away because I couldn’t bear it. No, that guy is lucky to be alive today. They went to the other side of his shop and carried someone that was lying down on a bench, maybe due to the heat inside the house. They carried him like a dead man and he was wearing only boxer shorts.

“A couple that was walking on the road were accosted and thrown into the bus. They stopped a tricycle on Oba Ogunji Road close to their station and packed everyone in it into the buses. That was how they picked many other people. I tried to call my brother but unknowingly, I called my dad and I didn’t know one of them was watching me.

“He started finding his way to where I was and he was saying he would kill me. He said he would show me hell when we got to the station. I’m sure my dad heard that because I had not dropped the call and that was how he knew that I was being taken to the police station. For that call, the policeman beat me mercilessly.”

On getting to the station, he said they were all locked up in the cell and others had to stay in the passage.
By the time Ola’s brother and his ailing dad got to the station, some other relatives had also arrived, pleading for the release of their relatives.

Ola’s brother, who joined the conversation, said, “When the pleas and protest became too loud for them, they used tear gas, which landed my dad at the Ifako General Hospital. The DCO came out and saw my dad on the floor, saying they should carry him away. I know how much we paid to take care of him that night. Some persons called their lawyers and some people they knew. A woman who was visually impaired was also there to seek her son’s release.

“If police can’t protect us, why can’t they leave us alone, because if it were to be armed robbers, they suddenly wouldn’t have fuel and if they did, they would come after the robbers had left? They would give all manner of excuses, and if you make a report, they demand money. I mean is this a country?”
Ola said when the situation became heated, they were all released to go home at about 11 pm. “Even though I didn’t pay them, the trauma was too much and they must have thought they would make some money from us because I found out that after we were released, they picked up another set of people,” he added.

“I blame myself for waiting to buy the food that night; I could have cooked in my house but I felt it was too late to start cooking. They used to say police is our friend but they are our real enemy. I could neither sleep nor eat that night. I’m tired of this country.”

While policemen attribute all their raids to investigation, findings by Saturday PUNCH had revealed that a number of the raids were meant to exploit, extort and harass innocent members of the public.

A recent report by Saturday PUNCH, published on August 19, 2017, detailed how some policemen have turned raids to intimidation techniques and money-making ventures, as well as extorting and abducting at will while leaving low-profile and high-profile cases unsolved.

The owner of the noodles shop where Ola was arrested escaped being arrested, but he told our correspondent that it wasn’t the first time policemen would invade the area and arrest people indiscriminately. He said they did the same thing about two months ago and that till date, no reason had been adduced for the harassment.

“It was just as if they used us to do exercise. They didn’t arrest me but they promised to come back,” he said, adding that they took the phone of one his workers, which they had yet to return till date.
“My phone is still with them,” the owner of the phone said, adding, “When I went back for my phone, they said the person with it was not around. Since then, the number has not been available. My boss also went there, but they threatened to deal with him.”

Another victim of the raid, who introduced himself as Daniel, said, “They came suddenly and started beating people. We would be up to 200 when they took us to the station that night. We had to sit on ourselves in the bus. They packed us like fish in a sardine. Some of them were armed while some were not. Nigeria policemen are wicked.”

When asked if they noted the name or force number of any of the policemen, they said they could not as the policemen all wore mufti. They were also too distressed to pick the number plate of any of the buses.

The brutality of some policemen seems regular as the passing of each day. The experience of a newlywed couple in the hands of policemen attached to the Maitama police division in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, a few weeks ago was yet another sad tale of policemen’s inhumanity to the people they were paid to protect.

Two policemen were engaged in a fight in the public when one of them cocked his gun and started shooting sporadically. In the process, one of the bullets hit the left leg of the husband who, in company with his wife and a friend, was leaving the premises. One of the policemen was named Akpabio Daniel, while the couple had only been married for two months.

As of today, the leg had been amputated, while the man had been confined to the hospital bed, still writhing in pains. Even though the DPO of Maitama police station where the policemen are attached to, gave N150,000 to the family for treatment, the wife of the victim said they had spent over N1.6m on hospital bills.

As of today, the FCT Police PRO, Anjuguri Manzah, said the policeman who fired the shot had been arrested and that investigation had been ongoing since then. Nothing had been said about the shooter or what the police would do for the victim, who has lost his leg.

When contacted about the raid at Ogba, the Police Public Relations Officer in Lagos State, Olarinde Famous-Cole, said the police carry out raids from time to time based on complaints and intelligence reports, but that their men had been warned not to harass innocent persons in the process.
He said the DPO of the station pointed out to him that a lot of complaints, bordering on armed robbery,  were received from the residents in the area raided by the policemen from the station.

“He confirmed that they raided those black spots and that since that raid, they had not received any such negative report again. He said there was no form of assault and that among the men arrested were screened, some were released while some were further interrogated.”

Saturday Punch

Harvest of deaths in Lagos, Ogun rail, road crashes

9 dead, scores injured

Scores also injured in Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Agege accidents
It was a day of disaster in Lagos and Ogun states yesterday following two separate accidents involving a train, trucks, buses and cars, which claimed nine lives, leaving several others wounded.

In Lagos, Daily Sun learnt, a train rammed unto a truck whose driver was said to be trying to make a U-turn on the railway track around Fagba-Ojurin Ifako-Ijaye Abattoir area, while the multiple road accident occurred on the popular Kara Bridge along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun State.

General manager of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Mr. Adesina Tiamiyu, disclosed that his agency received an emergency call at about 7am through its emergency toll-free number, 767, and promptly responded to the information that a road accident involving a number of vehicles had occurred on the Kara Bridge on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

He said that his men immediately mobilised to the scene, where they joined officials of the  Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), who were already on hand to rescues survivors and evacuate the dead.

Tiamiyu said that, according an eyewitness, the accident happened at about 6am, leading to five casualties, while 19 people sustained various degrees of injury. He noted that the survivors consisted of 11 adult males and eight females.

The crash led to a gridlock on the busy highway and subsequently grounded economic activities for hours as both sides of the dual carriageway were locked down.

Tiamiyu told Daily Sun that, despite the fact that the disaster occurred outside his agency’s area of jurisdiction, it swiftly deployed its operatives and equipment to the scene and assisted in clearing the affected vehicles to pave way for free flow of traffic.

He said: “When the response unit arrived the scene of the incident, it discovered that the multiple accident involved 15 vehicles consisting of seven trucks, a pick-up van, three cars and buses.
“The vehicles consisted of a Man Diesel truck with registration number JJJ 342 XD (Lagos), two DAF trucks with registration number APP 769 XR (Lagos) and GGE 818 XC ( Lagos), while the third had an unknown registration number.

Also involved in the crash were two Sino trucks with registration numbers KRD 122 XC (Lagos), KRD 123 XC (Lagos) and a Mack truck with registration number BDG 561 XG (Lagos). Others were a Nissan Cabster car with registration XS 216 KSF (Lagos) and two Honda Accord cars with registration numbers MUS 411 DG (Lagos) and APP 303 DV (Lagos).

“There were also a Lexus Jeep with registration number FKJ 475 BR (Lagos), a Volkswagen Kombi (Danfo) with registration number  KTU 594 XM (Lagos), a Ford bus with registration number KTU 340 XU (Lagos), a Mazda bus with registration number AKD 520 XW (Lagos) and a Nissan bus with registration number BDG 27 AA (Lagos).”

Tiamiyu stated that the cause of the multiple-car accident was yet to be ascertained.
On his part, the FRSC sector commander, Ogun State Command, Clement Oladele, told Daily Sun that his men arrived at the accident scene by 6.10am, 10 minutes after the accident was reported to the command.

He disclosed that the injured victims were taken to the Accident and Emergency Hospital, Ojota, Gbagada General Hospital and Ikeja General Hospital all in Lagos.

He also disclosed that the dead were deposited at Onabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), Sagamu, Ogun State, adding that one of the dead bodies was deposited at Ikeja General Hospital while the last one was taken to the Accident and Emergency Centre, Ojota.

He corroborated Tiamiyu’s position that the cause of the ghastly accident was yet to be unravelled, even as he cautioned motorists to drive safely, especially during this festive period.

The Lagos tragedy, which happened in the Abattoir area, according to investigations by the LASEMA, involved a truck with registration number MYM 63 XA, which was trying to make a U-turn on the railway tracks. The driver of the truck, it was gathered was not quick enough in getting out of the way before a train smashed into it.

Four male adults, who were believed to be squatting on the speeding train, were confirmed dead, while there were an undisclosed number of persons who sustained injuries. The injured were attended to by officials of the Lagos State Ambulance Service, while the deceased were deposited at the mortuary of a government hospital.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Special Duties, Mr. Oluseye Oladejo, was at the scene of the incident to supervise the emergency responders.

Other emergency teams who were at the scene of the accident were the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, Lagos Neighbourhood and Safety Corps, Rapid Response Squad, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and the Nigeria Police.

According to Tiamiyu, proper investigation would be conducted to unravel the causes of the incidents. He advised motorists to adhere to road safety rules, and particularly charged people who were in the habit of hanging onto  trains/vehicles to get free rides to desist from such dangerous acts in order to avoid a re-currence of the unfortunate incident of the train collision with the truck.

Daily Sun Report

FG to spend N4.8bn on Villa maintenance in 2018

The Federal Government is proposing to spend  N4.86bn in the 2018 fiscal year on maintenance  of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The budgeted amount for next year when compared to the N4.95bn allocated for annual routine maintenance of villa facilities in the 2017 budget represents a decline of about N90m.

In the 2016 budget, the sum of N3.91bn was allocated for annual routine maintenance of the Presidential Villa by the Federal Government.

The N4.86bn amount for this year is part of the N11.54bn total allocation made for the state house headquarters in the proposed 2018 budget.
The State House has a total capital allocation of N7.1bn while recurrent expenditure was estimated at N4.43bn

In 2017, the state house had a budget of N11.02bm made up of N6.52bn for capital project while recurrent expenditure was estimated at N4.49bn.
The 2018 budget was submitted last Tuesday to a joint session of the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari.

It has a total allocation of N8.61tn made up of N3.49tn for recurrent, N2.43tn for capital while debt servicing and statutory transfers among others are to gulp the sum of N2.01tn and N456bn respectively.
A breakdown of the state house budget shows that apart from the N4.86bn for annual maintenance, there are outstanding liabilities of N565.65m for routine maintenance for 2016.

In the same vein, the sum of N907.1m was budgeted for phased replacement of vehicles, spares and tyres in the presidential security/police escort, while N284.58m was allocated for renovation work at state house security quarters.

The budget proposal also has a provision of N93.6m for electronic document management system, N17.74m for upgrade of state house library, N28.9m for upgrade of villa ranch and construction of wildlife conservation and N83.7m for purchase of tyres for bulletproof vehicles, ambulances and other utilities and operational vehicles.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, had on Tuesday during the public presentation of the 2018 budget, said the government would continue to spend more on ongoing infrastructure projects that had potential for job creation and inclusive growth.

He said the Federal Government would continue to leverage private capital and counterpart funding for the delivery of infrastructure projects.

The minister said for 2018 capital projects, the government would carry out huge projects in transportation, power, works, housing, health, water resources, agriculture and rural development, mines and steel development, industry , trade and investment, and education.

For instance, he said N35.4bn had been provided for Federal Government National Housing Programme, N10bn for second Niger Bridge, N294bn for construction and rehabilitation of major roads nationwide, N8.9bn for procurements of vaccines, over N50bn for water supply, rehabilitation of dams and irrigation projects nationwide.

He added that N25.1bn had been earmarked for promotion and development of value chains across 30 different commodities, N4bn for agri-business and market development, N46.3bn for special economic zone projects across the geopolitical zones to drive manufacturing and exports and N19.28bn in form of tax credits to support export through Export Expansion Grant, among others.

Budget unacceptable, a misnomer- CACOL, Junaid, others
However, a civil-society organisation, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, condemned the budget for Aso Rock Villa, saying it was “unacceptable and a misnomer.”

The CACOL Director, Debo Adeniran, said, “Several items in the Aso Rock Villa budget are repeated annually and no changes are carried out. You are still going to have budget for kitchen utensils, furniture and others.

This is the problem of our budget and the reason why the government has gone ahead with such bogus amounts is because there is no accountability, probity and transparency. If people can raise questions, we can force the amounts down.

“Basically, it is a misnomer and an administration preaching change must not allow such bloated budget. We have just heard about the Aso Rock clinic fraud which was brought to light by even the wife of the President.”

Also, a Second Republic lawmaker, Dr Junaid Muhammed, described as unacceptable the budgeted amount for the installations, noting that the budget needed to be scrutinised.

Muhammed said, “I share the concerns of many Nigerians that many items in the 2018 are bloated and unacceptable. If only we will take time to scrutinise the budget, we will find many of such unnecessary items such as the one in focus.

“That the cost of the maintenance of the installations at the villa, put at N4.86billion is more than the installations themselves is laughable and shows that the present government is not being sincere with itself. Such is very unacceptable.”

It is unnecessary, says CIFCN registrar
Commenting on the allocation for maintenance of the villa, the Registrar, Chartered Institute of Finance and Control of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Eohoi, said the huge allocation was unnecessary at a time when Nigerians were experiencing economic hardship.

He said, “That kind of huge allocation for maintenance of the presidential villa is an expenditure that should not be encouraged at a time when the government is involved in huge borrowing to finance its operations and when a majority of Nigerians are suffering the biting economic hardship.

“The government should set its priorities right by ensuring that many of the bad roads are fixed. Why budget such huge amount of money for maintenance of the Villa when many people don’t even have food to eat?

“That amount that was budgeted for maintenance should have been reduced drastically to free up funds for other infrastructure projects.”
The office of President Muhammadu Buhari was repaired after   the President came back  from 81 days’ medical trip in London, the United Kingdom on August 19.

Punch Report

Army arrest women for buying baby for N300,000

Two women were on Tuesday arrested by the Special Military Task Force, codenamed Operation Safe Haven, for allegedly trafficking a four-day-old baby girl.

The suspects – Doris Egbufurum, 39; and Esther James, 40 – were said to have been arrested with the baby at Babale Gwam checkpoint, a boundary between Plateau and Bauchi states.

The Commander of Sector 1, Colonel Musa Etsu-Ndagi, who paraded the suspects, explained that they were arrested around 7.15pm on Monday by operatives of OPSH at the checkpoint after the duo boarded a commercial vehicle in Bauchi.

He said, “A passenger in the vehicle raised the alarm that she suspected that the baby with the two women was stolen because neither of them appeared to be her mother. The troops arrested them and investigation revealed that they bought the baby girl from one Mr. Abuna in Bauchi State for N300,000.”

He said the baby was in the military’s custody, adding that she was under the care of medical officers.
Etsu-Ndagi said the OPSH was making efforts to hand over the baby to the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, an agency of the Federal Ministry of Justice.

He said, “NAPTIP does not have an office in Plateau State; their closest office is in Makurdi, Benue State.”

One of the suspects, Egbufurum, who lived in Imo State and worked as a nurse with the Peoples Clinic in Bauchi, said she was taking the baby to Lagos after she bought her from a customer in Bauchi.

“I was taking the baby to a woman who has been married for a long time without a child. She sent N320,000 to me for the job. I bought the baby for N300,000 and wanted to use the N20,000 balance for transport from Bauchi to Lagos,” She said.

When contacted, the spokesperson for OPSH, Captain Umar Adams, said  the suspects would be handed over to NAPTIP.

He said, “Our troops intercepted a vehicle conveying some passengers. The passengers in the vehicle raised the alarm and our troops discovered two women travelling with a baby suspected to have been stolen. They were arrested and taken to our headquarters.

“They were coming from Bauchi. So, in the course of investigation, they confessed that they bought the baby. They will be handed over to NAPTIP for prosecution. Efforts are being made to trace the place where they bought the baby.”

Punch Report

I sold hawker’s body parts for N8,500 – Ritual killer

 

A suspected ritual killer, Yewunu Tanlaju, has said that he sold the severed parts of a 17-year-old girl, Taye Gusinu, to an herbalist for N8,500.

The 35-year-old suspect allegedly killed the victim last Thursday in Idosemo, Ipokia, Ipokia Local Government Area of Ogun State, by severing her head and removing her heart and other vital organs.

Tanlaju spoke with our correspondent at the police headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, while being paraded with two other accomplices – an herbalist, Olusoji Asamo; and one Joyi Suru.

The victim’s decomposing remains were also brought to the parade ground.
Tanlaju said the victim was hawking puff-puff when he lured her into an isolated building.

He said, “I saw the girl hawking puff-puff in a school environment. I called her and bought N40 puff-puff from her.

“After she finished selling to me, she was leaving when I seized her from behind and tied her down. She attempted shouting, but I blocked her mouth.I slaughtered her myself.

“It was the second time I would be killing in the area. It was Asamo who told me to bring human parts, although I didn’t know what he wanted to use them for.

“When I delivered the girl’s parts, he gave me N8,500. But it was N10,000 he gave me when I delivered the first parts.”

Asamo confessed that the human parts were brought to him immediately the heinous act was committed.

The 27-year-old herbalist said, “It is true that he brought the human parts to my house, requesting money ritual. I collected them from him with the intention of reporting the case.

“I didn’t report to the police because police station is far from our area. I was the one who took the human parts to Joyi Suru for safekeeping. I gave him N8,500, so that he will not be suspicious.”

The Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, said the suspects were arrested after a complaint by the father of the victim, Jimoh Gusinu.

He said the arrest was successful with the collaboration of the Ogun State command of the Vigilante Service of Nigeria.

The father of the deceased, who was visibly angry while speaking with journalists, demanded justice and warned that under no guise should the suspects be freed.

He said, “The government must also kill them. If I set my eyes on them again,  I will attack them with whatever I can get.”


Punch Report

Sodomy has ruined my life, 65-year-old man laments

A 65-year-old-man, Patrick Kalu, Railway Quarters, Minna, has been arrested by the Niger State Police Command for allegedly sodomising a 15-year-old boy, Victor Inne, of Karimo, Abuja.

Kalu was said to have had regular sexual intercourse with children aged 12 to 15 before his arrest.
Northern City News gathered that the father of three, who allegedly abandoned his family, hailed from Ohafia, Abia State and lived in Minna.

Kalu told our correspondent that he had been engaging in the act for over two years.
He denied engaging in sodomy for ritual purposes, saying it was only for pleasure as he enjoyed doing the act with young boys.

Kalu said, “I was doing it for pleasure. I started having the urge to sleep with little boys in my late 50s and now it has ruined my entire life.
“I have rubbished my life and my reputation, I can’t even start to talk about this or how I started it in the first place.

“It is evil. I pray that my children and my community will forgive me. I have been into this heinous act before I was apprehended by a team of police operatives in Minna. “

Kalu blamed himself for the act, saying, “I don’t deserve mercy at all, let the law take its course; I am stupid, honestly.”

He added, “I don’t know what came over me; each time I see small boys, I would be tempted to have sexual intercourse with them. I don’t know whether it is a curse placed on me. I usually entice my victims with money.”

The police command’s Public Relations Officer, Abigail Unaeze, said the suspect was arrested  for sodomising the teenageer at Railway Quarters, Minna, the state capital.

She said that the suspect lured the victim from Abuja to Minna under the guise that he would secure a job for him.
The PPRO added that the suspect would be charged to court after investigation.

Punch Report

God is good! Woman delivers quadruplets after 20 years of barreness

Quadruplets

Certainly, God is good. All the time. A woman in Ibadan, Oyo State, has been delivered of quadruplets at a private hospital after 20 years of barreness.

The lucky couple, Mr and Mrs Ibikunle Ajala, welcomed the babies in Ibadan last Friday after waiting for 20 years before having children.

An elated Mr Ajala said his joy knew no bounds seeing that he suddenly became a father of four. He said God was so good to them for delivering four children at a time to make up for the past 20 years of waiting, The Nation reports.

“It is good to wait for God’s time. I must confess it has not been a rosy journey but we thank God for the grace to wait. Waiting is not the biggest issue; it is what one does at the time of waiting,” he said.
Mrs Sarah Ajala gave birth at a private hospital in Ibadan last Friday.

She grinned from ear to ear as she welcomed well-wishers to her hospital room.
The couple got married in December, 1997 and has since stayed closely knitted together since then.

While Mr Ajala is a senior officer with the Nigerian Immigration Service, his wife works with BOWEN University, Iwo.

Friends, relations and other well-wishers have since been thronging the hospital to felicitate with them.

Pm News Report

I sold my baby because I couldn’t train him – Father

A 23-year-old man, Kinsley Eze, has said that he sold his five months old baby boy for N250,000 due to lack of money to raise and train him.

Eze made the confession while in the custody of the police in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.
He said he had agreed with his girlfriend to sell the baby before luck ran out on them.

Eze said, “I am a mechanic. I was arrested for child trafficking. The baby is mine; my fiancee gave birth to him. We decided to sell the baby because I wasn’t making enough money to take care of him and the mother.”

The police in the state also arrested another child trafficking suspect, Chinkata Chikezie, who reportedly sold his five-year-old son for an undisclosed amount.

According to a police source, the wife of the suspect, one Glory, had reported to the police at the Isiala Ngwa Local Government Area of the state that she woke up on October 16, 2017, and discovered that her baby was missing and the door to their room was open.

The source added that the complainant had raised the alarm and attracted the attention of her neighbours who searched for the missing boy.

He noted that when the villagers sighted her husband (Chikezie) returning home that morning, they handed him over to the police for questioning.

The source said, “During interrogation, Chikezie confessed that he sold his son in connivance with one Kelechi John and Chikezie Ubabuike. Police operatives attached to the division swung into action, arrested the other suspects, and recovered the child.”

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Anthony Ogbizi, confirmed the arrest of the suspects.
He said they would be charged to court as soon as the command concluded investigation into the cases.

He said, “Child trafficking is a serious crime against children, which is forbidden by our laws. As law enforcement agents, our duty is to investigate any case reported to us and unmask those behind the crime.”

Punch Report

16-year-old pupil impregnated by vice principal gives birth

A 16-year-old pupil of the Government Secondary School, Tunga, Niger State, Faith Galadima, who was impregnated by the school’s vice principal, Mohammed Mohammed, has given birth to a baby boy.

The teenager was delivered of the baby at Injita village, Munya Local Government Area of Niger State.

The VP had allegedly slept with the pupil sometime in March this year, putting her in the family way.
Mohammed was arraigned in court on April 4, 2017 and is standing trial on two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a child, and impregnating a female pupil.

The accused was remanded in the prison custody for three months after he pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The presiding magistrate, Fatima Auna, had granted the VP bail in the sum of N1m, which she said was in line with sections 35 and 36 of the 1999 constitution, and sections 341 and 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The victim, who narrated her ordeal to journalists on Tuesday, said that she gave birth to the baby on October 28, after she was returned to her parents by her guardians in August.
Faith said that during the period of the pregnancy, she and her family did not receive any assistance from the vice principal.

She solicited help from the state government to enable her to continue with her education.
“I am not happy that I am now a mother at this tender age; but I will not allow the incident to shatter my dream of becoming a nurse.

“I still want to further my studies because I want to be a nurse in the future,” she said.
The teenage mother advised young people, especially girls, to be committed to their studies and report to the school authorities or their parents any form of abuse by individuals or group of persons.

Haruna Galadima, the 65-year-old father of the victim, decried the neglect of his daughter by Mohammed, noting that she did not receive any assistance during and after the pregnancy.
Galadima urged the state government to assist his daughter to return to school and ensure that justice prevailed in the matter.

He said, “When I heard that my daughter was impregnated by the vice principal in her school, I regretted sending her to school, because a teacher who was supposed to teach and correct her was the one responsible for her predicament.

“What I want now is for my daughter to be taken care of by the man who put her in the family way; he should take full responsibility for the baby’s needs,” he added.

In her reaction, the Director General of the Niger State Child Rights Protection Agency, Mrs. Mairam Kolo, said the agency had approached the ministry of education to give part of the vice principal’s salary to Faith on a monthly basis for the baby’s upkeep.

Kolo said the agency would file an application before the court for a DNA test to be conducted on the baby to assist police investigation and the court.
She gave the assurance that the agency would get justice for the victim and see that she returned to school.

Checks revealed that Mohammed had been secretly transferred from GSS Tunga, Minna to an unknown school while the case against him was pending in the court.
The Permanent Secretary of the state Ministry of Education could not be reached for comment on the transfer of the accused to another school.

Punch Report

26 Nigerians in tragic end on mediterranean

Italian prosecutors are investigating the deaths of 26 Nigerian women, most of them teenagers whose bodies were recovered at sea.

There are suspicions that they may have been sexually abused and murdered as they attempted to cross the Mediterranean.

Five migrants are already being questioned in the southern port of Salerno. A Spanish warship, Cantabria, docked there, carrying 375 migrants and the dead women, following several rescues.

Twenty-three of the dead women had been on a rubber boat with 64 other people.
Italian media reports that the women’s bodies are being kept in a refrigerated section of the warship.
Most of them were aged 14-18.

Most of the 375 survivors brought to Salerno were sub-Saharan Africans, from Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, The Gambia and Sudan, the daily La Repubblica reports. Among them were 90 women, eight of them pregnant and 52 children.

There were also some Libyan men and women on board.
People-smuggling gangs charge each migrant about $6,000 (£4,578) to get to Italy, $4,000 of which is for the trans-Saharan journey to Libya, according to the Italian aid group L’Abbraccio.

Many migrants have reported violence, including torture and sexual abuse, by the gangs. So far this year,, 150,982 migrants arrived in southern Europe by boat from North Africa, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reports.

Of that number, 111,552 (nearly 75 percent) came via the Central Mediterranean route to Italy. The number who died on that route was 2,639, the IOM says.

Others arrived in Greece, Cyprus or Spain. The total is less than half the 335,158 who arrived in the same period of 2016.
Last year the total for Greece was higher than that for Italy.

Daily Sun Report

FG clamps down on online newspapers, others

The Federal Government has begun secret moves that will see a number of online newspapers, blogs and websites perceived to constitute “threat to national security” permanently shut down.

Social media and Internet users may also not be exempted from the clampdown which will begin any moment from now.

The closest clue in what has been interpreted as an indirect attempt to gag the press and suppress opposing views since the advent of the current administration is the controversial bill to regulate social media which has passed second reading in the Senate.

Sunday Tribune can reveal authoritatively that the government, through the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), has engaged the services of a firm in Lagos to block the domain names of “several identified websites threatening national security.”

The Office of the National Security Adviser drew the list of the offensive websites and the number is in excess of 21, a memo written by NCC, a copy of which Sunday Tribune got said.

The letter, which was dated 20th October, 2017, is a reminder memo to the firm, indicating that other letters had earlier been written to the firm by NCC.

The memo was entitled: “Re: Request to Prevent the Commission of an Offence under Section 146 of the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003.”

It was signed by NCC’s Head, Legal and Regulatory Services, one Yetunde Akinloye, while an official of the agency co-signed on behalf of Engineer Haru Alhassan who is the Director, New Media and Information Security.

Reference is made to another letter dated 27th September, 2017 on the aove subject matter, directing the contracted firm “to restrict access to several identified websites threatening national security as identified by the Office of the National Security Adviser.”

Further to the said directive, the said firm “…is hereby required to immediately take steps to restrict access within the Nigerian cyberspace in respect of 21 (twenty one) additional websites by blocking the domain names. (The list of websites is attached).”
Section 146 of the NCC Act 2003 states thus:
146       

 •1:          A licensee shall use his best endeavour to prevent the network facilities that he owns or provides or the network service, applications service or content application service that he provides from being used in, or in relation to, the commission of any offence under any law in operation in Nigeria.   

•2:          A licensee shall, upon written request by the Commission or any other authority, assist the Commission or other authority as far as reasonably necessary in preventing the commission or attempted commission of an offence under any written law in operation in Nigeria or otherwise in enforcing the laws of Nigeria, including the protection of the public revenue and preservation of national security.   

 •3:   Any licensee, shall not be liable in any criminal proceedings of any nature for any damage (including punitive damages), loss, cost or expenditure suffered or to be suffered (whether directly or indirectly) for any act or omission done in good faith in the performance of the duty imposed under subsections (1) and (2).
 
I’m sure nothing like that happened —Shittu

Reacting, Minister of Communications, Alhaji Adebayo Shittu, said he was not aware any memo originated from the Nigerian Communication Commission instructing any firm to gag the press, particularly the online newspapers, Internet and social media users or shut them down.

Shittu told Sunday Tribune that no instruction would be given to the NCC without such passing through him as the Minister supervising the NCC.

“I am sure NCC will never ever write such a memo. I am sure it never happened.
“President Muhammadu Buhari or any of the people working for him will never do or encourage anything that will amount to gagging of the press,” he said.

Tribune Report

Pathetic story of 40-year-old woman electrocuted after husband’s death

The story surrounding the family of Late Mr Kingsley Osuchukwu, a native of Nneato community in Umunneochi Local Government Area of Abia State, is a pathetic one.

Barely four years after Osuchukwu’s untimely death, his wife, Joy Oluchi, a native of Umunze community in Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra State, was electrocuted by uncoated electric cables that supply electricity to the streetlights, allegedly left carelessly by officials of the Ebonyi State Ministry of Power, after working at the site earlier in the day.

The incident happened about 8:30pm in front of Udoka Hall along Water Works Road in Abakaliki. The spot was just few steps away from her residence, No 27 Ukwansi Street, Abakaliki. Tears of family members, neighbours and friends flowed like a river when news of her sudden demise was broken.

Back from the sanctuary
Sunday Sun learnt from co-tenants of the deceased that she had returned from her church, Cathedral of the Holy Trinity Methodist Church, Abakaliki, where she had participated in its Bible Study programme.

On arrival, Oluchi was said to have dropped her bible at her residence and headed to the tap in the neighbourhood to fetch some water for her family. Without any premonition of the impending danger, she picked up a 25 litre gallon and headed to the tap. She went with her four-year-old only son, Victory. It was on her way back home that the tragic incident happened.

Rough path to death
Along the busy Water Works Road, there is a footpath which the residents of the area often use, perhaps, to avoid the dangers obviously inherent on the major road. Incidentally, the state government routed the cables for the streetlights through the same footpath.

Some of the light poles have electrical problems. The residents of the area told Sunday Sun that they had been pleading with the officials of the state’s Ministry of Power to fix the problems and prevent tragic occurrences in the area. But all pleas and prodding, according to them, where not heeded.
So, that fateful day, when Oluchi was returning from the borehole, she mistakenly stepped on the naked cable and was electrocuted to death instantly.

Some shop owners who were at the venue of the incident told Sunday Sun that the officials of the state’s Ministry of Power had worked on that particular streetlight cable earlier in the day and abandoned the insulated cables.

They alleged that they had pleaded with them to cover it before leaving but they gave a flimsy excuse that they would come back later and left.

“That same day, about 8:30pm this woman passed through that area not knowing that there were uninsulated cables there and she was electrocuted instantly,” one of the shop-owners, who requested for anonymity, said.

Confused by the incident, her little son after tapping her lifeless body without any response, then screamed in a high decibel voice that attracted passersby to the scene. A man who was said to have had attempted to pull her away received an electric shock and was violently thrown off while the child was not harmed.

When Sunday Sun visited the family residence behind Udoka Hall, some of her Anambra kinsmen living in Abakaliki and other mourners had besieged the house.
Speaking to Sunday Sun, Chairman of Umunze Town Union, Ebonyi State chapter, Mr Uchenna Joseph Obi, blamed the officials of the state’s Ministry of Power for the woman’s death.


“The residents of that area told us that officials of the Ministry of Power in charge of the streetlights came in the afternoon of that same day and worked on the streetlights. They abandoned those uninsulated cables and left.

“If you go there (referring to the day Sunday Sun visited) now, you will still see those ‘naked’ wires there. They just left them on the footpath where people pass often. We are very angry. This is carelessness on the path of the government officials.

“We have contacted the state governor, Chief David Umahi. We sent him a text message. We first contacted his deputy, Dr Kelechi Igwe and afterwards, sent a text message to the governor himself.

“We want government to come to the aid of the family. This is because the children are now orphans. Their father died about four years ago. So, you can imagine the difficulty their mother’s untimely death can pose to them. She has three children, two girls and a boy.

“She was with her last child who is about four years when the incident happened. So it was the little child that raised the alarm before people gathered. The first person that touched her was shocked by the electric current. So, before they could use dry stick to push her away, she had died. She was confirmed dead at the hospital,” Obi narrated.

Sister-in-law of the deceased, Miss Okoro Chidimman Godgift, while corroborating others insisted that the government officials should be held responsible for the fate of Oluchi.

Meanwhile, the three orphans: Miracle (10), Amarachukwu (8) and Victory Osuchukwu (4) could not speak with our reporter as they were not emotionally stable when Sunday Sun visited.

Death traps in the capital
The state government, in its drive to add aesthetic value to the state capital, mounted streetlights and disco lights in many streets in Abakaliki. However, many of these ground disco lights have developed faults such that there are uninsulated cables everywhere.  It was one of such cables that killed the deceased.

As if to confirm the claims made by Obi, Sunday Sun reporter visited other parts of Abakaliki, the state capital, and saw that at the popular Udensi Street, the sort of electrical fault identified by the people is rampant and pose danger to the residents and users of the road.

A girl of about 15 years, a food vendor, who pleaded for anonymity recounted to how she missed death by the whiskers.
“I was just washing plates near the streetlight pole and it sparked. Another day, it was drawing me close to itself like a magnet. And the ground was wet. It was God that saved me,” she said.

But in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer of the state’s Ministry of Power and Energy, Egwu Nwabueze, and made available to Sunday Sun, the ministry dismissed the allegation that its officials abandoned the uncoated cables that killed Mrs Oluchi Osuchukwu.

The statement read in part: “It would be observed that the State Ministry of Power and Energy, contrary to the insinuations did not work on the cable along the area within the period in question as there was no reason to do so.  Instead, the likes of these idle minds tried pulling out our cable which we buried a day after the incident.

It quoted the Commissioner in charge of the ministry, Chief Emma Uguru as saying that, “the state government could not be held responsible for the incident which is one of a kind in the state.”
Egwu further said: “State Government through the Ministry however commiserates with the family of the victim of the alleged electrocution.”

Dismissing the allegations made against the government on various social media platforms in respect of the tragic incident as the handwork of “propagandists” who insinuated that Governor Umahi’s administration engaged the services of cheap engineers to execute the electrification project, the Egwu quoted the commissioner as saying: “Electrocution is one of the disasters or accidents often witnessed the world over.

Electricity companies such as the defunct ECN, NEPA, PHCN, and now EEDC had at various times recorded such incidents which were not attributed to the government.”
Until her demise, Oluchi was a staffer at the headquarters of Ezza South Local Government Area located in Onueke community.

Sunday Sun Report.