Category: Crime

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Imo State has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately set up an independent panel of inquiry to unravel the circumstances that led to the dastardly attack on unarmed citizens and bombing of community market in Orsu-Ihiteukwa.

The opposition party made the call on Wednesday in a release issued by its Publicity Secretary, Collins Opurozor while demanding for urgent probe of the incident.The party explained that no security agency had taken responsibility for the attack, though media reports and community sources point out that the operation might have been carried out by the military.

PDP said it condemned in very strong terms the bombardment of Orsu-Ihiteukwa, in Orsu Local Government Area of the State, which in its wake reduced to ashes the popular Eke Ututu market and also claimed human lives.

The release reads, “What is even more troubling is that some sources have, however, alleged that the barbarity was perpetrated by Ebubeagu, the rampaging state-sanctioned militia force.

“For the people of Orsu-Ihiteukwa and even neighbouring communities, Eke Ututu is the symbol of economic wellbeing, and it embodies their dreams for a better tomorrow. Today, this source of livelihood for many thousands of people has become a heap of debris.

“Yet, despite the tears, blood and ravages that the incident has wrought upon this hapless community, it is telling that till this moment, the wobbling APC regime in Imo State has not deemed it important to explain to the people what actually happened and why it happened.

“This is a regime that has long abandoned the primary responsibility of government, which is the security of lives and property. The silence is therefore a tacit endorsement of the reprehensible act against the people of Orsu-Ihiteukwa.

“Our Party recalls that before now, Governor Uzodinma had displayed some awful and scary proclivity to unleash violence in some parts of the State. He had also boasted publicly that it was on his invitation that full-blown military operations began in Imo State.

“Imo PDP commiserates with the people of Orsu-Ihiteukwa over this unjustifiable attack. In view of the hardship which the destruction of the Eke Ututu market would bring, our Party further calls on the Federal Government to move in expeditiously to facilitate the reconstruction of the razed market and recompense to the affected traders.

“Imo PDP, therefore, alerts that the lives and property of Imo people are now clearly in danger given the tendency which has been manifested by those in power in the State to wreak havoc, no matter whose ox is gored. For them, the art of governance is the same as the art of war.

“Our Party calls on President Mohammadu Buhari to immediately set up an independent panel of inquiry to unravel the circumstances that led to the dastardly attack on unarmed citizens and bombing of community market in Orsu-Ihiteukwa, and to bring those found culpable to book.”
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A former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri has expressed doubts over the ₦194 billion cocaine seized by officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA in Ikorodu area of Lagos state.

Omokri, in a statement via his verified Twitter handle, said he hoped that the cocaine was not a plan by a certain person to finance his 2023 election.His tweet reads, “I seriously hope a certain person was not planning to use the Ikorodu ₦193 billion cocaine that was seized by the NDLEA to finance his 2023 election. Because such a quantum of drugs in a warehouse is mind boggling! ₦193 billion is higher than some state’s budgets.”

Recall that operatives of the NDLEA busted a major warehouse in a secluded estate in the Ikorodu on Monday, where 1.8 tons (1,855 kilograms) of cocaine were stored.

The cocaine seized from the warehouse is worth more than Two Hundred and Seventy-Eight Million Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars ($278, 250,000) equivalent to about One Hundred and Ninety Four Billion, Seven Hundred and Seventy-Five Million (N194, 775,000,000) Naira in street value.

Four drug barons including a Jamaican and the warehouse manager have been arrested.

The kingpins of the cocaine cartel in custody include Messrs Soji Jibril, 69, an indigene of Ibadan, Oyo state; Emmanuel Chukwu, 65, who hails from Ekwulobia, Anambra state; Wasiu Akinade, 53, from Ibadan, Oyo state; Sunday Oguntelure, 53, from Okitipupa, Ondo state and Kelvin Smith, 42, a native of Kingston, Jamaica.

They are all members of an international drug syndicate that the NDLEA has been trailing since 2018.

Giving further details on the incident, Femi Babafemi, the Director of Media for NDLEA said that the warehouse is located at 6 Olukuola crescent, Solebo estate, Ikorodu.

Babafemi confirmed that the warehouse was raided on Sunday 18th September 2022, while the barons were picked from hotels and their hideouts in different parts of Lagos between Sunday night and Monday 19th September.

He said: “Preliminary investigation reveals that class A drugs were warehoused in the residential estate from where the cartel was trying to sell them to buyers in Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world.

“They were stored in 10 travel bags and 13 drums.”

The Abia State Police Command has arrested 10 members of the robbery gang that attacked a bullion van on July 26 and carted away about N390 million.

Commissioner of Police, Janet Agbede said the suspects belonged to a 14-member gang that specialised in bullion van robbery across Nigeria.The CP told reporters on Monday that the suspects were nabbed at different times and locations in Abia, Delta, Lagos, Ondo, Rivers and Imo States.

Agbede recalled that a special intelligence squad was set up after the ambush which occurred at Ntigha Junction on the Isialangwa axis of the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway.

The commissioner disclosed that the suspects confessed to the crime “in their individual voluntary statements”.

The police chief said they further confessed to have robbed bullion vans in Ajah in Lagos, Akure Road in Ondo, Asaba in Delta, and Mbaise in Imo.

The suspects revealed that the Abia attack was executed after about two months surveillance on the bullion van.

Adesoji Adeniyi, aka “Soji” and Albert Nwachukwu, aka “White” were arrested in Lagos.

Felix Ajalaja, Moshood Opeyemi, aka “Abiola”, and Azubuike Amaefule, aka “Zubby”, arrested in Rivers.

Nnamdi Nwaosu, aka “Prophet”, Monday Samuel, aka “MD”, and Matthew Christmas, aka “Aluwa”, arrested in Imo, Ondo and Delta.

Other are two brothers from Abia, Chikwendu and Prosper Israel, arrested in the state.

Prosper told newsmen that he joined his brother in criminal activities after he was dismissed from the Department of State Services (DSS).

One General Purpose Machine Gun with 53 rounds of live ammunition, 13 AK47 rifles with 1,749 live ammunition were recovered.

Others were two improvised explosive dynamites, one cut-to-size double barrel gun with five live cartridges, 84 AK47 magazines and Mercedes Benz truck used to conceal the weapons.

Also recovered was N10,184,000 out of the N390million stolen from the bullion van. Other gang members are at large.

The robbers shot and killed a bank’s Cash Officer during the attack; three of the escort policemen sustained bullet injuries.

The Ikeja Special Offences Court has sentenced a teacher, Idowu Daniel, to seven years imprisonment for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student in a school.

Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo, however, held that the prosecution failed to establish the charge of defilement.The judge said the confessional statement by the defendant, made voluntarily, showed that he sexually assaulted the minor.

“The defendant admitted to have fondled the breast of the victim twice and tried to have sex with her but could not penetrate as she was a virgin.

“The defendant is hereby convicted on the charge of sexual assault of a child”, she ruled on Monday.NAN reports that the 31-year-old convict pleaded for mercy when asked to speak.

“My lord, I am very sorry for what happened. I promise it will not happen again,” he told the court.

Justice Taiwo strongly chided Daniel for touching the teenager in a suggestive way.

“You are a teacher and you were touching the breast of your student. You would have gone for life if the victim had come to court to testify”, she said.

The judge earlier sentenced the convict to five years imprisonment, but increased to seven years after saying he had been in custody for three years.

The Police in Adamawa State have confirmed five people wounded following a clash among youths over the election of a village head.

The incident occurred in Adamawa’s commercial nerve Centre, Mubi, the State’s second biggest town where international trade booms, enabled by the town’s long borderline with Cameroon.

Youths in antagonistic camps who had been expressing opposing views over the election of the new district head, had shown their disagreement by use of lethal arms, inflicting near fatal cuts on one another.

A statement obtained from the Adamawa State Police Command, Tuesday, said the clash caused “grievous hurt” to five of the battling youths.

“Commissioner of Police, CP Sikiru Akande, has strongly condemned the clash between youths of Mujulu in Mubi North Local Government Area following the successful election of a new village head that resulted to exchange of fire which caused grevious hurt of five persons,” the police stated.

Signed by Police Public Relations Officer, Suleiman Nguroje, the statement added that the CP “has ordered for immediate investigation into the matter with a view to ensuring peace and justice, having called all parties involved in the conflict to the police state headquarters.”

The statement warned that those taking the law into their own hands would not be tolerated under whatsoever guise, “as the command holds the right of the citizens sacrosanct and such unwarranted conflict would be strictly treated in accordance with extant laws.”

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Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, SOKAPU, has said there was still no breathing space for communities in Southern Kaduna, as terrorists, jihadists, bandits and armed herdsmen have continued to plunder and wreak communities in the southern part of the state.

SOKAPU President, Awemi Dio Maisamari, said in a statement, yesterday, that the latest was the mass abductions on September 12 and 13, 2022, at Kasuwan Magani in Kajuru LGA of Southern Kaduna.

Kasuwan Magani is about 20 kilometres south of the Kaduna metropolis on the Kaduna-Kafanchan Expressway and hosts the biggest weekly market in Kaduna State.

He said on the first day (September 12), six persons were abducted in a night raid by the terrorists at Ungwan Fada part of the town.

He said: “With no measure in place to forestall a recurrence, the following day (September 13), the terrorists stormed the Cherubim and Seraphim Church during a night vigil programme at the Bayan Kasuwa quarters of Kasuwan Magani town at midnight.

“They succeeded in carting away more than 60 people from the church and neighbouring houses. However, they could not take all of them away because some were little children, too aged or had health challenges.

“While retreating with their captors to their camps, they attacked Janwuriya village, a few kilometres from Kasuwan Magani and abducted two more persons. As of now, 45 persons have so far been confirmed.

“But September 18, 2022, they made contact with some persons in the town via phone calls and claimed that only 40 persons were held by them. They demanded a ransom of N200 million, but the negotiation is ongoing.

“We don’t know the identity or the fate of the five missing persons yet. In other communities in Kajuru and Chikun LGAs, the occupying terrorists cohabit with the locals where the locals are treated like captives.

“They are terrorised at will, making it difficult or impossible for them to till or harvest their farms. As a result, most early maturing crops are left to rot on the farm. This is a daily experience in most occupied communities in Southern Kaduna.”

SOKAPU said in the last few months, Southern Kaduna has also seen an unusual influx of thousands of herds of cattle and herdsmen from neighbouring states.  They indulge in deliberate farmland destruction often at night, stealing of riped farm crops and intimidating helpless victim farmers.

“Hundreds of hectares of crops bearing farmlands valued in millions of Naira have been destroyed. Worse hit is Sankwab, Gora Gida, Warkan, Ashong Ashui, Abuyab, Zamandabo, and Shiliam communities, in Atyap Chiefdom, Zangon Kataf Local Government Area in Southern Kaduna.

“We know that our security agencies and personnel have the capacity to rout these enemies of the people and the state because their routes, locations and sometimes, even collaborators within and without are well known. SOKAPU is also not unaware of the immense suffering and sacrifices being made by our security forces, which we appreciate.

“In view of the above, SOKAPU wishes to express profound sympathy to indigenous communities and peaceful Fulani herdsmen affected by this cruelty. We are calling on all communities not to let down their guards at this critical moment.

“Let us arise and prevent the last minutes of the devastation of our dear people and our precious ancestral homeland. We will definitely survive this ill wind, and even thrive once more in the land of our birth allotted to us by the Almighty.”

“He testified that he was blindfolded before he was taken to the bus. He said: “Immediately I saw him, I said this was the person that kidnapped me’ I also watched the video where the first defendant admitted to have kidnapped PW3.

“The first defendant sat in a comfortable chair and there was no sign that he made the statement under duress.

”He was not threatened or harassed. He signed the statement.

“He also said how he broke into banks and later graduated to kidnapping.”

Justice Taiwo said she was satisfied that her court can convict the defendants through his confessional statement.

The judge also held that there was no proof before the court that three of the Evans men were killed by the police.

Justice Taiwo convicted Aduba, based on his confessional statement and held that he should serve out his term without an option of fine.

Justice Taiwo said she considered the allocutus of the defence counsel in arriving at her decisions. This sentencing will serve as a deterrent to others.

“The two are sentenced to five-year jail term on first count, second count, 21 years and third count, five years.
“The sentences will, however, run concurrently. It will serve as deterrent 8 to others,” she said.

Counsel to first defendant, Amobi Nzelu, in his allocutus, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy, adding that the convict was already serving a life jail term.

“I pray the court to grant him a lesser jail term,” Amobi said.

The second defence counsel, Mrs Adeola Folarin, in her allocutus, also prayed the court to temper justice with mercy as the convict was a first offender.

“My lord, he is a young man that has served his country while in the army.

“He also had a child while he was in custody. He is a father of two young children and they have not enjoyed his fatherly love. We pray the court to temper justice with mercy,” Folarin said.

The state counsel, Mr Yusuf Sule, however, urged the court to convict the defendants as charged.

“My lord, the first defendant had been sentenced to life imprisonment before Justice Hakeem Oshodi. I urge the court to sentence the defendants accordingly,” Sule said.

Ahamonou and his wife, Chimebere had on December 17, 2021 testified virtually about how Evans and his gang kidnapped him on June 23, 2014 on Kara Road off Osolo Way, Ajao Estate, Lagos.

The couple narrated to the court how they sold their properties, borrowed money, raised funds from family and well-wishers to attempt to raise the initial $2 million ransom demanded by Evans.

Sylvanus whose hands and legs were chained throughout his two-month in captivity was only released when the family had allegedly paid Evans $420,000 ransom and he was at the point of death.

Residents of Dansadau axis in Zamfara State have expressed palpable fear over banditry activities ahead of the 2023 general elections.

The residents lamented that they were living like refugees in their own lands, with the government unable to restore normalcy.

One of the residents, who spoke to DAILY POST, Mansur Dansadau said the situation had become so tough that nobody dared move out of the axis without military escorts.

“Honestly, we are in prison, suffering for the crime we did not commit and the government continues to make empty national propaganda,” he lamented.

He noted that there were some communities in the area where bandits collect levies in millions from the villagers to allow them to do their farming activities, stressing that the community members were complying for the fear of possible attack.

“Both the Federal and the State governments should stop pretending as if nothing is happening in the State, while a lot has been happening.

“The bandits are operating very freely in the State; the security operatives arrive after the dastard acts have been committed and the terrorists have finished their operations and left.

“I am very sure that in the 2023 general elections, Zamfara State will record the lowest voters’ turnout due to banditry activities ravaging the entire State,” he said.

Dansadau lamented that both the Federal and State governments were playing politics with the lives and properties of innocent citizens, saying that the governments don’t want to end banditry activities in the State for the reason best knоwn to them.

According to him, “there is no individual or group of persons that can claim to be more powerful than the government unless the government does not want to act.”

Meanwhile, most residents in Damba and neighbouring communities in Gusau Local Government Area have deserted the areas as bandits constantly unleash terror attacks, kidnapping innocent citizens and demanding millions of naira as ransom.

Some of the residents, who spoke with this medium, said they registered and obtained their PVCs in Damba axis, stressing that if the insecurity situation persists in the areas, they will not go there and risk their lives to vote.

According to one of the residents, Abubakar Umaru, “if the government wants people to come out and vote massively, the security of lives and properties should be their utmost priority.

“If bandits kill or kidnap everyone in the State, who will cast the vote for these power-drunk politicians?”

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