Operatives attached to the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) of the Adamawa State Police Command have arrested three persons for allegedly removing 120 ceiling fans from public schools.
The command said the fans were taken from schools in the Adamawa side of Askira Uba.
Askira Uba is a town with the uniqueness of being partly in Adamawa and Borno states, the major road passing through it being the dividing borderline.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Adamawa State, Suleiman Nguroje, named the three suspects in a statement to newsmen in Yola.
The suspects are Tanko Jessay, 23 years old, Linus Waba, 24 and Ahmed Aliyu 23, all residents of Njuwa Mission of Askira-Uba.
The statement said the boys burgled the schools and stole the 120 ceiling fans and were apprehended while they were taking the stolen items to Taraba State.
“The suspects were arrested by the operatives attached to SIB for allegedly burgling primary/secondary schools in Askira UBA, a border town between Borno/Adamawa states,” the police stated.
This is according to credible human intelligence network reports corroborated by security agencies, the state government said on Friday.
According to the reports, the clash occurred on Wednesday in Giwa Local Government Area of the state.
A notorious bandit popularly known as Godon Mota was said to have stormed Garke village with members of his gang and clashed with a rival bandit group, leading to the killing of nine persons.
While the cause of the face-off has yet to be ascertained, sources said it revolves around a disagreement over sharing of accumulated ransoms.
One of the groups was reported to have felt cheated by the other – a situation that led to the clash and the killings.
Kidnapping for ransom has become a normal practice for bandits to extort money from innocent residents in Kaduna and other states in the North West, as well as Niger in the north-central region.
In the last one year, bandits have attacked many communities in the region, with a lot of people killed and hundreds abducted.
During the period, several schools have come under attack in Kaduna, Zamfara, Niger, and Kebbi where bandits abducted over 1,000 students.
A large number of the victims have since returned after their families paid ransom to the gunmen, but some are still in captivity.
A few of the students lost their lives during rescue operations by security forces.
As the bandits continue to attack communities in Kaduna, the state government says it will no longer consider the option of negotiation with the criminals.
“We have a feeling that the renewed attacks in Kaduna are not unconnected to the position that we have taken as a government that we will not negotiate with criminals,” Governor Nasir El-Rufai said during an interview with Channels Television in April.
According to the security report of the state for the first quarter, a total of 323 people were killed by bandits in Kaduna between January and March.
Of the 323 people killed during the period, 292 were males and 20 were females, while the criminals kidnapped 949 people.
Bandits have attacked Rini town in Bakura Local Government Area (LGA) of Zamfara State.
Eyewitnesses said Friday that the armed men stormed the town at about 2:30am and started shooting sporadically.
While residents were said to have refused to come out of their homes despite heavy gunshots renting the air, the bandits abducted many locals numbering over 60.
Police authorities in Zamfara State have confirmed the incident to Channels Television, although they did not give the actual number of residents kidnapped by the bandits.
But the command’s spokesman, Mohammed Shehu, said the police have deployed several tactical operatives in the town with a view to rescuing the abducted persons.
According to a source in the town, people are still in the town as of the time of the Jummat prayers and are not showing any sign that they would leave as a result of the attack.
He added that several appeals have been made to the government to provide more security reinforcement for the people of Rini.
The attack on Rini comes barely a week after bandits invaded the College of Agriculture and Animal Science, also in Bakura LGA.
During the attack with occurred at about 11pm on Sunday, the gunmen killed a policeman and two watchmen before they gained entry into the school.
State authorities later confirmed the abduction of 15 students and four staff of the institution who were forcefully taken away by the assailants.
Meanwhile, about three of the abducted persons – all staff of the institution – were rescued by security operatives who had combed the area.
The incident was condemned by the state governor, Bello Matawalle, who assured the families of the victims that they would return safely.
The bandits were said to have contacted the school management to make a demand of N350 million as ransom for the victims to be released.
The criminals later released a video in which the students were seen begging the government to heed the demand of their captors who threatened to kill them if the money was not paid
The University of Jos on Friday suspended academic activities and closed its hostels.
The suspension order was due to the intensified killing of students around the university area shortly after the relaxation of a 24-hour curfew in Jos.
According to a press statement signed by the University Registrar, Monday Danjem, all students are to return home or safer locations until normalcy is restored.
The University management also approved the suspension of examinations for the second semester 2019/2020 academic session.
The decision was taken at an emergency meeting of management and committee of deans, directors and provost of the university.
Last Saturday, travellers along Rukuba road in Jos North Local Government had been attacked, heightening tensions in the state.
At least 25 persons were confirmed killed and 14 injured in the attack.
To curb further attacks, Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, had imposed a curfew on Jos North, Bassa and Jos South Local Government Areas.
The Education Rights Campaign has lamented the death of a student activist, Nurudeen Alawonle, popularly known as Omomeewa, some hours after he was invited to face a disciplinary panel set up by the Lagos State University.
It was reported that Alowonle was shot dead on Wednesday, according to a release by the LASU Students’ Union on Thursday.
Reports has it that the activist, who had a four-month-old baby, was shot dead around LASU U-turn, Iba road.
ERC in a statement by its ERC Deputy National Coordinator, Ogunjimi Isaac; and National Mobilisation Officer, Michael Lenin, demanded a probe into the activist’s death.
The group said it was wrong for anybody to say that Omomeewa was killed by armed robbers.
Part of the statement read, “it must be placed on record that he was brutally shot to death by yet to be identified men in front of the Lagos State University on the evening of Wednesday 18 August 2021 when he came to the campus on the invitation of LASU Students Disciplinary Panel to appear for the umpteenth time in a contrived case of admission to racketeering.
“The incident is being presented by the Police as a robbery gone wrong. However, we think it is too early to draw this conclusion. Comrade Omomeewa was shot while walking to take a bus home with Comrade Majekodunmi – a University’s worker and member of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, who is serving as a staff adviser of the Education Rights Campaign.
“We hereby demand immediate the arrest and prosecution of Omomeewa’s killers. We also call for the setting up a probe panel to unravel the real motive behind the attack including, if any, the suspected complicity of the Lagos State University administration – which had invited him to the campus to yet again answer to false charges at the Students Disciplinary Panel about a year after he had graduated from the University.”
…Blames LASU
The group also blamed LASU for the death of the activist, saying he might not have died if uninvited to face a disciplinary panel.
The statement added, “Comrade Omomeewa graduated from LASU in 2020 from the Faculty of Education. However, his result and certificate were seized on the excuse that he had a pending case at the disciplinary panel and consequently he was not allowed to proceed for National Youth Service.
“We hold that Comrade Omomeewa would not have met his untimely death if he had not been hounded by the management of the Lagos State University which has subjected him to varying levels of victimization over the past three years because of his principled opposition to the management’s anti-student and anti-worker policies.
“The University management under the immediate past Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Fagbohun, had instituted the case against him in October 2019. This was in retribution for his role in students’ struggles on the campus and particularly his solidarity with the workers’ unions on the campus.
“He took permission from work to appear before the panel with his lawyer, Barrister Nurudeen Temilola Yusuf (Optimist) on Wednesday, August 18, and was asked to return in the next two weeks.
“The disciplinary panel had sat very perfunctorily, postponed sitings several times for no genuine reason, and refused to call key witnesses thereby unnecessarily dragging the case for over two years from 2019 till 2021.”
Some unknown gunmen have reportedly killed five indigenes of Modekeke town in Osun state, who were said to be going to their farm in Toro Village in the early hours of Friday.
A community leader in Modakeke, Mr. Femi Eluyinka, who confirmed the incident to The PUNCH, said some people from the community and police operatives have evacuated the corpses.
Eluyinka said the incident has aggravated tension in the town.
Gunmen on motorcycles abduct eight Katsina Islamiyya school pupils, teacher Gunmen kill 37 civilians in Niger attack Four die as gunmen attack oil workers in Imo He said, “Police operatives have arrived. Tension is on the rise. Five of them were indigenes of Modakeke and they were killed this morning along Toro road. They were heading to their farm.”
When contacted, spokesperson of Police Command, Yemisi Opalola, said, “We heard some people were killed and the Commissioner of Police has deployed more policemen to the area.”
Despite establishment of Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC), and massive investment in security by Lagos State Government, to curb rising crimes in the metropolis, rampant criminality in the city is giving residents great concerns.
Hardly a day passes without tales of robbery attacks on residents.
They are robbed at Mushin, Cele and Oke Afa, near Ajao Estate, Apakun and Island.
Residents in Abaranje, Itire and Lawanson, have sorrowful tales of how they are robbed, some times, at gun-point by miscreants.
Some of the attacks happened in broad daylight and even few distances from police checkpoints or stations.
A victim, Njideka Samuel, said her phones and bags were snatched by hoodlums at Canoe last week. Samuel said she was returning from work about 7:00p.m., the urchins came out from nowhere, and threatened to shatter her car window if she didn’t wind down.
Out of fear, she obliged and they took her phone and bag in the full glare of other motorists, and dashed away.
Another victim, Collins Udoh, who was robbed at Cele Express, said he was attempting to descend the bridge when a group of boys swooped on him and collected his laptop and wallet.
“ I sighted Vehicle Inspection Officials, checking vehicle documents close to the scene.
“ It was a traumatic experience with the enormous investments in security by the Lagos State Government,” he added.
Udoh questioned the whereabouts of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC), a uniformed security agency established in 2016, to assist the Lagos State Police Command, and other security agencies, maintain law and order.
He noted that in 2019, officials of LNSC were present in neighbourhoods with their motorcycles or bicycles but they are not seen anymore.
Also, a resident in Ilupeju, Folasade Okunfolami, said: “I saw some of the LNSC officers around my area a week ago inspecting abandoned vehicles but people who go to work early face a lot in the hands of miscreants and I wish they can do more.
“Robbers can now rob for four hours and go freely, security agencies will not show up but only to harass innocent persons, instead of protecting people.”
But the General Manager of LNSC, Prince Oyekan Falade, said the officials are still working, stressing that they decided to go undercover and stop putting on uniforms.
According to him, it was a strategy to help identify criminals on the streets.
Falade said: “Our men still patrol on bikes, but some of the bicycles are spoilt and we still go out of our way to take care of vehicles given to us in 2010. We’ve spoken with the governor and we have been assured that we will get more vehicles. As for the bicycles, I have the number given to each local government so, I will get to the bottom of everything to know what happened to them and hold whoever is responsible,” suggesting the agency had not done an inventory of its assets for some time.
Explaining how LNSC operates, he said: “When it comes to intelligence gathering, which is an undercover operation, officials are not in uniform like they used to be. If you look at the recent report of the state governor, he said there is no hiding place for criminals. It is because the intelligence gathering arms of the corps collated a 250 pages of dark spots. If the governor could say that he has a document to work with, then, Lagosians are in the best position to judge if we are working or not .
“We didn’t stop at giving the report to the governor, we went further to give reports to the commissioner of police, Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Rapid Response Squad (RRS), the Ministry of Justice, and other MDAs involved in security.”
On why LNSC operatives have disappeared from some locations, he explained that some were absorbed by the Police.
“Our numbers are thinning down; the governor gave 4,250 of our men to the police as constabulary and we are still paying their salaries, so, on what basis will anyone say, Neighbourhood Watch is not working? We need gadgets, technology to combat crimes.”
No fewer than six persons were on Tuesday night, killed by gunmen suspected to be Fulani militia.
The gunmen reportedly stormed the communities at the wee hours of the night and started shooting sporadically.
Secretary General of the Irigwe Association (IDA), Danjuma Auta in a statement, in Jos, yesterday, read: “As the Irigwe nation continue to receive attack from left right and centre over the unfortunate incidence of the Rukuba road attack on innocent commuters which the Irigwe nation knows nothing about, we have continued to distance ourselves from the ungodly act as peace-loving citizens.
“On Tuesday night, one of our villages, Chando-Zrrechi (Tafi-Gana), was attacked by Fulani herdsmen. ”
“Five people were confirmed dead so far at Tafi Gana village of Miango District Irigwe Chiefdom, the statement added.
Auta stressed that another son of Irigwe was killed at Dong village in the evening of Monday.
The community leader called on security operatives and government to put a stop to the senseless killings.
He added that if nothing was done to avert this ugly trend Irigwe people would be wiped out.
“We see this as ethnic cleansing, government must ensure the perpetrators are speedily brought to book,” he added.
Efforts to reach the Military Information Officer of Operation Safe Haven, Major Ishaku Takwa, proved abortive as at the time of sending this report.
Meanwhile, Governor Simon Lalong and his predecessor, Jonah Jang on Tuesday night, moved to find a lasting solution to the recent attacks that led to the loss of lives and properties in some parts of Plateau State.
It was reported that Governor Lalong had summoned an emergency security stakeholders meeting to examine ways of restoring normalcy and permanent peace to the state.
Lalong, while addressing the meeting at the Government House Little Rayfield, Jos, said despite huge investments made in peace building and crime fighting, Plateau is again confronted with the activities of criminals who are bent on reversing the gains made in the last six years.
He said in recent weeks and months, the state has witnessed isolated cases of attacks on some communities in Jos North, Riyom LGA, Bassa LGA, Barkin Ladi and Jos South Local Government Areas.
“In most of these attacks, farmers as well as herders were either killed or cattle and farm crops destroyed. Houses were also burnt down and people rendered homeless.
“The human losses due to the destruction is very worrisome as it continues to fuel the endless circle of attacks and counter attacks,” he said.
The Ondo State Police Command on Wednesday said it began investigation into the killing of a middle-aged man, Bode Dagunro, during a robbery at Olotu community in the Ilaje Local Government Area of the state.
It was gathered that the deceased, who was a petrol marketer in the riverine community, was murdered by the hoodlums on Saturday around 9pm.
The deceased’s brother, Mr Malo Francis, said the hoodlums also stole N2m from him.
He said, “My brother was a fuel marketer. They attacked him, shot him in the stomach and carted away N2m. We rushed him to a private hospital in Igbokoda, where he died during an operation.”
It was learnt that Dagunro’s remains were deposited in a morgue at Igbokoda for autopsy.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs Funmilayo Odunlami, who confirmed the incident, said investigation was ongoing.
“We are already on the trail of the bandits. They will soon be arrested,” she added.
A 20-year-old security guard, Bashiru Shefu, who allegedly stole his employer’s goods worth N3 million, on Wednesday, appeared before an Ejigbo Magistrates’ Court, Lagos.
Shefu, whose residential address was not provided, is standing trial on a count charge of stealing.
He pleaded not guilty to the charge brought against him by the police.
Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp. Benedict Aigbokhan, told the court that the defendant committed the alleged offence on July 30, atp 11.00a.m. at No. 28, Isola Salou St., Isuti, Egan, Lagos.
Aigbokhan said that Shefu stole an iron door, aluminum frames and sliding doors valued at N3 million, which belonged to the complainant, Chief Bolaji Ifalowo.
The prosecutor said the defendant was a security guard to the complainant.
Aigbokhan said the alleged offence contravened Section 287 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
The Magistrate, Mr E. O. Ogunkanmi, granted the defendant bail in the sum of N1 million with two sureties in like sum.
Ogunkanmi ordered that the sureties must provide evidence of tax payments to the Lagos State Government.
He, however, adjourned the case until Sept. 6 for mention. (NAN)
A 20-year-old security guard, Bashiru Shefu, who allegedly stole his employer’s goods worth N3 million, on Wednesday, appeared before an Ejigbo Magistrates’ Court, Lagos.
Shefu, whose residential address was not provided, is standing trial on a count charge of stealing.
He pleaded not guilty to the charge brought against him by the police.
Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp. Benedict Aigbokhan, told the court that the defendant committed the alleged offence on July 30, atp 11.00a.m. at No. 28, Isola Salou St., Isuti, Egan, Lagos.
Aigbokhan said that Shefu stole an iron door, aluminum frames and sliding doors valued at N3 million, which belonged to the complainant, Chief Bolaji Ifalowo.
The prosecutor said the defendant was a security guard to the complainant.
Aigbokhan said the alleged offence contravened Section 287 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
The Magistrate, Mr E. O. Ogunkanmi, granted the defendant bail in the sum of N1 million with two sureties in like sum.
Ogunkanmi ordered that the sureties must provide evidence of tax payments to the Lagos State Government.
He, however, adjourned the case until Sept. 6 for mention. (NAN)
