Category: Crime

In the Fulani attack in Benue state over the weekebd, 12 people were reportedly killed in attack on several communities in Ado LGA of Benue State by people suspected to be herdsmen.

In Ebonyi State, it was gathered that the gunmen attacked Odoke, Ndiobasi and Obakotara communities in the Ebonyi Local Government Area. Sources in the area said the gunmen arrived at the communities around 3am on Sunday.

The communities share boundary with the Ado LGA of Benue State, which has been having land dispute with the Ngbo clan in the Ohaukwu LGA of Ebonyi State. A resident of the area, Uchenna Okpokwu said the invaders came with guns and machetes.

He said, “People that were skilled in Ndiobasi are up to 30 according to the video clips on the incident. Odoke and Obapta are very far and nobody has been able to enter the two villages.

Another resident of the area, Onyibe Jeremiah, lamented that no action was taken to protect the communities despite warnings of the herdsmen impending attacks.

Hé said, “One man from Enugu State who saw the herdsmen when they were coming into the Ebonyi villages made a voice call that went viral, but he was ignored.”

Bandits who kidnapped pupils of the Salihu Tanko Islamiyya School in Tegina town in the Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State have contact with the management of the institution.

The bandits contacted the school headmaster, Alhaji Abubakar Alhassan, around 4pm on Monday, asking him to pay N110m as ransom for the release of his pupils.

Speaking to journalists on the telephone on Tuesday, Alhassan said the bandits claimed to have 156 pupils with them.

According to him, the kidnappers threatened that if they did not pay the ransom by the end of today (Wednesday), they would kill all the children.

Alhassan said the message had been passed to the state government, which said it would not pay any ransom.

One of the inmates who escaped from Owerri Correctional Center, Imo State, has been re-arrested in Lagos after allegedly stealing a sim card and memory cards.

The suspect, 34 years old Oyemachi Maduabuchi, male, who escaped from the Correctional Centre, was re-arrested by Lagos State Police Command on April 23, 2021.

He was said to have escaped from Owerri after the jailbreak that occurred on April 5, 2021, at 2 am.

The suspect, who fled Owerri the same day, was said to have moved to his village, Fegge in Onitsha, Anambra State, to meet his mother who later linked him up with his elder sister, Amarachi Maduabuchi, of Customs Bus Stop Ijegun Lagos who thereafter invited him to Lagos on April 19, 2021.

He was said to have been kept in the sister’s house where she used to lead him to church for special deliverance service.

In the process, after a vigil on April 20, 2021, at Bride Assembly Church, Ijesha Area of Lagos State, the suspect allegedly stole the sim and the memory cards of a member (name withheld) of the church before he was eventually arrested and the stolen items recovered from him.

In the course of the Police investigation, it was revealed that the suspect had been standing trial since 2009 for Conspiracy, Armed Robbery and Arson before Justice Nna Amadi of Ngbidi High Court 1, at Ngbidi in Imo State.

He has since confessed to the crime while the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, CP Hakeem Odumosu, has directed that he should be handed over to the Nigerian Correctional Service for further investigations and necessary actions.

The CP, therefore, assured members of the public that the command will not relent on its efforts in making the state safe and peaceful for all and sundry to live in as all hands are on deck to effectively police Lagos State.

“I don’t have any regret over any action I took during the primaries I conducted in Imo State. I don’t expect Okorocha to be happy with me either because I did not go to Imo to make him happy anyway. I went there to do my job and I did it to be best of my knowledge and ability, notwithstanding the tempting offer I got, but refused. I can walk the streets of Imo State, including Owerri with my shoulders high. I may not be perfect as a human being, but I did not go there to make him happy. Somebody who offered me up to $2 million to give certificate of return to his nominee, but I turned it down. How many people can turn such offer down? I would have given him the certificate and pocketed my money because it is money that you don’t go to court to retrieve, but my conscience will not be clear. For now, my conscience is very clear. I can move the streets of Owerri unmolested. Although it is over now, however, I can tell you that APC destroyed itself in Imo State. This is story for another day.”

Sadly, he couldn’t walk the streets of Owerri alive! He shouldn’t have come into Imo at such a time as this.
May his soul rest in perfect peace.

Adesina Ogunlana, lawyer to Nollywood actor Olanrewaju James Omiyinka, popularly known as Baba Ijesha has disclosed that the actor has not been released from detention despite being granted bail.

Baba Ijesha, who was accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl, has been granted bail by a magistrate, on health ground, yet he remains in police custody.

According to Ogunlana, Baba Ijesha has two sets of lawyers and while he insists Baba Ijesha be released without paying bail money, the other set of lawyers are negotiating with the police who are asking for money to be paid as bail.

“The main problem is Ijesha has two sets of lawyers. The first set are the normal, due process conservative group and the other one is led by me, the one that they’re seeing as volatile, as radical, as activist, as confrontational,” Adesina explained.

The principal of Winners Don’t Quit chambers said this difference in methods and opinions between both sets of lawyers is delaying Ijesha’s release.

Ogunlana also stated that one Margaret Ighodalo, a senior police officer heading the gender unit, said she’s comfortable working with the other set of lawyers thereby delaying Baba Ijesha’s release until money has been paid.

Ogunlana further said Margaret Ighodalo who has been “hostile” towards him has insisted that it’s the other set of lawyers that she knows and will work with.

The former Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Ikeja Branch added that the other set of lawyers have also been reluctant to work together with him because they are concerned about someone else “stealing glory” from them.

He explained that he has disagreed with the other group of lawyers in relation to paying for bail, insisting that bail shouldn’t be monetized but that the other group “is saying it’s the way it’s done and are trying to raise money for it.”

“How can you be monetising bail? And lawyers will be acceding to that. How can you accede to the monetisation of bail? The burden that the magistrate has not imposed.

“The magistrate never ordered that money be paid,” he added.

“All those other counsel saying somebody is stealing your glory,

Islamic scholar and mediator, Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi has revealed that Boko Haram has been trying to buy kidnapped students from bandits. Gumi made this revelation and more during a recent interview with Channels TV.

You may recall the cases of abduction of students from various educational institutions across the country by gunmen (also known as bandits). The development has since raised concern across the country, regarding the safety of students in their various schools and learning environment.

Latest among such kidnappings is the abduction of students by gunmen from Greenfield University, Kaduna state. Some of the abducted students have been killed with one student released. The parents of the affected students however claim that they have paid millions of Naira to the kidnappers, but their children are yet to be released.

Speaking during the interview with Channels T V, Gumi recalled that Boko Haram tried to claim responsibility for the abduction of Kagara boys from Niger state, but it was later discovered that Boko Haram was bargaining underground to buy the boys from the kidnappers.

He stated that the kidnappers refused Boko Haram’s offer which eventually lead to the release of the students.

Gumi also revealed that the situation of the abducted students of Greenfield University is unique because, for the first time, there is a cooperation between some bandits and Boko Haram elements. The scholar refereed to such development as a ‘bad symptom’ since Boko Haram is now encroaching into the field.

According to Gumi, the involvement of Boko Haram into the kidnapping led to the killing of some abducted students of Greenfield University, but the Bandits involved in the kidnapping decided to speak against it.

Frank Akpan , the uyo based young man who’s alleged to have carried out the gruesome murder of the innocent job seeker ,Hiny Umoren was this morning found dead in the police at Ikot Akpanabia State command.

Reports say he hung himself using his trousers by tying it to the metal frame of his cell door. Akpan was last seen alive by 19.30 yesterday when he was served his evening meal of bread and edikangikong soup.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, says Nollywood actor, Olanrewaju Omiyinka, aka Baba Ijesha will remain in the police custody.

He said the continuous detention of Baba Ijesha, is based on legal advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions in the state Ministry of Justice.

He also said the actor would not be released until the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria called off its nationwide strike and the courts resumed so that he could be arraigned.

Odumosu stated these in reaction to Wednesday’s protest by Omiyinka’s colleague, Yomi Fabiyi, and others, who demonstrated at the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Panti, Yaba, to demand his release on bail.

He said based on the legal advice, a prima facie case had been established against Omiyinka, adding that the thespian’s continued detention was based on the DPP’s advice.

Odumosu said, “When they got the SCIID today (Wednesday), they were advised by the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the SCIID, and he told them that we have done our work and sought legal advice from the Ministry of Justice and the advice was that we should still keep him in our custody.

“When we concluded our investigation, we forwarded our report to the ministry for legal advice. The ministry advised us through the Office of the Public Defender. The legal advice was that there was a prima facie case established against him and some sections of the law were quoted in the advice. So, the advice was that he should still remain in our custody and to be charged for that.

Odumosu said the ministry might review its position concerning Omiyinka’s detention if the JUSUN strike continues indefinitely, adding that a new arrangement had been made in the state for courts to sit three times a week.

The CP said, “Regarding the JUSUN strike, they agreed to be working for three days and striking for two days. They will go on strike on Monday and Tues

The spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has asked the National Assembly to impeach President Muhammadu Buhari if he is unable to secure Nigerians.

The president has come under intense pressure as a result of the rising insecurity in the country.

Speaking on Kakaaki, an AIT programme, on Monday, Baba-Ahmed charged those who have constitutional responsibility to realise that the country is in a dire state, and do something other than just talking and making promises.

“One option we have is that the legislators will look at the record of the administration, understand the areas where the president has failed, understand areas where there is clearly no evidence that they’re going to do anything about it and refer to the constitution that says the whole purpose of government is to secure citizens and pursue their welfare.”

“If Buhari fails to do that, for me, those are impeachable offences. In the last six months, two years, what has the president done to secure the country? Absolutely nothing has been done and yet you see increasing failure of the state to protect citizens,” he said.

“Or, as our democratic system provides, those with the responsibility to get them off, should impeach those who are failing. If the president can’t deliver, he should be impeached.

“We don’t have a national assembly that appears to have the levels of patriotism and concern beyond partisan politics to realise that when this roof falls, it also falls on their heads.

“Partisanship is so pronounced that the people we elected and sent to Abuja think they serve the president rather than the Nigerian people.”

According to Baba-Ahmed, the second option is for citizens to get together and decide to do something.

He said the third option is: “Those leaders who are failing will recognize the fact that they are the problem, and they will resign because they clearly have nothing to offer in terms of leadership.

Baba-Ahmed spoke few days after the presidency said some leaders were pushing for regime change.

Bandits in the early hours of Monday abducted worshippers observing midnight prayer (Tahajjud) at a mosque in Jibia Local Government Area of State. The…

Bandits in the early hours of Monday abducted worshippers observing midnight prayer (Tahajjud) at a mosque in Jibia Local Government Area of State.

The incident took place at Abattoir area of Jibia.

One of the officials of committee on IDPs in Jibia, who confirmed the unfortunate incident to Daily Trust, said the number of those abducted could be higher than 40.

He said around 7:30pm on Sunday, they had intelligence that the bandits were mobilising to attack Jibia, and they notified the security agents and local vigilante as well.

“Our focus was on Izala mosque at Tashar Huraira area, so we deployed our resources there, but unfortunately, they went to the mosque which is not that popular.

“One of the worshippers who escaped told us that they surrounded the mosque while prayers were in progress, went in, switched off the microphone with which the Imam was reciting Qur’an, and asked the worshippers to move out,” he said.

He said Jibia had been targeted by the bandits as some captives once overheard them discussing about their plan of attacking the town.