The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • Community unites against crime

    Christian and Muslim Communities in Igbaye, Odo-Otin Local Government Area of Osun State have come against crimes and social vices like drug abuse, cultism and hooliganism associated with the youth in the town.

    The coalition spearheaded by community elders and religious leaders in collaboration with the security agencies at the instance of some town’s elites under the umbrella of Igbaye Development Vanguard (ICV).

    The concerned elders floated the coalition to enlighten the youth and elders  about the implication of crimes, drug abuse and acts of brigandage.

    Speaking after the joint interdenominational prayers at the town’s market square, the Chief Missioner of the Muslim Community, Sheikh Abdur-Razaq Odewale and the Local Chairman of the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ven Benjamin Adegoke admitted that the coalition was formed to foster unity among the residents as well as to curb the rate of social vices among the youth.

    Read Also: Fashola: we must combat organised crime

    According to Odewale, who is also the Founder and Proprietor of Darus-Salam Arabic and Islamic Studies in the town, the prayers and sensitisation efforts were aimed at letting the youth turn a new leaf from bad behaviours with a view to making them good leaders of tomorrow and good ambassadors of the town.

    Ven Adegoke, who also doubles as the Pastor of the All Saints Church, added that the youth have been made to realise that any act of social vices has tendencies of spoiling family name just as it has the potential of turning the town a pariah.

    The cleric, who was once the Principal of Igbaye Community High School (ICHS), informed that, the coalition has gone round all the schools, both public and private to warn the students and pupils alike against social vices like stealing, drug abuse and cultism and their adverse effect on their persons as well as on their parents and the society at large.

  • Four face N3.9m theft charge at magistrates’ court

    Four men were on Tuesday brought before an Igbosere Magistrates’ Court for allegedly hacking an Ecobank account and stealing N3,922,799.82.

    Omotosho John Ifetayo, Adeboye Oluwatosin, Esagba Ovie Kayode, 27, and his brother Esagba Emmanuel Ayomikun, 22,  were arraigned on a three-count charge of conspiracy, obtaining under false pretence and stealing.

    The Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (Force CIID) Annex, Alagbon-Ikoyi, said the defendants committed the offence last October 31.

    Prosecuting each police officer Morufu Animashaun alleged that they conspired and stole the cash from the bank’s offshore account through its Rapid Transfer Platform.

    They pleaded not guilty.

    Their counsel, Ige Asemudara, applied for their bail “on the most liberal terms.”

    Read Also: Two men arraigned for ‘theft’ of N2m jewellery

    He said the defendants were ready for their trial adding that they would not abscond.

    “The defendants were earlier granted administrative bail by the police and they never jumped bail,” he said.

    According to him, the defendants had no criminal record and this is the first time they would be charged with any offence.

    “As a defence, we are undertaking that they shall attend the trial. When we open the case, the court will find merit in our case,” Asemudara added.

    Animashaun did not oppose the application but prayed the court to apply its discretion.

    Magistrate M. O. Ope-Agbe granted the defendants N10million bail with one surety each in the like sum, among other conditions.

    The case continues on September 16.

  • Police get vehicles to fight insecurity

    The Area ‘E’ Police Command in Festac Town, Lagos has received two vehicles to boost their fight against insecurity.

    The vehicles were presented to the Area Commander Mohammad Dahiru, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) by the Amuwo-Odofin Local Government.

    ACP Dahiru thanked the council chief for the gesture.

    He said the presentation didn’t come as a surprise to the command “because we already know how security conscious the Chairman is. I must say, Valentine Buraimoh stands out amongst local government chairmen I have had the privilege to work with.”

    Read Also: Police advise vehicle owners

    The police chief added: “Aside from that he ensures we maintain a healthy communication relationship, he also keeps himself abreast with security concerns of the community. Because security is not limited to policing alone, the council chairman has also continued to engage the youths productively; the result is that Amuwo-Odofin has the lowest report of cases of cultism and youthful exuberance.”

    Valentine Buraimoh said his administration was committed to saving lives and property.

    The buses, Buraimoh said, were to aid security patrol across the council.

    He said: “I want to thank the police for doing its best to ensure that Amuwo-Odofin is properly policed. We want you to continue to do more; this is why we are presenting you these mini-buses to help you discharge your duties effectively,” he said.

  • NSCDC arrests fake eye doctor

    The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Adamawa  State has arrested an alleged fake Optometrist operating in Yola.

    Addressing newsmen yesterday in Yola, the state Commandant of the corps, Mr Nuraddeen Abdullahi, said the suspect, Imuere Ejiro, before his arrest, was allegedly rendering services in two private clinics in Yola.

    Abdullahi said the suspect was arrested in possession of photocopies of academic qualification belonging to his younger brother.

    He said the suspect was once arrested in Lagos by the Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians’ Registration Board of Nigeria, which fined him N200,000.

    The commandant, who called for more public support to security agencies in the state, said there was a joint operation going on with other agencies to make things difficult for criminals in the state.

    Read Also: EFCC nabs fake native doctor in Ibadan

    “The NSCDC has also sent some of its personnel to training as Agro-Rangers to contain farmers/herders conflicts in the state,” Abdullahi said.

    Reacting to his arrest, the suspect said he operated in Taraba, Lagos and Adamawa states before his arrest.

    Ejiro, who insisted that he was a qualified optometrist, said his arrest in Lagos was because he was practising without registration.

    “The board asked me to pay a registration fee of N255,000 and I have so far made part payment of N65,000 to the board,” the suspect said.

    Meanwhile, the Adamawa branch Chairman of Nigerian Optometric Association, Dr Okafor Ikechukwu, said the association had made contacts and discovered that the suspect was a quack.

    “He is a quack and impostor who has been defrauding citizens of Adamawa State of their hard-earned money and at the same time putting their eyesight at risk by prescribing lens which is not licensed,” Ikechukwu said.

  • Two men ‘impersonate’ army, police officers

    A Badagry Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday remanded Shile Musa, 30, in prison after he pleaded guilty to stealing and parading himself as an army corporal at a Mammy Market in Badagry.

    Magistrate Patrick Adekomaiya adjourned till July 15 for review of the facts of the case and sentencing.

    Prosecuting Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Akpan Nkem said Musa committed the offence on July 4 around 7:45 p.m. at a restaurant in a Mammy Market at Ibereko, Badagry.

    The prosecutor said the defendant stole a Tecno K7 phone worth N38,000, a property of Evelyn Augustine

    “He also paraded himself as a corporal in the Nigeria Army which he knew to be false.

    Read Also: Fake policemen, soldiers arrested in Imo

    Also on Tuesday, Isaac Onyemaechi, 65, was paraded by the Commissioner of Police (CP) Zubairu Muazu for impersonating an ASP and threatening to close down illegal hospital.

    Muazu said Onyemaechi went to a hospital, posed as an ASP and threatened to call for the hospital’s closure with intent to defraud its director.

    Onyemaechi said: “We were two. Clement Okwuegbueze escaped when police arrested me. He is a real obtainer a.k.a 419. The hospital we went to is at Buratali Street in Lagos. We told the proprietor of the hospital, Dr. Waidi that we would assist him to procure genuine papers that would help him to be operating without fear of being harassed by any law enforcement agent.

    “I was dismissed as an ASP for corrupt practices; now I have been arrested again for impersonating an ASP.”

  • Pirates kill one, injure others in Rivers

    A royal father in Bille Kingdom of Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State, Alabo Bennett Okpokiye-Dokubo, has raised the alarm over incessant attacks by sea pirates on Bille waterways.

    Chief Okpokiye-Dokubo, who cried out to reporters in Port Harcourt, the state capital, said the activities of the criminals led to the death of one Abraham Anthony Alex yesterday, while some others sustained different degrees of injury.

    He said the criminals, who dressed in Army camouflage, have constantly attacked travellers on the sea, dispossessed them of their belongings and seized the boat they were travelling in, leaving them stranded at the middle of  the sea.

    Okpokiye-Dokubo said the Kingdom is under the siege of the criminals.

    Read Also: Monarch makes case for peace, unity

    He said economic activities in the area have been grounded, regretting that businessmen and women, civil servants and students who travelled home over the weekend are still stranded as the movement in and out of the community have been halted.

    “Life has become unbearable within the Bille Kingdom by reason of the unprovoked attacks. We are suffering in the hands of pirates,” he lamented.

    He called on Governor Nyesom Wike and the Federal Government to urgently put appropriate measures to halt attacks in the area.

    Rivers State Police Command spokesman Nnamdi Omoni, a Deputy Superintendent (DSP), said the police are not aware of the development but promised to follow it up and ensure they intensify patrol along the area.

  • Doctor convicted for professional misconduct

    A medical doctor, Dr Nwikwu Vitalis has been found guilty of professional negligence and thereby suspended from practice for six months.

    The sentence, according to Chairman of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) Tribunal, Prof. Abba Waziri Hassan, commences from 30 November 2016.

    The accused who has been on suspension since 2016, it is assumed that has served out his sentence.

    Read Also: NSCDC arrests fake eye doctor in Adamawa

    Vitalis was brought to the tribunal on one count charge of professional negligence for leaving his clinic open for service without any trained hand to attend to patients, leading to the death of a patient, who came for treatment in his absence.

    Vitalis, who has been on suspension since 2016, pleaded not guilty when the charge was read to him in April.

    The Tribunal had convicted two other doctors on Monday for professional negligence and were slammed the maximum punishment of six months suspension.

  • EFCC nabs fake native doctor

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibadan Zonal office, on Tuesday, arrested a fake native doctor, Fatai Olalere Aliu, who was alleged to be notorious for duping people under the guise of possessing spiritual power to solve their problems.

    Aliu was arrested during a raid on his Kisumu Estate residence at Odo-Ona Elewe,  Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

    Before his  arrest, the commission had worked on several intelligence reports linking him to a series of fraud allegations involving large sums of money.

    Read Also: NNPC to partner EFCC to fight corruption in its operations – Kyari

    He was also accused of engaging in money doubling through which he would collect money from his victims with the promise to use his spiritual powers to multiply the sums for them, but would instead divert same to his personal use.

    The raid led EFCC operatives to his shrines located in a thick forest around the Ibadan-Ijebu-Ode Expressway and Kobomoje area of the town where frightening voodoo items were sighted.

    Items recovered from the suspect include three exotic cars – two Toyota Corolla and Honda Pilot.

    He also has in his possession three luxurious buildings within Ibadan and land documents which were also recovered as exhibits. The suspect is said to be currently undergoing interrogation at the commission’s zonal office in Ibadan.

  • Family of ‘murdered’ Insurance director seeks Buhari’s intervention

    The family of the late insurance director Mrs. Uju Ndubuisi-Chukwu, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the investigation of her ‘murder’.

    They are urging the President to empower the Nigeria Consulate in South Africa to engage the South African police in concluding the investigation which it began following her death on June 13 at the Emperor Palace Hotel,  Johannesburg, South Africa.

    Mrs. Ndubuisi-Chukwu was the Deputy Director-General, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN) and was in Johannesburg,  to attend the African Insurance Organisation (AIO) conference, which between June  9 and 12. She was found dead in her hotel room in the early hours of June 13, the day she was scheduled to return to Nigeria.

    A report issued by the Port Health Services, South Africa stated that she died of “Unnatural Cause Consistent with Strangulation”.

    The late Mrs. Ndubuisi-Chukwu’s elder brother, Dr. Chiedu Ndubuisi told The Nation that the family wants justice following the controversy surrounding her death, saying the family is open to any other autopsy, if it was required.

    Read Also: Autopsy: Cause of Nigerian insurance director’s death in South Africa unnatural

    He said he believes the South African police are not investigating her death the way they ought to, and that they are yet to release the autopsy report to the family, aside from an abridged death certificate given to them.

    Dr Ndubuisi said the Nigeria Consulate in South Africa has been making efforts to unravel the mystery behind her death, adding that the Executive Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa has also reached out to the family.

    He, however, alleged that the CIIN where the late Mrs.Uju worked and on which platform she travelled as a delegate to  the AIO conference, and the Insurance Institute of South Africa that organised the event under the AIO, have not done enough to unravel the cause of death.

    He said: “After Uju’s death, I was informed and I travelled to South Africa. The report by the undertaker which was what we used to receive her body, showed that she died of unnatural death consistent with strangulation. I was surprised because it is contrary to the initial belief that she died overnight in her sleep. I asked the undertaker what the report meant and he called the pathologists who said my sister was strangled to death.

    “I took the report to the Nigeria Consular in South Africa and they started working with police authorities to unravel the cause of death. They have written officially to the South African police. The hotel where she died also promised to cooperate with them. But as at yesterday, the Consular General, Mr. Godwin Adama said they are yet to get back to them. Even the person designated by the Consular to meet the investigating officer  could not meet him on the two occasions he went to the police authorities. This means the police are not investigating the case to unravel who killed my sister. Even the hotel still had in their possession the CCTV footage 13 days after she was killed.

    “Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa has also called to console us and assured us that she will follow up on the matter. I told her that we are open to another autopsy if the Federal Government is interested. We have kept her body in a refrigerating facility to preserve her. As we speak, the South African authorities have not given us the autopsy report which is strange. The family is appealing to Preident Buhari to help us get justice for our dear Uju. Since the South African police are not doing anything again, we want the President to empower the Consular to conclude the investigation. We want to know who killed her and why”, he added.

  • Police advise vehicle owners

    The Lagos State Police Command, Seme Division has advised owners of vehicles and motorcycles parked at the station to come for identification within 14 days of this publication.

    The cars and motorcycles are: Jetta Salon car with registration number EW 559 SMK; BMW car with number CJ 750 KTU; Toyota Camry FB 99 KJA.

    Read Also: Policemen collecting money for bail not different from kidnappers – Lagos CP

    At Ilemba Hausa Division, Bajaj motorcycle-number KSF 298 GH; unregistered Kayak motorcycle; Honda motorcycle; TVS tricycle with number KRD 655 QE and Honda motorcycle-MUS 424 QG.