The Nation Newspaper

Category: City Beats

  • Govt gives gated communities seven-day ultimatum

    Lagos State Government yesterday gave gated communities seven days to comply with the directive on operating them or have them demolished.

    The gates are to be locked between midnight and 5am and manned by security guards to allow vehicular movement.

    Commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs Muslim Folami said the government would not hesitate to remove gates of streets where residents fail to comply with the directive.

    He said: “This is a serious issue and we are not taking it lightly with anyone; residents have within seven days to comply with this directive or have their gates removed.”

    He assured residents of security, saying government officials will go round to ensure compliance.

    Earlier, Special Assistant to Governor on Community Affairs Tajudeen Quadri, who was with Folami, said some residents were not complying with the directive.

    Quadri recalled that before the directive was issued in 2009, gated streets constituted bottleneck for police, fire service and vehicles on emergency while carrying out their duties.

    The gates, he noted, also obstructed traffic, especially in areas where they are on roads meant to serve as thoroughfares or alternative links.

    Women in labour and indisposed people, he added also lost their lives following their inability to reach hospitals in time because their gates were locked with no security guards manning them.

     

  • Ex-Lagos commissioner’s grandson kidnapped in school

    Ex-Lagos commissioner’s grandson kidnapped in school

    Grandson of immediate past Lagos State Commissioner for Rural Development Cornelius Ojelabi has been kidnapped.

    Michael Oluwatomiyin Ojelabi, four, was kidnapped in front of his school by an unidentified woman six days ago.

    His distraught parents are hopeful that he will return home.

    In tears, they said they had not received any phone call about his whereabouts.

    Sympathisers have been trooping to the Ojelabis’ Iyana School residence in Iba Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of the state.

    Members of their church held prayers for the boy’s return yesterday.

    The boy’s father, Sunday Ojelabi, told The Nation that Michael and his sister, Oyindamola, were standing at their school gate, waiting for their mother, when the woman, who gave her name as Aunt Joy, said she was asked to bring them home.

    “I was shocked when my eight-year-old daughter told me her class teacher asked her to sweep her classroom. The teacher denied but three of my daughter’s friends said it was true. It was when she finished sweeping she took her brother to the school gate. Oyindamola told me that when they got to the gate, the woman, whom she described as tall, fat and dark-skinned, said my wife asked her to pick them. My daughter said she wasn’t going to release her brother but the woman asked her to inform her class teacher she had taken Michael. When she got back, they were nowhere to be found.

    “She went home to inform my wife and when they returned to the scene, shop owners said they saw the woman on a motorcycle but they didn’t know she was a kidnapper. We went to Ojo police station. We have been searching for him. I believe we will find him by God’s grace because I suspect nobody,” he said.

    Ojelabi said when he got the information, he reported the case to Adoff Police Station. He has also written a statement at the Ojo Police Station.

    He said: “My wife is a trader and she takes them to school every morning. The reason she was late to pick them on that day was because she was preparing their lunch. She didn’t want them to return home without having anything to eat.”

    When asked his last moment with his son that day, Ojelabi said: “I was getting dressed for work when he came to my room and said ‘daddy, good morning’. I replied ‘good morning’ and said I was off to work. He is my close paddy. I miss him these past few days because he was always awake whenever I returned from work. I keep thinking of my son’s condition. I keep thinking if he will be given his favourite biscuit and tea. We have been living in this environment for over 16 years and we have never witnessed incidents as this.”

    Michael’s mother, Mrs Elizabeth Ojelabi, was said to have gone to the church.

    The school’s head teacher, Olalekan Kazeem, said he was still in shock adding that the class teacher said she never asked Oyindamola to sweep.

    “We are security conscious here because I remember there was a time their father was not allowed to take his children because he wasn’t a familiar face in the school. I pray we find him because that is our joy,” he said.

    The Ojelabis are pleading with the public for information on their boy’s whereabouts.

    They can be contacted on: 08024371127, 08028287574.

  • Artist, monarch trade words over feud

    Artist, monarch trade words over feud

    Embattled award winning artist Jelili Atiku and the Ejigbo royal family last Thursday gave conflicting accounts of their rift.

    The palace accused Atiku of committing a tabboo against Ejigbo tradition by bringing a masquerader to the town.

    Atiku denied the allegation, saying what he did was visual art and not masquerading.

    A chief who simply identified himself as Basorun Ejigbo and the Iyalode of Ejigbo said it is a taboo to bring a masquerader to the town.

    Atiku and his group, the Bashorun said, went about the town in masquerader’s attire.

    “When we first saw him, we were frightened. Then we saw the pamphlets he had been distributing,” he said.

    The pamphlets contained prayers in English and Yoruba and information concerning some allegations levelled against the monarch.

    Underneath each allegation were the web links and publication dates where the information can be accessed on internet and newspapers.

    This angered the chiefs, who claimed that Atiku’s supporters and those following him threw stones at the palace as they walked past it.

    Denying the allegations, Atiku said: “What I did was just visual art and not masquerading. Most of my face was visible. I know the taboos of the land and their consequences, and I won’t go against it.”

    Reliving the circumstances surrounding his arrest, Atiku said: “On the day of the incident, I went to see some friends and had only just returned home. As I was removing my clothes, about seven armed policemen came. They just said the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) needed me at the police station. One of them was just shouting; ‘you are a criminal, come out! Come out!’ He was also pointing a gun at me.

    “At Ejigbo police station, the DPO said I should be taken downstairs because he did not want to talk to me. My belongings were then collected and I was subsequently locked up for the night. The next day, I was asked to write a statement concerning my activities on Thursday, January 14. I wrote all about the performance we staged called “Aragamago, will rid this land of terrorism” which was not a cult group as reports had claimed.”

    According to him, five chiefs had once come to his house to warn him about his activities against the monarch.

    “They destroyed my property when I did not agree with them,” Atiku said.

    Another chief said they had gone to warn Atiku to stop posting negative comments about the monarch on Facebook.

    “He (Atiku) began to quarrel with us after which he destroyed his own properties and blamed it on us,” the Abore of Ejigbo said.

  • Traders accuse LG distributor of fraud

    Traders accuse LG distributor of fraud

    There is a Lagos distributor of LG products that collected money from some traders?

    The traders are accusing the distributor of defrauding them.

    They alleged that the firm closed its store without delivering their goods.

    The store introduced “pay little by little” offer to traders last October.

    It was gathered that some of the traders got their appliances but others didn’t.

    A trader, Mrs Adetoun Abiolu, said she paid N53,000 out of N60,000 for a freezer, adding: “When they came last October, many of us joined because we saw that it was real when we got to their office. We paid whenever we had money. At times I paid N2000 sometimes N5000. We were issued receipts. I took my N7000 balance there last week but I was asked to return this week. Last December, I was told the price may change because the price of dollars had increased; I agreed. I am just shocked the store was closed on January 18. I haven’t seen any of the workers. I also heard the boss is not around.

    “The painful part is that I introduced eight people and their money is times two of my money. They have been asking what happened and I am tired of explaining to them.”

    Another trader, Chinedu Ogboji, said he paid N56,000 instead of N51,000, the initial price.

    Chinedu said when he first went to the store to pay the balance, he was asked to come back as the product wasn’t available.

    “After I paid N56,000, they asked me to come back last December 24 and when I did, they had closed for the year. When I got there on Monday January 11, I was told the price of the television is now N70,000 and that if I couldn’t afford it, I could pick a Samsung Television which I agreed. I don’t have the television, my money is gone and the workers are nowhere to be found,” he said.

    Mrs. Olubunmi Fashina, who wanted to buy a washing machine worth N65,000, said she lost N42,000.

    She said majority of the traders took advantage of the offer when the first set that started got their products.

    “We are not happy about the situation. I even heard the workers are being owed for months and their boss cannot be found. Even when I requested their boss’ mobile line from one of the workers, he said she never disclosed her line to any of her staff. As if she saw this coming. What did they do with our hard earned money? It is painful. My balance is N13,000 but what of those who lost N250,000 to them. An old woman almost became unconscious on seeing the store locked last Monday. I remember the worker that registered me. He kept coming to my shop before I decided to join. I have been to their head office and I have not gotten a positive reply,” she said.

    A trader, Oluwafemi Adebamigbe, who deals in jewellery, said it was the week after he collected his product that the shop was shut.

    He said: “I am happy I didn’t fall a victim but it is unfair. Most of us can’t afford to buy what we need once; that is why we went for the offer and now we have been cheated. I pray they return soon so they can refund our money.”

    At the Ogba, Lagos office of Fouani Ltd, the sole distributor of LG Electronics in Nigeria, the sales representative, who simply identified herself as Omobolanle, disagreed that the distributor has absconded with the traders’ money.

  • ‘I make over N300,000 monthly from begging’

    ‘I make over N300,000 monthly from begging’

    •Suspected drug addict deported from Germany in 2004

    A suspected drug addict cum beggar has said he makes over N300,000 monthly from begging.

    Kehinde Olatunbosun, who was deported from Germany in 2004 over drug matters, said he made over N10, 000 daily begging at Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Roundabout, beside Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Toyin Street and Opebi, all in Ikeja.

    Olatubosun was among the suspected 13 drug addicts and three peddlers arrested on Friday night at Ipodo in Ikeja, by Rapid Response Squad (RRS) operatives.

    The RRS decoy team also arrested a three-man gang phone thief.

    The suspects were nabbed at a drug joint in Ipodo when the operatives traced a stolen phone to the place.

    Olatunbosun was working as an electrical engineer in Bauhusa, Cologne, Germany before his deportation. He spent 12 years in Germany.

    The 56-year-old Ibadan Oyo State indigene said he begged under the preference of seeking succour for an ailing relative in LASUTH.

    He said: “Every day, I make over N10, 000 daily doing corporate begging. All days of the week, am always in Mobolaji Bank Anthony Roundabout, Toyin Street Roundabout and Opebi. At times, I collaborate with beggars. Whatever we make, we share but I get a larger share.

    “What I do is that, I get LASUTH drug prescription papers. I get it from their waste bin. I convince motorists, passengers and passersby that I have a relative who is in dire need of money to buy drugs and I show them the prescription papers.

    “This is what I have been doing since I was deported from Germany in 2004. I was in possession of drug when I was arrested in Germany, so they deported me. I have four children. Two are in Germany with my wife. One is in Texas in the United States and another in Nigeria.

    “Unfortunately, all the money I make from this begging goes into drugs. Day after day, I am always there, seven days a week. I make more money on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. I make more than N10, 000 on weekends.

    “As I talk to you, I am not on drug but I am experiencing withdrawal symptoms, that is, the effect of not taking drugs for sometimes.

    “I was in Ipodo drug joint in Ikeja when I was arrested. I was on drug when I was picked up yesterday. I have never been arrested for any offence before. I am praying that RRS releases me. I promise I won’t go back to drug again. Where I live presently was given to me by my in-law.”

    Another suspected addict, who was also arrested at the joint, Dada Ajayi, 48, said drug has destroyed his life.

    Attributing his sorry condition to drug addiction, he said for more than 17 years, he was hooked to drug.

    He said: “I am trying to get over it now; drug has been the cause of my stagnation in life. I frequent that joint because I have nowhere to go. I have lived the better part of my life consuming drugs.

    “As I talk to you, the remains of my wife are in Ikeja mortuary. She was taken to LASUTH. I was asked to bring N150,000 for surgery but I didn’t have N50,000 on me then. She died in the process. Right now, I have lost my family because of my drug addiction. I don’t know where to start my life again. I can’t stop going to that drug joint because it is the only place where I get consolation. It is the only place I am at peace with myself.

    “If anybody wants to help us, they should arrest the drug barons or dealers. Arresting us won’t solve drug problem because without the sellers there won’t be the takers. You arrest the dealers, I mean the merchants, then you have cut the supply and thus saved us from getting drugs. Without out that, we would always find our ways there whenever we are released.”

  • Ex-Commissioner, residents praise Ambode on road repairs

    Lagos State Boxing Hall of Fame Chairman Mr Wale Edun has hailed Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for embarking on road construction.

    Edun, a one-time Commissioner for Finance, described the road project as a dividend of democracy for Ademola Street in Ikoyi and a legacy for Ikoyi-Obalende Local Council Development Area Executive Secretary Miss Toyin Caxton-Martins.

    Edun urged the contractor to do a quality work, which will propel residents to pay their taxes promptly.

    He praised the government for approving the reconstruction of Ademola Street under the project.

    The residents are upbeat about the project.

    A former chairman of the residents’ association, Mr Tunde Coker, said the road would be reconstructed with provisions made for drainages and street lights.

    Caxton-Martins described the project as part of Ambode’s initiative to develop the state.

    She said the construction of 114 roads, two roads in each local government and LCDA, showed the governor’s commitment to drive the state through community development.

    She urged the community development association to assist the contractor when the work begins.

  • Seven suspects held over Bariga cult clash

    •Police sieze three power bikes, Keke Marwa

    The Lagos State Police Command has arrested seven suspected cultists following Saturday’s clash in Bariga which claimed a 65-year-old woman’s life.

    They are Afees Olaide Fagunwa, Nurudeen Lateef, Richard Ewa, Richard Abayomi, Mohammed Musa, Kayode Dada and Adams Adelakun.

    Mrs Adejoke Adefuye was burnt beyond recognition when her house on 19, Oshinfolarin Street in Bariga, was set ablaze by the feuding cult groups.

    On the fateful day, members of Eiye Confraternity led by Ibrahim Balogun, clashed with a rival cult group, Aiye Confraternity, led by a man simply identified as Gideon.

    The cultists, according to reports, vandalised some vehicles parked on the road side. Two members of the Aiye Confraternity, identified as Bobo and Abayomi Olubola, died in the fracas.

    Command spokesperson Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent of Police (SP), confirmed the cultists’ arrests and the recovery of some weapons, including one live and expended cartridges.

    Badmos said the second-in-command of one of the cult groups was among those arrested. Three power bikes and a tricycle, popularly known as Keke Marwa, were confiscated.

    She said the suspected cultists had been terrorising the area for days, adding that the police made some arrests because of their swift response to distress calls.

    Badmos said all the bodies had been deposited at the Gbagada General Hospital for autopsy.

  • How RRS official assaulted me, by housewife

    How RRS official assaulted me, by housewife

    •Police: erring officer will be sanctioned

    A housewife, Mrs Abimbola Oriade, yesterday relived how a policeman, attached to the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) on SUCO Road, Abattoir, Agege, Lagos allegedly assaulted her.

    Mrs Oriade, the Davebrooks Limited Media Relations Officer, claimed that the officer fled after beating her.

    The woman said she was attacked by the policeman, who was in mufti in the presence of other policemen.

    She alleged that she was beaten because she and other passengers attempted to criticise the driving of an RRS officer.

    Mrs Oriade said: “We would have been killed, but for the intervention of God. When we complained at their office, they attacked me.”

    According to eye witnesses, a commercial bus was going to Agege Pen Cinema when a lone RSS vehicle marked, NPF 408 D, made an illegal U-turn in front of a commercial bus and reversed close to the bus. The impact caused passengers to collide against one another.

    The driver followed the van, which drove into the RRS office on SUCO Road.

    Oriade alleged that at the RRS office she was beaten along with another passenger.

    She said: “I was in a commercial bus, heading to Agege Pen Cinema, when the RRS van suddenly made an illegal U-turn in front of our bus. The RSS driver stepped on his brake, reversed and rammed into our bus, causing our heads to knock against one another and some against the body of the bus.

    “The RRS van just took off without checking to see if we were okay. The driver of our bus pursued him. When the driver caught up with him in the traffic, he made another illegal U-turn again and ran into their base on SUCO Road, Abattoir. A policeman at the gate, Monday Okon refused to allow our bus to follow him into the base.

    “We all alighted from the bus and stood in front of the RRS office. We were explaining the near-tragic accident to the officer at the gate, when one of the officers in mufti just came and just pounced on me. He started beating me and a male passenger. After slapping and hitting us repeatedly, he said that we should go and do our worst. I made statement at the Abattoir Police Station, Agege. The officer that took my statement was Gloria Ebororo.”

    Efforts to get the authorities at the base to produce the policeman, proved abortive.

    “The other policemen, rather than stop him or fetch him out, started begging me. They started begging after my husband came. They said I and my husband should forgive the officer that assaulted me and allow the matter to die. But I don’t want the matter to die. He slapped and punched me like he wanted to kill me.”

    Police spokesperson Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent of Police (SP) promised to investigate the matter.

    She said any officer found culpable will be sanctioned.

    RRS Public Relations Officer Femi Malik said the operative doesn’t use NPF on their vehicles’ plate numbers.

  • Lawyer dies in London after Lagos road crash

    Lawyer dies in London after Lagos road crash

    When 25-year-old Bristish citizen Doyin Sarah Fagbenro left the United Kingdom to work in Nigeria, little did her family know it was her final trip.

    The young law graduate from the Queen Mary’s University, London, passed on yesterday in a United Kingdom Hospital, five days after she was involved in a motor accident in Lagos, Nigeria.

    DSF, as she was fondly called, was one of the victims of the accident that occurred around Lekki Phase 1 last Sunday.

    She was said to have been driving her new Toyota Corolla car to church, given to her by her new employers, when a commercial bus rammed into her on the busy expressway.

    The driver fled the scene after the accident. Miss Fagbenro was rushed to the Lagoon Hospital, where she spent some days, before she was flown out to the United Kingdom.

    Unfortaunetly, DSF, who according to her cousin, Ken Davidson, has spent not more than two years in Nigeria, died, bringing the death toll in the accident to five.

    In a tribute to the late DSF on his Facebook page, Davidson said she was a victim of the “reckless and probably high on drinks/drugs ‘Danfo’ Driver.”

    He said her funeral is this weekend, narrating the excruciating pain her family, including her aged grandparents were going through.

    Davidson wrote: “Oh death! Where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Another Casualty of a broken and failed State. Your story is particularly gut wrenching as it is equally heartbreaking.

    “You spent near enough all but two of your 25 years on earth in the country of your birth, the United Kingdom, where your parents and entire family reside. You were born, bred and educated in the United Kingdom.

    “But two years ago, immediately after you graduated, you elected to visit Nigeria where your grandparents reside – both of whom are in their mid eighties. You signed up for the National Youth Service having freshly graduated with a sterling First Degree in Law and a post graduate immediately afterwards.

    “You were headhunted by an Energy Firm before you completed your NYSC and a presto you gallantly announced to your nervous parents – dad a Diplomat with the United Nations based in Italy and mum a Pharmacist based in the United Kingdom, your country of Birth – that you were going to permanently relocate and make Nigeria your permanent abode. Your grandparents were ecstatic, you being their most favourite grand daughter.

    “You were a straight A student right from when you passed your GCSEs through to when you excelled in your A’levels…so much so that Prestigious Queen Mary’s London University snapped you to study Law. You missed a First by whisker’s. Nevertheless you made your mark all the way through.

    “Then it all came crashing down. What was supposed to be a routine journey to Church on a relatively sombre, otherwise uneventful Sunday morning on the Lekki/Ajah Expressway around the Lekki Phase 1 approach, turned into a living and eternal nightmare for those of us left struggling to pick up the pieces. “Our lives changed forever, never to be the same again.  A victim of the reckless and probably high on drinks/drugs ‘Danfo’ Driver. The most galling of the entire episode was the fact that the driver of that Danfo survived unscathed, ran away from the scene leaving a trail of death and destruction in his wake.

    “Four people died at the scene. Your New Toyota Corolla was a crumpled wreck. But the Fighter that you were, despite massive injuries, you fought and fought and fought. Your Dad, via his status at the United Nations, got you into Lagoon Hospital where you were for a few days.

    “When it became clear that the extent of your injuries was too severe for the local facilities here in Nigeria, an air ambulance was scrambled from the United Kingdom to get you much needed specialist care in the United Kingdom.

    “Your tireless mum who flew in from the United Kingdom, barely 48 hours after the accident, accompanied you in the air ambulance. Still we prayed and prayed and hoped for the best. Sadly, we lost you a day after you arrived the United Kingdom.”

    Continuing, Davidson explained that the surgeons in the United Kingdom did their best but death overcame.

    He decried the frustration her friends felt when they could not get any information a few days after the accident.

    “Then it struck me how cheap human lives are in our country today. Tragedy of a nation. A nation pushing 60 yet still in diappers. Heaven knows how many more lives have been prematurely terminated on that same stretch of road and thousands of more roads up and down the country since then. I digress.

    “Best  leave the Inquest for another day. As it is said in Yoruba “Eni kan lo mo”.

    “The pain is palpably raw as it is numbling. We asked again and again, Why you? Why You? If only you had stayed on in the country of your birth, If only…so many questions but very few answers. “Your parents, your grandparents, Oh! Your grandma, with whom you celebrated her 80th birthday over here in Nigeria a few years ago has refused to eat since she was informed of your passing nearly a week ago…All she repeatedly does is wail, wail to space “God take me instead, give my granddaughter back to Nigeria.

    “Nigeria needs her, her parents need her. God take me. God take me.”

    “These are indeed extremely perilous times. And so it was that having just spent barely a few weeks in Nigeria after a prolonged winter holiday and christmas in the United Kingdom with family and friends, I now find myself in the rather unenviable position of scrambling for the next flight out back to the United Kingdom just so that I can attend your Funeral this weekend…

    “DSF as you were very fondly called, you touched so many lives in the quarter century, (twenty five years only!) you ran your race on earth. You were considerate to the end so much so that you waited until you got back home – nearer your parents and many siblings – before you finally bade the World Farewell.

    “Doyin Sarah Fagbenro, My learned friend in the Profession, my lil sister, my cousin, sleep well till we meet again. O Death! Where is Thy Sting!”

  • False copter crash alert creates panic in Lagos

    False copter crash alert creates panic in Lagos

    There was pandemonium in the Oworonsoki area of Lagos yesterday following a false helicopter crash alert.

    Security operatives and locals in the community thronged the Mayaki street axis of the Lagos lagoon, after a rumour went round that there was a plane crash in the same place a Bristow helicopter wrecked some months back.

    But Director, Search and Rescue of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) debunked the rumour, calming frayed nerves.

    He stated that the agency and other relevant emergency stakeholders were carrying out a simulation exercise on air mishap.

    The exercise which started at about 9am, saw the reliving of an air mishap, to get the rescue workers abreast with recent trends in managing such scenarios in real life.

    The exercise started by a communication from the Airspace Management Authority (NAMA) that an aircraft has gone missing.

    Shortly after then, there was a radio message in the control room that an aircraft has crashed at Oworonsoki, putting all the officers who were oblivious of the exercise on their toes.

    All the field emergency responders moved to the scene of the supposed accident, with these nearest to the crash site trooping in with their equipments.

    As they moved in, they discovered it was an exercise, so, did the residents in the community, and that eventually calmed frayed nerves.

    The participating agencies included Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Nigeria Police, the Nigerian Navy, Fire Service, Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

    Explaining why field operators and locals were not notified about the simulation, NEMA’s director of Search and Rescue, Air Vice Martial Charles Otegbade said the aim would have been defeated if the field operators knew it was an exercise.

    He however disclosed that the various heads of the participating agencies knew it was an exercise, adding that the field operators were not told as they wanted to monitor their response to such situations.

    Otegbade expressed satisfaction as the speed and efficiency of the various agency, noting that their coordination was 80 percent successful.

    Similarly, LASEMA boss, Micheal Akindele said the exercise was to assess the level of preparedness and identify gaps of emergency responders in the case of plane crash or related emergency in the State.