The Nation Newspaper

Category: City Beats

  • Hemp odour exposes robbery suspect

    Hemp odour exposes robbery suspect

    His bag attracted the police attention and he was asked the content.

    A peep into the bag and the policeman was hit by the pungent smell of Indian hemp and he screamed.

    That was not all. A search revealed two guns hidden inside the bag. This discovery led to the arrest of Amos Kuesi (24) by a plain-clothe policeman at the popular Pen Cinema Roundabout in Agege, a Lagos suburb. He  is being held by the Lagos State Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) .

    The Ogoni, Rivers State-born suspect, who claims to be a generator repairer, told The Nation yesterday that he took to armed robbery when he could not raise money to pay his rent in Lagos.

    Kuesi, who said he never told his fiance that he was into robbery for fear of losing her, stated: “I only told her that I do some runs which fetch me money. I am a victim of circumstances. I have been going for armed robbery operations and I used to be careful not to be caught. This time, I was careless.

    “I had accommodation problem. My rent expired in  November. I complained to my friend, Ifeanyi, when we went to play football in Rivers that I had a problem paying my expired rent. He promised to help me. But he told me that he had a bag which I would help him deliver to one man, Soti in Lagos, adding that Soti would give me N50,000 upon delivering the bag to him. He also gave me N20,000 covering my transport and feeding.”

    Kuesi said his friend told him that the bag contained  Indian hemp, ladding that unknown to him, it also contained guns.

    “When I reached Lagos, I wanted to pass through the Pen Cinema Roundabout but a policeman in plain-clothe accosted me and Soti, who was there to collect the bag. The policeman demanded to know the content of the bag. I told him I had two clothes (a shirt and a pair of trousers). When the policeman opened the bag, he smelt the odour of Indian hemp and screamed. Who are you that you have the courage to carry this quantity of Indian hemp? Are you a madman? He asked. Before I could answer one of the questions, Soti took to his heels,” Kuesi said.

    Soti’s escape, according to the suspect, prompted the policeman to hold him. “He immediately dragged me to the Pen Cinema Police Station.

    “When the policeman searched the bag thoroughly at the station,” the suspect said, “he discovered two guns, four cartridges and about N16,000 which was left on me.”

    Kuesi, who said he was later transferred to SARS’ Scorpion House in Ikeja, Lagos, added: “I confessed that I am an armed robber, but that I was not caught robbing at the Pen Cinema where I was arrested. I also told him that I did not know that Ifeanyi put two locally made short guns and four cartridges inside the bag he gave me to deliver to Soti.”

    The suspect has promised to help the SARS operatives to arrest Ifeanyi and Soti.

    The command’s image maker, Ken Nwosu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), confirmed the report.

  • Fire guts 24 tankers, caterpillar, car

    •NIS headquarters too

    No fewer than 24 tankers, a caterpillar and a saloon car were Monday night destroyed by fire in Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos.

    The tankers, said to be laden with petroleum products, caught fire in the premises of Interland Transport Company.

    According to rescue agencies, the saloon car and other affected properties belonged to the same company.

    It was learnt that the fire started around 9.35pm on Monday and raged throughout the night.

    According to the Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Rasaq Fadipe, it was the fifth fire the agency attended to that day.

    “No life was lost, but 24 fuel tankers, one caterpillar and a Peugeot 505 car were destroyed. The administrative block and some other fully laden tankers were saved,” he said.

    Yesterday, another tanker got burnt at Odo Iya Alaro, Maryland, causing heavy traffic.

    The 33,000-litre capacity tanker, which was laden with petrol, fell on the road and spilled its content.

    A section of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS)’s headquarters in Sauka, Abuja was also destroyed by fire yesterday afternoon.

    Public Relations Officer of Federal Fire Service (FFS), Biodun Obisesan told The Nation that the fire started shortly after 2pm.

    He said the FFS in collaboration with the Federal Capital Territory’s Fire Service and that of the Air Force put out the fire to prevent it from  causing severe damage.

    Obisesan, who said the cause of the fire was still unknown at the time of filing this report, revealed that no life was lost in the incident.

    “The fire outbreak affected the store area where their (NIS’s) fabrics are kept,” he said.

  • Customs debunks arms importation claim

    Customs debunks arms importation claim

    THE Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has repudiated the claim of Director General of National Task Force on Illegal Importation of Small Arms, Ammunition and Light Weapons (NATFORCE) Osita Okereke that arms and ammunition were being imported through Seme Border.

    NCS’ import coordinator at Seme command Assistant Controller Ibrahim Turaki said the allegation could cause panic because of the insurgency in the north.

    He urged Okereke to give details of the 10 trucks allegedly used to ship in the weapons, name the importer and state the consignment’s destination.

    Turaki said NATFORCE should have informed the Department of State Services (DSS) or the police to impound the trucks before their escape.

    The task force, he alleged, was operating illegal checkpoints and had been “extorting” N10,000 from truck owners.

    He said: “We made efforts to flush them out of Seme border as they are an unregistered association; they are now making up stories to portray NCS in bad light.

    “NCS has a responsibility which is explicit under the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) and that is to ensure the collection of duty payments and prevention of importation of prohibited goods including light arms and ammunition.

    “Investigations showed that someone who we learnt is a notorious smuggler in Seme Command gave NATFORCE this unverified sensitive information and since the news broke out, the ‘informant’ has been on the run”, Turaki said.

    According to him, the command is committed to stamping out smuggling and ensuring fair treatment for genuine importers and stakeholders.

    Turaki warned unscrupulous elements to desist from their act or, urging them to cooperate with the command, lest they might face the law.

    He said: “We have put in place laudable measures through the Controller General of Customs, Dikko Abdullahi and our amiable Customs Area Controller, Willy Egbudin. The move has ensured improved revenue generation and shown our zero tolerance for prohibited goods through the land border, making it safe for trade.”

  • School slashes fees

    School slashes fees

    The authorities of Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED), Otto/Ijanikin, yesterday agreed to reduce the school fees.

    The cut followed a meeting between the school and the students who had earlier in the day protested the fees’ hike.

    The management, it was learnt, met with the students’ body on November 27, where the reduction was agreed upon. But the agreement was not implemented, triggering the protest.

    The protest led to a blockage of the popular Mile 2/Badagry Expressway around the school’s axis. Some of the protesters prepared breakfast which they ate on the expressway; others sat and played ayo  (a Yoruba traditional pastime), draught, football and other games.

    Under the new fee regime, the college’s spokesman, Adebowale Odunayo said, 100-Level and 200-Level students would now pay N15000 and N10000 as against N40,000; 300 level students would pay N10000 instead of N25000.

  • South Africa: Judge throws out Dewani murder case

    South Africa: Judge throws out Dewani murder case

    British businessman Shrien Dewani has been cleared of murdering his wife during their South Africa honeymoon, after the judge threw out the case.

    Judge Jeanette Traverso said the evidence presented by the prosecution fell “far below the threshold” of what a reasonable court could convict on.

    She said the evidence of the prosecution’s main witness was “riddled with contradictions”.

    Anni’s family said they had been failed by the justice system.

    Announcing her ruling, the judge said the only reason not to grant the application would be in the hope that Mr Dewani would implicate himself if he gave evidence.

    But to do so would be a “manifest misdirection”, she said.

    Ami Denborg, the sister of Anni Dewani weeps as she walks away after making a statement expressing the family’s shock at the South African justice system

    Mr Dewani, from Bristol, was extradited to South Africa this year to face trial accused of planning the murder of his wife in November 2010.

    He listened intently as key evidence against him was criticised by the judge as she gave her ruling over almost three hours.

    Mr Dewani, 34, went straight down to the cells to prepare for his release, following the decision, as his family embraced.

    It is believed he left the court, without making a comment, through a side entrance.

    Mrs Dewani’s family, who had said it would it be a “nightmare” if the trial did not continue, immediately left the court room.

    Prosecutors said bisexual Mr Dewani had long planned to get out of the relationship to Swedish-raised Anni

    Speaking outside the Western Cape high Court, Mrs Dewani’s sister Ami Denborg said: “Today we feel as a family that the justice system has failed us and we are deeply disappointed.

  • Lagos, Falana partner on human rights day

    Lagos, Falana partner on human rights day

    lagos State government will tomorrow join others to celebrate the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Day.

    The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye, said  in a statement yesterday that the theme is: “The rights of the child”.

    A lawyer, Mrs Funmi Falana, will deliver the keynote address.

    The event, he said, would hold at the Adeyemo Bero Auditorium, at the Secretariat in Alausa, Ikeja. The day Ipaye said, is observed by the international community every year on December 10 in commemoration of the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

    The day, he said, would also celebrate the fundamental proposition in the Universal Declaration that “each one of us, everywhere, at all times, is entitled to the full range of human rights; that human rights belong equally to each of us and bind us together as a global community with the same ideals and values”.

    Highlights of this year’s event include an essay competition for private and public schools, Ipaye added.

  • Union begs motorists over traffic gridlock

    Union begs motorists over traffic gridlock

    PETROL Tanker Drivers (PTD) have appealed to motorists and road users, to bear with the gridlock on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.

    They blamed the traffic jam on the influx of petroleum tankers into Lagos following the scarcity of petroleum products in many depots across the country.

    According to Comrade Adebayo Atanda, National Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers Union (NUPENG) PTD, the causes of the gridlock were being addressed by the union in concert with Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) officials and other traffic agencies.

    He said the tankers coming to Lagos to avoid shortage of petroleum products in any part of the country, because of the coming Christmas.

    Atanda said PTD National Chairman Comrade Sulaimon Oladiti, had directed zonal officers headed by Comrade Razaq Akanbi to minimize hardship on the road.

    The Akanbi-led task force, he said, was working with LASTMA to ease the traffic jam.

    His said: “We are therefore assuring all road users, motorists and residents of the area that the situation would soon be brought under control,” Atanda said.

  • Iran’s President Rouhani warns against corruption

    Iran’s President Rouhani warns against corruption

    President Hassan Rouhani has spoken out against corruption in Iran and warned that it is “endangering” the country’s Islamic Revolution.

    In a televised speech at an anti-corruption event in Tehran, he said money once “given under the table now is being given on the table”.

    Mr Rouhani also called for the “elimination” of monopolies.

    A series of high-profile corruption cases have come to light since his government took office in August 2013.

    In May, the billionaire businessman Mahafarid Amir Khosravi was executed after being convicted of being behind a scandal involving embezzlement, bribery, forgery and money-laundering that cost 14 state-owned and private Iranian banks nearly $2.6bn (£1.7bn).

    And in September, former Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi was reportedly imprisoned after being convicted of corruption.

    Mr Rahimi was reported to be linked to another billionaire businessman, Babak Zanjani, who has been accused of skimming up to $2.7bn (£1.7bn) of revenue generated from selling Iranian oil on behalf of the government through his companies to bypass international sanctions.

    “The continuation, the deepening and the expansion of corruption is endangering… the Islamic Revolution.”

     

     

     

    Mr Rouhani also criticised monopolies – on anything from the production of rifles to advertising – which he said were the cause of corruption.

    “Anything which does not have rivalry or whose management is monopolised is flawed,” he said.

    “This is wrong and the problem has to be uprooted,” he added.

    Analysts said this might be a veiled reference to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), which has become a major military, political and economic force in Iran since being set up after the 1979 revolution to defend the country’s Islamic system.

    The IRGC is said to control around a third of Iran’s economy through a series of subsidiaries and trusts, and is widely believed to engage in illicit and black-market activities.

     

  • U.S. ‘wont review’ raids policy

    U.S. ‘wont review’ raids policy

    The US will not be reviewing its operations to free Americans held by militants despite recent failures, says Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel.

    US journalist Luke Somers and South African teacher Pierre Korkie were killed by al-Qaeda in Yemen gunmen during a US-led operation on Saturday.

    Mr Hagel defended the rescue attempt, saying such raids were risky but that there was no need for a policy review.

    It was the third failed rescue attempt of a US hostage in the past six months.

    The family and friends of both men have criticised the armed raid.

    Mr Korkie was due to be freed on Sunday according to Gift of the Givers, a charity working with the South African, who said the US rescue attempt had “destroyed everything”.

    The US says the raid in southern Yemen was launched because intelligence suggested there was an immediate threat to Mr Somers’s life.

    It came three days after militants released a video of the UK-born photojournalist, saying he would be killed within 72 hours if unspecified demands were not met

  • Syria: UN asks for $16.4bn in aid

    Syria: UN asks for $16.4bn in aid

    the UN has asked for $16.4bn (£10.5bn; 13.3bn euros) for its aid operations in 2015, with the largest single sum – $7.2bn – going to help Syrian refugees.

    Its last annual humanitarian appeal was for $13bn, making the new request a record for the organisation.

    The request comes as aid agencies warn they are running out of cash to fund this year’s operations.

    Last week the World Food Programme announced it would have to cut food rations to Syrian refugees.

    In its new appeal, the UN is requesting $2.8bn to help those displaced by the conflict inside Syria. It is seeking another $4.4bn to help more than 3,250,000 refugees registered in neighbouring countries.

    Last year, Syria, South Sudan and the Central African Republic figured large in UN aid operations.