The Nation Newspaper

Category: Crime Diary

  • Traders urge speedy completion of market

    Former traders at the Ile Epo Market in Agbado/Oke Odo Local Council Development Area, yesterday called for speedy completion of the market’s reconstruction project.

    A cross section of the traders said they had been turned into roadside traders, following the demolition of their stalls.

    One of the traders, Motolani Oluyomi, said: ‘’Since the demolition of the market, many traders are left with no option than to display their goods by the roadside.’’

    Another trader, Rashidat Yusuf, said that ‘’it has not been easy selling at the roadside, after I lost my shop when the market was demolished.’’

    The distraught traders pleaded with the council authorities to speed up work on the project and provide affordable stalls for them when completed.

  • Smuggling: Ogun Customs solicits monarchs’ assistance

    The Ogun Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has stepped up its anti-smuggling campaign by enlisting the assistance of monarchs in the border communities in Yewa area of the State.

    The initiative, according to the Customs Area Comptroller, Ogun Command, Michael Agbara, is in line with the vision of resuscitated Customs Community Relations Committee, adding that the meeting would hold quarterly.

    He said the meeting was convened to enhance the existing customs community relations between the service and traditional leaders of border communities.

    Agbara, according to a statement signed by the Customs Public Relations Officer, Abdullahi Maiwada, urged the community leaders to cooperate with customs command in the fight against smugglers.

    The Customs chief also said that the command was ready to work with relevant stakeholders and agencies to actualize its anti-smuggling campaign.

    The statement added: “In an effort to revamp the relationship between host communities at the Border Areas within Ogun state, the CAC Ogun Command, Controller Michael Agbara held a meeting with heads of traditional institutions along the border areas. Issues were articulated on how best to improve Customs community relationship among other discussions.’’

  • Man stabs friend to death after ‘seducing’ girlfriend

    Residents of Mabayoje area of Alakuko, a Lagos suburb, were shocked penultimate Thursday after a youth, identified simply as Samson allegedly killed his best friend, Tobi, during a scuffle.

    The fight broke out after Samson, according to sources, attempted to seduce Tobi’s girlfriend called Abigael.

    Witness told The Nation, that Samson and Abigael were squatting in a Cherubim and Seraphim church in the community.

    Abigael,19, was said to have raised the alarm after Samson allegedly  caressed her body while she was asleep inside the church.

    ‘’Abigael reported Samson to his mother, following which the woman queried her son for attempting to seduce his friend’s lover.

    ‘’But Samson denied caressing Abigael and the two of them had an altercation. The matter assumed bloody dimension after Tobi accused Samson of betrayer, which led to a fight.

    ‘’ Tobi reached for a broken bottle, while Samson brought out a knife and chased after him until he succeeded in stabbing Tobi  in the chest.’’

    It was learnt that Tobi was taken to a nearby private hospital where he was confirmed dead.

    A community leader, who asked for anonymity said Samson and Abigael have since been arrested by men of Alakuko Police Station.

     

  • Police summon Ekiti monarch over alleged vandalism

    The police have summoned the Alara of Aramoko Ekiti, Oba Olu Adeyemi, to the Force Headquraters in Abuja, over alleged threat to life and vandalisation of property of a contender to the Alara stool in the community, Omo’ba Olusegun Aderemi.

    The invitation followed the monarch’s visit to the police state command headquarters, Ado Ekiti, last weekend over the matter.

    Aderemi had petitioned the police in February, alleging threat to his life and vandalisation of his property including billboards by some individuals in the community.

    He  urged law enforcement agents to investigate the matter and prosecute the culprits.

    Aderemi is locked in a legal battle with the monarch, praying the court to remove Oba Adeyemi and declare him (Aderemi) instead as the Alara of Aramoko.

    Operatives of Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team(IRT) from Abuja,  were said to have discovered Aderemi’s  torn billboard inside Oba Adeyemi’s palace.

    Oba Adeyemi’s invitation was signed by the Principal Staff Officer to the IGP, Usman Umar, and addressed to the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), in charge of Intelligence Response Team.

    Police sources disclosed that Oba Adeyemi claimed at the state police command that some people saw the torn billboard and brought it to his palace, thinking that it belonged to the palace.

    His explanation during interrogation prompted his summon to the Force Headquarters in Abuja, on October 8, for further questioning.

    But Oba Adeyemi who earlier in the week said he was in Abuja and that he would be available at Aramoko Ekiti on Wednesday, told journalists on telephone on Thursday that he was out of the country.

    “I don’t want to react to this. I don’t have poster war with anybody. I am a traditional ruler, how do you want me to react to things like these? I am already out of Nigeria”.

    The police spokesman in Ekiti State, Mr Caleb Ikechukwu said he had not been briefed on the matter. He promised to revet to our correspondent later on the matter.

  • Controversy over ‘abducted’ 9-yr-old Nigerian girl’s relocation to Togo by mother’s ex-lover

    A mother of four, Adelowo Adebisi, has accused her former boyfriend, Kofi Mesan of abducting her eight-year-old daughter, Irebami, and relocating her to Togo.

    Adebisi, who hails from Ondo State, said Mesan was not the father of the girl.

    According to the woman, Mesan, a Lagos-based herbalist, who resides in Isheri-Olofin area of Alimosho Local Government, allegedly tricked her into releasing her daughter to him, promising to help her enrol the girl in school.

    Adebisi claimed that her daughter’s father was one Toyin Awolere, a spare parts dealer at Ladipo Market, Mushin, Lagos.

    She said that Awolere proposed to her in 2007, and their relationship resulted into a pregnancy.

    Adebisi said Awolere abandoned her shortly after her mother died of a strange illness.

    She said she was introduced to Mesan in the course of searching for a solution to her mother’s mysterious illness.

    ‘’I was introduced to a spiritualist known as Kofi Mesan  at Idimu, Lagos, by one of my relatives called Bunmi, and after a week, my mum passed away.

    ‘’I had issues with Awolere, after giving birth to our  first daugher, Blessing. But in 2009, I reconciled with Blessing’s father (Awolere) and gave birth to another baby known as Irebami at Oko Afo area of Badagry, after, he came with his relatives to beg my family.’’

    The reunion did not however last long as Adebisi and her husband went their separate ways, after which she ran into Mesan again.

    ‘’As a result of my predicament, I used to visit Mesan, a Togolese, who lived very close to my father’s house, and he asked me out but I rejected his overtures. I stopped going to his house and relocated to Mushin. I later had two sons, Emmanuel Abumere Isaac, for one Abraham Abumere. Abumere agreed to take care of Irebami and he enrolled her in a private school in Ikotun, Ikotun.

    ‘’Unfortunately, my marriage to Abumere crashed and I had no place to live. That was the time Mesan got my telephone number from my father and promised to help me. He said that he would enrol my daughter in a school in Benin Republic, because his apartment was too small for me and my children.

    ‘’ I had no place to stay and Mesan gave me a room to live in. He used to have a wife who, according to neighbours, moved out of his home when he subjected her to beatings. Mesan said I should be telling people that he is Irebami’s father, but I declined. Not long after, he (Mesan) told me that he had taken the child to Togo to further her education. I rejected his offer after visiting Togo with him only to discover the deplorable environment of the community he took my daughter to.

    ‘’When I insisted on taking my daughter along, he asked me to come with him to a place he wanted to visit before leaving for Nigeria. By the time he drove his car for some hours, we had reached Benin Republic. When I confronted him for tricking me. He promised that he would go back to the place two weeks later. He said that he deliberately left my daughter behind because taking her back to Nigeria at that period of time would arouse suspicion of security agents and that he did not want to be seen as a child trafficker. Since then, he has refused to bring back my daughter and I have left his house.’’

    Contacted, Mesan dismissed the allegations as  lies.

    He claimed to have impregnated Adebisi, while they were dating a few years ago.

    ‘’ She is not saying the truth. I dated her while she was living with her father and she became pregnant. She ran away with another man and I could not locate her whereabouts until recently.

    ‘’Now, I have taken back what is mine(Irebami)and she is making unnecessary allegations against me. Irebami is my daughter, I have taken her to Togo and enrolled her in a school there.’’

  • Bus driver, two passengers kidnapped in Ekiti

    Suspected gunmen on Wednesday kidnapped a driver, Juius Ogunremi along Ikere-Ugbara Odo road at about 11 am on Wednesday.

    The kidnappers, according to sources, are demanding a sum of N5million as ransom for Ogunsemi’s freedom.

    Ogunremi, 70, was said to be transporting eight passengers in his Suzuki mini bus popularly called ‘Akoto’, when the gunmen reportedly struck.

    A bad portion of the road had forced vehicles to slow down, giving the gunmen  an opportunity to pounce on their victims.

    The gunmen, who were said to be five in number, abducted three persons and allowed five others to go.

    They were said to have abandoned the bus about five kilometers, and took their victims into a forest.

    A family member who craved anonymity said: “What those who were in the bus told us was that, eight of them were in the bus around 11am. As they drove towards that route, five hefty men emerged from the bush and stopped the bus.

    “We were told that they were on a bad portion of the road where driversd would have to slow down when these evil doers came out and started asking about the identities of those in the bus.

    “After doing the screening, they only abducted three of them and allowed others to go untouched. They drove them in that bus for over five kilometers before they dropped the bus and entered into the bush and took them in another vehicle”, he stated.

    “They have contacted the families of those abducted. What they demanded was N5 million ransom for the release of the trio.

    “They have only called once and they never called back since Thursday. We are still trying to establish contacts with them but that has not been successful.”

    Police spokesman, Caleb Ikechukwu, said the report of the kidnap was yet to reach the state command at press time.

    Ikechukwu said: “I don’t think the family has reported this incident to the police, because we are yet to be briefed here at the command.

    “But I want to assure you that the police will swing into action and ensure their (victims) safe return as soon as we have truthful information about the incident”.

  • Man dies in Lagos flood

    A man, Wasiu Sakariyau, 20, was found dead in  flood at Abule Onilu, a neighbourhood in the Igando area Lagos State, shortly after a downpour.

    The deceased was said to have embarked on an early morning jogging with a friend along the road shortly after the downpour.

    He was said to have slipped and fell into a flooded canal.

    His unidentified friend, according to sources made futile efforts to rescue him from the flood.

    It was learnt that Sakariyau’s body was found three days later.

    A community leader, Ademola Salako said: ‘’He was fond of jogging around the neighbourhood every morning. On the day of the unfortunate incident, he waited for the downpour to stop before setting out with one of his friends on his routine jogging.

    ‘’It was while they were jogging around the canal that he mistakenly slipped and fell into the big gutter with flood water. His friend tried in vain to rescue him, but the water swept him away until three days later when his body was found.

    ‘’His body was taken to a public mortuary by the operatives of Lagos State Neighbourhood Security Corps (LSNSC).’’

  • Evans shot me, pretended to be a doctor – Witness

    A prosecution witness, Chief James Uduji, yesterday told a Lagos High Court in Igbosere that suspected ‘billionaire’ kidnap kingpin, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, a.k.a Evans, shot him during his kidnap and afterwards pretended to be a doctor.

    Uduji told Justice Adedayo Akintoye that Evans was the driver of the Lexus 470 SUV which he and three other members of his gang used during the operation.

    The witness testified at the commencement of the prosecution’s case against Evans and his co-defendants; Joseph Emeka, Linus Okpara and Victor Aduba.

    The four were arraigned on June 26 following the dismissal of Evans’ objection to a five-count charge of conspiracy, kidnapping and attempted murder, preferred against them by the Lagos State Government.

    The defendants and others at large allegedly committed the offences on September 7, 2015, at Seventh Avenue, Festac Town, Lagos.

    The allegedly conspired and kidnapped Uduji, obtained a ransom of $1.2 million dollars and shot him on the shoulder while trying to kill him.

    They pleaded not guilty.

    Evans is also facing another charge of conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping and attempted murder, before the same judge.

    He is standing trial alongside Joseph Emeka, Ugochukwu Nwachukwu and Victor Aduba.

    Led in examination by prosecution counsel Adebayo Haroun, Uduji narrated yesterday how he was kidnapped on September 7, 2015, by four armed men on his way home from his factory at Agbara in Ogun State.

    He said the incident took place very close to his house at 7th Avenue area of Festac Town, Lagos.

    Uduji said the alleged kidnappers drove a Lexus 470 SUV and fired several gun shots during the kidnap operation.

    The witness said he was surprised to see the men shooting towards his vehicle, adding that he thought they were the police.

    Uduji said: “I was inside my Hilux van with my two drivers when the men came and pulled me out of my vehicle and dragged me inside their own vehicle.

    “I was not blindfolded at this point, so I saw the men clearly and the man at the steering wheel with a gun was Evans; he is the only one I can recognise among the four,” Uduji said.

    The witness testified that it was when he was dragged out of his vehicle, that he noticed that he was stained with blood.

    “I then realised I had sustained bullet wounds,” he explained.

    Uduji said the kidnappers called a doctor on phone who treated his bullet wounds at their destination.

    The witness said he was given two tetanus injections for seven days, adding that Evans was the so called doctor who treated him.

    He said that he stayed for 45 days in captivity and a ransom of 1.2 million dollars was paid before he was released by the alleged kidnappers.

  • Suspected thief kills Ekiti farmer over tubers of yam

    A suspected thief on Thursday killed a traditional chief in Ekiti State, Adewole Ajayi, during a failed attempt to steal some yams from a farm owned by the deceased.

    Ajayi, until his gruesome death was the Arisawe of Iroko-Ekiti in Ijero Local Government Area.

    The suspect, Dele Ojo Aro, was said to have shot Ajayi with a locally made gun and fled into the bush.

    The late Ajayi’s farm is located in Oke Oro, a neighbouring  community.

    The killing has since heightened tension between the two towns.

    Aro was later arrested after a search party was raised to trail him, and he is now in police custody.

    It was learnt that Ajayi had gone to his farm in the early hours of Thursday and found the suspect uprooting his yams.

    According to a resident, Johnson Kayode, the suspect went to the deceased’s farm to steal yams from where he shot the community leader in the hips, while attempting to apprehend him.

    Kayode said: “The two are having their farms along the same route, but Chief Ajayi went to farm at about 6am yesterday and found him there. May be in an attempt to arrest him, he quickly shot him with a locally made gun in the hips and disappeared.

    “But unfortunately for him, he ran into the bush and they have not seen him since then. He has refused to come out of his hideout, maybe his conscience is chasing him around.

    “But when the news of the death broke out, people started probing into those that went to farm early and that was how some testified that the suspect was seen going to farm and people started suspecting him from there.”

  • I did not jump into lagoon, I was duped N71m by fraudsters-US-based Nigerian woman

    A US-based Nigerian woman , Oluwatoyin Akinwole, who was said to have committed suicide after her nude photographs appeared on social media, has dismissed the story as untrue.

    The 48-year-old Akinwole said she neither parked her Sports Utility Vehicle(SUV) on the Third Mainland picture nor jumped into the Lagoon.

    She said the false story posted on the internet was a scam by fraudsters who duped her and later tried to blackmail her.

    She said she returned from her base in USA and reported two of the suspects who have since been arrested by operatives of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT).

    The two suspects arrested are:  Awojomi Ganiu aka Alfa Oris, 51, and Otunba Paul Adesanya 54.

    Akinwole said: “ I am a business woman and I live in Texas, United States of America. Sherrifat lives in the USA and we were close friends when this issue started and she was the person who linked me to the Alfa(Ganiu) in Nigeria, but I wasn’t talking to the Alfa.  She then traveled to London, England in March 2017 to meet Otunba Adesanya, who she had an affair with and she called  and said that the Alfa told her that my death was imminent, except I perform some prayers.  ‘’While she was saying this, Otunba Adesanya, came in and told me that he knows the Alfa very well and that I should obey  him because he is very powerful and well known in Nigeria.  Otunba Adesanya,  also told me that he had several businesses in Nigeria including petrol filling stations in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.  Alfa Awojobi, was demanding N154,000 for the prayers and I told Sherifat and Otunba that I didn’t have such money and Otunba Adesanya offered to pay N100,000 for me, while  he asked me to pay the balance.’’

    Continuing, she said:’’ I did what they said and Alfa started praying for me.  He did that until April, 2018, and he insisted that I must come to Nigeria for the final prayers.  I was really scared then and I didn’t want to die the way my younger sister died. I returned to  Nigeria and went straight to Alfa at Ijebu-Ode.  He asked me to take my bath before entering his house which I did and by midnight, he brought four men and they started praying for me.  Alfa then said he had seen more visions about  my husband and children and I ended up spending N1.5million at the Alfa’s place before  returning to America.  Otunba Adesanya,  then came in and told me that he wanted to invest my money in oil business using his petrol filling stations.  He took me round some filling stations in Ijebu-Ode and he was greeted as the owner.  He asked me to invest a huge amount of money and promised that after one month, I will get back my 50 percent of my investment as profit, and I trusted him.

    ‘’ I borrowed N30 million and the person who loaned  me the money paid it into his account.  One month after I gave him the money, I called and started asking about the business;  Otunba Adesanya, got angry and paid back the money into my  account. I was shocked and this made me believe and trust Otunba Adesanya, to be a kind of genuine businessman. Then, I pleaded and asked him to continue with the business and then he asked me to change the money into dollar which I did and I took the money to him.  Two months after then, when I tried to get back my money, he told me that the money I gave to him to invest into the business wasn’t enough and he needed money and I went on scouting for more money.  I continued to give him money until it reached a total of N75million. He also asked me to pay the sum of N31million through the Alfa’s account.

    ‘’ But on December 2017,  one of his boys called me on the telephone and told me that  I had been defrauded, then I arrested him with some police and  military men and they couldn’t recover my money. I also got him arrested with policemen in Osun and Ondo states, yet,  he went off the hook. Then, I brought in  operatives of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, to arrest him, and they recovered  21,000 nude photos and videos of various Nigerian women.  He claimed he was very sick and the EFCC granted him bail, but after his release he went  on the internet and published photoshop nude photos of myself and him, claiming that he had sexual relationship with me, which was a lie.   He was also the person who circulated the story that I had jumped into the Third Mainland Bridge Lagoon, over infidelity.  The EFCC  tried to caution him but he wouldn’t listen  because he wanted to blackmail me into stopping my case.  I was given the advice to go to the IGP IRT and report my case and they trailed and arrested the Alfa as well as Otunba Adesanya”.

    Explaining his complicity in the case, Ganiu said he collected   N20 million only from Akinwole and  not N71 million.

    Adesanya however said he did not dupe Akniwole of her money.

    He alleged that Akinwole was her girlfriend and that she had spiritual problems for  which Ganiu charged her N154,000.

    He added that he assisted her to pay a sum of N100,000  of the amount  demanded by Ganiu for special prayers, noting that he was not in hiding, but on admission at an undisclosed hospital.