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Tag: attack

  • Ebonyi Police foils attack on station

    Ebonyi Police foils attack on station

    Ebonyi State police command says it foiled an attempt at the weekend by some suspected hoodlums to set a police station at Noyo in Ikwo local government area of the state on fire.

    The Commissioner of Police in the State, Peace Ibekwe-Abdallah said in a statement that all effort made by hoodlums to set the police station on fire was aborted by the policemen on duty.

    The statement read in part: “The gang who operated with AK47 rifles poured petrol and threw fire into the DPO’s Office before they were repelled by the superior fire power of officers on duty.

    “All the Officers and men at the Station are safe except a guard who sustained injury during the attack.

    “The Police had since after the incident began trailing the suspected hoodlums.”

    The CP enjoined members of the public to always provide useful information to the Police to enable them to carry out their operations effectively.

  • Wike’s chief of staff held over attack on APC chiefs

    Wike’s chief of staff held over attack on APC chiefs

    The governorship candidate of the Rivers State All Progressives Congress (APC) in the April 11, last year election, Dr. Dakuku Adol Peterside, and some leaders of the party yesterday came under attack in Port Harcourt, the state capital.

    Peterside, the Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), was riding in a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) with his former deputy, Asita Honourable and APC Chairman  Daview Ikanya when they came under fire

    Peterside’s Special Assistant (Media) Sylvester Asoya, in a statement last night, said his boss and other APC leaders escaped assassins’ bullets by a stroke of luck.

    Governor Nyesom Wike’s Chief of Staff Emeka Woke was arrested over the attack. But Wike said Woke’s driver was killed.

    Peterside said his vehicle was attacked by gunmen in two SUVs as they approached the city from the Port Harcourt International Airport. His orderly Emma Esi was said to have been hit in the leg.

    Peterside said: “Two jeeps belonging to Emeka Woke, Nyesom Wike’s Chief of Staff, carrying two unknown gunmen, trailed us to UTC Junction (near Government House, Port Harcourt) and opened fire on my car. Our car, however, did a detour to the DSS (Department of State Services) office gate, where we drove to seek refuge, but the unknown gunmen opened fire again at the DSS men on guard.

    “The exchange of fire between the DSS men and the assailants lasted for more than 30 minutes. This is a very ugly experience, but I thank God that my colleagues and I escaped unhurt.”

    “Today’s (yesterday’s) experience is not only terrifying, but also shows the parlous state of security in Rivers State. If I can be engaged openly by gunmen for nearly an hour in the heart of Port Harcourt, only God knows the fate that will befall members of our party and those sympathetic to our predicament. What is happening today in our dear state is not only horrible, but also constitutes serious national security risk.”

    The NIMASA boss, who was Wike’s opponent in last year’s governorship election, also stated that it was now evident that the governor wanted to kill him and that he (Wike) was prepared to do everything possible to eliminate him.

    Woke was last night arrested ostensibly to explain his role in the  alleged attempt to shoot at Peterside’s convoy, in front of the office of the DSS on Forces Avenue, Old GRA, Port Harcourt.

    Peterside’s driver had driven into the DSS’s office but Woke and the two gunmen with him were not deterred.

    The armed men allegedly continued to shoot at the DSS men.

    Governor Wike   accused Peterside and Asita of hijacking results  from Isiokpo in Ikwere Local government yesterday.

    The governor added that Peterside and his security  detail opened fire and  killed the driver to  his Chief of Staff, Mr Emeka  Woke.

    Speaking to reporters at the Government House, he said: “Remember I warned that today’ s  Nigeria  is not yesterday’s  Nigeria. Things that were done wrongly before cannot be done wrongly now. I warned that the people will resist any attempt to rig.

    “Now they have the Federal might, army, police, INEC and DSS, but we have the people.”

    Wike condemned what he called the desperation of some politicians to win the Assembly elections at all cost.

    Wike said: “The driver to my chief of staff has been shot to death this evening, including others who were killed on election day. I am surprised to see the kind of desperation displayed by some politicians in this rerun election.

    ”I saw the military acting as if Rivers State is at war. I saw those working with me being harassed and arrested. My SSG, Commissioner for Environment Prof. Roseline Konya and some PDP members were arrested and manhandled.”

  • Terrorists kill 16 in Ivory Coast attack

    Terrorists kill 16 in Ivory Coast attack

    Al-Qaeda-linked militants yesterday killed no fewer than 14 civilians and two soldiers in a gun attack on a beach resort in south-eastern Ivory Coast.

    The attackers fired on beach-goers in Grand Bassam, about 40km (25 miles) from the commercial capital Abidjan.

    The resort is popular with both locals and foreigners. One of the dead was French, France’s foreign ministry says.

    Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has claimed the attack. The gunmen have been “neutralised”, officials say.

    Ivory Coast was once one of the most stable countries in West Africa.

    However, a civil war broke out in 2002, pitting the mainly Muslim north against the largely Christian south. Since then, peace deals have alternated with renewed violence.

    A witness of Sunday’s attack told AFP that “heavily armed men wearing balaclavas” opened fire near the L’Etoile du Sud hotel, which was full of expats.

    Another eyewitness, Souleymane Kamagate, said he saw people running from the beach and fleeing in all directions.

    French President Francois Hollande condemned the “cowardly attack”. There is no word so far on the nationalities of other victims.

    BBC regional reporter Maud Jullien says Ivory Coast has been identified as one of several countries in West Africa at risk of being targeted by Islamist militants.

    AQIM claimed deadly attacks on luxury hotels in Mali in November and Burkina Faso in January.

    The group, which has its origin in Algeria’s civil war of the 1990s, has expanded across the Sahel regions south of the Sahara in recent years.

  • Four injured in Gombe attack

    The Gombe State Police Command has confirmed that four persons were injured in an attack on residents of Kinafa, a rural community in Yemaltu/Deba Local Government.

    Spokesman Fwaji Atajiri told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gombe yesterday that no one was killed in the attack suspected to be carried out by youths from a neighbouring village.

    He said: “Four people were injured in the attack, which occurred on Saturday. No one was killed, but we are investigating.”

    Atajiri said peace had been restored, adding that policemen were patrolling the villages, while residents were going about their activities.

    He refused to confirm or deny speculations as to where the attackers came from, choosing not to “pre-empt investigation.”

    “When we are through with investigation, we will let you know.”

    The Chairman of the local government, Alhaji Haruna Samanja, who confirmed the incident, said he reported to the police “immediately I heard it.”

    He said he met 11 persons being treated, following injuries they sustained, when he visited the Specialist Hospital in Gombe.

    “They included the District Head of Kinafa, Malam Musa Inuwa. Two others were referred to the Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe, because their condition was bad. They needed surgery.”

    Samanja said he visited the two communities to speak with the people on the need for a peaceful co-existence, warning that anyone found culpable would face the law.

     

  • Attack on task force men

    Attack on task force men

    Lagos State government must make a point by punishing the culprits

    WITH the attack by commercial bus drivers and motor park touts on officials of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Task Force at the Oshodi area of Lagos on Monday, the message being sent across by the law breakers is that they are not prepared to abide by the state traffic law and other laws made for good governance. It is now left for the state government to react appropriately, and the way to start is to identify those responsible for the unfortunate incident that led to the stabbing of one of the task force officials, Rilwan Oseni, whose two fingers were also chopped off by the hoodlums.

    According to reports, the task force men, accompanied by policemen had stormed Oshodi Under Bridge and impounded six commercial buses said to have been parked at the middle of the road to pick passengers. Ismaila Shamsudeen, an eyewitness said: “The drivers parked in the middle of the road, while their conductors called out to passengers. The smart ones among them sped off on sighting the task force, while others fled, abandoning their vehicles to avoid being arrested. But they did not expect that their vehicles would be impounded. Before we knew it, the whole place was thrown into chaos, as hoodlums capitalised on the opportunity and started attacking anyone in sight. One of the task force officials was stabbed while another sustained minor injury. At a point, the policemen fired some shots into the air to scare the hoodlums.”

    Commercial bus operators and thugs once held sway at Oshodi, like some other areas of Lagos until January 2009 when the immediate past administration in the state led by Governor Babatunde Fashola reconstructed the landscape of Oshodi by demolishing the hideouts of the hoodlums and clearing the place of traders whose activities impeded the smooth flow of traffic. For the better part of the Fashola administration, Oshodi retained its sane identity. Traffic moved as expected, with the traders and other obstacles out of the way. Indeed, many people could not believe it was the same Oshodi that witnessed such transformation.

    Things however took a different turn, especially after Fashola’s exit last May, when the commercial bus operators and hoodlums took advantage of the new Akinwunmi Ambode administration’s magnanimity to return to their old ways. However, the new administration moved swiftly to tame the excesses, after the expiration of the initial period of grace that it gave the commercial bus drivers and ‘okada’ riders, to mend their ways.

    Just last week, the state government continued the sanitisation process in Oshodi, by pulling down some structures which could still serve as hideouts for criminals and other undesirable elements, for public good. Monday’s angry reaction could be a fall-out of that exercise.

    But if the hoodlums are becoming lawless just to test the resolve of the state government, then the government must show that it is in charge. It must fish out those who attacked the task force personnel and prosecute them. We do not rule out the possibility of overzealousness on the part of some state officials, but this is no justification to cut off their fingers. The state government has championed the cause of deprived private citizens; there is no reason why it should not defend its own from hoodlums who want to be law unto themselves and turn the state into a huge jungle.

    The government must give adequate medical care to the injured. This is imperative if the government wants its other law enforcers to be dedicated to duty. The moment they see that they are on their own should any harm befall them on duty, then that is the end of law enforcement in the state. For sure, the state government would not want a return to the state of nature.

  • Navy foils hijack of merchant ship, rescues 25 foreigners

    Navy foils hijack of merchant ship, rescues 25 foreigners

    The Nigerian Navy has foiled an attempt by suspected sea pirates to hijack and abduct 25 foreign nationals aboard a Maersk merchant ship carrying general cargo to Nigeria.

    Briefing journalists on Sunday at Onne Sea Port, Rivers, Capt. Olusegun Soyemi, the Executive Officer of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Pathfinder, said that the vessel berth safely with the rescued crew members unharmed.

    Soyemi said the crew members, including the ship’s captain, were of mixed nationalities consisting of eight Philippines, eight South Africans, five Indians, two Britons and two from Thailand.

    According to him, Safmarine Kuramo, a Maersk merchant ship registered in Singapore, was transporting general cargo from Port-Noire, Congo, to Onne Sea Port in Rivers.

    “On Jan. 5 at about 08:00 hours; Sufmarine Kuramo was attacked by sea pirates about 60 nautical miles off the coast of Bonny Island (in Rivers) Fairway Bouy.

    “We got may-day distress call that the ship was boarded by unconfirmed number of sea pirates after entering the nation’s territorial waters.

    “We immediately dispatched a warship (NNS Centenary) and attack gunboats led by Navy Capt. Chiedozie Okehie of the Eastern Naval Command to rescue the situation.

    “The sea pirates apparently on sighting advancing naval troops fled the scene for fear of being arrested by our operatives.

    “The operation was largely successful as all 25 foreign crew members, including the captain, are safe and unhurt, while cargo onboard the ship is intact,” he said.

    Soyemi said the pirates had fired several gunshots at the ships control room apparently to scare and subdue any resistance from the captain and crew members.

    Also, the Commanding Officer of NNS Centenary, Capt. Chiedozie Okehie, who led the operation, said the crew members locked and hid themselves in the ship’s citadel (engine room).

    He said the rescue was successful partly due to the courage and bravery exhibited by the ship’s captain – a woman.

    According to him, in spite all odds, she covertly gave navy operatives briefs while pirates on board the ship made several attempt to break into the citadel.

    “Immediately we got to the ship, we carried out thorough searches of the compartments and cabins to check if any pirate had remained onboard.

    “Investigations are ongoing to ascertain what happened and who carried out the attack,” he assured.

    Okehie said the navy under the command of Vice Adm. Ibok-Ete Ibas remained fully committed to safety of the nation’s waterways and maritime environment.

    Speaking, the Captain of Safamarine Kuramo, Ms Zetta Gous-Conradie, a South African, described the experience as horrific.

    Gous-Conradie hailed the Nigerian Navy for its prompt response to her distress call.

    “We are very grateful when the navy came onboard because at some point we had thought the pirates would take us hostage.

    “The heat was stifling because the temperature was very hot at the citadel, and at some point my crew members and I had thought we would suffocate and die,” she said.

  • Pupils attack Osun radio station over exam fees

    Pupils attack Osun radio station over exam fees

    Some public secondary schools pupils in Ile-Ife, Osun State, yesterday attacked a government radio station, Orisun FM.

    Over 100 pupils were said to have beseiged the radio station, a subsidiary of the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC), to protest the government’s alleged refusal to pay their West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) fees.

    But a source claimed that the government had said it would pay the fees of pupils who pass four subjects in the mock exam, “as there is no point paying for those who do not look good to make it”.

    The aggrieved pupils, who reportedly arrived the radio station at 10am, demanded to see the station manager, Adeoye Bakare.

    It was learnt that four of them were allowed to see Bakare in his office.

    The pupils “instructed” him to announce on air that the government refused to pay their WASSCE fees as promised during Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s election campaigns.

    But the station manager was said to have advised the pupils to be calm, promising to take their requests to the governor.

    The pupils “attacked” him.

    As the commotion was going on, their colleagues at the main gate “forcibly” entered the premises with weapons, including cutlasses, axes, and sticks and began to attack workers.

    They also vandalised nine vehicles, including two operational vehicles and a Toyota Camry belonging to an officer of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), who was  a guest on a programme.

    The pupils smashed the station’s windows and pulled down the main gate.

    Some workers jumped the fence to escape attack some others were not so lucky as they were injured.

    A  Save Our Soul announcement by an officer of the station drew the attention of a security team, which raced to the scene.

    Security operatives used tear gas to disperse the pupils.

    OSBC’s Director-General Soji Fadehan condemned the incident.

    The police confirmed that six pupils were arrested.

    A statement by its spokesperson, Mrs. Folasade Odoro, said the pupils were arrested on the scene.

    She said an investigation had begun.

  • One killed in Ekiti Police station robbery attack

    One killed in Ekiti Police station robbery attack

    There was tension in Ikole Ekiti, Friday as suspected armed robbers attacked a police station Wednesday night killing a clergyman and injuring a policeman and a medical doctor.

    The attack which affected both the Ikole Area Command and the adjoining Divisional Headquarters along Ijesa Isu Road took place at about 8.00 pm.

    The robbers was said to have stormed the station with the intent of breaking into the armory to steal weapons but they did not succeed in their bid to enter the armory.

    Their frustration to break into the armory led to firing several gunshots into the police station which destroyed many facilities in the building.

    A source told our reporter on Friday that residents of the town were still gripped with fear over the attack carried out by the hoodlums whose were said to be communicating in a language of one of the ethnic groups in the Niger Delta area.

    Another source claimed that the slain Reverend mistook the robbers for policemen during the operation after they had stopped his car but they reportedly opened fire as he approached them further.

    The medical doctor was said to be on a visit to the station to treat a patient when the attack occurred.

    The injured policeman was said to be a Sergeant by rank.

    The state police command spokesman, Alberto Adeyemi, who confirmed the incident said the robbers invaded the police formation with the intent to steal arms and ammunition.

    Adeyemi disclosed that the command has launched a manhunt for the bandits in a bid to bring them to justice as the Commissioner of Police, Etop James, has set machinery in motion to prevent a reoccurrence.

    He commiserated with the family of the deceased and urged Ikole residents not to panic as security has been beefed up in the town and other parts of the state.

     

  • Attack on pipeline cripples 600Mw power plant

    • N470m ‘lost daily’

    The weekend attack on Nigeria Gas Company (NGC’s) pipeline connected to Chevron Nigeria Limited’s facility at Escravos, will impact negatively on the 600megawatts (Mw) capacity Olorunsogo National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) plant  and others.

    In a statement endorsed by the Special Adviser on Communications to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing,  Mr. Hakeem Bello,  explained that the sabotaged gas pipeline which contributes to the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) has led to a loss of 160million standard cubic feet of gas daily (mmsfcd) of gas.

    The statement noted that at a cost of $2.50 per thousand standard cubic feet (scf), this translates to a loss of about $400,000 to the country on a daily basis (N78,800,000 daily) in gas volume.

    It expalied that this is in addition to losses to be incurred daily from affected power generation ($1,988,223 or N391,680,000 daily). The total daily loss to the country is therefore estimated at N470,479,931. Repairs of the damaged pipeline is estimated as costing ($609,137 or N120,000.000).

    The real sector of the economy has been counting its losses as some cement companies around Olorunsogo such as Ewekoro and Ibese are affected.

    The latest incident occurred just as the Federal Government through the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources along with other agencies, has been making efforts to improve gas supplies to power plants. The efforts led to previously offline plants such as Ihovbor and Sapele coming back on stream and subsequent output  making up for the loss in power.

  • Police confirm attack on Bayelsa Speaker’s house

    Police confirm attack on Bayelsa Speaker’s house

    The police in Bayelsa State, Thursday, confirmed that the house of the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Kombowei Benson, was attacked in his hometown by unknown persons.

    A statement by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Asinim Butswat, said unknown persons detonated an object suspected to be dynamite in the speaker’s compound.

    He said the explosion resulted to the damage of the doors, windows and glasses in his residence.

    Butswat, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said no life was lost in the incident.

    He said:  “On the 7/1/2016, at about 0405hrs, unknown persons detonated an object suspected to be dynamite in the compound of Hon Kombowei Benson, at Korokorosei Community. 

    “The impact resulted to damage to the doors, windows and glasses in his residence. Nobody was injured and no life was lost.

    “The scene was visited and a team of Explosive ordnance Disposal unit (EOD) is conducting  post blast Investigations. Efforts have been intensified to arrest the culprits.”