The Nation Newspaper

Tag: attacked

  • How we were attacked, by INEC official

    An official of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr. Ganiyu Ogundipe, yesterday narrated how he and other INEC officials were attacked by hoodlums at Ago Palace Way, Okota, Isolo Lagos on Saturday.

    Ogundipe, who is recuperating at a private hospital, described the attack as “scary and unfortunate.”

    Some thugs during the elections stormed polling units on Ago Palace Way, Okota, Isolo and set ablaze ballot boxes.

    He said the nine hoodlums came on three motorcycles.

    Ogundipe, who worked as one of the Residential Area (RA) Technical Supports, said they were stoned and chased away by the hoodlums before setting ablaze the cast ballot papers and other materials.

    The Nation learnt that he slipped while scampering for safety and dislocated his right shoulder.

    He was taken to New Evolution Hospital at Ago Palace Way, where he was stabilised before he was transferred to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idiaraba for scan and later admitted in a private hospital.

    Speaking with The Nation, Ogundipe said: “I was in charge of checking the card reader machines, making sure they are intact and resolving any issue concerning them so that voting can go on smoothly.

    “I was posted to Okota axis where we have about 40 polling units. My job is to monitor all of them. My colleagues and I were going from one polling unit to another to monitor the process. All of a sudden, we saw the voters running. We saw three motorcycles – on each there were three men who ran towards the polling unit, chasing everybody away. They snatched the ballot boxes, packed the ballot papers and set them ablaze, together with the bundles of unused ballot papers. Everything was set ablaze. They chased people away, including the policemen. They pelted the voters and others with stones and people ran for safety. In an attempt to escape, I slipped, hit my right shoulder on the ground and thereafter I tried to manoeuvre, but discovered that I couldn’t move. My colleagues took me to the nearest hospitals in the area, but none were opened, until we got to New Revolution Hospital around Ago Palace roundabout at about 2pm.”

    He said the nurse that attended to him helped to massage the shoulder, and a line was set for him before he was given injections for the pains to relieve him.

    “I slept off around 2:30pm and didn’t wake up until around 2:30am. This morning (yesterday), I was still feeling pains in my hand and was taken to LUTH where an X-ray was done. I was told that it was a misalignment of the joint. I’m waiting for the doctors so that I can know the next thing to do,” Ogundipe said.

    Dr. AbdulWasiu Busari said Ogundipe sustained serious humero-scapula dislocation, but is responding to treatment.

     

     

  • When EFCC officials were attacked

    All over the world, exposing or fighting corruption is not for the fainthearted. Suspects push back, sometimes violently. ROBERT EGBE outlines five times some EFCC officials suffered violence in the line of duty.

    “I should not be threatened. I should not be threatened for doing what I am supposed to do. I’m too young to be threatened. Greater is He that is in me. Don’t threaten me! Don’t threaten me!”

    Counsel for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, protesting a comment made by a claimant’s counsel in a suit by former First Lady Mrs Patience Jonathan seeking to unfreeze her accounts with a balance of $15.5 million at the Federal High Court, Lagos last March 27.

     

    Lawyer shot, policeman killed

     

    In April 2010, a team of EFCC prosecutors returning to Enugu after a court appearance in Owerri, Imo State was attacked by gunmen who opened fire on them.

    Their police escort, Sergeant Eze Edoga, was killed while a senior counsel with the Commission, Joseph Uzor was critically wounded but survived

     

    Assassinated at home

     

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) suffered a major tragedy on September 14, 2010 when its head of forensic unit, Abdullahi Muazu, was killed in his Kaduna home.

    Muazu, who worked in the commission’s Abuja headquarters, had travelled to Kaduna to spend the end of Ramadan holiday with his family.

    In a statement, the commission said: “Information reaching the Commission today (September 14) confirms that our head of forensic unit was killed in a cruel manner in the early hours of today by unknown assailants.

    “Those behind this attack may have succeeded in killing a strategic hand and a key witness in some of our on-going cases, but their act has failed to dampen our spirit or deter us from continuing our investigation and prosecution of all forms of economic crimes and corruption in the country.”

    An unidentified operative of the agency told now defunct newspaper NEXT that Mr Muazu was very involved in trials of bank chiefs who were sacked by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2009.

    “Muazu was involved in virtually all our cases because he was the head of the Forensic Unit, so it is difficult to say that we suspect any particular person.

    “I know that he was very much involved in all the trials of the Bank Chiefs, you know with checking finger prints and all that,” the EFCC official said.

     

    Gunmen attack EFCC office leave death threat

     

    The EFCC suffered a scare on August 16, last year, when unknown gunmen attacked its headquarters at Wuse Zone 7, Abuja.

    No life was lost in the incident, which the commission’s spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, described as a major security breach.

    Uwujaren said: “The group of heavily armed bandits invaded the office at about 05.00 hours and began shooting into the premises, damaging vehicles parked in the premises in the process.

    “However, the attack was repelled by guards on duty.

    “The hoodlums escaped in a getaway vehicle but not without leaving a message; a white envelope dropped by the fleeing attackers was found to contain a death threat addressed to Ishaku Sharu, a senior investigator with the Commission.

    “Ishaku, who heads the Foreign Exchange Malpractices Fraud Section, is in charge of corruption investigation involving several politically exposed persons and retired military brass hats.

    “The attack on the Zone 7 office which houses the Commission’s AMCON Desk, Procurement Fraud and Foreign Exchange Malpractices Sections, is coming few weeks after another investigator, Austin Okwor was shot and wounded by unknown assailants in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

    Chairman of the Presidential Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) Prof. Itse Sagay, described the attack as frightening.

    Sagay said: “Good God, is that so? It is a frightening development. How could gunmen have courage to go to the EFCC office to shoot at them? It just shows you how desperate the looters and corrupt people are getting the courage to attack a major institution like the EFCC.

    “It is shocking and it shows you the enormity of the battle to tame corruption and reduce it in this country. It shows why we need people who are strong and committed to fight the battle because the faint-hearted cannot do it in this country.”

     

    Top investigator shot

     

    On June 24, 2017, gunmen opened fire on a top EFCC investigator, Mr. Austin Okwor, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

    The hoodlums accosted Okwor of the Zonal Port Harcourt Property Fraud Section him as he left the office that evening.

    He fled when they opened fire on him but suffered bullet wounds.

    Okwor was one of the operatives investigating cases including that pertaining to corrupt judicial officials.

    Before the incident, the officer had been receiving threat messages, the last of which was received a month earlier, the Head of the Zonal office, Ishaq Salihu, said.

     

    White envelop in car trunk

    Sometime in May 2017, EFCC counsel Zainab Ettu found a letter threatening her and her family on the windshield of her car where it was parked at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos.

    The threat, scribbled on a tiny piece of rough paper, named her husband and her two kids, but she didn’t make much of the incident and did not report it.

    On October 29, 2017, Ettu arrived from her mother’s place where she and her children spent the weekend, to be informed by her neighbours that “three strange-Iooking men” had been seen at about 9.30 pm of October 27, 2017, trying to gain entry into her flat

    On September 31, 2018, she noticed a white envelope, threatening her and her family, in the trunk of her car.

    Court documents quoted Ettu as telling the police that she often noticed that she was being followed on her way home.

    She said: “On the 8th of November 2018, at about 8pm on my way home from the office close to the University of Lagos (UNILAG) end of the Third Mainland Bridge, I saw something flying towards me which caused me to swerve and lose control of the car that I ended up smashing the car into the side railings of the bridge.

    “I noticed that a car, Toyota Model, driving about 15 feet away on the next lane, increased its speed and sped away and I was able to conclude that whatever was thrown at me came from the car.

    “Upon inspection, the accident had damaged my car with a dent on the bonnet of the car and the car bumper was damaged.”

  • Why we attacked lawyer, by suspects

    The two suspects arrested for attempting to kill a Lagos lawyer, Prof. McCarthy Mbadugha, have told the police that they attacked him for not paying their salary when due.

    This was contained in a statement by police spokesman Chike Oti, a Chief Superintendent (CSP), in reaction to reports on Mbadugha’s attack.

    According to Oti, the suspects identified as Kingsley Asuquo, 19 and Isaac Edet, 18, both guards attached to the lawyer from Strongcity Security Services Ltd, said they planned to kill him if it became necessary.

    It was gathered that the suspects were angry that they were not being paid when due despite the money being made by the lawyer from his clients.

    Denying that the victim was attacked by unknown assailants, Oti said both suspects were guards attached to him, adding that efforts were being made to apprehend their accomplices.

  • Lalong’s convoy attacked at IDP camp

    The convoy of Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong was yesterday attacked by displaced persons living at Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Camp in Jos.

    The incident occurred when he visited one of the IDPs at Zawan to give relief materials to the IDPs.

    Stones were thrown at the governor’s car and the vehicles of his entourage that included his Deputy, Prof.  Sonni Tyoden.

    Windscreens of many cars were smashed but the governor escaped unhurt as stones could not penetrate his bullet proof car.

    When Governor Lalong arrived at the IDP camp,   the displaced persons started murmuring: ‘We don’t want relief materials; we want to go back to our ancestral homes’.

    Lalong, in an address before the stoning, assured the people that the State Government would do what it could to address challenges being faced by the Internally Displaced Persons.

    The governor said he visited the IDP camp to see for himself the condition of the displaced persons and ensure that they received the relief materials released by government.

    He urged them to be patient as government was working hard to ensure that their security is guaranteed before they are relocated to their homes.

    Governor Lalong who said government will hunt and arrest their attackers reiterated that he would not allow their ancestral land to be grabbed.

  • Adeyeye alleges supporters attacked

    Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Ekiti State, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, has accused the loyalists of the Deputy Governor, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, of unleashing terror on his (Adeyeye’s) supporters in Ikere-Ekiti.

    Adeyeye, former Minister of State for Works, alleged that suspected thugs loyal to Olusola, led by a legislator, launched attacks on his supporters after last Saturday’s ward congress to elect delegates to vote at the primary.

    He also alleged that his supporters in the town are being coerced to swear to an oath to support Olusola, which he described as “a flagrant violation of their fundamental human rights of association”.

    Adeyeye identified his supporters who were allegedly attacked on Sunday to include the Ikere Local Government Deputy Chairman, Sunday Olorunfemi; and the Ikere PDP Treasurer, Tunde Ajewole.

    Former Ikere Local Government Chairman, Mr. Banji Aluko, and Gbenga Ayeni, were some of the loyalists of Adeyeye also allegedly attacked during the ward congress.

    In a statement by the Director of Media and Publicity, Prince Adedayo Adeyeye Movement (PAAM), Chief Niyi Ojo, called on the Police and Department of State Services (DSS) to investigate the alleged attacks and bring the perpetrators to book.

    Ojo said: “If truly Prof Olusola is popular at his hometown, why resorting to beating people and forcing them to swear to an oath to support his ambition in Ikere.

    “This is a manifest signs of rejection at home and flagrant violation of the fundamental rights of association of these people.”

    But the Director General of Kolapo Olusola Campaign Organisation (KOCO), Chief Bisi Kolawole, denied the allegation that Adeyeye’s supporters were compelled to swear to an oath to switch allegiance to the deputy governor.

    Rather, Kolawole alleged that people suspected to be Adeyeye’s supporters attacked the Commissioner for Local Government, Mr. Ayo Alabi, with masqueraders in Ise-Ekiti (Adeyeye’s hometown), during the congress.

    He said the attack by Adeyeye’s loyalists in his hometown disenfranchised many party members who wanted to vote.

    Kolawole said: “The issue of putting some people under oath to support the deputy governor is not true. Was the oath done with the Bible or traditional means? We challenge them to tell the world.

    “As politicians, we know those working for Adeyeye in Ikere and I want to say that those suffering such fate are double dealers who collect money from Olusola, Adeyeye and Olujimi.

    “Adeyeye should not have taken those raising the allegations serious, if you are for Adeyeye, why do you go to Olusola’s meeting? You came as a spy, why do you double deal?”

  • How I was attacked with broken bottles, machetes at street carnival

    A Somolu Local Government worker, Dare Ibironke, yesterday relived how he was almost beaten to death by touts at a street carnival on Easter Sunday.

    Ibironke, who works in the  revenue department, was stabbed in the head, stomach, arm and back.

    Ibironke claimed that he was attacked because he was perceived as ‘’one of the boys’’ of the council chairman Abdul Salawu aka Dullar.

    According to him, he was on his way home when somebody pointed at him saying: “That is one of Dullar’s boys.”

    Ibironke, with plaster all over his body,  said: “The next thing I saw were people numbering about 20 chasing me. I managed to escape from the first set of people, I met another set on my way again. They were so many.  I just managed to run into one shop on Odunlade Street, many thanks to one man that confronted them.

    ‘’They overpowered him and five of them with broken bottles, knives, machetes started stabbing me. They also cut off my boss’ chain from my neck. I also managed to run away with blood all over my body. They continued to beat me and hit me a lot until I reached home and managed to hide inside one of the rooms. They did not see me. I knew God loves me if not, my life is gone.”

    He named some of his attackers as “Femi, Lati and  Sule and Bayo.

    “I know some of them and I can identify them. They were actually many. I can’t name all of them. I could only recall the faces of those guys that were directly hitting me. They knew me as Dullar’s worker so that was the main reason they attacked me.  All of them were carrying bottles, knives and machetes. We were all at the party,” he said.

    Taiwo Salami aka Oshogbo, who confronted the boys at Odunlade Street where Ibironke was attacked, said the attackers destroyed things found in the shop including television and video sets,

    Salami said: “I was the only one around when he (Ibironke) ran for safety. I had to shield him only for me to hear that he has injured someone so, I asked them to bring out the injured person for me to see. Another person joined me but, they outnumbered us. In no time they’ve started stabbing him. They stabbed him and did everything to him. That was around 9pm.”

    Ibironke’s step-mother, Mrs Funmilayo Ibironke, a petty trader, said he ran home shortly after she closed her shop.

    “It was few minutes past 9pm. I was asleep but wasn’t comfortable so, I packed all my stock inside and went back to sleep. After some time, somebody came to buy sachet water and while I was attending to him,  he (Dare) just jumped in and I shouted ‘Dare what happened to you?’

    “Before I  knew what was happening, I saw some guys coming. They were numbering about 50 shouting, ‘Get him, he mustn’t escape.’

    “I struggled to prevent them from breaking into my shop but, three of them managed to get inside. They insisted they were going to kill him. That time the whole people on the street had scampered for safety. I was the only one amidst them. I just struggled to ensure that they didn’t break into the shop.

    ‘’While all that was ongoing, some of these guys dismantled my tables and some other things. They attempted to smash a table on my head but, it hit my hand. They entered the room of some girls close to my shop and scattered the whole place and the neighbourhood searching for Dare but, they couldn’t find him. They eventually left. When they left, we found him in a pool of blood inside one room. He could no longer talk at that moment.”

    Ibironke’s in-law Olumide Onasanya, who joined other family members to take him to the general hospital, said: “I was called that some hoodlums have killed Dare. When I got there around 10pm, I saw him in a pool of blood. He could not stand on his own. He was struggling to breathe. I saw him lying on the ground at Awoseni Street. We had to carry him on a bike and take him to Alade Police Station for police report because he won’t be treated without it. We met the council chairman at the police station. He assisted us to get the police report before we took him to the general hospital. As of that night, he was unconscious. He was placed on oxygen and life-saving machine before he could come back to life at midnight.

    “It was yesterday that he started talking. So, we asked him questions about the identity of the guys that attacked him and he started mentioning names. He identified about four or five’’.

  • Melaye attacked at Kabba

    Melaye attacked at Kabba

    •Bello sent thugs after me, says senator

    Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West) was, at the weekend, attacked in Kabba, Kogi State, during the Kabba Day celebration.

    After speaking and donating N3 million, the senator was about to enter his vehicle when thugs attacked him.

    The embattled senator, who is trying to stave off a recall, was pelted with stones, sachet water and other objects. Some  thugs were arrested; tear gas was used to control the situation.

    Governor Yahaya Bello, who was billed to attend the event, allegedly returned to Lokoja when he got the situation report.

    A source said Melaye’s loyalists could have caused further crisis, had the governor made it to the event.

    Melaye alleged that his attackers were sent by the government, according to a statement by his aide.

    “Two of the boys who attacked him were sent by the Kogi State government, but were arrested by the police. They were later granted bail following intervention of the state apparatus,” the statement said.

    But the governor said he took a proactive step to avert impending chaos.

    A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Petra Onyegbule, said Bello’s absence at the event was to avert chaos.

    The statement reads: “The alleged attack on Dino Melaye, by some aggrieved Kogi West youths, would have been worsened if the governor was present at the event. As the father of the state, the governor decided to stay off to avert further violence.

    “As the chief security officer of the state, the governor is committed to ensuring that the task of safeguarding the citizens is never compromised.”

    Police spokesman William Ayah said the event should not be overflogged.

    According to him, the two persons were arrested “to save their lives” because they were to be mobbed by some youths who wanted to have a share of the money they got.

    He, however, said those arrested were released.

  • Fed Govt: IPOB openly solicited arms, attacked army formations

    Fed Govt: IPOB openly solicited arms, attacked army formations

    The Federal Government yesterday justified the proscription of the Indigenous People of Biafra (SAN).

    Minister of Information Lai Mohammed said IPOB’s leader Nnamdi Kanu’s utterances and actions led to the group’s proscription.

    But, the President-General of the apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief John Nwodo, described IPOB’s proscription as “extremely unfair”.

    They spoke on a BBC World Service programme, Focus on Africa.

    Asked why IPOB was categorised as a terrorist organisation, Mohammed said: “The acts and utterances of IPOB were acts and utterances of terrorists.

    “For instance, Nnamdi Kanu was caught on tape saying that he wants Biafra, and not peacefully, but by force, and that if they don’t get Biafra, Somalia would be a paradise with the kind of mayhem…”

    When the anchor said Kanu was “a man who was talking without any weapons whatsoever,” the minister said it was also Kanu who openly sought for arms and set up a parallel security organisation.

    He said: “This is also the same man who openly solicited for arms, the same man who set up his own Biafran National Guard, his own Biafra Secret Service, and the same man who actually attacked army formations.”

    Asked what he made of the fact that the United States does not categorise IPOB as a terrorist group, Mohammed said America’s position was “very unfortunate”.

    “That’s very unfortunate, because if countries decide to pick and choose which organisations are terrorists and which are not, bearing in mind that terrorism has no boundary… I think every country should work together to ensure that terrorism does not thrive,” he said.

    Asked by the anchor why other armed groups in Nigeria were not declared terrorist organisations, yet IPOB that did not “raise so much as a single cutlass against the Nigerian state” was so categorised, Mohammed said acts of criminality were different from acts of terrorism.

    “I think acts of criminality should not be confused with terrorist acts. When an organisation decides to not just attack the army, but sets up its own parallel government, openly solicits for arms all over the world, issuing its own passports and its own currency, does not recognise your government, then it becomes a different thing,” he said.

    Asked if he was he worried about IPOB being driven underground and becoming a militant group, the minister replied: “Nigeria is so fragile that if we allow this kind of thing to go on, and there are reprisal attacks in other parts of the country, the whole country will be endangered.”

  • Benue Tiv community attacked

    Fiidi, a Tiv community in Benue State, on the Makurdi-Gboko highway, was yesterday attacked by Jukun youths. This is coming barely three two weeks after suspected Jukun militia attacked another Tiv settlement.

    Several houses were razed, including the palace of the Kindred Head of Fiidi, Chief Uor Adi.

    St. Patrick Catholic Church was also burnt but the priest in charge, Fr. Vitalis Torwel, escaped unhurt.

    Residents were also seen fleeing the trouble area to safety.

    An eyewitness, James Jato, said armed Jukun youths stormed Fiidi about 12am and carried out their destruction till 2am.

    They shot sporadically into the air and set many houses ablaze. They could not be challenged because people were asleep, he added.

    Police spokesman Moses Yamu confirmed the incident but said he was yet to get the exact number of casualties.

  • Egypt identifies Alexandria church bomber as fugitive with militant ties

    Egyptian authorities have named the suicide bomber who attacked a cathedral in Alexandria as 31-year-old Mahmoud Abdullah, describing him as a fugitive with links to militant cells that carried out previous strikes in the country.

    Abdullah detonated his explosives at the entrance to Saint Mark’s Cathedral, the historic seat of the Coptic Pope, killing 17 people as mass was being conducted.

    Hours earlier, another bomb tore through a church in Tanta, a city in the Nile Delta.

    Egypt’s government imposed a three-month state of emergency in the wake of the attacks.

    The interior ministry said in a statement that Abdullah had been a resident of Suez province and used to work for a petroleum company.

    It posted a photograph on its Facebook page of a man it said was Abdullah, placing the image alongside a picture taken by a surveillance camera outside the church.

    Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Palm Sunday attacks, which killed 44 people in total and wounded scores more a week before the Coptic Easter.

    The interior ministry said Abdullah had links with the Islamist militant cell behind the December suicide bombing on Cairo’s main Coptic cathedral, an attack also claimed by Islamic State.

    Authorities are still trying to identify the Tanta attacker, the ministry said.

    It added that security forces killed seven suspected militants in a shootout on Monday as they met to plan attacks on minority Christians.

    The statement named 19 other suspected militants believed to belong to the same cells and offered a 100 thousand Egyptian pound (5,515.72 dollars) reward for any information on them.

    Sunday’s attacks were the latest against a religious minority increasingly targeted by Islamist militants, and a challenge to President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who has pledged to protect them as part of his campaign against extremism.

    Islamic State has waged a low-level war against soldiers and police in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula for years but it is increasingly targeting Christians and broadening its reach into Egypt’s mainland.