The Nation Newspaper

Tag: attempts

  • Man, 26, attempts to defile girl, 8

    A 26-year-old man, Sylvanus Chidiebere, charged with alleged attempt to defile an eight-year-old girl, has been granted a N200,000 bail.

    Mrs Olufunke Sule-Amzat of the Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court ordered Chidiebere to provide two sureties as part of the bail conditions.

    The sureties, she said,  should be employed and should show evidence of tax payment to the Lagos State Government.

    The defendant pleaded not guilty to the unlawful sexual harassment charge.

    Prosecuting Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Benson Emuerhi said the defendant committed the offence on March 21 at 3, Adeoye Street, Bolade Oshodi, Lagos.

    He alleged that the defendant was arrested by the police after the case was reported by the victim’s mother at Akinpelu Police Station.

    “It was later transferred to the Gender Section of the Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja, for further investigation,’’ he said.

    The prosecutor said the defendant sexually harassed the girl by spilling sperm on her cloth while trying to defile her.

  • Polls shift: There were attempts to sabotage us, says INEC chairman

    • Dismisses allegations of political influence, incompetence, security lapse • Says campaign, PVC collection remain suspended

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday listed sabotage of its efforts as one of the reasons for the rescheduling of this year’s elections.

    Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the commission, said three fire incidents in a space of two weeks at INEC offices could not have been coincidental.

    Yakubu spoke yesterday in Abuja at a meeting with stakeholders to throw more light on why INEC had to postpone the elections,six hours  to the accreditation of voters for the presidential and national assembly polls.

    He said: “we also faced what may well be attempts to sabotage our preparations.

    “In a space of two week, we had to deal with serious fire  incidents in three of our office in Isiala Ngwa South Local Government Area of Abia State, Qu’an Pan Local Government Area of Plateau State and our Anambra State Office at Awka.

    “In all three cases. serious disruptions were occasioned by the fire, further diverting our attention from regular preparations to recovery from the impact of the incidents.

    “In Isiala Ngwa South, hundreds of PVCs were burnt, necessitating the re-compiling of the affected cards and reprinting in time to ensure that the affected voters are not disenfranchised.

    “I am glad that all the cards were quickly reprinted and made available for collection by their owners.”

    Yakubu who has come under severe criticism from the public,groups and parties,especially the APC and PDP,the two main parties in the country, denied that the commission was being manipulated  from outside.

    He said the decision to postpone was entirely that of INEC management.

    His words:”Our decision is entirely taken by the commission. It has nothing to do with security, it has nothing to do with political influence, nothing to do with availability of sensitive material.

    “We believed that ultimately, this is for the good of our democracy and country. I wish to assure you of our commitment to free, fair and credible elections.”

    On the impact of the fire incidents,he said:” In Qu’an Pan Local Government Area, our entire office was razed, destroying all the materials prepared for the elections, printed register of voters, ballot boxes, voting cubicles and several electricity generating sets.

    “Registration Areas and over I00 polling units were affected by the fire. We recovered quickly and have since replaced everything destroyed. In addition, we secured a suitable building from which to conduct the elections.

    “Perhaps the most serious was the fire incident in our Anambra State Office at Awka, which destroyed over 4,695 Smart Card Readers being prepared for the elections. These Card Readers take at least six months to procure.

    “Despite this setback. we have practically recovered from this by mopping up every available spare SCR across the country and within 24 hours delivered them for elections to hold in Anambra State.

    “All these challenges mean that there have been differences in preparations from one state to another. Our overall assessment is that if the elections went on as planned, polls will not open at 8am in all polling units nationwide.

    “Yet, we are determined that polls must hold at the same time everywhere in the country. In this way, elections will not be staggered. This is very important to public perception of elections as free, fair and credible. We promised Nigerians that we shall be open. transparent and responsive.

    “Faced with these challenges, we initially thought that we only required a maximum of 24 hours to resolve the logistics issues involved and complete our deployment for the election.

    “This would mean shifting the elections to commence on Sunday 17th February 20l9. However, given the restriction of movement during elections, that could affect many votes who worship on Sundays.

    “ While the Commission was considering the following Monday 18th February 2019 as an option, our lCT Department advised us that it would require 5 -6 days to reconfigure about 180,000 Smart Card Readers earlier programmed to work only on election day Saturday 16th February 20l9. It is for this reason that the Commission decided to adjust the election dates to Saturday 23rd  February 2019 for Presidential and National Assembly elections and a consequential adjustment of Governorship, State Assembly and FCT Area Council elections to Saturday 9th March 2019.”

    He allayed fears about the safety of the already  distributed electoral materials,saying they were being  retrieved and taken back to custody of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

    Continuing,Yakubu said:”It is often not appreciated the magnitude of activities that the Commission undertakes during general elections.

    “Not only have we  recruited and trained about one million young people to serve as ad hoc staff, the magnitude of materials mobilized for our elections is enormous.

    “For instance, the Commission has printed 421.7 million ballot papers for six scheduled elections, as well as 13.6 million leaves of result forms for the Presidential election alone. Indeed, managing 91 political parties and 23,316 candidates for whom

  • Worshippers frustrate attempts to arrest pastor

    Worshippers at the Evangelical Bible Outreach Ministry International, Jos, Pleateau State, on Monday night, frustrated efforts of men of the Department of State Services (DSS) to arrest their pastor, Prophet Isa El-Buba.

    The action of the DSS created tension yesterday as Christian leaders, church leaders and youths stormed Ebomi Towers in solidarity with the cleric, who is said to be critical of President Muhammadu Buhari’s leadership style and activities of Fulani herdsmen.

    Prophet El-Buba, in an interview yesterday, said a deputy director of DSS stormed his church on Monday night, saying he was wanted at DSS headquarters.

    “I demanded for a letter of invitation and was not given, so I became suspicious of their mission,” he said.

    Prophet El-Buba said the officials also went to his house with two trucks with the intention of arresting him.

    However, after the argument with the team and his follower’s demonstration, he was told to report at the Jos DSS office for questioning by 11 am yesterday.

    Prophet El-Buba reiterated that he did nothing wrong to warrant his arrest, saying he would continue to preach for good governance and advise leaders in line with the message from God.

  • Man attempts to escape arrest by jumping into shark infested waters

    Man attempts to escape arrest by jumping into shark infested waters

    AN AMERICAN, Zachary Kingsbury, was discovered with suspicious contraband in his vehicle.

    Instead of succumbing to arrest, he jumped into the Atlantic Ocean.

    After swimming more than a mile off shore, police were forced to track Kingsbury with a drone.

    Footage from the chase shows a shark trailing just 25 feet off to the side.

    Kingsbury was later charged with resisting arrest, obstructing an officer and possession of drug paraphernalia.

    A North Carolina man unknowingly jumped into shark infested waters as he tried to escape arrest.

    Surf City police officials said 20-year-old Zachary Kingsbury was pulled over just before 5pm.

    Upon conducting a search in the vehicle, police officers discovered suspicious contraband on the passenger side of the vehicle.

    Kingsbury, who was in the driver’s seat, was then asked to step out of his vehicle, at which point he ‘fled the scene on foot, onto the beach’, and proceeded into the ocean, police documents show.

    After swimming more than a mile away from shore, however, authorities said the arrest turned into a ‘rescue operation’ and launched a drone to track the escapee.

    As the unmanned aerial vehicle flew over Kingsbury, footage shows a shark some 25 feet away trailing the police dodger. It remains unclear if Kingsbury was aware of the animal.

    Authorities were finally able to nab Kingsbury around 7.45pm at the Wicker Avenue beach access in North Topsail Beach, nearly three hours after the ordeal had begun.

    Kingsbury was placed under arrest and is being held at Pender County Jail.

    The 20 year old was slapped with a litany of charges following the event, including resisting arrest, obstructing an officer, possession of drug paraphernalia, methamphetamine, and possession of marijuana of up to a half an ounce.

  • Attempts to discredit me will fail, says Ekweremadu

    Attempts to discredit me will fail, says Ekweremadu

    Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu has said attempts by hired mudslingers to discredit him will not succeed.

    He said contrary to the insinuations of mudslingers, the numerous laudable development projects he attracted to his Enugu West Senatorial District and Enugu State were there for all to see.

    In a statement in Abuja at the weekend by his Special Adviser (Media), Uche Anichukwu, the Deputy Senate President said the failed attempts were about 2015 senatorial election.

    Ekweremadu said he was aware of the sources of the  smear campaign.

    He expressed his continued readiness to deliver on the mandate his people of Enugu West Senatorial District gave him

    The statement reads: “The attention of the Office of the Deputy President of the Senate has been drawn to a recent magazine report, whose sole but failed purpose is to bring Deputy Senate President Senator Ike Ekweremadu to disrepute.

    “We are not surprised that after months of fruitless search, the peddlers of the pre-packaged fallacies and libel only ended up with an obscure and financially distressed medium, as every professionally inclined and credible medium turned down their cocktail of lies and mouth-watering offers.

    “We make bold to say that it is all about 2015 and we know where it is coming from.

    “While more of such attacks are expected as we count down to the electoral processes, we wish to state that the report and every other subsequent attempt to discredit the Deputy Senate President or the numerous and laudable development projects he attracted to his constituency and Enugu State will continue to fail.

    “This is so because while you may deceive the blind that there is no oil in the soup, you cannot deceive him as to whether or not there is salt in it…”

  • Obama attempts a new start with EU

    Obama attempts a new start with EU

    • In response to Ukraine crisis, transatlantic unity is vital

    Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea has challenged what many assumed was a self-evident truth: that borders in Europe cannot be changed by force. Barack Obama was right to point this out in his speech in Brussels on Wednesday. What was left unsaid is that the Ukraine crisis has brought the leaders of the US and EU together in a way that could scarcely have been imagined even a few months ago.

    Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, transatlantic co-operation has faltered amid mutual suspicion and frustration. The US still believes the EU’s management of the euro crisis has been bedevilled by laborious decision-making, political division and narrow self-interest. On the defence front, Washington has long been concerned at the way Europeans are cutting military spending in response to domestic budgetary pressures, leaving the Pentagon to do the heavy lifting inside Nato. EU leaders, for their part, have been incensed by revelations of spying by the US security agencies, notably by the bugging of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone. Prominent Europeans bluntly assert that the US can no longer be trusted.

    President Obama’s speech was therefore a timely opportunity for the US to restate the importance of the transatlantic relationship and reassert an old truth that America remains a European power. Or, as he put it, Nato nations never stand alone. Much of his speech focused on the immediate challenges Russia poses to the west and the need to isolate Mr Putin politically. More broadly, he correctly restated how the US and Europe stand together in the promotion of freedom and democracy.

    Mr Obama scored some other notable points. It was absurd for Russia to claim the US was conspiring with fascists in Ukraine. He also observed that Russia could not achieve security, prosperity and status through brute force. Those rhetorical flourishes aside, the president and his EU counterparts now need to look to deepen the newfound transatlantic unity.

    First, the US must recognise that Europeans, and other allies, have become less confident in its willingness to engage. Mr Obama has created the impression that he is a domestic policy president. Within Nato, in particular, the US will now need to spend money, time and capability to underscore that Washington regards the defence of Europe’s eastern perimeter as non-negotiable.

    Europe also has much to do to regain American trust. The EU has the economic and political mass to be a global player. But in response to Russia’s new and aggressive actions, EU members need to halt the precipitous decline in defence spending. The bloc as a whole also needs to acquire much greater strategic coherence in foreign affairs, especially in its stance towards the Kremlin.

    There is a special responsibility for Ms Merkel, Europe’s most powerful figure. In the Ukraine crisis, she is for the first time emerging as a leader on security matters. But Germany needs to start shouldering more responsibility within Nato, abandoning its traditional comfort zones and taking its seat at the high table along with the UK and France.

    Dealing with the Ukraine crisis is the major challenge ahead. If Mr Putin engages in more aggressive action over Ukraine, the US and EU must impose sanctions in lock step. Over time, they must also collaborate to reduce Europe’s energy dependence on Russia, if necessary through the export of US shale gas to Europe.

    In Brussels, Mr Obama, as ever, struck the right tone. Now comes the hard part – not the resumption of a new cold war but a hard-headed, patient and unified approach to an unpredictable adversary who is bent on rapidly restoring Russia’s influence in his neighbourhood.

    – Financial Times

  • Blind widower attempts suicide

    A blind widower, Ikenna Onuah, yesterday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, attempted to kill himself over the death of his wife.

    Onuah, who waited until his children had left for school to carry out the act, was rescued by a neighbour, Charles Dick, who came to return a kitchen knife earlier borrowed from him.

    Dick said: “God wanted it this way. I collected kitchen knife from him yesterday night, but while retuning it this morning, I saw Mr. Onuah about drinking a strange mixture.”

    Then, I immediately made to seize the bottle which contained detergent and kerosene. And as we were dragging it, he opened up with tears, urging me to allow him to die; that the burden his late wife left behind was too much for him to bear considering his physical challenge.”

    Dick said since Onuah lost his wife, he has been behaving strangely. “He has never been the same after the death of his wife. I knew it was not going to be easy for him because the wife was everything to him,” he said, adding: “The woman would go to market, cook, wash and take care of him and their children. She would also carry him around if he wanted to visit friends, but now, he does not even know how to begin his life; he is frustrated.”

    It was also gathered that the widower has three children; the first being 11. Apart from the money he gets from friends and sympathisers, he has no other means of livelihood.