The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Barber

  • Police nab barber for alleged rape of minor

    Police nab barber for alleged rape of minor

    Police operatives in Lagos have arrested a barber for allegedly defiling a seven-year-old girl (names withheld).

    The suspect, Yusuf Adelopo, 37, was nabbed by policemen at Okesanya Street, Papajao in Mushin after he allegedly raped his neighbour’s daughter.

    His arrest was sequel to a medical confirmation by specialists at the Mushin General Hospital that there was penetration.

    It was gathered that the minor’s parents had notified the police after she told them that the suspect on Tuesday defiled her under the staircase.

    She was said to have gone to his shop to enquire the whereabouts of her older siblings who she did not meet when she returned from school.

    But rather than give her an answer, the suspect, it was gathered held the girl by the hand, took her to their apartment and confirmed it was locked.

    He was said to have brought a bench which he kept under the staircase, then forcefully removed the minor’s underwear and had his way.

    The little girl, who narrated the incident to her parents, was said to have told them that the suspect brought a rag and cleaned her private part when he was done, ordering her to put her pants on, before taking her to his saloon where she waited until her elder brother returned.

    After reporting the matter to her parents, they were said to have lodge a complaint at Olosan Police Station, where the suspect is currently being detained.

    Confirming the arrest, the state command’s spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent of Police said investigations were ongoing.

  • Barber’s death sparks row

    THE police have been accused of trying to frame up a businessman, Alhaji Mutairu Owoeye, for the murder of a barber, Bidemi Akinde.

    Owoeye is alleging that the Zone II Command at Onikan, Lagos, is after him “over an earlier misunderstanding”.

    Recounting how the barber died, he alleged that Akinde was killed by thugs led by a cult chief, named “One Hour”.

    Owoeye denied that policemen from Sango Ota Area Command killed the barber, saying his travail with the Zone II Command started when he was appointed agent of a property at Oke-Ore in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State.

    “As the land was occupied by illegal occupants, I decided to inform the occupiers of a court judgement in respect of the land as many may not be aware and to this effect, I printed a public notice to be pasted on the land as the judgement debtors are prone to violence. I decided to seek police protection to avoid unpleasant scene. I forwarded a letter to the police which was approved by the Inspector-General of Police, who directed the Ogun State Police Commissioner to treat. The office of the Ogun State Police boss equally directed the area command at Sango to implement the directive.

    “Consequently, the police assigned a team of officers led by one Assistant Superintendent (ASP) Afolabi to assist me in carrying out the exercise. As my workers went about pasting the posters, the judgement debtors in the company of a large group of thugs numbering over 80 and accompanied by fake armed uniformed men led by “One Hour” invaded the scene and started firing gunshots indiscriminately.

    “Two of the policemen sustained serious wounds and the police were forced to beat a retreat. Hours later, my residence at Atan, which is far from the scene was again invaded by the hoodlums who fired indiscriminately, destroying everything in sight. The invading vandals made spirited attempt to abduct me, but for the timely intervention of the police. In a twist of fate, I was arrested for allegedly causing the death of Akinde.

    “A wrong impression has to be corrected. I was not arrested by the armed uniformed men. In fact, they were out to kill me. I was rescued by the police from Sango-Ota and the police at Zone II, Onikan, Lagos took over the case with intent to carry out a revenge mission over an earlier misunderstanding between me and them after an illegal raid on Orudu village in Ibeju-Lekki, during which the Police arrested and charged an 84-year-old woman to court for stealing N22,000”, Owoeye said in a statement.

  • The Barber boy

    At the Barber’s shop at the weekend a young man, about my son’s age, was scraping what was left of the hair on my head amidst continuing ‘desert encroachment’ when he suddenly stopped, cleared his throat and said; ‘sir, may I ask you a question?’ Sure, I said, wondering what he had on mind.

    As you never can tell with the younger ones nowadays, my mind in the next few seconds before his question wandered far and near for a clue as to what he wanted to find out from me. But before my mind wandered too far, his young voice interrupted and asked; ‘sir, is it good to have higher (tertiary) education?’

    Immediately he said this I knew the young man is troubled. Ordinarily at his age (18/19) he should be in school instead of ‘barbing’ away his time to earn a living, but there he was, working as a barber. Why you may want to ask.

    Yes he is indigent; he’s been battling WAEC for his GCE ‘O’ Level for about two years now and decided to take a sabbatical so to speak from WAEC exams for at least a year to work and earn some money before attempting his GCE again and later JAMB, but he is confused and doesn’t really know whether that route is the best for his future.

    His worries are many, chiefly among which is the growing number of unemployed graduates out there, with little or no prospect of either securing a job or creating one for themselves. He wants to go to the university to study for a degree in civil engineering and become a ‘building contractor’ (using his own words), but he is afraid that he might end up with no job after struggling through university, as most of the unemployed graduates out there, and wants an assurance from me that tomorrow would be better and that he should go to the university.

    Though I tried my best to allay his fears of how bad Nigeria’s tomorrow could be with the way things are going in this country especially with youth unemployment, he didn’t look convinced that tomorrow would be better, President Goodluck Jonathan’s so called transformation agenda notwithstanding.

    I thought of how many of our youths, like him, are afraid of the future and what it holds for them. My mind quickly went to the ongoing strike by university lecturers and how ASUU and the Federal Government are toying with the lives and future of these young Nigerians forced to stay at home and be idle because they could not agree on how to fund tertiary education in the country.

    It is this kind of idleness and hopelessness about the future that drive some of our youths to either go into crime or run out of the country in search of a better tomorrow elsewhere.

    As I was talking to this young man, I remembered what I just read in the Sunday papers, few hours before, about a certain young boy, a teenager who hid in the tyre compartment of a Lagos bound Arik Air aircraft from Benin, the Edo State capital. The boy, Daniel Ihekina, wanted to fly away, or better put, stowaway to what he believes would be a better future than whatever he was experiencing back home in Benin.

    I am sure Lagos wasn’t his intended destination as he could have hipped a ride in the back of one of those trucks that bring goods to Lagos from the inter land daily instead of risking his life flying into Nigeria’s commercial capital in the belly of an aircraft. He probably thought that flight was headed for Europe or America where ‘they pick the Dollar or Euro on the street’ and the ‘roads are paved with gold.’ That seem to be the thinking of most of these young Nigerians, faced with a bleak future at home, who seek greener pastures outside Nigeria, even in place like Libya (albeit Ghadafi’s Libya) of all places.

    Some of them have lost their lives while attempting to cross the Libyan desert en-route Europe via Italy. Some are marooned somewhere in North Africa unable to cross to Europe and left with no money return home. Some, having sold all their belongings and investments or caused their families to sell all they have to fund their ill-fated and illegal trip are too ashamed to return home empty handed and have turned to either destitute or prostitutes (if they are females) to earn a living where ever they are holed up. Yet the stories of these unfortunate Nigerians have not deterred some of our youths from running away from the hopelessness at home.

    But is the situation so bad? The answer could be yes and no as one could argue convincingly on both sides. But suffice to say that Nigeria needs a sort of Marshall Plan for her youths in order to secure our future, a better future as a people and a nation. It wasn’t like this in the past, we are told, as the future was rosy for our youths then. They had everything laid out for them; good education; well paid jobs (they were spoilt with choices); and the right atmosphere to build a good family with African values. Can we say this about Nigeria of today? No. Why?

    It is easy to blame our stars for this but the blame really is in us. We have had bad leaders over the years, who have squandered all the goodwill and riches of the land to now impoverish us. When our elders remind us that it wasn’t like this before, they are quick to point at when Nigeria had to rely on revenue from agriculture to fund our development. They talk of the eras of cocoa in the west, groundnut in the north and palm oil in the east. They are right as then we were cutting our coats according to our cloth and things were running smoothly.

    But all of a sudden, oil money came and we became super rich without necessarily working hard for it. As stupid as they were, our leaders encouraged us to abandon agriculture for the petrol-dollar. It is a long story between then and now, but regrettably today, that oil money is at the root of all our problems and troubles

    You can give your own interpretation to it, but the truth is that greater troubles lie ahead in the next few decades when this oil will either no longer be in greater demand or would have dried up and we would be left with nothing if we don’t plan now for Nigeria beyond oil.

    Nigeria beyond oil: The role of the Editor was the theme of the recently concluded All Nigerian Editors Conference in Asaba, Delta state. From the presentations made by the invited guests who included some state governors and ministers, it does appear that our leaders are ready to wean Nigeria’s economy from over dependence on oil revenue and seriously planning a resuscitation of agriculture which has the capacity to create millions of self sustaining jobs for our teeming army of unemployed, especially our youths.

    If this can be seen through successfully in the next few years and a solid foundation laid for a multi product economy, may be the future would not look all that bleak for the likes of the Barber boy and Daniel Ihekina.

  • Barber dies in bed with fiancée

    What could have caused the death of a young man while in bed with his fiancee?

    This is the poser that has proved a hard nut to crack for shell-shocked residents of 6, Are Tewogbola Street, Aboru, a Lagos suburb, since May 29.

    It was the day when cruel fate chose to come hard on the household of a 32-year-old barber, Sakiru Rasaq. He died shortly after sleeping with his fiancée, Endurance, at about 5am.

    “Nobody anticipated such a strange thing that day because everyone had planned to be part of the nation’s Democracy Day billed to be observed that day. We just woke up to hear of the incident; it was like a bomb,” a resident of the area, Lara Adewole, told The Nation.

    Neighbours seemed not in a hurry to forget the tragic incident.

    It was gathered that the late barber and his fiancée, Endurance, had been living together for about two years without any problem.

    The Delta State-born 22-year-old woman was said to have raised the alarm when Sakiru collapsed gasping for breath. A family source described the incident as shocking.

    “Sakiru’s death came as a rude shock because he was hale and hearty. He showed no sign of ill-health on the eve of his mysterious death. He was full of life when he returned home and had shared jokes with a few residents before retiring to bed.

    “We were, however, surprised when his fiancée raised the alarm that he had passed out after efforts to revive him failed. Although, some have said that he might be a victim of Magun (thunderbolt), no one can ascertain the veracity of the claim,” the source said.

    Recalling the incident, Endurance, said Sakiru got exhausted shortly after he made love to her, adding: “I don’t think he was killed or that somebody somewhere had laced me with Magun or any deadly charm. For the avoidance of doubt, we still made love last Thursday and there was no problem at all.

    “I think it was a case of exhaustion because the problem started soon after he finished making love to me and I thought he would get over it after a little rest. I was wrong. He stretched himself and gasped uncontrollably. I was scared. I raised the alarm. But he passed on just as people rushed into our room to attend to him.”

    Endurance explained how she metthe late Sakiru in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, where her parents live : “We met about two years ago in Ijebu-Ode and we exchanged telephone numbers. A few weeks later, he asked me out and that was how the relationship began. He was such a nice man who showered me with love. Although, my father had expressed reservation about our relationship, I was unyielding because I love him. And to further prove my love for him, I left my father’s house in Ijebu-Ode to live with him in Lagos and I was warmly received by his parents because he had told them about me. It was later that I introduced to my parents; my father had no choice but to accept him.”

    Battling tears, she said further: “We were making plans for a proper wedding ceremony when death snatched from me. Now, I’ll have to shamelessly return to my father’s house with the trauma. I’ll ask one of my siblings to come over, so she could assist me to Ijebu-Ode because I am so devastated by Sakiru’s death.”

    A resident, who simply identified himself as Kareem, however, dismissed Endurance’s claim, saying: “What else could have been responsible for Sakiru’s death if not Magun? Endurance may not have known that she had been laced with Magun because such an act is usually done by any man that wants to snatch a woman from her husband. And the claim that they had sex a few days ago cannot hold because some kinds of Magun don’t kill instantly but take a number of days to become active.

    “However, we should not hold the lady responsible for Sakiru’s death because he may have contacted it from another woman elsewhere and its activation shortly after having sex with his fiancée may have been a mere coincidence. But then, there is no doubt that it was a case of death by Magun.”

    Though bitter about the incident, Sakiru’s father, Mr. Salawu Rasaq, said: “It was my son’s fiancée who raised the alarm that he was gasping for breath shortly after they had sex. But he died before people who rushed to their room could offer any help. As Muslim and a true believer. I take my son’s death as the will of God and the circumstances surrounding his untimely death, though strange, are known to almighty Allah.

    “He lived with Endurance for some time without any problem. I was hoping that we would soon properly consummate their marriage without knowing that my son would die so soon.”

    The late barber has since been buried. The matter was not reported to the police.

    Rasaq explained why: “We didn’t report it to the police because that would have complicated things. Endurance was not formally married to my son. I just thank God that she was not the one that died because I wouldn’t have known how to explain to her parents. There was no circumstantial evidence to link her with my son’s death. He (the deceased) did not foam. Was there any sign or mark showing that they fought or struggled with each other before his death? We would ensure that she returns to her parents in Ijebu-Ode.

  • Barber pleads guilty to cutting N1m cables from ship

    A 25-year-old barber, Michael Samuel, on Friday at a Tinubu Magistrates’ Court in Lagos, pleaded guilty to stealing cables worth N1 million from `MV Rosa Mystical,’ a grounded ship.

    Samuel, a resident of House 18B, Road 12, Onikepo Akande St., Lekki Phase 1, faced a three-count charge of conspiracy, stealing and unlawful damage.

    The Prosecutor, ASP Augustine Orji, told the court that Samuel and one other person, now at large, committed the crime on May 8, at about 2.30 a.m. on the Oniru Sandfill Waterfront.

    He said that Michael and his accomplice climbed into the compound where the vessel, which belonged to Samafall Service Ltd., berthed, and cut the electric cables.

    “The three-man crew, who were asleep, was alerted by the noise and gave chase to the two culprits who escaped.

    “The ship’s crew recognised Samuel, and with the help of other people at the waterfront, arrested him in the morning and took him to the police,” Orji said.

    He also said that the offence contravened Sections 409, 285 and 348 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

    The accused risked being jailed for three years if pronounced guilty of the offence by the court.

    Meanwhile, the Magistrate, Ms Abimbola Awogboro, adjourned the case till May 13, for facts and sentencing.