The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Benue Police Command

  • Benue Police Command summons PDP governorship candidate over Yandev crisis

    Benue Police Command summons PDP governorship candidate over Yandev crisis

    The Benue Police Command on Wednesday summoned Mr Terhemen Tarzoor, PDP candidate in the 2015 governorship race, over the July 7 violence in Yandev, Gboko Local Government.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that Tarzoor, who arrived the police headquarters at 4 p.m., spent four hours with a police investigation team, responding to questions over his alleged role in the crisis.

    NAN also reports that Tarzoor’s invitation followed a petition by Mr David Vergwa, APC Youth Leader in Gboko Local Government, to the Commissioner of Police in Benue.

    In the petition, a copy of which was made available to NAN, Vergwa alleged that he was attacked, injured and his house destroyed by PDP supporters, in a clash with their APC counterparts.

    “The rampaging youths claimed that their attack was targeted at Tarzoor, but I was the one hit,” Vergwa claimed.

    Mr Moses Yamu, Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the Command, who briefed newsmen on the development, said that Tarzoor was invited because his name featured in the petition.

    “We invited him to state his side of the story; he wrote his statement and was allowed to go. But we shall invite him to explain more if the need arises,” he said.

    NAN reports that hundreds of party supporters accompanied Tarzoor to the police headquarters.

    Efforts to speak with Tarzoor proved abortive because of the large and rowdy crowd around him.

  • Benue Police arrests 708 suspected criminals in one year

    Benue Police arrests 708 suspected criminals in one year

    The Benue Police Command says it has arrested 708 persons suspected to have committed various crimes in the last year.

    Its Commissioner, Bashir Makama, made the disclosure on Wednesday in Makurdi, during a two-day stakeholders meeting organised by the command to boost security consciousness in the state.

    He said that 409 of them had been arraigned, while the command was still determining the level of involvement of other suspects in respect of crimes over which they were arrested, before deciding on the next line of action.

    The commissioner listed some of the crimes to include armed robbery, kidnapping, cultism, gun manufacturing and culpable homicide.

    Others included cattle rustling, communal violence, currency counterfeiting and clashes between farmers and herdsmen.

    Makama commended the Inspector-General of Police, for permitting Police Commissioners to hold periodic stakeholders meeting with eminent personalities in their areas, saying that the measures was boosting mutual confidence.

    “The meetings create the needed platform for an interaction and the sharing of ideas between security agents and the communities they are expected to protect,” he said.

    He expressed satisfaction at the quality of personalities at the meetings, saying that the quality of contributions would help the command to arrest criminals and rid Benue of unwanted elements.

    Makama advised the Benue government to establish pilot ranches in the three senatorial districts, to ensure effective enforcement of the anti-grazing law.

    “The pilot ranches will provide an abode for arrested cattle; it will provide a secured shelter for animals awaiting prosecution,” he said.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting drew participants from the 23 Local Government Areas of Benue.

  • Benue Police Command arraigns 2 men over cattle rustling

    The Benue Police Command on Thursday arraigned two persons, Pius Iwar and Dooior Orawase, over criminal conspiracy, theft and cattle rustling.

    The duo, of no fixed address, appeared before a Makurdi Magistrate’s Court.

    According to the police prosecutor, Mr Adama Owochio, the accused persons were arrested by a team of policemen, who were on patrol along Jato-Aka Adikpo road in Benue, on April 1, 2017.

    “As at the time of arrest, the accused persons were conveying two cows in the booth of a car.

    “When the security men checked, the cows were found dead; when asked how they came about the cows, they could not give a satisfactory answer.

    “During police investigation, the accused persons confessed that the cows destroyed their cassava and yams valued at N400, 000.”

    He quoted them as saying that they pursued the cows, caught two of them and tied them to a tree which resulted into their death.

    The accused persons, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against them.

    The prosecutor told the court that investigation into the matter was still in progress and prayed the court for an adjournment, after explaining that the offence contravened sections 97, 321 and 208 of the Penal Code of Benue State 2004.

    Counsel to the accused persons, Mr Silas Torwuam, applied for their bail pursuant to section 341 (2) (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code, pointing out that the offence was bailable.

    He promised that the accused would abide by the bail conditions.

    The Magistrate, Mrs. Franca Yuwa, granted the accused persons bail in the sum of N50, 000.00 each with a surety in like sum who must be a civil servant and resident in Makurdi.

    Yuwa adjourned the case to May 16, 2017 for mention

  • Abducted radio journalist regains freedom in Benue

    The Benue Police Command on Tuesday confirmed the release of a Radio Journalist, Mrs Iyuadoo Tor-Agbidye, who was kidnapped four days ago in her house in Makurdi.

    The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Moses Yamu, confirmed the release to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Makurdi.

    Yamu said that the kidnapped journalist was released in the early hours of Tuesday, adding that no ransom was paid.

    He explained that police investigations revealed that the kidnappers might have had strong connection with the family.

    He disclosed that some arrests were made in connection with the crime, stressing that investigations were ongoing to ensure full punishment of the culprits.

    NAN reports that the kidnapped journalist is married to Mr Achim Tor-Agbidye, the Zonal Manager of the First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Makurdi.

  • Illegal Arrest: Court fines Benue Police command N1M

    Illegal Arrest: Court fines Benue Police command N1M

    The High Court of Justice sitting in Makurdi, Benue state, Presided over by Justice Aondover Kakaan has ordered the Benue State Police Command to pay the sum of N1Million to two applicants, Mr. Abraham Lubem Abado and Deacon Toryila Amber over illegal arrest, detention and torture some times in December last year.

    Delivering judgement in a suit filed by the applicants through Mr. Terna Agerzua, Court also ordered the respondent to tender public apology to the applicants in two National Daily Newspapers and shall jointly and severally pay the 1st and 2nd applicants compensation.

    Justice Kakaan noted in his judgment that the respondents exhibited the high handedness, cruelty, show of crude and brute force and naked show of power in the circumstances leading to the case; noting that once the police made up their mind to arrest, it did not matter to them that the person they so claimed they were arresting upon reasonable suspicion, were infact innocent.

    According to Justice Kakaan, with the facts placed before the police even if they charged the applicants to court, it would have amounted to calling on them to prove their innocence and that again would have been unconstitutional.

    ” All said, I see merit in the application and hereby make an order declaring that the arrest, torture, degrading treatment and parade of the applicants as fraudsters before the press and by extension the public without any justifiable cause is illegal, unconstitutional, unwarranted and same act constitute a fragrant violation of the applicants rights”.

    It will be recalled that on the 18th of December, 2013, Mr. Abraham Lubem Abado, a graduate of Benue State University, Makurdi who had recently been discharged from the NYSC was putting his credentials together at a business centre somewhere near the Guaranty Trust Bank on Oturkpo road and had gone over and withdrew N15,000 from GTB through an ATM machine vide A/C No.118676790.

    While he was leaving the Bank, Mr. Abado noticed the 2nd respondent chatting with three persons one of whom was Mr. Toryila Amber and on his way back from the transaction joked that the policemen should ‘have mercy’ on the three person but the police rather arrested him along with three others and took them to the ‘B’ Division police station Makurdi where each of them was asked to pay N10,000 to secure freedom and upon refusal were taken and handed over to the State Anti Robbery Squad for interrogation.

    Even though the two applicants pleaded innocence, they were tortured and detained in a cell where they were ordered to sleep on a cold bare floor and subjected to other forms of inhuman and degrading treatment.