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  • I died, resurrected in kidnappers’ den, says Osayomore

    Edo ace musician and social critic, Mr. Osayomore Joseph, has released more details about his experiences in the hands of kidnappers in his latest album titled: ‘30 days and 30 nights in the evil forest’.

    The album was launched yesterday in Benin City.

    Osayomore said he died and resurrected in kidnappers’ den.

    In the album, Osayomore told his kidnappers that he could never be poor again, no matter the ransom collected from him.

    The musician was abducted on October 4 and released on November 3 after he paid ransom. His wife was shot.

    In the album, he said he was nicknamed ‘Container’ in the forest by his kidnappers.

    Osayomore said the word ‘Container’ means money to his abductors.

    Narrating how he sustained a leg injury, he said his captors took him on a bicycle for two hours and while on the bike, a tank fell on his leg, resulting in the injury.

    “Despite the injury, the kidnappers beat me up.”

    Police Commissioner Babatunde Kokumo said he was disturbed when he heard of the kidnap of the music maestro.

    “But today we thank God. I don’t want to start revealing the activities and efforts of the police. But we thank God almighty today that Osayomore is alive to entertain all of us,” he added.­­­

  • Sleeping safely and soundly in a mosquito den

    Small doctor, where art thou?

    This is the season of the rain and of the mosquito! Small Doctor is the nickname of Temitope Adekunle the musician from downtrodden Agege, a suburb of Lagos, who sang hardly known mosquito killer but almost levelled up with high flying stars, such as Olamide, when he came up with Gbera.

    Mosquito killer is like a rudderless ship on a stormy sea, directionless and prone to wreckage. Even when the Small Doctor came up with a video presentation to charge the batteries, literally speaking, the effort would appear to come to naught. For, still there was no clearly visible message in the marketing matching. The lyrics are all about “I dey kill mosquito well well” which translates somewhat as “I am good at killing mosquitoes”. But, for goodness sake, which mosquitoes aret hese? Are they the treasury thieves or the social parasites, Tunji Braithwaite said in a presidential election campaign were “rats and cockroaches” he would eliminate from the corridors of power if he became president of Nigeria in 1979 or 1983?” or, are they real mosquitoes which kill hundreds of thousands of Nigerians every year, striking the young and the old, men and women, pregnant women and infants?

    I took little interest in MOSQUITO KILLER until the idea for this column came up, just before the rain season when scorching heat deploys hordes of mosquitoes into many homes.

    I thought about the Small Doctor, about Mosquito killer and about Mr. Erumoselle Sanni Isah. Mr. Isah runs a communications ideas company in Lagos, Still eto productions which generates marketing ideas. I wondered what he would do with Mosquito Killer if it comes his way. As for me, I would make a video in which the Small Doctor would don the garb of a sanitary inspector, fumigating all open drains and water receptacles, handing out “treated” mosquito nets and making small talk about how to keep the mosquito at bay, to reduce the incidence of malaria and malaria fever induced deaths and things like that. The dancing will be minimal. The message will ride high on it. It is possible the government or the World Health Organisation (WHO) or any other organisation would recognise the Small Doctor and make him its “Ambassador” in the battle against the mosquito! Mr Isah agrees such a project may make the Small Doctor to “blow”, as they say in the Nigerian music industry. Meanwhile, the Small Doctor has caught on a little more in the market with GBERA than he did with MOSQUITO KILLER.This new song is about dog racing, a current social trend which he has highlighted from the shadows to the point that this title, GBERA, has gained the currency of a slang in the crowded streets and neighborhoods. I hope that the video presentation would not lack a good massage.

    Mosquito catcher

    On a more serious note, the mosquito killer of old is back in town. This time, it is called mosquito catcher. I do not remember what name it bore in the 1950s when my father hung it from the ceiling of our rooms. It looked like a roll of photographic film unwound from the spool and bore a sticky surface with sweet fragrance. The fragrance invited to it insects such as the fly, the cockroach. Once they perched on it, presumably for the “nectar” they got gummed to the wax and died there. And when in my fathers’opinion, this device had caught enough insects, he brought it down and fixed a new one. I guess this protected our family against mosquito bites and malaria fever. But the mosquito killer disappeared from the Nigerian market soon after the country’s independence. I took little or no notice of it when I grew up and was on my own.

    Thought of it flooded back to me last month when, like many people in Lagos, I was bombarded by a hail of mosquitoes every night despite a perfect mosquito-proof netting on all windows in the house. You only needed to run your palm over your arm to realise many mosquitoes had lined up there for a while to suck your blood.  I hate the mosquitos spray and the mosquito coil because of the dangerous side effects of their chemicals. And I was to learn the well-advertised anti-mosquito body cream, which keeps mosquitos away from you, have bits of insecticides. Bits of them are said to be safe for human health. But I have learned to see well beneath the surface of such claims. I am persuaded the explosion in the use of mosquito insecticides (sprays and coils and air fresher’s) have a hand in the growing wave of asthma and respiratory ailments, and even cancer of all sorts.

    HEN my bedroom became a semblance of a mosquito den a few weeks ago, I went for a brand of insect (including mosquito catcher) which performed some wonders. my son who hung one on the ceiling of his room says the mosquitoes are virtually gone. Mrs. Florence Akinbom Fusi has another testimony and has promised to tell mosquito-troubled people about her experience. She and her daughters, Cella and Daisy, were finding it difficult to enjoy a shared evening, watching television, in the sitting-room because of mosquitos. Their bedrooms faired only a little better. But since they have been using the mosquito catcher in these rooms, they have encountered little or no mosquito menace. Mrs. Fusi says she doesn’t know how it works for she has found no mosquitoes stuck to the insect catcher. Rather, she has seen flying termites, those winged insects which besiege a light source for warmth, the evening after a rain. As children we caught plenty of them, threw them in a bucket or bowe of water, washed them thoroughly, strung them on a clear broomstick, immersed the broomsticks in saline (salt) water and finally roasted the game for a meal. Mrs. Fusi says it is possible the mosquitoes get near the insect catcher and are knocked out and down by the smell of chemical on the wax. I tend to believe her because my son’s insect catcher, too, like mine, has caught no mosquito, yet our rooms are mosquito free, and actually, there is a mosquito impression on the package of the product. The experiences of other users of this product should make interesting reading. I suspect the mosquito catcher even better when stuck to the celling near and electric light source. But what happens when power fails all through the night?

    MALARIA FEVER

    Many people like me can live with the mosquito for as long as it doesn’t disturb our sleep by humming into our ears. Such people are GENOTYPE AA and such people buckle easily. SS and SC genotype people are the worst. AS people take things for granted. Maybe they wouldn’t, if they knew that the mosquito can cause disease similar in severity to the Lassa fever caused by a specie of rats. For AA, SS and SC people, the fear of the mosquito should be the beginning of wisdom. Thus, after several bouts in one year with the attendant loss of energy, money and the time to do useful things, they seek help from alternative medicine when pharmaceutical medicines have failed. I have an AA genotype son who, like the mother, also an AA, has outgrown his malaria fever attacks. Mr. Rogba Okunlade, one of my colleagues, first at The Guardian Newspaper and later at The Comet    Newspaper, should remember this story. Mr. Okunlade and I traveled in his car to Babcock University for the matriculation of a Marylyn, daughter of an acquaintance of mine. Halfway through the programme, I received a text message on my cell phone from the boarding house master of my son at MODEL COLLEGE, KANKON, near Badagry. It read:”Your son is ill, come quickly otherwise it may be too late”.

    We rushed out on a journey of about 100 kilometres through Sango Ota,Ilaro/Ado Odo and places such as these, suffering three tyre bust. To cut the story shot, we brought him to June 1 Hospital on Opebi Road, Ikeja, Lagos, where, in addition to his medication he also took his herbs. These included Lemon grass tea, Karela tea and Egungun eja (Brimstone). I can vouch for them all in the therapy to prevent or cure malaria fever. There is yet another called Chanka Piedra called stone Crusher by the Asians because it dissolves kidney and gall bladder stones. It is a tropical rain season herbs the Yorubas call Ehenbi Sowo or Ehin Olube. These herbs are bitter.So, many children, including my son, didn’t like them. I was tired of being summoned at short notice to pick a sick child from school. So, I struck a deal with my son. He had attained the age during which young boys become conscious of their bodies and wish to grow muscles for sex or other appeal. At that time, I sold a product named MUSCLE BLAST, which sportsmen took to grow muscles. I did not like him to take tinned milk or powder tinned milk or powder milk to school. The damaging effects of the sludges they cause in the intestine were obvious in oral thrust (candida) on his tongue, breadth and foul-smelling poop.

    HE MUSCLE BLAST is sweet, and, so, I would not give it to anyone who does not burn sugar by the minute. But I conceded it to him. In his presence, to carry him along as they say, I mixed one whole jar with one whole can of FOREVER ALO LITE, a nutritional milk formula, and the powder of lemon grass, Brimstone, Karela and Ehinbisowo. The taste was balanced slightly in favour of Sweet. The anti-malarial herbs did their jobs well in this unusual marriage. And till he left school, my son never came down with malaria fever. When I lived in a company house at Ikeja, I grew about 100 heads of Lemon grass, the flower beds which lined the perimeter fences. I also grew Blue Vervain (Verbana Histata) for the Iiver, gums, sound sleep etc. and sundry other herbs. I obtained the powder herbs from Mrs. Elizabeth Obauwana, of Health Ways, who freeze-dried them at Iju for sale on Allen Avenue. Today, although she is still agile enough for such business, this well-known florist would appear to have developed interest in other fields of human activity. I will always remember her especially for KARELA, which also helps to lower blood sugar. As for Lemon grass, no one in my family had breakfast without having taken a glass or two of Lemon grass tea in those years our children were growing up. Such was my confidence that Plasmodium, the mosquito-injected parasite which causes malaria fever, cannot exist in a bloodstream infused with Lemon grass that I briefly advised our doctors not to give our children anti-malaria injections or other medications whenever they ran temperature and went to hospital. Many doctors, quite naturally, like to climb a mountain not from the summit. Thus, unless a blood test had been run to guide them, they would like to assume malaria attack. It is only after anti-malaria medications seem not to work that other assumptions would come up. Only few doctors add antibiotics to the starter anti-malaria. I had read of the finding of a study by Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and of another by the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO) that hot water extracts of Lemon grass effectively kill Plasmodium in the blood stream without much ado. In my work as a public advocate of Traditional Medicine, there was a time I wore Lemon grass oil as perfume to invite attention to lemon grass medicine. If people who were down with malaria were brought to my office, I would ask them to procure water in 1.5 litters bottle. Into this, I would discharge between two and three drops of lemon grass essential oil. Within about 30 minute or one hour of sipping the water, they would be on their feet again, agile and cracking. I often did the same with (clove oil) for people who had tooth ache.

    Another proprietary product I will not easily forget is DOMKAT ALI, sold by DYNAPHARM. Known more for its potential to boost stamina, especially for male sexual virility. Domkat Ali has at least one anti-malarial component which gives it the kicks against plasmodium: all of these, and many more that would be mentioned from time to time, should help the earnest health hunter overcome the menace of mosquitoes this rain season. For the Small Doctor, nothing is lost as yet. I DEY KILL MOSQUITO WELL WELL is an evergreen lyric which will continue to sell for as long as there are mosquitoes around to torment our health and disturb our peace of mind, and for as long message in this song (MOSQUITO KILLER) can be well adapted to our circumstances and immediate needs.

    So let us all welcome the rain season and the mosquito with more confidence irrespective of whether our genotype is AA, SS or SC or even AS.

  • Straight from HELL! Rescued women, girls relive horrifying tales from Boko Haram’s den

    Straight from HELL! Rescued women, girls relive horrifying tales from Boko Haram’s den

    Their tales would melt even a heart of stone. As they try to settle down in the camp of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Yola, Adamawa State, the 275 girls and women rescued from the hideout of the deadly Boko Haram sect in Sambisa Forest, Borno State, have been telling the stories of their journey to hell.

    Most of them looked extremely malnourished and were even too weak to alight from the trucks that conveyed them from the notorious forest. In most cases, they had to be helped by journalists and officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). On seeing the terrible conditions of the women and their malnourished children, most people at the camp, including other IDPs who had been there before the new arrivals, could not help breaking into tears.

    Their steps were feeble as they walked towards the NEMA registration centre at the camp. Adamawa State coordinator of NEMA, Mallam Saad Bello, said that many of the Boko Haram captives had lost their lives because they had no food. Others who sustained bullet wounds had to be rushed to the Intensive Care Unit of the Federal Medical Centre, Yola.

    At the time of filing this report, no fewer than 19 of the Sambisa returnees were being treated at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Federal Medical Centre, undergoing treatment for injuries sustained from bullets and bombs. Others were admitted at the NEMA Clinic at Malkohi Camp.

    Seventeen-year-old Fatima, who was already carrying a baby, recalled that she was in her village near Damboa when gunmen believed to be members of the Boko Haram sect came and started shooting sporadically and ordered her and other girls and women in the village to go with them. She said the invaders first took them to Gwoza town before taking them to Sambisa Forest where they slept in open place for more than nine months.

    Another victim, 20-year-old Mrs. Hadiza Yusuf, an indigene of Kafin Hausa village in Madagali Local Government Area, said she was abducted by Boko Haram men who fed her and others with maize flour and water. She said: “They turned us into slaves in the forest and compelled us to be serving them on a daily basis. They killed my husband, Dauda. But we thank God now that the government has brought us here at the Malkohi Camp. We are grateful to them.”

    Miss Halima Usman (18), also from Kafin Hausa village, said she was also brutalised by the Boko Haram sect. She said she was married to a man in Madagali before Boko Haram men killed her husband and she returned to her parents’ house at Kafin Hausa. But she was also seized by the gunmen at Kafin Hausa and taken into Sambisa Forest.

    Halima said: “At the Sambisa Forest, the gunmen demanded that I married them, but I told them that I was already pregnant. They said once I was delivered of my baby, I should marry them. I agreed to do so but help later came and we were rescued.”

    Some of the rescued women who spoke with our correspondent said they had to trek for three days before they were rescued and finally arrived Yola. Reports indicated that the journey to Yola was delayed due to mopping up operations being conducted by the military’s advance rescue team, so as to evade any land mine that might have been planted by the insurgents.

    The gaunt looks of the rescued girls and women elicited sympathy from onlookers. Many of them looked hunger-stricken and their children kept wailing as a result of illness and malnutrition. Many of the women and children had to be assisted as they could not walk on their own. Many of them could not even alight from the vehicles that brought them from Sambisa as a result of exhaustion and hunger.

    One of the returnee women, 23-year-old Asabe Aliyu, a mother of four and native of Delsak village near Chibok, was seen vomiting blood as a result of an internal injury she sustained from excessive beating, which she said was the order in the Boko Haram enclave. She said the sect’s members hauled all manner of vulgar comments at them, while she was forced to marry one of the sect’s members after series of sexual molestation she suffered from different men on a daily basis. Death, she said, was the yardstick of judgment at any slightest mistake.

    Asabe said: “I was abducted from Delsak six months ago when the village was overrun by Boko Haram. First, I was taken from my village to a forest close to Cameroun. They turned me into a sex machine and ended up impregnating me. And with my condition as a pregnant woman, I had to cook for them whenever they needed food.”

    Another returnee, Lami Musa, had a three-day-old baby girl. She looked tired and haggard and had to be supported before she could walk. Amid intense tears, she said: “They adducted the whole of my family and killed my husband at Kilkasa Forest while I was four months pregnant. They took us into Sambisa Forest and we slept in open field. At times, we would go without water and food for days. Three days ago, I gave birth to this baby girl. As I am talking to you, I cannot ascertain the status of her health, as both of us have not had a bath since I gave birth.”

    Another woman from Michika Local Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Maryamu Adamu, said she saw hell in Sambisa. She said she could not say if her two children and husband were alive or dead because she had not set her eyes on them since she was captured and taken into Sambisa Forest about nine months ago. Mrs Adamu’s temperament was more of thanksgiving because she said she was lost but now found.

    She said: “I know that I was dead. My existence was just a mere shadow as nothing moved me. But now that I am here, I confirm that I am a living being. My brother, I thank God that I am saved. I really thank God.”

    It was a joyful moment for Mallam Ishaya Amos, an IDP in Malkohi Camp in Yola. He was reunited with four of his cousins and their children whom he thought were dead. They were among the 275 rescued the troops, causing Amos to shed some tears of joy.

    Most of the girls and women came from Madagali, Michika, Damboa, Kilkasa, Delsak and some of the villages surrounding Damboa.

  • Suspected kidnappers’ den demolished in Anambra

    Suspected kidnappers’ den demolished in Anambra

    Anambra State government demolished yesterday two buildings belonging to suspected kidnappers at Okija in Ihiala Local Government and Uruagu in Nnewi North Local Government.

    The buildings were allegedly used for kidnap by the suspected abductors.

    Governor Willie Obiano has since assumption of office demolished nine buildings suspected to be used for kidnapping.

    He vowed to rid the state of kidnappers and other criminals and inaugurated “Operation Mkpochapu”.

    A source said Police Commissioner Usman Gwary and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, Chikodi Anara, led the demolishing team to Okija and Nnewi.

    At Umuatuegwu, Uhuobo village in Okija, the team pulled down a storey building and a bungalow belonging to the late Chief Pius Osuchukwu,  which was allegedly used by two of his sons to keep abducted victims.

    The source said one of them called “Akwaa” is still at large, while his elder brother is now in police net.

    The Nation learnt that the two suspects are the sons of the deceased’s first wife, Mrs. Rosaline Osuchukwu, who is also late.

    Her funeral will hold tomorrow.

    Gwary alleged that the gang kept kidnapped victims, including the Access Bank manager and cashier, in the buildings.

    “Others kept in the buildings included the manager of Julius Berger Plc, who was on holiday, a member of the House of Assembly, Dr. Emeka Aniebonam, the manager of CCC Construction Company, among others.”

    Gwary and Anara hailed the officer in charge of the Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS), James Nwafor, for his efforts in fishing out criminals.

    The police commissioner said the gang used the building to make over N200million from the victim.

    At Uruagu Nnewi, he said the demolished bungalow belonged to a kidnap suspect, Jude Okeke, who was killed in gun battle with the police last year.

    Gwary said the deceased was one of the suspected kidnappers, who trained other notorious abductors in the state.

    He said the building was used to keep kidnapped victims, including the Chairman of Emeka Offor Foundation, Sir Tony Obi, the Chairman of Nnewi Parts Dealers called Iroko, the former chairman of Nnewi North Local Government, Mr. Ernest Obiora, among others.

  • Southeast, Southsouth: den of kidnappers

    Southeast, Southsouth: den of kidnappers

    On October 24, the police raided the hideout of a major kidnapping ring in Anambra State. In the process, it rescued a hostage and killed three kidnappers in a shootout. Three others were arrested.

    The activities of kidnappers have given the country the image of being one of the worst countries in the world for kidnapping for ransom, a major criminal enterprise worth millions of dollars a year.

    Anambra State Police Commissioner Bala Nasarawa said police raided the kidnappers’ hideout in the city of Ihiala, but they came under fire. “They have been responsible for most kidnappings in the state and environs,” he said, adding that the gang’s leader was arrested a few months ago and had helped police track them down.

    “Our operatives are working assiduously to track down fleeing wounded members of the syndicate,” after the shootout, Nasarawa said, giving no details of how many had fled.

    They had recovered a rocket launcher, four rockets, 18 AK-47 assault rifle magazines and several rifles, he added.

    The state is among the parts of Nigeria worst affected by kidnapping, which include the oil-rich southeast.

    Anambra State Governor Peter Obi launched a crackdown on kidnapping gangs in September , giving police authority to seal off or destroy the property of suspected gang members.

    Two houses belonging to an armed robbery and kidnap suspect, Emeka Ezekude, were demolished on the orders of Obi.

    Obi, who led the demolition exercise, said it was part of the war against kidnapping and other crimes in the state.

    He said any building linked with kidnapping and armed robbery in the state would be demolished.

    He warned that government would not allow anybody to benefit from proceeds of kidnap and other forms of crime.

    Obi assured that government was already winning the battle as the wave of kidnap across the state had drastically reduced

    The governor commended the police and other security agencies for their sustained efforts to rid the state of criminals and assured of continued government support to security operatives.

    The Deputy Commissioner of police in charge of operations, Mr Ayole Abeh, who accompanied the governor to Uli for the exercise, explained that the suspect confessed to being an armed robber and a kidnapper during interrogation.

    One of the buildings, a nine-bedroom executive bungalow, was still at the finishing touches, while the other was a four bedroom bungalow.

    The suspect was said to belong to the kidnap gang led by the Olisa Ifejika, whose mansions were demolished at Oraifite in Ekwusigo Local Government three months ago.

    Ifejika was said to have named Ezekude as a member of his gang while being interrogated by the police and investigations led to the discovery of arms and ammunition in his house at Uli.

    Items recovered from the house included, one rocket grenade, three grenade propellers, two A.K47 riffles, zero six riffle, 27 A.K47 magazines, 170 rounds of live ammunition and nine chains used in restraining kidnap victims.

    The arms and ammunition were hidden underground in plastic containers in his premises. The demolition brings to three the number of the exercise already carried out in the state.

    Foreigners are sometimes targets of abductions, especially oil workers, although this has sharply decreased since a 2009 amnesty with militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta.

    Hardly does a day pass without a new kidnapping being carried out, usually of professionals or relatives of politicians.

    Police say kidnappings often increase towards Christmas, when gang members need more money for festivities and gifts. It is unclear if the kidnap of Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-iweala yesterday has anything to do with this trend.

    The African Insurance Organisation recently reported that Nigeria accounts for 25 per cent of kidnap-for-ransom cases reported worldwide within the last one year. The Insurance Institute of Mauritius, which hosted the AIO’s 18th African Reinsurance Forum, disclosed this in its newsletter on kidnap and ransom insurance cover during the forum held in October 2012. The association stated that Nigeria had been designated as the global capital for kidnap-for-ransom due to the huge record of kidnap cases reported in the country yearly.

    ASI Global Response, a leading response consultant in the field of kidnap for ransom, extortion and hostage-taking, in its report on kidnapping in Nigeria for the period of January to June 2012, said of the reported kidnappings that occurred in Nigeria, 50 per cent of the victims were businessmen, businesswomen or their family members.

    The report reads: “The second most targeted group in 2012 has been local rulers, politicians or their family members, at 24 per cent of reported cases. Doctors and priests/pastors have accounted for nine and four per cent of victims, respectively. Most abductions (43 per cent) occur while the victims are travelling on roads, although they often take place at victims’ homes (29 per cent) or their places of work (18 per cent). The average initial ransom demand in 2012 has been US$490,000 with settlements averaging US$50,000. It should be noted, however, that ransom figures are rarely reported and these averages may be on the low side due to lack of data.”