The Nation Newspaper

Tag: died

  • ‘Over 24 teachers have died in Ogun since January’

    The Ogun State chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS) yesterday said 24 of its members have died in the last three months.

    ASUSS State Chairman Lasisi Akeem told The Nation that Ogun State teachers needed prayers to overcome their challenges.

    Akeem said the health of many teachers in the state had deteriorated, resulting in deaths because many of them lacked requisite resources to get prompt and regular medical care.

    According to him, the teachers’ plight was worsened by their inability to access cooperative funds or bank loans since cooperative deductions from their salaries were no longer being remitted to fund managers in the last one year.

    He confirmed the following deaths: Mrs Raji Agnes Amope (St. Peter’s College (Jnr.), Abeokuta), Mrs Abdul Salam (Unity High School (Snr.), Abeokuta), Mrs Sodipo Feyisara), Mr Shittu Kamaldeen, (Imala Comprehensive High School, Imala), Mrs Alli Adeola Oluwatoyin (St. Leo’s College,  Abeokuta), Mr Soetan Ayodeji (Saje High School (Jnr.), Abeokuta), Mr Akindipe Timothy Ajadi (Saje High School, Abeokuta) and Bayewu Bamidele Abiodun (Baptist Girls College, Abeokuta).

    The union chairman also confirmed the death of Mrs Onibiyo Sonubi (Imagbon/Imaka CCHS), Akinbola Samson (Olumo High School, Abeokuta), Mr Okubajo Olakunle Oluwafemi (Alagbagba CHS), Mrs Jaji Muslimat Oluwakemi (Ososa CCHS) and a dozen others.

     

  • Building collapse: How girl, 9, died on birthday eve

    A victim of Saturday’s building collapse in Agege, Lagos State, would have turned nine yesterday, if not for the tragedy.

    Sherifat Olalere was one of the two victims of the collapsed building at 9, Abeje Street, Markaz, Agege.

    She was said to be drinking water in the kitchen when it collapsed on her.

    The other victim, Toyin Ogundimu, 35, died when the kitchen wall fell on her. Ogundimu lived in the house with her husband and children.

    Sherifat’s father, The Nation learnt, had told her and her siblings to stay in the mosque opposite their house till he returned home.

    The late Sherifat went home to take water when the building fell.

    A resident, who identified herself as Funmi, said Sherifat’s father told his children to stay in the mosque all day.

    “I learnt that Sherifat’s father told all his children not to stay in the house. He told them to stay in the mosque which is opposite the house; maybe he already sensed danger. Sherifat  and her siblings were all eating in the mosque when she went into the house to drink water; It is unfortunate that that was the last time we would all see her,” she said.

    A woman, who was washing clothes,  ran out when she saw the wall coming down.

    The building was sealed off yesterday; all the occupants have moved out.  Many gathered in groups discussing what happened in hushed tones. A tenant, Mustapha Salaudeen, was injured.

    One of the occupants, Tayo Adekunle, said it was unfortunate that the collapse led to the death of her neighbours.

    “I cooked at the kitchen on Friday; I also had my bath in the bathroom on Saturday morning before going to work. I was surprised to receive a call while I was at work on Saturday morning that my house has collapsed.  I am  yet to get over the shock.”

    She said she never noticed anything wrong with the building since she moved into it about a year ago.

    Adekunle said: “The only thing I know is that before I left the house that Saturday morning, I saw a bricklayer who was meant to fix some things in the building.  I did not know what the bricklayer was billed to do, but I was told that it was while the bricklayer was still trying to gather all he would need to fix the house that it collapsed.

    “It is so painful that Sherifat is dead because she was meant to celebrate her nine years birthday today (yesterday).  She stays here with her parents and four other siblings. Everybody living here has left.”

    A neighbour, Muhammed Aminu, said he was among those who took Ogundimu’s body for burial.

    “When I heard that this building has collapsed and led to Ogundimu’s death, I was in a sad state because Ogundimu, her husband and children attend the same mosque with me (Tijani Mosque). Being a Muslim, we had to bury her immediately in a burial ground in Agege here.”

    He described the late Ogundimu as a nice person, adding that the entire family is good.

    “She and her husband would always be at the mosque at every praying time with their children,” Aminu said.

  • How Shagaya died, by FRSC

    How Shagaya died, by FRSC

    •APC, Saraki, Obasanjo, others mourn ex-minister

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has given an account of how former Minister of Internal Affairs, Senator John Shagaya died.

    Shagaya, retired Brigadier-General, died on Sunday in a road accident on Langtang-Pankshin Road in Plateau State.

    In a statement, FRSC spokesman  Bisi Kazeem, said the Plateau State All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain was on his way to Jos when his Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) crashed into a tree around 2:25pm.

    He said: “An FRSC team from Langtang Unit Command was at the scene of the crash almost immediately after the crash.

    “He was travelling in a Toyota Land Cruiser Jeep with his driver and an orderly from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.

    “Preliminary report indicates that the driver lost control and hit a tree making the General to sustain a head injury that eventually led to his death.

    “The two injured aides of the General are currently in Pankshin General Hospital while the body of General Shagaya has been deposited at the Air Force Hospital Mortuary in Jos.”

    The details were similar to what the public had already learnt in news reports of the incident on Sunday evening.

    Kazeem said FRSC Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, had given his condolences to the family “while appealing to other motorists to always avoid whatever could cause mishap on the highways.”

    Shagaya served as minister of internal affairs under military President Ibrahim Babangida, and represented Plateau South in the senate from 2007-2011.

    He was recently appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as Chairman of the Board of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru near Jos.

    The APC has mourned the passing of Senator Shagaya.

    The party said Shagaya, who died at the age of 76 was a great loss to the country.

    “We recall his excellent service during his sub-regional assignment as Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) Commander. The late Shagaya also had distinguished tenures as Minister during the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida military regime and Senator between 2007 and 2011, when he moved several motions and initiated bills for the good of the country.

    “Indeed, the passage of Shagaya is a great loss to the country, but we are consoled by the fact that he had a meaningful and impactful life as a soldier, an administrator and lately as a politician, who was driven by the virtues of unity, patriotism, and selflessness,” the APC said in the statement.

    Senate Presiden, Bukola Saraki, expressed sadness over Shagaya,’s death.

    In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity Yusuph Olaniyonu, Saraki described the late Shagaya as a “fine officer and gentleman” who during his lifetime, gave his all in the service of his country, both as a soldier and politician.

    “Shagaya would be remembered for his meritorious service to the country and the West African sub-region as an active member of the Nigerian Armed Forces,”

    “As a politician, he was elected to represent Plateau South Senatorial District in the 6th Senate where he contributed to various legislations aimed at enhancing the nation’s democracy. He was the Chairman, Governing Board of National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru in Jos,” he stated.

    President of the Senate commiserated with the immediate family of the deceased and the government and people of Plateau State over the irreparable loss, while calling on the Federal Government to immortalize the late army General.

    Former President Olusegun Obasanjo described the death of Shagaya as “shocking.”

    In a  message  to Governor Simon Lalong, Obasanjo condoled with the governor and family of the late Shagaya.

    “I was shocked to receive the sad news of tragic death of Senator John Nanzip Shagaya.

    “He served his country meritoriously as a soldier, a military administrator and a lawmaker before he died after a tragic road accident.

    “He will be sorely missed by his family, his community and his colleagues in the Senate and surely by his State and his friends and former colleagues in the military.

    “May his soul rest in perfect peace and may God console his family, friends and peers,” Obasanjo said.

  • 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.­­­

  • And Apapa died…

    It’s most surreal, most implausible. They are probably Africa’s largest sea ports – the Apapa Wharf Terminal and the Tin-Can Island Port – two major ports on a stretch. The precincts of Apapa would rank among Africa’s niftiest residential as well as commercial cum industrial hub.

    Well laid out, carefully planned by mainly British, Lebanese, Indian and Nigerian settlers. Like all great port towns, Apapa had an abundance of banking and financial presence; huge manufacturing companies, assembly plants and of course, hordes of import-export logistics firms, clearing agencies and haulage companies.

    It also brimmed with hotels and hospitality facilities – night clubs, lounges and fun spots. It was haven to seafarers from across the world making stop overs and emptying into the warm embrace of Apapa. It was home to expatriates, fortune-hunting women, pirates and wharf rats grown fat.

    The streets of Apapa used to be lined with cash, so to speak. Many able-bodied men dressed up each day and trekked to Apapa, plodding the peripheries of the wharfs and warehouses of Apapa and they would return home at the end of the day, awash with cash. Hardball would wager that no dawn of Apapa grows into dusk without mountains of cash changing hands. Apapa is a billion dollars per day commercial proposition if properly rigged and primed.

    But Apapa is no more. Apapa has become an apparition and that is not speaking metaphorically. If Apapa were a man, he would be a dishevelled tramp, dusty and forlorn. And if she were a country, she would be designated a failed entity – wracked and soulless.

    Even her denizens deserted her. The residents of the highbrow Apapa GRA have migrated to saner parts of Lagos. The teeming population of wharf-hands, the night crawlers and waifs of the night are no more. If Apapa’s day was an apparition, her nights have long become empty and hollow.

    To boil it down, Apapa is the veritable metaphor for Nigeria – so much wealth and affluence yet so much decadence, waste and insouciance. Whoever leaves his duck that lays golden eggs unattended?

    First, the rail line running through the ports were long hampered. Second, parking lots in the port complex were auction recklessly. Third, tank farms were licensed in their hundreds on the same stretch as the sea ports. Lastly, the roads leading to the ports have failed for over a decade, completely defying successive federal governments.

    Consequently, trucks and tankers litter the entire length of the wharf roads without method or order – all access roads blocked. Most trucks wait in turn for weeks and when they are loaded it is impossible to exit.

    Exports rot on the way to the quays, and imports incur charges due to delay. Nunc Dimittis to Apapa, the symbol of modern malady

     

     

  • ‘None of our delegate died’

    The Ondo State government yesterday said those involved in an auto crash on the Okitipupa-Ore Road on Tuesday were not National Council of Niger Delta (NCND) delegates to the Niger Delta summit in the state.

    The government, through the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Segun Ajiboye, said the ill-fated vehicles, in which some passengers died and others injured were not carrying summit delegates.

    Two persons were reported to have died in an accident at Ode Aye in Okitipupa Local Government Area.

    The deceased, according to sources, were on their way to Igbokoda, where the Niger Delta Council Summit was holding.

    The state government denied the claim, saying the victims of the auto crash were not Ondo State delegates to the summit, but other travellers.

    The statement reads: “The Ondo State government wishes to state that none of the delegates, who attended the town hall meeting, was involved in the auto crash.

    “According to a police report, there was an auto crash in which a 42-year-old mother of five, Rukayat Teniola, from Onipakala in Ondo State, who was travelling for a private business, died. Four other passengers, who were injured in the crash, were rushed to a hospital. Three of them have been discharged.

    “Three vehicles, including a Volkswagen Golf passenger car with registration AG 12 REE, allegedly overloaded with six passengers from Ore to Okitipupa; a Dyna truck, with registration AKR 890 SA and a Mercedes lorry travelling from Okitipupa to Ore, were involved in the fatal crash.”

  • ‘None of our delegate died’

    The Ondo State government yesterday said those involved in an auto crash on the Okitipupa-Ore Road on Tuesday were not National Council of Niger Delta (NCND) delegates to the Niger Delta summit in the state.

    The government, through the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Segun Ajiboye, said the ill-fated vehicles, in which some passengers died and others injured were not carrying summit delegates.

    Two persons were reported to have died in an accident at Ode Aye in Okitipupa Local Government Area.

    The deceased, according to sources, were on their way to Igbokoda, where the Niger Delta Council Summit was holding.

    The state government denied the claim, saying the victims of the auto crash were not Ondo State delegates to the summit, but other travellers.

    The statement reads: “The Ondo State government wishes to state that none of the delegates, who attended the town hall meeting, was involved in the auto crash.

    “According to a police report, there was an auto crash in which a 42-year-old mother of five, Rukayat Teniola, from Onipakala in Ondo State, who was travelling for a private business, died. Four other passengers, who were injured in the crash, were rushed to a hospital. Three of them have been discharged.

    “Three vehicles, including a Volkswagen Golf passenger car with registration AG 12 REE, allegedly overloaded with six passengers from Ore to Okitipupa; a Dyna truck, with registration AKR 890 SA and a Mercedes lorry travelling from Okitipupa to Ore, were involved in the fatal crash.”

  • NSCDC operative, armed robber die in gun duel in Bayelsa

    NSCDC operative, armed robber die in gun duel in Bayelsa

    An operative of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) attached to Bayelsa Command and a suspected armed robber have died in a gun battle.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the incident took place along Kolo Creek road in Ogbia Local Government Area of the state on Wednesday.

    The Commandant of the NSCDC in the state, Mr Desmond Agu, confirmed the incident on Thursday and said that armed robbers laid ambush for a patrol van of the Corps and killed one of the operatives.

    He, however, praised his men for fighting back and overpowering the robbers with their superior gunfire resulting in the killing of one of the hoodlums and recovery of a riffle from the dead robbery suspect.

    Agu said the Command had handed over the riffle and the Corpse of the robber to the state Police Command.

    The armed robbers, according to an eye witness who preferred anonymity laid ambush for the Civil Defenders after allegedly attacking a security checkpoint along the road earlier.

    “When they escaped from the scene, they sighted a security patrol van manned by operatives of the NSCDC and hid in the bush.

    “When the van approached, they opened fire on it, killing one of the Corps operatives.

    ”But the operatives fired back at the hoodlums and shot one of the armed robbers while others escaped,” the witness said.

  • These men died

    These men died

    Three deaths happened in the past week. Two of them were personal, and the third was deeply professional. The first and personal one is that of Pa Jacob Mosanya, a labour activist and perennial fan of In Touch and The Nation. He struck a friendship with me about five years ago, and was like a father figure. He visited my office a number of times and showed his great love of poetry, history and politics that engaged our conversations. He wrote a book a few years ago on Awoism and the Western Region. He worked for many years with the Railways and was a committed Nigerian. I will miss his intellectual brio, his mental dynamism and paternal advice. He died two days after his 88th birthday. He had wished to outlive his father, who also died at 88.

    The other death was a little personal. The poet Derek Walcott died at 87. He visited Nigeria a few years ago, and I met with him for a long interview about his works. He told me my interview with him was different because I was familiar with his works. Many interviewers around the world were not. I interrogated him. His great work, Omeros, was a modern epic that domesticated Homer’s Odyssey in the Caribbean. He won the Nobel Prize principally on its strength. My favourite line from his work has haunted me: “You will love again the stranger that is yourself.” Another line? “I met history but it didn’t recognise me”

    The more distant death was of Jimmy Breslin, 88, the cigar-chomping journalist, who dared establishment, baited scoundrels and supported the common man. He wrote in a sunny, acerbic style, and maintained a column for over 40 years. He was a major icon of pen, and won the Pulitzer prize. He has been imitated in vain by many columnists and served as example in journalism classes. I never forget his view of column writing, maybe because I share it: “Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody I have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers.”

  • ‘My sister wouldn’t have died if she had stayed in the farm’

    ‘My sister wouldn’t have died if she had stayed in the farm’

    Relatives of victims yesterday besieged the Borno Specialist Hospital waiting for information on their loved ones being treated for injuries in the Airforce accidental bombing that claimed the lives of scores of people at the Internally Displaced Persons’ camp (IDPs) in  Rann, Kala-Balge Local Government of Borno State.

    The anxious relatives, mostly women, were standing or sitting outside the surgical ward of the International Red Cross (ICRC) hospital donated to the Borno Specialist Hospital where most  of the victims are receiving treatment.

    Adama Mohammed sat just a few metres away from the door of the surgical ward where  her sister had been successfully stabilised and responding to medical attention.

    She said:  “I spoke to my sister just a few minutes before the strike and she  told me she was at the farm. Then she called me that someone called to inform her that Red Cross were giving cards for food distribution so she would be leaving the farm to go and collect the card.

    “Even when she was about to go and collect the card, she called to tell me that she was leaving the house. It is difficult to believe that she is no more. If she had stayed back at the farm, she wouldn’t have died. This is a costly mistake from the soldiers,” Amadu said and broke down in tears.

     Abdullahi was waiting outside the theatre where doctors were fighting to save the life of his uncle, whose name he simply gave as  Yakubu. His chest was hit by a shrapnel from the miss-fired missile of the Air force.

    He held his rosary tight but with an exuding calm, asking God to take control of the surgery.

    According to him, a few hours before he had contacted his friends from neighboring Cameroon who informed him that more than 30 people mostly children were buried.

    “What I heard on the radio as death toll is incorrect. You know Cameroon is very close to that place and their telephone is working. I spoke with my friend who told me that 30 people were buried and most of them were children. People are still dying.”

    On whether the bombed place is actually an IDP Camp, Abdullahi said people from over 50 villages were gathered there of the Boko Haram crisis.

    Borno State Health Commissioner Dr. Haruna Mshelia, said  about 80 people had been evacuated and stabilised at the Borno State Specialist Hospital. Severe cases  were referred to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.