The Nation Newspaper

Tag: father

  • Father, docked for raping daughter

    A 52-year-old man, Chukwuma Eze, was on Wednesday charged before an Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court in Lagos for allegedly raping his daughter.

    The accused, a driver, who resides at No. 2, Agbeke Close, Iyana -Era, Badagry-Express way, a suburb of Lagos, is facing a charge of rape.

    The prosecutor, Sgt. Raphael Donny, told the court that the offence was committed in June 2016 at the accused’s residence.

    “The accused raped his 17-year-old daughter and threatened to kill her if she tells anyone.

    “The victim’s mother was separated from her father and because of this, she stays with her mother and goes to her father for holidays.

    “When the victim got to her mother’s house, she told her what happened,’’ he said.

    Donny said that the accused was later apprehended by the police.

    The offence contravened Section 259 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

    The accused, however, entered a “not guilty’’ plea.

    The Chief Magistrate, Mrs Davies Abegunde, granted the accused bail in the sum of N500, 000 with two sureties in like sum.

    Abegunde adjourned the case to March 22, for advice from the Office of the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions. (NAN)

  • Siblings beat up elder brother over father’s estate

    Two siblings, who allegedly beat their elder brother to a pulp, were yesterday arraigned at an Apapa Chief Magistrates’ Court in Lagos on a two-count charge of conspiracy and assault.

    Adetola Sobowale, 36, andhis brother Adeleye, 29 of Jakande Housing Estate, Isolo, Lagos, allegedly committed the offence on January 24 at 19, Rhoda Crescent, Apapa.

    Prosecuting Inspector Tony Elibeh, told Chief Magistrate Titus Abolarinwa that the accused conspired and assaulted their elder brother, Adetoyese.

    “The two brothers beat the man to a pulp. Their deceased father had put them in charge of all his estate.

    “Since Adetoyese is the most senior, he took charge of the property.

    “The accused, who were not pleased with the way their brother was managing their father’s estate, decided to stand up to him by beating him up.

    “The complainant said he was at a tenant’s house when his brothers suddenly came around and pounced on him. He reported the case to the police and the duo was arrested for further questioning,” Elibeh said.

    The accused pleaded not guilty.

    The offence contravened Sections 171 and 409 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011, according to the prosecutor.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Section 171 prescribes three years imprisonment for an assault occasioning harm, while Section 409 provides two years for conspiracy.

    Chief Magistrate Titus Abolarinwa granted the accused N50,000 bail with one surety each in the like sum.

    Further hearing in the case has been fixed for March 8.

  • Man protests alleged plot to seize father’s farmland

    Crisis is brewing in Ise Ekiti, headquarters of Ise/Orun Local Government Area of Ekiti State where a farmer, Olomi Arogundade, is fighting hard to avoid being dispossessed of a farmland belonging to his late father.

    Arogundade, 52, is claiming that the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Owoseni Ajayi, is using his powers and position to support another party to take over the land.

    But Ajayi has denied the accusation, saying he was only exercising the constitutional powers bestowed on him by law to ensure that justice is done in the land case already before the court.

    Arogundade described the unfolding scenario as a ‘breach of law and order’ as he lamented the seizure of a farmland allegedly belonging to his father, Suberu Arogundade.

    He revealed that his father, Suberu Arogundade, of Omiomo Street, Ise Ekiti, owned a farm land at Edu village, Agbado Road, Ise Ekiti.

    According to him, Suberu filed a suit before the Magistrate’s Court against Sunday Ogunmuyite and Ojo Ogunmuyite (now deceased) in 2001 with the court delivering judgment on December 5, 2006 in his father’s favour.

    The defendants, according to Arogundade, were represented by Mr. E.K. Omosebi, a lawyer from the chambers of Owoseni Ajayi and Associates-the law firm of the  present Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ekiti State.

    He claimed that Boyede Ogunmuyite and Toyin Ogunmuyite (the defendants’ children) still continued to trespass on the Edu farmland, unlawfully harvesting crops allegedly belonging to Arogundade, despite the court judgment.

    Counsel to Arogundade, Mr. M. A.   Daramola, explained that “the father of my client was the plaintiff in a land matter, Suit No. ISECC/24/2001:Suberu Arogundade v. Sunday Ogunmuyite and Ojo Ogunmuyite,  determined by the Customary Court, Ise Ekiti and in which judgment was delivered in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendants in 2006.”

    He noted that “the judgment specifically restrained the defendants, children, wives and whosoever from further trespass to the cocoa farm.

    “Our client, Olomi Arogundade assumed the management of the farm thereafter to take care of his father and family as his father took ill, but the children of the defendants in that case have since been disturbing the lawful enjoyment of the fruit of the judgment.

    “The defendants in that case (who are now late) were represented by Owoseni Ajayi and Associates. The judgment remains binding as there was no appeal against the decision of the court.”

    Daramola said subsequent to 2006 judgment, the children of the defendants of the case-Boyede Ogunmuyite and Toyin Ogunmuyite-still continued to trespass on the farm land, by harvesting crops, issue threat to the life of the child of the plaintiff (Olomi Arogundade).

    He further said: “Consequent upon this, the matter was reported to the police. The police took over the handling of the case with the Chief Magistrate’s Court.

    “Our client is the nominal complainant in the charges. The charges are MIS/25c/2016:C.O.P v. Boyede Ogunmuyite and others and MIS/42c/2016: C O P v. Toyin Ogunmuyite and othes.

    Daramola noted that “the accused persons in the first charge was charged for threat to life while the accused person in the second charge is arraigned for stealing cocoa seeds from the farm of the complainant.

    The lawyer expressed dismay that the state Ministry of Justice suddenly took over the case from police prosecutor “in order to serve the personal interest of the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice” whose chamber has been representing the accused persons”.

    Daramola further explained that for necessary interventions, his client has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Director, State Security Service (Ekiti State command), Governor Ayo Fayose, Chief Judge, Ekiti State Judiciary.

    He said his client had earlier forwarded a petition to the Attorney-General to hands off the case and desist from taking over the matter from the police prosecutors who, according to him, consists of lawyers who are capable to prosecute the case competently.

    In his reaction, Ajayi maintained that the position of law is supreme and therefore must be adhered to.

    Ajayi said:  ”The Attorney-General is constitutionally mandated to prosecute all cases and several lawyers do come to complain that their cases are badly handled by the police, and that the Ministry of Justice should take over.

    “We assign lawyers in the Ministry of Justice to take over such matters from the police.”

    On Arogundade’s issue, Ajayi explained that a lawyer from his chambers sought the take-over of the case by the Ministry of Justice “because they don’t have confidence in the way police are handling the matter.”

    Ajayi further explained: “I assigned Barristers Aderiye Yinka Martins and Femi Onipede from the Ministry of Justice to handle the matter based on the petition written by the lawyers to the accused persons.

    ”It was written in the petition that the accused was convicted over a land matter. The accused had earlier been convicted by the same prosecutor, by the same Magistrate over this land matter.

    “Another charge was brought again over the same land matter, where the accused have been convicted. They also brought the third one, by the same prosecutor, by the same Magistrate.

    “Do we say we should not look into the matter, when they consult the Ministry of Justice?”

    On the 2006 judgment that favoured the plaintiff, Ajayi explained that civil matters are different from criminal matters, saying:  ”The issue written on the petition is that the Magistrate went into purely civil matters, whereas no crime is alleged.

    “We have the right to look into the matter. The accused person is saying he did not commit a crime, and these people alleged crime out of civil matters over the same land matter.

    “The counsel to the accused said the Ministry of Justice, which the Constitution has given the power to look into criminal issues, should help them look into the matter. There is no sentiment attached to it.

    “No decision has been taken.  No conclusion has been made.  The only thing is that the Ministry of Justice has taken over the matter so as to look into the merits of it.”

    Ajayi said it is not out of place for a lawyer working in his chambers to write petition to the Ministry of Justice if they observed some lapses in the way police are handling their matters.

    He argued that Owoseni Ajayi and Associates is a law firm independent of Owoseni Ajayi who is Ekiti State Commissioner for Justice.

    However, Daramola and his client (Olomi Arogundade) have declared that “unless justice is allowed to be dispensed without the involvement of the people at the corridors of power, the state may soon start witnessing anarchy and a breakdown of law and order.”

    Arogundade, therefore, called on well-meaning Nigerians to “come to his rescue”, saying all the attempts are to illegally drive them out of the farmland.

     

  • Father held for ‘abusing son, 8

    Father held for ‘abusing son, 8

    The police yesterday arrested a man, Adeyemi Adekunle, for allegedly brutalising his eight-year-old.

    Adekunle, who lives at 20, Kolawole Street, Dopemu, reportedly locked the boy up with three of his siblings in their home after causing him a fracture in both hands.

    It was gathered that the boy was declared missing on Saturday by the Dopemu Police Station, but was found on Monday morning and returned to his father.

    It was gathered that Adekunle’s landlord reported him and his wife to the police for maltreating their children.

    The landlord, it was learnt, told the police that Adekunle had been looking for ways to send the children out since his separation with their mother.

    Detectives were said to have confirmed what the landlord said, and arrested the suspect’s.

    Police spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent (SP), said the matter had been transferred to Gender Office of the State Command.

  • Dayo Bush set for father’s 80th birthday

    Dayo Bush set for father’s 80th birthday

    As one moves from the inexperience of youth to the sable maturity of age, life transforms from quest for excitement on the fast lane to a school where lessons are dispensed to the younger generation. From the life of Otunba Bushura Alebiosu, who recently turned 80, is a plethora of lessonsthe importance of hard work, the need for passion and diligence in one’s callings, the benefits of constant self-development and the power of love.

    The prominent politician, who holds two chieftaincy titles in Ijebuland, has proved his mettle in various capacities throughout his storied life. The father of former House of Representatives member, Dayo Bush, and his wife Ekundayo, the Otunba Fuwagbuyi of Ijebuland, are well respected in traditional circles.

    In a display of rare, undying love, the Otunba Gbelegbuwa of Ijebuland, whose 80th birth day this year coincided with his sojourn abroad, has decided to hold the celebrations in December alongside the celebration of his wife’s 70th birthday. Otunba Alebiosu, fondly called Bush from a contraction of his first name, is the first Vice-Chairman of the Ijebu Council of Otunbas. The upcoming birthday party is sure to attract his fellow chiefs and other prominent personalities.

  • Shina Peller shuns father’s shadow

    Shina Peller shuns father’s shadow

    Greatness is generally seen as a preserve of the wise. Heroes are acclaimed great because they do great deeds and the wise achieve greatness because instead of trying to be as great as heroes, they possess the wisdom to do something different. If the late professor Abiola Peller who dazzled the world with his supernatural feats was a hero, his son, Shina Peller, is great because he employs wisdom.

    Having grown up witnessing his father, a renowned magician, perform incredible feats, Shina was wise enough to know that he would never be able to rise above his father’s shadow unless he left the world of tricks and wonders and launched himself into a new field. Thus, the man known as ‘the one with the magical hands’ began his journey to self-made influence. Scorning his father’s fame as a conjurer, Shina Peller delved into the energy and entertainment industries.

    The light-complexioned head honcho of Aquila Oil & Gas has ditched trick-making for money-making. Only recently, he floated Quilox, a night club restaurant and all-round entertainment spot on Ozumba Mbadiwe Road, Victoria Island, Lagos. His influence in the social scene has grown to the extent that the launch of the night club about two years ago drew governors and other prominent people around the country.

  • Father, mother, two kids found dead at home in Oyo

    Father, mother, two kids found dead at home in Oyo

    IT was all tears on Wednesday at Isale-Oyo community in Atiba Local Government of Oyo State, when a family of five members were discovered dead in a mysterious circumstance.

    The victims, who include the husband, his junior wife, two children and a visiting uncle, were found dead inside their new home.

    Investigation revealed that the deceased husband’s junior wife had just completed the house, which she bought when it was under construction.

    The family members moved into the building on Tuesday, preparatory for its warming on Wednesday.

    When the senior wife was contacted by the husband to follow them to the house, she excused herself.

    The family members were said to have celebrated the Sallah with friends, relations and neighbours, after which the man invited the guests to attend the house warming the next day.

    Neighbours and relations besieged the residence of the deceased family as early as 7.00a.m. in the morning to felicitate with them on the event.

    But they were surprised that despite repeated knocks on the door, nobody came out to attend to them.

    All efforts to gain entry to find out what happened were abortive, as both the door and windows were locked.

    The neighbours were anxious, a situation which made them to force the door open.

    “They could not belief what they saw. It was indeed agonising and pathetic. The family of five were found dead,” a neighbour, who craved anonymity, said.

    “This is unbelievable. It is like watching a movie. The deceased father yesterday (Tuesday) played with the children around and greeted their parents in their respective homes for the Eid-El-Kabir celebration.

    How come he and his family members were found dead at the same time?” another neighbour queried.

    But the Divisional Police Officer at Atiba Police Station, Sadiq Maye, who confirmed the incident, said contrary to insinuations, the deceased died of generator fumes, which they inhaled while asleep.

    Maye said their bodies had been deposited at the State Hospital mortuary, Oyo.

  • Olorogun Oskar Ibru plans big for father’s burial

    Olorogun Oskar Ibru plans big for father’s burial

    A LIFE well lived is a life well spent, as the saying goes. In the case of the recently-departed patriarch of the Ibru dynasty, Olorogun Michael Ibru, it is set to also be a life well celebrated if plans by his son and heir, Olorogun Oskar Ibru, and the family are anything to go by.

    Olorogun Michael, who founded the Ibru organisation in the 50s, died in the early hours of Tuesday, September 6. Until his death, he presided over a huge conglomerate spanning interests in fish trading, transportation, tourism, breweries, timber and poultry, among others. He was the most distinguished indigene of his hometown, Agbarha-Otor, where he was a prominent chieftain. He brought his town honour and prestige to the extent that the Olorogun honorific became synonymous with the Ibru family.

    Death had earlier rocked the Ibru Empire in March. Olorogun Felix Ibru, younger brother of Olorogun Michael and the first governor of Delta State exited the land of the living for the realm of his ancestors. His funeral ceremony, which is still discussed in Delta State and beyond, held just over a month ago.

    It is, however, fair to expect the burial rites for Olorogun Michael to surpass the preceding ceremony in size, majesty and grandeur. He had fives wives and numerous children and grandchildren. He is also survived by a brother, Goodie Ibru, and two sisters.

  • Father and son

    Father and son

    What intrigues writers and philosophers about King Oedipus was not just that he killed his father and married his mother. It was that he didn’t mean to marry his mother and kill his father. He meant well for his people and himself. Dramatists say he had a ‘tragic flaw.” As the play winds down, you feel sorry for the man as his impetuous flamboyance leaves him. He is onstage, tottering, wailing, blind, flailing, dying, and arriving at the knowledge of his epic folly.

    When our own Ola Rotimi adapted that play to Yorubaland, he called his work, The Gods are not to Blame, and up till today, critics still wonder what happened to the king. I, too, wonder today as I look at the political incarnation of father and son in conflict in Yorubaland today.

    More intriguing is that Jimi Agbaje will be the last to call Bode George father. Yet, not long ago, the evidence compelled otherwise. George sees himself in a regal way in PDP politics in Lagos. Therefore, anyone who wants to ride on the party ticket must first bow at his portal. So, when Agbaje pooh-poohed progressives to duel Akinwunmi Ambode for Lagos governor, he enjoyed George’s nod.

    Even while the gubernatorial battle wore on, tensions bled between father and son. Agbaje and his men had sniffed a victory. They began to share the spoils before the game fell. In their premature celebration, they plotted to sideline the former military officer and party wheel horse. George, on his part, baited him. Not knowing they would be pole-axed by the diligent former Lagos technocrat, both waited for the polls. They salivated in vain for victory. Ambode bested Agbaje. Father and son sulked in silence. George had promised to flee the land after a loss but his feet and wings froze in Lagos.

    Until a new game beckoned. The PDP looked for a party chairman. A storm started brewing between both men. Both are eying the meaty prize. No one is ready to relent. They are spilling blood in public. It is official: son has divorced father, and father is irate at the vaulting ambition of the son. It had not been a great relationship between father and son. They never witnessed Shakespeare’s wish: “when a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.”

    Son did not acknowledge father gave him a platform to run for office. But we are witnesses to how George invoked his regal might to checkmate another renegade known as Obanikoro or Koro. Koro knew he was rigged out of the helmsman’s position in the primaries. He invoked all the deities of party and society. He fought with money and law and influence. He lost.

    George saw a gladiator in Agbaje to fulfil his selfish dream to own Lagos. He knew he could not do it himself. He wanted his son to do it. He probably had read writer Frank A. Clark that “a father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be.” Agbaje sold his progressive convictions for a mess of ambition and sought to fell his foes that serially defeated him in the past. Father wanted to ride son and son wanted to ride father. No one had the opportunity to mount the saddle. Both had a common enemy in the APC in Lagos. But they were not friends enough to fight the enemy.  So, both fell and never laughed nor cried together in public. Rather, they are eating their own flesh. An Agbaje sees George as ‘agbaya’, while George sees Agbaje as wayward and prodigal, or “omo ti o leko” (a spoilt child). Youth scowls up at age; age drips with contempt. He may be lamenting like Shakespeare in his play, The Tempest, that “good wombs have borne bad sons.” That is assuming that he has a good political womb.

    The Agbaje-George slugfest reflects the existential duel within the bigger PDP. It is a battle between interlopers and the mainstays, between renegades and faithful, between old guard and new feathers, between the worms and the bones, between the moles and the moulding. It is a battle between two morally fetid enemies. The end is not good. With one convention after another clipped by the court, by a technically happy judge and another imperious judge, the PDP is fighting over a carcass. Ali Modu Sheriff, who was a renegade in the APC before the PDP governors called him to be a legitimate renegade, planted himself into a mainstay. He rebuilt the party when the governors like Fayose, Wike and Mimiko, could not. Now, they seem to have found their rhythm, and they want him out. They used him and wanted to spit him out. They are coming back to their own vomit.

    It is not different from the case of George and Agbaje. They made Agbaje a factor in Lagos PDP, and they want to flush out the worm. George is paying for his opportunism just as the bigger party is paying for bringing a flawed character like Sheriff, with all his Boko Haram baggage, to head the “greatest party in Africa.” They gave two carpet baggers, Sheriff and Agbaje, the main floor to dance, and they want to pull the rug underneath. There will be consequences. The party is paying for its self-indulgence and opportunism.

    It all shows that George does not know how to be a father and Agbaje does not know how to be a son. History and literature abound with clashes like this. James Baldwin in his opus, Go Tell it on the Mountain, where father Gabriel never confesses he is Royal’s father before he died. Okonkwo was never wanted to talk or be like his father Unoka in Things fall Apart. Elesin Oba and his son belong to two worlds in Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman, expertly performed with binary flavour at the Freedom Square by Crown Troupe recently. Or Turgenev’s Basarov who dies disavowing his father’s world in his novel Fathers and Sons. Literary artists, like journalists, are fascinated with such dramas when father fails son and vice versa. But the United States had founding fathers whose sons we see prosper from generation to generation up to Obama. It can work.

    But the bigger PDP is fighting a more potent father: its ghost. It is at war with what PDP used to be, a swaggering, corrupt, bullying behemoth awash with money. They are holding on to a carcass. Just like a scene in the novel, Revenant, where the protagonist in cold weather hollows out the inside of a dead horse and slips inside and turns the carcass into a sleeping bag.

    If Sheriff will hang around, the PDP will hang. He will not give up, and the courts are there to give him mercy. Eventually, they will understand that PDP is an expiring brand and each of them could form different parties. My wonder, though: If PDP wins in either Edo or Ondo, who will be the authentic governor? Shall we have an interregnum while the courts nod to one candidate today and another tomorrow?

    Perhaps the answer is with King Oedipus or filicide. If father kills son or son father, perhaps there will be peace. That may not be solution, though. We shall have peace of the graveyard.

  • Father laments fate of electrocuted son

    Father laments fate of electrocuted son

    A man, Jasper Ndubuaku, has expressed displeasure over the treatment meted out to his teenage son who was electrocuted by an armoured cable belonging to Eko Distribution company (Eko Disco) while on-board an ABC Transport Service bus.

    Ndubuaku claimed that his two sons, Obioha and Toby, both students of Kings College, Lagos, boarded the Owerri bound bus on July 24, at the transport company’s park in Amuwo Odofin, only for the said vehicle to break down at Cele Bus stop, less than five kilometres from the bus station.

    According to him, as one of his sons was disembarking for the motor mechanic to effect repairs, he was electrocuted by an exposed 33KV armoured cable and thrown into the canal.

    He wrote on social media: “He was thrown into the canal by the shock where Good Samaritan passengers in the bus rushed and dragged him up. His brother was in the bus and was composed enough to have borrowed a passenger’s phone to call me.

    “A lot has happened between then and now but most importantly my son is alive. I have had the task of carrying him when he cannot walk. He had undergone a major surgery on the leg and the consultant told me he has to observe him for another week or two.

    “However, I am shocked and surprised that ABC transport company that I handed my under aged sons to transport back to Owerri has as I post this not officially informed me of the whereabouts of my children, neither has the Eko disco… The bills are on me.”

    Efforts to reach the transport company failed as calls to three telephone numbers provided on the company’s website did not go through.