•UNICAL lecturer shot A forty five-year-old man, Kingsley Osarinmwian and his six-year-old daughter, Osarugue, have been killed by gunmen. Osarinmwian and his family returned from Italy for his traditional marriage. He was killed on May 2, two days to the wedding. His niece, Dorcas Efosa, said the gunmen scaled the fence and came into the apartment, pointing guns at them. She said the victim was shot immediately he was sighted and the gunmen demanded for money. Efosa said Osarinmwian’s wife threw the money at the gunmen but they shot the little girl as they were leaving. She said the girl died instantly; the father died on the way to the hospital. Police Commissioner Foluso Adebanjo confirmed the killing and said investigation has begun. Also in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, gunmen shot yesterday a lecturer in the University of Calabar (UNICAL). The lecturer was shot in his office in the Department of Microbiology. The gunmen walked into the lecturer’s office and shot him in the stomach. An eyewitness said he saw two men rush out of the man’s office and disappeared in the ensuing confusion. “I just heard a bang and two men came out of the office with guns and the next thing people were running, the men disappeared.” As at press time, the lecturer was still undergoing surgery. “We are still conducting investigations and cannot talk now,” an official said.
Tag: Foluso Adebanjo
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Man arrested for assaulting daughter
A 29-year-old man, Kelvin Kokori, has been arrested by the police in Edo State for allegedly assaulting his eight-year-old daughter.
He was said to have committed the act while the girl was asleep.
Also, a man, Adamu Abudu (57), was arrested for defiling a 13-year-old girl.
They were among 50 suspects paraded by the Edo State Police Command yesterday for robbery, cultism, rape, illegal possession of firearms and defilement.
Kokori, who denied the assault on his daughter, said he was framed by his wife because he refused to sleep with her.
He said the daughter used to sleep on the same bed with him.
Adamu said he slept with the minor over a N100 change she was supposed to give him after he bought something from her.
Ten persons were paraded in connection to cult-related killings in the state.
Commissioner of Police Foluso Adebanjo said three persons were victims of the cult killings, contrary to the high figure of deaths published in the media.
The commissioner decried the rising incidences of “child molestation and rape” and called for action against the trend.
Adebanjo said two persons were, on February 8, arrested and firearms as well as dynamites recovered from them.
He said the police recovered explosives, electrical detonators, vehicles, arms and ammunition.
“We must take action against child molestation, particularly in Edo State. This trend must stop. Rape of the girl-child is becoming alarming, we must do something about it,” he said.
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Police arrest ‘killer cop’ in Edo
THE police corporal, who allegedly shot and killed a truck driver in Benin City, has been arrested.
Valentine Fumaka was attached to Mopol 5. His colleagues, who were on the scene, were said to have absconded after learning about his arrest.
The victim, Osagie Odion Egbon (35), was killed last Saturday on Ikpoba-Slope.
It was gathered that Osagie drove against traffic on his lane. The witnesses said an argument ensued and the policeman shot Osagie twice.
His twin brother, Ovbokhan, said his brother just got a job after three years.
Police Commissioner Foluso Adebanjo said Fumaka would be charged to court today.
Coalition of civil society groups in the state yesterday called on the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, to stop extra-judicial killings.
Executive Director, African Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Rev. David Ugolor, who led the coalition, described the killing as “barbaric and demonic.”
Ugolor urged the state government to fund the cost of an independent autopsy for the deceased and other funeral expenses.
Convener of Edo Forum Against Impunity (EFAI), Comrade Kola Edokpayi said the “killer cop should be paraded in a manner the police parade criminals.”
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Court threatens to jail Edo police boss
A Magistrate Court presided over by Chief Magistrate Grade 1, F.E.N. Igbinosa, has threatened to jail the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Foluso Adebanjo, for court contempt if the commissioner’s fail to appear before the court on December 31 to explain why the court orders were not obeyed.
Igbinosa had on December 16 ordered the exhumation of the remains of four robbery suspects killed in November 24 shoot-out for the purpose of examining the corpses to ascertain the causes of their death.
The court also granted an order permitting medical experts other than police Pathologists to carry out the examination or be part of same.
The magistrate issued the threat while ruling on a motion by counsel to the applicants, Mr. Benjamin Iloube, who drew court’s attention to the failure of the police to implement its orders.
Igbinosa said that he would not hesitate to commit the police boss to prison if he and his men fail to appear before him on December 31.
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Court orders exhumation of four robbery suspects
A court sitting in Benin City, Edo State, has ordered that four persons killed by the police on November 24, be exhumed.
The suspects including one identified as Samuel Imaikop were killed in a shootout on the Ahor axis of the Benin-Oluku bypass and their bodies paraded by the police.
Magistrate F.E.N. Igbinosa ordered that an autopsy be carried out on them.
Counsel to the Imaikop family, B.A. Iluobe, told the court that summons were served on the police.
Police prosecutor Inspector Ada Johnbull, however, pleaded that the case be adjourned to allow the police peruse the summons and respond.
The magistrate ordered that the full medical reports of the autopsy be made available when it resumes sitting on December 24 and asked the police to make the bodies available for the autopsy.
Police Commissioner Foluso Adebanjo earlier claimed that Imaikop and other deceased were not farmers but robbers.
He played a video of one of the robbery suspects talking to reporters after the shootout.
In the video, the suspect, who was also shot, said he hailed from Kebbi State and was working on the farm when his friends invited him to come to the road and get money.
The suspect, who gave his name as Sanda, said they carved wood as gun and that it was his first time of participating in a robbery.
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Police kill four suspected robbers
Four suspected armed robbers were yesterday shot dead in two encounters with men of the Edo State Police Command.
Briefing reporters at the headquarters of the state police command in Benin, Commissioner of Police Foluso Adebanjo said in the first encounter at the Benin Bypass on the Benin/Lagos Expressway, 20 suspected armed robbers engaged the police in a shootout and in the process, one of the robbers was killed, while a policeman sustained gunshot injury in his leg.
He said the other armed robbers escaped into the bush, some of them with injuries.
In the second encounter, which occurred on the Benin/Auchi Road, three members of a robbery gang, who had laid siege to the road, were gunned down by policemen, who engaged the robbers in a shootout.
The police commissioner announced the arrest of members of a robbery gang, who killed policemen at the Benin Bypass.
The four policemen, who were deployed from the Osun State Police Command for a special election duty in Anambra State, were said to have been stopped by the armed robbers, who reportedly blocked the road.
The policemen, unaware that the blockade was mounted by armed robbers, stopped, only to be attacked by the armed robbers.
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Police commissioner seeks overhaul of Edo justice system
The Commissioner of Police in Edo, Mr. Foluso Adebanjo, said the command should not be blamed on why some suspected criminals often return to the society without prosecution.
Adebanjo told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin on Sunday that there was need to overhaul the state justice department to correct the anomaly.
He said the police mandate was to prevent crime and to arrest suspected criminals, adding: “we are not responsible for any reason why arrested suspects often return to the society.
“That observation was made when I took over as the commissioner in the state and I promptly reported this observation to the governor who was angry over the incidents.
“I suggested the need for the overhaul of the justice department and we met with the Commissioner for Justice as well as the Chief Judge of the state on our observation.
“We are now collaborating on this in our determination to reduce acts of criminality in the state. This observation is not likely to reoccur again,’’ he said.
The commissioner said the command arrested no fewer than 100 suspected criminals in the last two months for alleged rape, cultism, armed robbery and kidnapping.
On the aiding of crime by officers and men, Adebanjo said that anyone found wanting would be disciplined, adding: “we have no place for corrupt and indiscipline officer in the command.
“I have often preached the need for everybody in the command to follow the Inspector-General’s directive on zero-tolerance for crime at all times.
“So, if any officer is found to run foul of the law, he or she would be disciplined according to the laws,’’ he said.