The Nation Newspaper

Tag: foul play

  • Family of abducted Customs officer alleges foul play

    The family of Custom Assistant II, Abdulsalam Rasheed, has cried out over lack of information from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on the fate of their missing son.

    Rasheed has been missing for about six weeks in a botched operation by the NCS.

    According to Waheed, his younger brother, Rasheed went on an operation with his colleagues on April 14 and were attacked by smugglers around Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, after the toll gate.

    He added: “My brother and his colleagues were attached to the Federal Operations Unit in Lagos. We were told that the team was attacked by smugglers during the operation. He was the driver of the Customs official Hilux car for the operation.

    “In the process, the smugglers overwhelmed the officers and they had to run away. Because my brother was driving the vehicle, he was captured by the smugglers, who had blocked the road and took him away.”

    According to him, several visits by the family to the Federal Operations Unit, his brother’s office on Toyin Street in Ikeja, the Lagos State capital, had not yielded any result.

    Waheed added: “They kept saying they were working on it. But information we got was that top officials of Customs refused to take action on the day of the incident.

    “One of the team members told us that several calls made for reinforcement when they were being attacked went unheeded. Even when we visited their office, their lackadaisical attitude to the search for him clearly showed that they know more than they are telling us.

    “People should help us to ask the Customs Service when they began the search for him; it was several days after the incident. That was when we started making noise; when he did not show up. That was when they formally reported to the police. They did not embark on a search immediately he went missing.

    “Why should that be the case? Should they not be interested in locating their missing operative, considering that he went missing on an official assignment? Was he deliberately set up by some people in Customs? It is really very strange.”

    According to the family of the missing Customs officer, the operation was embarked on due to intelligence that the smugglers would be operating that night.

    Waheed said: “How come they are finding it difficult to get further information on his whereabouts? Also, the Customs impounded a bus load of rice, which was abandoned by the smugglers. Why has it been difficult to trace the owners of the vehicle, since it is a registered bus? The intelligence on the operation came from someone. So, why has it been difficult to use the same channel to get information about what has become of our missing brother?”

    His wife, Basirat, who is nursing six-month-old twins, as well as his aged mother have been inconsolable since the incident.

    Waheed said: “My mother has not been sleeping.  She kept asking for him. His twin sons have continued crying, especially at night. It is really strange.”

    According to Waheed, the police have arrested about seven people connected to the incident.

    They were taken to court but nearly all of them have been granted bail.

    “What do they know that they are not telling us?” Waheed asked.

    He urged the Customs Comptroller General, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to “help us as there seems to be a conspiracy on this matter”.

     

  • Police: no foul play in ACP’s death

    There is nothing suspicious in the death of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Osung Ekpo in a hotel swimming pool last Sunday – Valentine’s Day -, the Lagos State Command said yesterday.

    The police denied that the hotel had been sealed off and some persons arrested over the incident.

    The command’s spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent of Police (SP), said there were plans to give the late officer a befitting burial.

    She said: “We don’t have any reason to seal off the hotel nor arrest its staff because we did not suspect any foul play. The officer visits the pool often because he lives close to the place so everyone in that place knows him very well.

    “The burial of the officer is not a Lagos police command burial alone, he is a very senior officer, an ACP.

    “The Nigeria Police Force Headquarters is involved in the plans. Already, a condolence register has been opened in his honour at the Area K Command Headquarters.”

    Ekpo was the Area Commander, Area K Police Command, Morogbo, Badagry.

  • Abia: A poll and foul play

    Tension is brewing in Abia State over the outcome of the governorship election. When voters trooped out for the exercise 10 days ago, little did they guess that the result will be hanging.

    The Returning Officer, Prof. Victor Ozumba, the Vice Chancellor of University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN,) and the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof. Selina Okon, accepted the results submitted by the returning officers across the 17 local governments. But, three days after, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced that the election was inconclusive. Although the results of the House of Assembly, which was conducted simultaneously with the governorship poll were upheld, the umpire ordered a re-run governorship election.

    According to the disputed results, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Dr. Victor Ikpeazu, scored 260,724. The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate, Dr. Alex Otti polled 161,772. The margin is 78,952. The electoral agency has justified the cancellation of results in some local governments, saying that the exercise was marred by violence. Thus, in its view, the conduct of the poll was not in compliance with the electoral law.

    Irked by the cancellation, a group, Ukwa Ngwa Leaders of Thought and Professionals, decried what he described as the falsification of the results and called for the declaration of the PDP flag bearer as the winner. “The election was free and fair. The AIG that supervised it from the security angle attested to the transparency across the 17 councils. There was no record of violence,” said its leader, Emmanuel Adaelu, who flayed the commission for intransigence and manipulation to favour a candidate.

    Adaelu, who spoke with reporters in Lagos, wondered why INEC officials could conduct House of Assembly and governorship elections into two offices in one location, under the same circumstances, and declare the result of one as fair and valid and another inconclusive.

    Another leader of the group, former Senate President Adolphus Wabara, said since the people have given the mandate to Ikpeazu, the re-run is unnecessary. He said the reasons given for the cancellation of the results by the REC in some areas were not tenable. He said efforts were being made to truncate the process to prevent the emergence of Ikpeazu from the Ukwa Ngwa axis of the state as the governor.

    Wabara stressed: “There is a concerted national conspiracy against Nkwa Ngwa. From what has been highlighted, we could deduce that we are unwanted. Some resukts were cancelled, based on the flimsy excuse that she was advised to cancel them by international observers.

    “International observers lacked the legal backing to advise the Returning Officer to cancel results. They are looking for ways to deny us the golden opportunity and give it to Alex Otti, who is not a genuine Nkwa Ngwa man.”

    The former Senate President said the group is bitter about the purported cancellation because of its implications for Nkwa Ugwa. He said since the creation of the state in 1991, this is the first time an Nkwa Ngwa candidate would be elected. He said the move to deny the area the slot is worrisome, pointing out that Abia is categorised as an oil-producing state because of the deposit in Abia South.

    Wabara added: “We are calling on the INEC to declare the results. Let the media and international community come to our aid. How can re-run be held when rhe results have been announced? We will not go for a re-run. Jega should fire the REC. The people have lost confidence in him.”

    Another member of the group, Chukwu Nwachukwu, said that it is abnormal to reverse the results that have already been announced. he said the only option is for the aggrieved to approach the tribunal, if they are not satisfied with the outcome.

    Adaelu alleged that the process was being truncated on the altar of selfish interest, which has conflicted with the principles of personal justice. He warned that INEC may plunge the state into an avoidable crisis, if its position on the cancellation of the result is not reversed. “The university where the RO is the Vice Chancellor has just conferred a honorary doctorate degree on Dr. Alex Otti, the PDP flag bearer. The REC is Otti’s cousin. INEC ought to have considered these in appointing officials to manage governorship election in Abia State,” he added.

    Wabara said the crisis is threatening the peace of the state, adding that the youths the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, can avert the doom by ordering the release of the governorship election as it has done in the case of the parliamentary elections that were held the same day.

    Adaelu urged the INEC to consider the petition sent to it by the stakeholders in the interest of justice. He recalled that the REC and the RO resorted to citing non-existing acts of violence and non-compliance with the electoral law, following the failure of moves by the officials to cancel the results.

    He said the results of eight local governments, with 177,000 voters, were cancelled and re-run ordered to  give an undue advantage to the APGA candidate and deny the PDP candidate from savouring the mandate legitimately conferred on him by the people.

  • Osun suspects foul play in school hall’s collapse

    THE  main hall of the High School, Ejigbo, Osun State collapsed yesterday.

    The government said it suspected foul play.

    A statement by Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s spokesman, Mr Semiu Okanlawon, said the building came down after a loud bang.

    The statement reads: “The government of Osun State regrets to inform the public of the suspect incident of the collapse of the Main Hall of the newly completed ultra-modern High School, Ejigbo, Osun State.

    “Information at the disposal of the government indicates that the Main Hall, which had been completed along with other classrooms of the school, came down at about 6am Wednesday after a loud bang was heard by those who were within the hall and others within the vicinity of the project.

    “As a responsible government, it is too early for us to say what the cause of the collapse is until we have fully investigated.

    “However, it must be stated here that all necessary quality assurance tests were carried out to ensure structural durability and integrity of the project just as in other projects under this administration.

    “Engineers from the Osun Ministry of Works and the Structural Engineering section of the Nigerian Society of Engineers have been dispatched to the site to establish the cause of this unfortunate incident.”