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Tag: Ikotun

  • Foundation celebrates 5th anniversary

    Princess Modupe Ogunbayo Foundation has concluded plans to celebrate its fifth anniversary. The celebration will take place at the multipurpose Hall of Saints Joachim and Anne Catholic Church Ijegun, Ikotun Lagos. Although the foundation which caters for widows, orphans and the less privileged was established in 1982 in Ile-Ife but was launched in 2014.

    Since its launch, the foundation has been giving scholarships to children of widows, orphans and the less privileged and providing foods and other relief materials, including free medical services.

    The foundation has also helped widows to establish small businesses in order to sustain them and to restore their dignity. This it achieves through provision of soft loans to the widows so as to sustain their businesses.

    According to the initiator of the foundation Princess Modupe Ogunbayo, helping the needy has also been there since her days as a young girl while growing up in Jos, Plateau State.

    “My father was a senior civil servant and we lived in the quarters in Jos. Each time I went to town to sell for my mother I saw a lot of poor children roaming around place and when I talk to them they tell me they don’t have parents. Then, as a nurse, I noticed a lot of poverty among the people. I saw a lot of widows suffering from the hands of their in-laws,” said Princess Ogunbayo.

    Continuing, she said: “I worked as a nurse in Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH); an area surrounded by poverty. I always have empathy for them. It grew up with me and when I had the opportunity, I started it with some other women in 1982.

    She noted that she was not motivated by material gains in establishing the NGO.

    She said: ‘I am not looking for any material gains. I derive joy when I see these people happy.

    Many of them came here very miserable and some even had suicidal tendencies according to their testimonies when they joined. My joy is that I see them and their children happy and their children progressing. Most of them can now render helping hands to others,” she said.

    One of the beneficiaries of the foundation, Mrs John Elizabeth said: “I came here with tears in my eyes five years ago when my in-laws frustrated me but when I met with Mama, she advised and encouraged me. I was given a grinding machine to start a small business and it has really helped me in taking care of my family.”

  • Police rescue boy from traffickers’ torture

    The Police in Lagos have rescued an 11-year-old boy trafficked to the state for slavery.

    The victim identified simply as Tunde was said to have been subjected to series of physical abuses, by the person  who brought him from Cotonu in Benin Republic to Ikotun.

    It was gathered that about 15 policemen from Ikotun and Igando Divisions on Friday stormed the house the victim was being held after a report from the Child Protection Network (CPN).

    A woman whose identity was yet to be ascertained, was said to have resisted the policemen and CPN volunteers from entering her home until one of her children climbed upstairs and opened the door.

    According to the Coordinator of CPN, Ebenezer Omejalile, it took the team over four hours before the woman’s door was eventually opened by her son.

    He said: “Upon receiving this report, we went to Ikotun Police Station and two officers went with us to the woman’s address.

    “When we got there, we introduced ourselves to the woman and her son, stating our mission. The woman started shouting that we cannot come into her house for any reason until we tell her who reported her.

    “For the next four hours, we were still there. She locked her door. Igando poloce station was invited for reinforcement. About 15 policemen on uniform came to the place and she refused to open the door still.

    “The Police Command’s Public Relations Officer (PPRO) was informed and he tried to cajole the woman but she was still rude and refused to open the door.

    “So, some officers went to call the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Igando and then, one of her sons, who was downstairs, climbed up and opened the door.”

    Read Also: Man who attacked police officers in Moscow dies

    Omejalile said the DPO interviewed the woman and recorded her statement, adding that she refused to follow the police to the station on grounds that she couldn’t move her legs.

    “Her son followed us. The young boy Tunde has been rescued and placed in public shelter. The police are investigating the case and we hope that the suspect would be charged to court.

    “It is clearly a child trafficking case across the border. The victim was subjected to all kinds of abuse.”

  • Fire guts Access bank’s ATM gallery

    Fire guts Access bank’s ATM gallery

    The Ikotun Lagos branch of Access Bank, on Tuesday was gutted by fire, destroying Automated Teller Machine (ATM) gallery.

    The fire, which was said to have started around 3:30pm, affected six ATM machines.

    It was gathered that the inferno was caused by heat that emanated from the battery powering the machines.

    Sources said it took efforts from officials of the Lagos State Fore Service to contain the outbreak.

    The bank confirmed the incident, adding that arrangements were being made for a forklift to pull down the gallery.

  • Photos: Fire razes Access Bank in Ikotun

    Photos: Fire razes Access Bank in Ikotun

  • My husband killed our baby, wife tells court

    “My husband killed our baby when he beat the hell out of me three days to my delivery.

    “When I was finally delivered of the baby, he was dead as he was confirmed to have been wounded while in my womb due to the battering. ’’

    Mrs Ekwutobi Mgbenka disclosed these to an Igando Customary Court in Lagos State on Thursday.

    She added, “He used to beat me; and when I was pregnant, the beating continued unabated.

    “Sometimes, my husband would naked me and poured grounded pepper on me before beating me,’’ she said.

    The 41-year-old businesswoman disclosed these while responding to a divorce suit filed by Edwin, her husband of 24 years.

    The respondent accused her husband of being a flirt, saying, he impregnated two married women.

    “My husband was having an affair; he got two married women with children, pregnant.

    “Edwin gave one of his married lovers the documents of four out of his 14 shops he built inside Igando Market without collecting a dime from her.

    “He also bought her a house in Ikotun, Lagos state,” she said.

    The mother of two said that her husband had been starving her of sex for the past four years and had now turned her to an abandoned property.

    She explained to the court how she lost her first two babies.

    “My first baby died through the medical doctor’s negligence, the second died through the beatings I received from my husband.’’

    She , however, begged the court not to grant her husband’s wish for the dissolution of the marriage.

    “Please, do not grant my husband’s wish, we both built the houses together but now he wants to push me out and bring in his `wives’,” she said.

    The petitioner, a 55-year-old businessman, Mr Edwin Mgbenka, had approached the court for the dissolution of his 24-year-old marriage over what he called his wife’s alleged threat to his life.

    Mgbenka said that his wife was always threatening his life with dangerous weapons.

    “My wife always tells me that blood will flow whenever she is fighting me. She stabs me with dangerous weapons.

    “There was a day she broke our standing mirror on me in my sleep because I refused to follow her to a church programme.

    “She always tells my apprentices that I will soon die that she will be the one to settle them.

    “Ekwutobi threatened to kill me if I marry another woman, and now I have two women after her.

    “She fought with one of the women that had a twins for me and that landed her in a police station,” he said.

    The petitioner alleged that his wife killed their first baby.

    “Few days after she gave birth to our first baby, it was discovered that the baby had hernia and surgery was recommended.

    “She was told not to back the baby but immediately after the surgery, she backed him and the baby died on her back,” he said.

    Mgbenka said that Ekwutobi was violent in nature and that she had broken his car windscreen on four occasions.

    He said that his wife used his money to buy a motorcycle for her man friend.

    According to him, his wife encourages his children aged eight and 13 to steal his money for her.

    He urged the court to dissolve the union that he was no longer interested and that he was not ready to die now.

    The court president, Mr Adegboyega Omilola, adjourned the case until May 30 for further hearing.

     

     

     

  • Beggars, stinking refuse worry Ikotun residents in Lagos

    Increased numbers of beggars and heaps of stinking refuse at the Ikotun Central Roundabout in Lagos State are giving Ikotun residents a cause to worry.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that no fewer than 50 beggars daily seek alms at the roundabout where about 10 heaps of decaying refuse ooze stench.

    The roundabout connects about 10 communities on Lagos Mainland.

    Many commuters alight at the roundabout or board vehicles from there to their various destinations including Egbeda, Igando, Abaranje, Ejigbo, Ijegun and Isheri Osun.

    The beggars, mostly women and children, sit on the refuse and seek alms from pedestrians and motorists.

    The beggars and the stinking refuse, besides reckless driving, cause heavy traffic on the roundabout.

    Some residents and commuters in Ikotun told NAN that the beggars were constituting a nuisance while the stench emanating from the refuse had become unbearable

    A clearing agent, Mr Abiodun Ajayi, said on Wednesday that he had abandoned the route because of the situation.

    “My worry is the beggars who disturb motorists trying to go through thick traffic. I could no longer tolerate it; so I had to change my route.

    “The government should do something about these because they are a nuisance to the community,” he said.

    Mrs Blessing Ibekwe, who owns a cake shop near the roundabout, also told NAN that the stench from the refuse had become source of worry.

    Miss Rita Oburota, a school teacher, who plies the route daily, appealed to the Igando/Ikotun Local Council Development Area (LCDA) to address the situation to avoid an epidemic.

    A petty trader on the roundabout, who simply identified herself as `Mama Shade’, told NAN that the presence of beggars and the refuse denied her patronage.

    “Many people have stopped buying from me because they said it is not hygienic to buy goods near heaps of refuse.

    “I am trying to get another spot for my market,” she said.

    A worker in the LCDA , who pleaded anonymity, said that the beggars had been sent away several times but they returned.

    “These beggars are stubborn, they will always find their way back because of what they get from the people,” he said.

    A generator seller near the roundabout, Mr Jude Udemba, advised the council to plant flowers on the roundabout as a strategy to send the beggars away.

    “If the government plants flowers on Ikotun Roundabout as in some other parts of Lagos, the beggars will have no space to hang around,” he said.

    The Information Officer, Igando/Ikotun LCDA, Mr Tope Kuku, told NAN that the council did not have the capacity to relocate the beggars.

    “The council does not have what it takes to take them away; where do we take them to?

    “The state government made efforts to take them away but these people are stubborn,” he said.

    He urged the state government to provide the council with the means to evacuate the beggars and the heaps of refuse.

     

  • Lagos trains 4,000 artisans to tackle building collapse

    Lagos trains 4,000 artisans to tackle building collapse

    Lagos State Government has graduated 200 out of the 4,000 master craft artisans, currently undergoing training in various fields, to help curb the challenges of building collapse in the state.

    The State Governor, Mr Akinwumi Ambode, who spoke Thursday at the graduation ceremony held at Technical College, Ikotun, said with this training Nigerians will no longer need to source for services of artisans such as carpenters, steel fabricators plumber, electricians, painters, tilers outside our borders.

    Ambode, who was represented ‎by the Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Mr Babatunde Durosimi-Etti, said the project was flagged-off 8 months ago to train, retrain and certify the beneficiaries with 21st century skill required for the much needed technological development

    He reiterated his administration’s commitment to bridging the skill gap in the building sector, saying that ‎the multiplier effect of the initiative on the economy will include creation of job opportunities, economic empowerment and increased market share for local craftsmen among others.

    “In addition to the acquired training, each certified master craftsman will be empowered with tools of their trade and work gears by the state government. Their names and areas of specialty will also be uploaded on-line in our database as registered craftsmen for easy ‎access by members of the public who may require their services” he said.

    He assured residents of the competence of the certified master craftsmen which he said will deliver on any given task.

    Also speaking, the state’s Commissioner for Housing, Prince Gbolahan Lawal, said that the training would help in addressing ugly challenges of building collapse, saying that with the trained artisans, Lagos would have less inexperienced artisans who have been identified as being responsible for building collapse.

    The Commissioner, said the 200 graduating artisans would also train more residents, adding that millions of naira spent on sourcing for skilled artisans in the neighbouring countries would no longer be wasted as the state could now boast of experienced craftsmen.

    Lawal said in addition to the training, each certified master craftsman was empowered with tools of their trade and work gears with by the state government through the Ministry of Housing.

    “Today’s graduands were trained for 6 weeks in the following skills: masonry (block making, bricklaying, concrete works, tiling, paving stones, POP, furniture, carpentry, plumbing, pipe-works, electrical and painting.

  • Clean up Ikotun, residents beg LAWMA

    Clean up Ikotun, residents beg LAWMA

    Some residents of Ikotun in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State have accused Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) of not clearing their.
    A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said there were heaps of refuse in many areas of the community.
    NAN also observed that offensive stench was oozing out from the dumps, because of the mounting refuse.
    Many passers-by and residents close to the dumps were covering their nostrils so as not to inhale the odour.
    Some of them who spoke to NAN urged LAWMA to come and clear the waste, saying it could lead to an outbreak of communicable diseases like cholera.
    Mrs Folake Ajayi, a retired nurse, who lives on Ajewole Street, told NAN that the dirty environment could endanger lives if nothing was done as soon as possible.
    “It is so disturbing; everywhere is filled with heaps of refuse. Unfortunately, after the Christmas break, the refuse had not been cleared.
    “Now the waste generated during the New Year festivities had been added to the heaps, thus increasing the degree of the stench and thus polluting the environment the more.
    “If care is not taken, there will be an outbreak of cholera and other airborne diseases in the area,’’ she said.
    Also, Chinedu Ekeh, a food vendor on Rasak Tijani Street, told NAN that the absence of the officials of the LAWMA had messed-up the street and the community in general.
    “We have never had it so bad like this in the past; for over two weeks now, no LAWMA officials had visited this area to clear the waste, and this had really made everywhere very dirty.
    “I have been extra careful by ensuring that my food is well covered and protected from being contaminated by flies.
    “I hope the LAWMA officials will come and remove the refuse as soon as possible,’’ Ekeh said.
    Another resident of Ajewole, who simply identified herself as Mummy Eli, said she saw a LAWMA’s truck parked somewhere due to a mechanical fault.
    “I think the truck broke down, I cannot remember where I saw it. But, I think two weeks is enough for the agency to have made an alternative arrangement.
    “Christmas and now New Year festivities had come and gone, LAWMA needs to do something positively and urgently to remove the refuse,’’ she said.
    When NAN called the agency, an officer who pleaded for anonymity, said the management was aware of the problem, adding that it was working on it.
    The officer, however, apologised to the residents, saying very soon, the agency would come and evacuate the refuse.