The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Illegal

  • NCC destroys illegal equipment

    NCC destroys illegal equipment

    Operatives of the Nigerian Copyrights Commission (NCC) at the weekend in Enugu, clamped down on illegal broadcast hideouts, destroying infringing broadcast equipment estimated at N8.75million.

    The operation was carried in Achara Layout, Coal Camp, Zik Avenue and Agbani Road areas of Enugu metropolis.

    It was facilitated by MCN/DSTV whose right in the broadcast of some contents was being infringed upon by illegal distributors/pirates who use their Single Uit Dwelling (SUD) meant for private use to connect to other unsuspecting individuals and charge them monthly.

    The illegal action, according to the NCC zonal manager, Mrs. Ngozi Okeke, was causing a huge financial loss to MCN/DSTV.

    The operation tagged “Strike Force” was coordinated by Copyright Inspectors, the police, staff of MCN/DSTV and led by Mcfoy Akachukwu.

  • 43 suspected illegal bunkeres held in Alausa

    43 suspected illegal bunkeres held in Alausa

    Lagos State Task Force on Environment operatives have arrested 43 persons for allege involvement in illegal oil bunkering.

    The operatives also sealed off Plot 8, Elephant Cement Way near the Secretariat at Alausa, Ikeja, where about 2.5 million litres of adulterated diesel were allegedly discovered.

    The suspects were caught while mixing diesel with kerosene which they sold at lower price.

    The agency was said to have acted on a petition submitted to its chairman, Olayinka Egbeyemi, a Superintendent of Police (SP).

    According to the agency, preliminary investigation revealed that the trade  had been on for over seven years.

    It said: “2.5 million litres of adulterated diesel were fully loaded inside gallons and six different trucks with registration numbers FST615XR, EPE672XC, DKW05XA, KTU750XN, BDG717XA, FKJ327XH and XR95LSD”.

    The suspects will soon be charged to court.

    Some auto mechanics in the neighbourhood blamed the bunkers for a recent fire that destroyed 18 vehicles there.

    Anjorin Babalola, said they couldn’t report the suspects because they were threatened.

    A food vendor, Rebecca Ogunsanya said 33,000-litre capacity tankers usually discharged products inside the compound daily.

    According to a statement by the agency, a suspect, Iyiola Adeyinka, 40, said the company belonged to one Alhaji Lukumon. The suspect claimed that they usually sold products worth about N20million daily.

    Another suspect, Nonso Mordi, 25, said they were paid between N3,000 and N4,000 daily.

  • Navy dismisses seaman for alleged illegal drug possession

    Navy dismisses seaman for alleged illegal drug possession

    The Navy has dismissed a seaman for alleged illegal drug possession.

    Seaman Haruna Umar was dismissed and handed over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) after a court martial found him quilty of possessing 14.55kg of marijuana.

    The suspect was arrested in June last year after he was caught with the drugs.

    A statement signed by the spokesperson for the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) BEECROFT, Lieutenant Elizabeth Ibrahim, warned the public not to transact business with him.

    She said: “On June 7, 2016, Seaman H. Umar, with force number X13555, was arrested for being in possession of about 14.55kg of illicit substance suspected to be canabis sativa.

    “He was summarily tried and the legal review of the trial indicated that the accused was properly charged and due process was complied with during the trial.

    “He was found guilty and the sentence of dismissal was awarded to him for peddling illicit drugs. Accordingly, the ex-rating was handed over to the NDLEA for necessary action.

    “This is to inform the public that the ex-rating is no longer a member of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Anyone who transacts business with him does so at his or her own risk.”

  • Parade of Peace Corps boss, 49 others illegal- Falana

    Parade of Peace Corps boss, 49 others illegal- Falana

    Lagos lawyer Femi Falana SAN yesterday described the arrest, detention and parade of National Commandant of the Peace Corps of Nigeria (PCN) Ambassador Dickson Akoh and 49 of his members as illegal.
    Akoh and 49 others were at about 11:30pm last Tuesday arrested by some police operatives after commissioning its new headquarters in Abuja.
    It was alleged that operatives brutalised the arrested PCN chieftains, leading to the admission of at least two of them at the National Hospital.
    But they were granted bail last Thursday following the intervention of Falana.
    Falana, who is lawyer to PCN, told reporters in Abuja: “Every suspect is presumed innocent until the contrary is proved. Police, SSS, NDLEA and others parade of suspects is illegal.
    “Journalists should stop covering parades. Police have never paraded a governor among those who have been alleged to have stolen billions.
    “Have EFCC paraded those who have been caught to have kept billons in their homes? Police only parade the poor.
    ”Why did the police have to parade the National Commandant and other officers of the Peace Corps as if they are terrorists?”
    On how they were granted bail, Falana said: “We contacted the leadership of the Police Force and we were able to impress it on the police that this organisation is not illegal.
    ”The court made it clear that the police, the State Security Service and institutions of the government cannot on their own proscribe any organisation without a court order.
    “And since then the proscription was declared illegal and unconstitutional.
    ”We have passed this judgment to the police authorities and happy our clients were granted bail last Thursday.”
    Falana added: “For me, I can understand the opposition of the police to a body like the PCN. It was the same kind of antagonism that was displaced or demonstrated when there was a campaign to have the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC).
    “But today, that body has been recognised by the National Assembly and members of the corps are now working with the police.”
    The Police, Falana said, operate under difficult conditions hence the need for police to embrace PCN.
    According to him: “There is no way you can police 180 million people with barely 350,000 police personnel and out of which about 120,000 are guarding big men, women and cooperate bodies in the country.
    “I thought the police should have embraced a body like the PCN to work together to make their job much easier.”

  • Troops destroy illegal refineries in Niger Delta

    Troops of the Joint Task Force (JTF), Operation Delta Safe (ODS), at the weekend raided and destroyed three massive illegal refineries in Delta and Rivers states.

    A statement from the Coordinator, Joint Media Campaign Centre (JMCC), Major Abubakar Abdullahi, said the raid was borne out of the troops’ desire to frustrate activities of economic saboteurs in the region.

    He said the raid in Delta State was conducted by the Nigerian Naval Ship (NNS) along Lapase Creek in Warri South area of the state.

    “During the raid, 11 metal tanks, five dug pits with about 1750 tons of suspected stolen crude oil and 170 tons of illegally-refined AGO were impounded”, he said.

    Abdullahi confirmed that troops of Sector 3 destroyed a large illegal refinery with multiple dumps at Alakiri in Rivers State.

    He said: “The bunkerers on sighting our troops set fire on parts of their bunkering camp to deny access to the illegal site. However, the troops on patrol put off the fire and destroyed the illegal refinery site.

    “We are, therefore, appealing to the law-abiding members of the public to support operational activities of Operation Delta Safe with valuable information.”

  • Osun warns against illegal homes

    The Osun State government yesterday warned against setting up illegal healing and rehabilitation homes.

    This followed the discovery of an illegal rehabilitation home on the Iwo-Osogbo Road, on Thursday.

    A statement by the Director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Office of the Governor, Semiu Okanlawon, said with government’s investment in a care centre for people with mental challenge, no one had reason to patronise unqualified homes.

    The statement said: “The government’s attention has been drawn to the existence of an uncertified rehabilitation home where about two dozens of mentally challenged persons have been discovered.

    “Preliminary investigations have indicted the person who claims to be in charge of this rehabilitation home; the entire environments of the location and other relevant factors have shown that this is unacceptable.”

    The statement explained that the government has evacuated the emaciated mentally challenged persons, who were found to be in deplorable states of health to its facilities at the state hospital and rehabilitation home while the police continues with its investigations.

    The statement added: “This is therefore to state categorically that the government will not permit the setting up and running of rehabilitation homes in any part of the state.”

  • NLC to minister: no work no pay policy is illegal

    NLC to minister: no work no pay policy is illegal

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has warned that applying the ‘no work no pay’ policy to resolve industrial disagreement will be counter-productive.
    Its General Secretary, Dr Peter Ozo-Eson, said the pronouncement by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige on the application of the law, especially where workers issue warning strikes, is antithetical to stemming industrial crises.
    Ngige said warning strikes were unknown to labour laws and that workers who embarked on them would forfeit their pay during such strikes.
    Ozo-Eson said: “We are taken aback by the claims of the minister. Accordingly, we find it necessary to state that whether warning strike is in the corpus of the labour laws or not, unions over the years across all climes use warning strike as a bargaining chip to bring employers to the negotiation table. In other words, it is a tradition that has acquired the force of law.”
    Ozo-Eson insisted that the efficacy of a warning strike could not be in doubt as it is the reason the minister is now negotiating with the representatives of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP).
    “In the annals of labour history, warning strikes have had the distinguishing feature of saving the parties to disputes the rigours, costs and pains of full-blown strikes. This, the minister, a cerebral mind, a former union leader, very well knows,” he said.
    The NLC scribe wondered why the minister would be canvassing a position that is extreme and intolerant of further dialogue, which is the mainstay of labour/government relations.
    He said labour found it necessary to caution that a hasty resort to legalese as a basis for conflict resolution would not be helpful.
    Ozo-Eson said the truth was that if strikes were guaranteed by the law, labour hadfailed to see how warning strikes could be illegal, adding that the NLC does not intend to resort to partisanship, but quite often, an interpretation of the law falls short of its intention.
    He insisted that warning strikes would continue to be part of labour’s engagement with all employers, including government, when necessary “and we believe we are deserving of commendation for this thoughtfulness/discretion and not vilification”.

  • Three jailed 12 months for illegal firearms possession

    An Egor Magistrates’ Court in Benin City, Edo State, has sentenced three persons to 12 months imprisonment each for possession of illegal firearms.

    The convicts, Ayo Olatunji, Isaiah Idanedanegbe and Ugbo Ogie, were found guilty on a charge of illegal possession of firearms.

    The Chief Magistrate, Mrs. Igho Braimah, who delivered the judgment, however, gave them an option of fine of N50, 000 each.

    She said while the prison term would run concurrently, the fine option of N50, 000 would be cumulative.

    Braimah ordered that the firearms be forfeited to the government and handed over to the police.

    Before the judgment, counsel to Idanedaegbe, Mr. I.B. Omoifo, asked the magistrate to be lenient with his client, who was a first offender.

    He noted that being a young man with potential and having been of good behaviour through the trial, his client should be cautioned and discharged.

    “He is a young man who has been of good behaviour through this trial. I urge the court to consider this. It is only human to err.

    “I am also urging this court to consider the fact that this young man has no previous criminal record. I plead passionately for the second accused to be cautioned and discharged,” Omoifo said.

    The judgment brings to an end, the case of the three men, who were first arraigned before the court on March 31, 2014.

    The charge stated that the offence was committed on October 12, 2012, near Edaiken Primary School Road at Uselu in Benin City.

  • NNPC refinery loses N2b to illegal tappers

    NNPC refinery loses N2b to illegal tappers

    The Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (KRPC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), loses an average of N2.2 billion yearly to illegal tapping of its raw water pipeline that runs fromKaduna River.

    The water generates power for the running of the refinery, serves as coolants for its equipment and is also deployed to combating fire outbreaks.

    Sequel to the series of tapping, the refinery now spends more on diesel and other material inputs in the maintenance of its generators and other equipment.

    KRPC Managing Director, Malam Idi Mukhtar who spoke in Kaduna, said the consumption of raw water from the tapped pipes by settlers who encroach KRPC premises was an unnecessary additional burden to the refinery industrial requirements, which must be resolved urgently by relevant state government agencies.

    Other form of losses to this practice is that it slows down the build-up rate of water in the reserve tanks which endangers the refinery. This is because the plant is expected to maintain a minimum level of water requirement that is considered safe for operations, the he added.

  • 24 held after raid on illegal abattoirs

    No fewer than 24 butchers and cattle marketers in Lagos State have been arrested for operating illegally during a raid on unlicensed abattoirs, slaughter slabs and cattle markets.

    Commissioner for Agriculture Mr Oluwatoyin Suarau told reporters that the exercise which was carried out in Ikorodu and Badagry by the State Monitoring, Enforcement and Compliance Unit on Abattoirs and Slaughter Slabs, Stray Animals, Meat and Live Cattle Transportation and Regulation of Veterinary Premises.

    He said unwholesome meat being processed with dirty stagnant water and live cattle were impounded during the raid.

    According to Suarau, 10 butchers were arrested from illegal abattoirs by the enforcement team in Owutu, Ikorodu; 14 butchers and marketers were arrested in Badagry.

    “The operation in Badagry affected illegal slaughter slabs at Seme J5 Zongo, Iya Afin and Ajara; and illegal animal markets at Iberekodo, Limka and Toll Gate,” he said.

    The commissioner said the government would not condone any act of dirt and lawlessness in the red meat value chain business, adding that all aspect of the meat supply chain would be scrutinised to promote hygiene.

    Suarau advised animal owners to restrict them to their premises or face the law, saying: ‘’Government has also provided designated vehicles called ‘METROLIVE’ for the movement of live cattle thus, the old method of cattle trekking or transporting of live cattle with unapproved vehicles on Lagos roads is prohibited.”