The Nation Newspaper

Tag: kill

  • Gunmen kill three NDLEA operatives

    Gunmen kill three NDLEA operatives

    Gunmen in Okene, Kogi State, have shot dead three operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

    NDLEA Commandant Alhaji Idris Bello told reporters yesterday in Lokoja that the operatives were gunned down while on patrol.

    He said they were killed about 8:30 p.m. on October 13 by the gunmen, “who emerged from nowhere.’’

    Bello said the hoodlums came on foot, adding that the incident occurred close to the main gate of the Federal College of Education, Okene.

    He identified the operatives killed as Nicholas Onwumere, Ebun Peters and Abdulrahman Musa.

    The commandant said the NDLEA officers were on duty alongside their three other colleagues when the gunmen struck.

    He said they died on the spot, and their colleagues escaped unhurt.

    Bello said the gunmen snatched the rifles of the officers and escaped.

    He said other security agencies had been contacted, adding that efforts were on to arrest the killers.

    The government in August established a Forward Operation Base in Okene in partnership with the Army to check kidnapping, robbery and other crimes.

    The initiative is yet to yield result, according to observers.

     

  • Police kill two kidnappers in Niger

    Niger State Police Command has killed two kidnappers at Rama hills in Kagara town, Rati Local Government, after a four-hour gun duel.

    Police spokesman Babalola Adewole, who confirmed this yesterday in Minna, said other members of the gang escaped with injuries.

    He said the hoodlums abducted Bashir Alhaji Nadarere from his home at Karate village in Rafi Council and demanded N2 million ransom.

    Adewole said the family paid the money after alerting the police, who trailed the kidnappers to their hideout.

    He said the abductors refused to surrender, which resulted in a four-hour gun duel.

    Two of them were killed and N1.2 million, believed to be part of the ransom collected from the victim’s relations, recovered with two AK 47 rifles and 20 rounds of ammunition.

    The spokesman said the police were trailing the injured suspects, urging the public to assist them.

    “The command wishes to inform the public and hospitals to report cases of bullet injuries to the nearest police station.”

  • Suspected abductors kill policeman, two others

    Three persons, including a police officer, were reportedly killed last weekend by suspected kidnappers on Ajaokuta-Lokoja highway in Kogi State.

    Others sustained injuries.

    Sources said an expatriate, a worker and a policeman were killed by gunmen, adding that an officer was injured after a shootout in Ajaokuta Local Government.

    The Nation learnt the expatriate was travelling with one of his workers (a driver) when they ran into the suspected abductors.

    The hoodlums were said to have shot the expatriate, his driver and a policeman, killing them.

    It was gathered that in an attempt to escape, the kidnappers engaged other policemen in a shootout.

    Police spokesman William Aya, who confirmed the incident, said the command had begun investigation.

  • Gunmen ‘kill’ Tiv monarch

    Gunmen ‘kill’ Tiv monarch

    The kindred head of Ushir, in Shitile clan, Katsina Ala Local Government of Benue State, Chief Yimaorga Asogo, has been allegedly killed by gunmen.

    A source said: “Chief Asogo was abducted from his home last night by gunmen after they overpowered his family.

    “He was taken away, strangled and his body was abandoned in a bush before it was later found by a search party.”

    Killings have been on the rise since the state government declared criminal gang leader, Terwase Akwaza, wanted.

    Those murdered are mostly from Yooyo ward, Kpav Shitile in Katsina Ala Local Government, the country home of the wanted gang leader.

    The President of Sankera Development Association (SADA), Gboko branch, Teryila Asom, who confirmed the killing of the monarch, urged security agencies to live up to their responsibility.

    He lamented that Sankera, known for yam production, was gradually being turned into a war zone.

  • ‘Cancer does not kill, if detected early’

    Chief Oncologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) and Chief Executive Officer, St. Cyril Cancer Treatment Foundation, Dr. Mojisola Animashaun, has said.

    She disclosed this at a memorial programme in honour of the late Mrs. Oluwayemisi Ayinke Joel-Osebor (nee Agboola), founder and executive director, Life Impact Foundation International (LIFI), who was killed by breast cancer.

    The event, which held at NECA House,  Ikeja, Lagos was themed: “Celebrating a life of impact”.

    Educating on breast cancer and how to go about its check, Dr. Animashaun said: “Normal cells become cancerous when mutilated. For early detection of breast cancer, steps that should be taken include self-awareness, self-examination, clinical examination and diagnosis through mammogram, ultrasound, biopsy, and histology”.

    She emphasised the need for improvement in cancer treatment in the country, and the provision of necessary equipment for chemotherapy and other treatments, promising to extend a hand of support to the rebranded LIFI.

    Eulogising her daughter, mother of the late Joel-Osebor, Mrs. Mopelola Agboola (JP) recalled one of the deceased’s favourite quotes: “Life is not in its duration, but in its donation”,  explaining the impact her daughter made on humanity.

    She added: “We, the older ones should take courage. Yemisi lived 42 full years, though she desperately wanted to live more, but I believe she fulfilled her purpose. Jesus Christ lived lesser, so it’s definitely not about duration, but donation, so let us celebrate her”.

    She said her daughter was the founder and director of LIFI, a non-governmental organisation, which focuses on promoting sustainable development, especially for under-served and vulnerable people, through knowledge sharing, skills transfer, capacity building and advocacy.

    “Before her demise, she was Lagos State Manager for GEMS3, a UK DFID project targeted at business environment improvement. She held the position of the vice president of the Alumni Association of Enterprise Development Centre, Pan Atlantic University (PAU), Nigeria. She was also a member of ‘Caring Heart’, a group that cares for orphans and the less privileged children at Daystar Christian Centre, Lagos, aside other numerous charitable works.

    “She was from Ilaro, Yewa South, Ogun State, and was married with a child. She died on August  29, 2016, after struggling with breast cancer. We are carrying on her good work through LIFI,” said Mrs. Agboola (JP).

    A free breast screening exercise held at the event and awareness on breast cancer through sharing of Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) Materials on cancer created .

  • NSCDC foils man’s bid to kill self over N50,000 debt

    NSCDC foils man’s bid to kill self over N50,000 debt

    Ogun State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps(NSCDC) has arrested a man identified as Abiodun Onipede for attempting to kill himself following frustration from his inability to pay a debt of  N50,000 loaned to him by a credit facility outfit.
    The 34 years old Onipede and  father of five, was said to be  a former staff of Ogun Staye Traffic Compliance and  Agency (TRACE).
    It was learnt that he got the N50,000 as loan  and the pressure from the creditor on him to pay the debt, coupled with his inability to perform his responsibility as the head of the family forced to consider suicide an option.
    Onipede who was arrested by the Anti-Vandal unit of  the NSCDC while attempting to run rope on his neck which he had already fastened to a tree in the bush along Ayetoro road in Abeokuta, ostensibly to commit suicide.
    He was on the verge of hanging himself when  an Operative of the NSCDC’s anti – vandal unit who wanted to ease himself in the bush  stumbled on him and aborted the suicide bid.
    It was learnt that the Suspect, a commercial Tricyclist was a 200 level drop-out of Federal College of Education(FCE), Osiele due to financial difficulties.
     He was said to have lost one of his children due to  complication after a surgery performed on the child.
    Narrating his botched suicide bid to reporters, Onipede said: “due to the health problem of my child in 2008, I had  to drop out  so that I could  have some money to take care of my sick child. But, we later lost the child in 2009 because we were unable to pay some hospital bills after people have helped us in raising money for the surgery.
    “I was duped  by some people and they even threatened  me, and this made me to leave Abeokuta for Akwa-Ibom state. It was when I came back after a year that I discovered I have been sacked from the TRACE.
    “I am frustrated because am owing a lot of people ranging from house bill to  electricity bill, and some other bills. I am ashamed of myself because am not a responsible man, I cannot cater for my family as a head.
    “The Lapo officials  have used OPC to arrest my wife because of the money. Am just frustrated because I have to pay N3,000 every Friday and I am presently jobless. And I still have like N24,000 to balance  .
    “I cannot pay the hospital bill of my mother, I can’t take care of her, I was told she is now on the street begging to survive. No family to help me, we have been living in abject poverty.
    “What added to my conclusion to commit suicide was due to my inability to refund the ‘Lapo’ loan I collected when I wanted to start my tricycle business. The officials  of the Lapo have  been giving my family  tough times  for sometimes now, because, I cannot afford to be repaying N3,000 every Friday.
    “It was not my fault, am just a frustrated man that does not know what else to do. I wish to go back to school; I want the government to help me with a job that can cater for my family and other things that are important.”
    The Public Relations Officer of NSCDC, Ogbonnaya Dyke,  said the action of Onipede was a crime against the state.
    “Since the matter is under our Crisis management team, we have to swing into action to address the situation.
    “It is a crime against the state for someone to try to take his life. Necessary actions will be taken by the Corps in addressing the situation. He is going to be handed over to the police after our intelligence Unit has done its   proper works,” he said.
  • FEDSARS operatives allegedly kill artisan over uncompleted job

    FEDSARS operatives allegedly kill artisan over uncompleted job

    A tanker builder, Paul Hodewu aka Agbede has allegedly been killed by operatives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FEDSARS) in Ogun State, over his inability to complete a job given to him by a client.

    The incident happened at about 2 p. m on Wednesday in the Ilashe area of Ipokia Local Government Area of the state.

    According to sources, a man identified as Chief Ope contracted Hodewu to construct a tanker at a cost of N800, 000.

    The said client gave Hodewu a sum of N600,000, leaving a balance of N200,000. The late artisan stopped work on the tanker because he had no money to complete the job.

    Subsequently, Ope led four operatives of FEDSARS to Hodewu’s workshop and demanded he completed the job or be arrested. The late artisan was taken to the palace of a monarch in Ilashe in order to settle the matter.

     At the palace, Hodewu was said to have agreed to complete the work and demanded the payment of his balance, which Ope agreed to defray the next day. The meeting however ended on a tragic note when one of the FEDSARS operatives opened fire on Hodewu, killing him on the spot.

    It was learnt that the incident was reported to Idiroko Police Division.

    Hodewu’s body has since been deposited in a public mortuary.

    It was learnt that Ope has since bolted without a trace.

    The incident led to an outrage as residents protested the killing, noting that FEDSARS operatives have been lately deployed by some unnamed affluent persons in the community to terrorise people.

    The protest lasted several hours as angry residents demanded the removal of the community’s monarch, who they also accused of complicity in the death of Hodewu.

     Hodewu’s colleagues in a local chapter of the Welders Association also protested the killing on the streets of Idiroko.

     It took the intervention of monarchs from neighbouring communities to calm the protesters who vowed to raze the palace.

    A resident, Adebowale Joshua said: ‘’ It was a civil matter messed up by FEDSARS operatives. Why should armed policemen be used to harass an artisan over a job given to him?

    ‘’The policemen were brought to Agbede’s ( Hodewu) residence by the aggrieved customer called Ope, who lives in Ilashe. They took him from his house to the palace of a monarch in Ilashe, who brokered peace between Ope and the late artisan. He (Hodewu) pleaded for more time to complete the job requesting the payment of his service charges (N200,000) and Ope promised to pay him the next day.

    ‘’While everyone at the palace were happy that the matter was amicably resolved, no one knows why one the policemen ‘hired’ by the aggrieved customer fired the shot that killed Hodewu on the spot.’’

    Another resident identified simply as Anthonio said SARS operatives are being hired by socialites in the community as security escorts to parties and social gatherings, during which the operatives fired shots indiscriminately to scare people all in the name of protecting their principals.

    ‘’ It is high time the police authorities did something to stop people from hiring policemen especially FEDSARS operatives to protect them at social functions and recovered their belongings especially landed property. In this local government area, it is common to find policemen serving as escorts to unscrupulous businessmen and socialites at social gatherings.’’

    The late artisan whose house on SS Road near the Ipokia General Hospital, also served as workshop is survived by his aged mother, two wives and children.

    Police spokesman in the State, Mr Abimbola Oyeyemi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) could not be reached for comments at press time.

  • Robbers kill policeman in Anambra

    Robbers kill policeman in Anambra

    A policeman was killed on Tuesday when a nine-man gang operating on motorcycles attacked some policemen at Nkpor market under the fly-over on the Onitsha/Enugu Expressway, Idemili North Local Government of Anambra State.

    The robbers made away with the dead policeman’s rifle.

    It was gathered yesterday that the robbers, who came on three motorcycles, stormed the police sand bag team stationed in the area and opened fire at them about 8.30pm.

    A source said another policeman, who was shot in the leg, took cover inside the gutter.

    Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Ogidi Hassan Musa confirmed the incident.

  • Who did not kill Dele Giwa?

    •It is shameful that 30 years after, we are yet to know whodunnit

    He was clearly ahead of his time. He was young, dashing, ebullient and swashbuckling with it. He was a man of the word, as well as of the world. A newsman’s newsman imbued with that gung-ho Yankee spirit; perhaps the result of having studied in Brooklyn and had a stint with the New York Times, USA.

    Giwa returned to Nigeria in the 70s and regaled his compatriots with his American brand of no holds barred kind of journalism. At a very young age he held senior positions in Daily Times and National Concord before he led a team of like minds to set up Newswatch magazine. Giwa, Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese and Yakubu Mohammed were among the shining lights of Nigeria’s print journalism of the late 70s and 80s and Newswatch, a weekly journal epitomised the tribe.

    Giwa was not only at the head of this plucky team, he was the catalyst of an interesting new time for Nigeria journalism. He was at once a newshound who instinctively knew what news item would ignite public imagination every week – and Newswatch sold like essential staple at its height. Giwa was also a master of the prose who relished the American simple, fleeting style. His weekly column Parallax Snap was a treat to millions.

    Coupled with his celebrity status as a professional journalist, he also kept up a jet-set lifestyle: trendy dressing and high life. He loved the good life, carousing with the high and mighty and getting too cozy with people in power that he must also hold to account as a journalist. He did not keep a decent, professional distance from the personages he reported.

    But all these may not have mattered had the unexpected not happened. On the cool Sunday morning of October 19, 1986, history was made in Nigeria – albeit, a dark one. A letter bomb sent to Giwa’s residence on this day terminated a seeming enchanted life and career.

    The question then was whodunnit? Who killed Dele Giwa? Of course, the nation never got any answer; that peculiar gruesomeness, first of its kind in the land could never be unravelled till today. Thirty years after, with the assassination yet unravelled, the question today may well be: who didn’t kill Dele Giwa?

    It was in the heady days of military administration and with a head of state of the time, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida preferring to be addressed as ‘President’. According to the only witness to the deathly transaction, Mr. Kehinde Soyinka, who was the London correspondent of Newswatch at the time and who was in Giwa’s study with him, upon the receipt of the killer parcel, Giwa was said to have remarked: “This must be from the President”. An account also said that the letter bore the seal of the president of the federal republic.

    The heinous murder was mired in conspiracy theories and seeming official cover-up. For a blast that left a surfeit of leads and a littering of plausible proofs, no conclusive investigation was carried out and the matter was never given any closure. Spirited efforts by late activist lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, to investigate the case were stalled and stone-walled at every point.

    Giwa, who was a few days earlier accused of stockpiling arms by the military authorities, was also accused of possibly blackmailing the military president over a drug case. The now notorious story of a certain Glory Okon who was alleged to be a courier for the wife of the ‘president’ and who was supposedly arrested, allegedly sprung from detention and later touted to have died was deeply linked to the Giwa murder.

    Suffice to say that Giwa’s life, times and tragic demise were stuff for block buster movies. We urge the authorities to reopen the case and get to the root of it, lest history may hold us all culpable for that most ghastly phenomenon. We dare add that there must be lessons in it for all.

    Professional journalists and indeed all professionals holding positions in public trust must at all times show themselves to be above board.

  • Gunmen kill vigilante team member in Rivers

    Gunmen kill vigilante team member in Rivers

    Unidentified gunmen yesterday killed a member of a vigilante group in Omoku in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State.

    The victim, Nodi Nwachukwu Osam, according to a community source who spoke on condition of anonymity, was killed while on duty.

    He was said to have been killed by the yet-to-be-identified gunmen at about 1pm along Palace road, Omoku town.

    The 27-year old was until his death the Provost Marshall to the commander of the operating vigilante team in the area.

    The source told The Nation that the bandits opened fire at a tram of vigilante boys who were on patrol in the area.

    He disclosed that the vigilante team could not respond to the attack from the hoodlums, adding that they were not properly equipped to counter the superior force of the assailants.

    The source said, “The vigilante men were on patrol when cultists opened fire on them. They killed one of the vigilante members. His name is Nodi Nwachukwu Osam.

    “They killed him around Palace road. He was wearing the uniform of the vigilance team and also had his identity card when he died.”

    Condemning the attack, Commander of the vigilance team, Mr. Adah Nwachukwu, said the killing of one of his men was not enough to deter him from fighting crime in the area.

    Nwachukwu appealed to state government and good-spirited individuals to help provide security gadgets that would help it in fighting crime.

    He called on the government to equip the force with patrol vans and other logistics to enable them carry out their assignments with minimum stress.

    Nwachukwu explained that more than 20 members of his group have been killed by hoodlums in recent times.

    “The cultists have been attacking us since they know that we are determined to restore peace and sanity to this area. They have killed over 20 of my men. I am calling on the state government to help us. We want them to equip us so that we can face these boys that are terrorizing our communities”