The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Murder

  • Man charged with murder

    An Ebute Meta Chief Magistrate’s Court in Lagos yesterday remanded one Lucky Nnaeto, 33, in Ikoyi Prison for allegedly causing the death of 39-year-old Tunde Odutola.

    Magistrate Adefioye said the accused should be kept in prison pending receipt of legal advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPPs).

    Adefioye adjourned the case to June 17.

    Earlier, the prosecutor, Corporal Iyobosa Onaiwu, told the court that Nnaeto and others at large, beat Odutola to death.

    Onaiwu said the accused committed the offence on April 19 at Awe Crescent by Shipeolu Link in Onipanu, Lagos.

    The prosecutor said the offence contravened Sections 221 and 231 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State.

    Nnaeto pleaded not guilty.

     

  • Houseboy kills madam, attempts to rape widow

    Houseboy kills madam, attempts to rape widow

    A 59 year old grandmother was Wednesday found dead in her bedroom at the One Day Road, Awkunanaw area of Enugu.

    The woman identified as Mrs. Agnes Elue, from Ogwashi-Uku, Delta state was said to have been clubbed to death last Sunday by her teenage house boy whose identity was being withheld.

    Elue was an academic staff of the Federal Government College, Enugu‎ before her death.

    She was popularly known as “Nwanyi Maluogo” by neighbours because of her kind disposition.

    The house boy, according to sources, is a close relation of the deceased.

    Police said the house boy who concealed the murder for 4 days confessed that he used a pestle to hit the woman during a scuffle.

    Enugu Police command spokesman, Ebere Amaraizu who confirmed the incident disclosed that the lid was blown open Wednesday morning when the same house boy went to a widow’s flat in the same compound and attempted to rape her.

    He had gone to the widow demanding N2000 from her but before the widow could reply him, he pounced on her and was stripping her naked when the alarm raised by the widow attracted the attention of the caretaker of the compound.

    The caretaker promptly rushed to her rescue and dealt several blows on the boy while the widow also hit the boy with a pestle.

    It was at this stage that people rushed and arrested the boy. He was taken upstairs to ‎report to his madam only to discover her decomposing body in her bedroom.

    The house boy instantly confessed that he killed her on Sunday night while it was raining.

    He did not give reason for his action.

    But the police are not ruling out rape since the body of the woman was without clothes when it was found.

    Amaraizu confirmed that the house boy who is also from Ogwashi-Uku in Delta State is in their custody while police investigate the murder and the attempted rape.

  • NBA chairman murdered in Ughelli

    NBA chairman murdered in Ughelli

    The chairman of the Ughelli branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Austin Icheghe, was Thursday night killed by an unknown gunman.

    Icheghe, it was gathered, was shot to death at about 9pm Thursday night, at his residence on 14, Ekredjebor Street, Ughelli town in Ughelli North council area of Delta state by a lone gunman.

    Meanwhile, the Warri branch of the NBA has alleged that the killing of their colleague was a pure case of assassination and charged security agencies to successfully pursue the case so as to nip the rising spate of fatal attacks on lawyers in Delta state.

    It was gathered that the killer attacked Icheghe in the presence of his immediate family, shooting him in the face.

    Narrating the incident, a niece of the Icheghe, Egunor Uviesa, said he was killed just as he was alighting from his car on his way back home from work.

    “As soon as he came down from his vehicle, they accosted him, and shot him on the head with the bullet damaging part of his face. He was immediately rushed to a private clinic here in Ughelli where he was confirmed dead,” Uviesa said.

    However, the chairman of the Warri branch of the NBA, John Aikpokpo-Martins, has condemned the brutal murder of his Ughelli counterpart, describing it as one murder too many.

    Aikpokpo-Martins also noted that the fact that he was attacked by a lone gunman further confirmed that the killing was not armed robbery, but that of assassination, charging security agencies to step up their game and arrest the rising risk to lawyers in the state.

    “We condemn it in very strong terms and call on the police and other security agencies to unravel the perpetrators of the crime and bring them to Justice. This brings to the fore what we said the other time that the killing of lawyers without proper investigation will embolden other people to attack lawyers, this is why there’s need that this particular act must be investigated and in fact the last one we complained about; the Dafiaghor case, must also be investigated so that this new attitude could be nipped in the bud.

    “One thing is evident in his death, he was killed by a lone gunman so it is an assassination, not a robbery and lawyers we don’t do any other thing except to talk and defend other people’s rights, but some people don’t like that,” he said.

    Also confirming the incident on phone, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Delta state police command, Celestina Kalu (DSP), told the Nation that the matter had been taken up by the police and was being investigated.

    “He was murdered by unknown gunmen last night. No clue, no details yet, it’s still under investigation, we are trying to unravel it,” Kalu said.

  • A year after, controversy persists over Delta lawyers’ murder

    A year after, controversy persists over Delta lawyers’ murder

    two Warri-based lawyers were killed about a year ago on their way to court in Ozoro, Delta State. No headway is being made to resolve the murder, writes BOLAJI OGUNDELE 

    A year ago, two Warri-based lawyers, Horace Eguono Dafiaghor and Samuel Ekwuaghanju, were killed in cold blood by yet to be identified gunmen. They were representing a couple of kidnap suspects at a High Court in Ozoro, they were on their way to perform their duties in the case when they were trailed and killed along the road in Ozoro.

    The incident, sad as it was, generated a lot of passion and reactions, especially from the Warri branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), which then demanded in immediate investigation of the killing of its members. It should be pointed out that prior to their brutal murder, one of the two victims, Dafiaghor, had reported to his professional association that he was receiving threats and that when some of the phone lines being used were traced, they led to policemen. This singular claim prompted the NBA to particularly charge the police to do a sincere in depth investigation and and resist pressure to cover any liable person up.

    At that time, both police and the state government promised to uncover the mystery surrounding the circumstances of the lawyers’ death. Police, under the former Commissioner of Police in the state, Ikechukwu Aduda, said it had tasked a crack team to investigate and unravel the killing. “That while we deeply regret the gruesome Murder of the two ministers in the temple of Justice – a crack team of detectives led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police State CID Asaba had been constituted to unravelled the mystery behind the sordid act.

     

    “Finally we want to reassure the good people of Delta State that the Command will never succumb to the temptations of extra judicial killing or be a party to same, but will rather remain undeterred or discouraged by any act of blackmail and will continue in our present efforts to ensure that the evil of kidnapping and violent crime is consistently fought head-on no matter whose ox is gored”, Aduba had said.

    However, one year after the sad incident, the case still remains unsolved and no culprit punished, hence the protest by members of the NBA decided to steer the state’s police command into action by organising a protest to express their dissatisfaction over failure of the police to live up to its billings. During the protest, the NBA, led by its branch chairman, John Aikpokpo-Martins, said it would not relent until the police does its work and bring the killers of its members to Justice.

    Speaking during the protest, the chairman of the Warri branch of the NBA, Aikpokpo-Martins, said nothing had been heard or seen as a sincere effort from the police to bring the murderers of the slain lawyers to book.

    “On 27 April 2014, the NBA promptly made a petition directly to the Inspector General of Police (IG) in view of the suspected persons involved in this condemnable act wherein we made passionate call for comprehensive investigation into the murder of our colleagues.

    “Nothing has been heard thus far, giving the ominous belief that this is one murder the police is reluctant in investigating and bring the culprits to book in the circumstance in spite of the pressure made to bear on the police”, he said.

    He said further that the body had again written to the IG to awaken the “smothering coals of police investigation in the matters”, stressing that “we are watching and at the right time we would declare a new line of action if the police remain reluctant. We shall not relent.”

     

  • Bus conductor remanded for alleged murder

    In Ebute Meta Chief Magistrate’s Court in Lagos has remanded a 25-year old bus conductor, Idris Rilwan, for allegedly killing one Egunjobi Rotimi, 34.

    The defendant was said to have conspired with others to commit the offence. He was said to have shot Rotimi dead

    The incident occurred on February 16 during a fight between Rilwan and Rotimi at Abule-Oba Costain.

    The charge reads.”That you Idris Rilwan and others now at large on February 16 at about 11pm at Costain area of Lagos in the Lagos Magisterial District, did conspire to commit felony to wit murder and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 231 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State.

    “That you Idris Rilwan did unlawfully kill one Egunjobi Rotimi, 34, by shooting him with a gun and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 221 of the Criminal Law of Lagos.”

    Prosecuting police Inspector Cousin Adam prayed the court to remand the defendant in prison custody pending legal advice from the office of Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).

    The defence counsel, Mr Saka Bello, applied for the withdrawal of the charge against his client for want of “proper investigation”.

    Magistrate Nurudeen Layeni ordered that the defendant be remanded in Ikoyi prison pending legal advice from DPP’s office. He adjourned the matter to April 7.

  • Atiku urges police on Falaki’s murder

    Atiku urges police on Falaki’s murder

    Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has urged the police to provide explanations on the circumstances that led to the murder of Prof. Ahmed Falaki of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

    He said in a statement by his media office in Abuja yesterday that “the explanation given thus far about how the leading Professor of Agriculture died under police custody falls short of logical assimilation.”

    According to the statement, the account given by the police on the circumstances that led to the death of Prof. Falaki, a scholar and Africa’s leading authority in Agriculture, is an embarrassment to the police.

    “It is particularly distasteful and confounding that the police will confuse the identity of a personality such as Prof. Falaki as a member of the Boko Haram sect.

    “In the manner that Prof. Falaki was killed, it is not in doubt that he had believed that the police station was a sanctuary of safety for him from the jungle justice he was receiving in the hands of locals, who had mistaken him for a member of the dreaded Boko Haram sect.

    “That men of the Nigeria Police will stand and become witnesses to murder, and even allow the police station to become the theatre of jungle justice, is a very disturbing narrative about the circumstance in which Prof Falaki was killed.

    “Such a narrative is an embarrassment to the professional integrity of the Nigeria Police and it is wholesomely unacceptable. The leadership of the Police must commission a thorough investigation into the circumstances in which Prof. Falaki was killed.”

    The former Vice President, who extolled the virtues of the late Africa’s leading professor of Agriculture, described his death as a huge loss to the intellectual community in Africa.

  • Students seek justice over murder of Ogoni leader

    Students seek justice over murder of Ogoni leader

    The students of Rivers State Polytechnic (RIVPOLY), have protested the gruesome murder of one of them, Comrade Nfiri Sabastine, who was reportedly killed by unknown gunmen while standing at a filling Station located at Bori, the capital of Ogoni.

    The late Nfiri who was the Financial Secretary of Ogoni Students Network (OSN) and a National Diploma I student of Medical Laboratory Science, was shot on Sunday afternoon and buried on Monday by the family.

    Speaking on Monday after a protest in Bori, the spokesman of Ogoni Students Network, Comrade Legbaris Yamaabana described late Nfiri as a peace loving youth.

    Condemning the murder, he said that the students would continue to protest until the police unveils those behind his death.

    Legbaris said: “We condemn in strong terms and in its totality the brutal killing of our student and an Ogoni student for that matter. We are calling on the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Civil Liberty Organization and other law enforcement agencies to do something fast.

    “As a matter of urgency we want them to launch a full -scale investigation and to leave no stone unturned until the murderer are arrested. The students will continue to protest on daily basis except the killers are arrested.”

     

  • Murder suspects get bail

    Justice Toyin Taiwo of a Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere has granted bail to three, out  of the six persons standing trial for alleged murder.

    Justice Taiwo granted bail to Joel Ajiboye, Yusuf Akinwale and  Yakubu Olayiwola.

    The fourth accused person, Adigun Oriyomi, was denied bail.

    Ajiboye was granted bail after the court heard his application, which centred on ill health  and admittance of his medical report from the Nigerian Prisons Service and the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) Ikeja.

    A statement by the Ministry of Justice, Alausa Ikeja, last week and signed by the Public Relations Officer, Bola Akingbade, explained that the court reviewed its earlier ruling on November 17,last year and granted Ajiboye bail on health grounds and was bond over to keep the peace in accordance with provision of Section 35 & 36 of the ACJL 2011 amongst other bail conditions.                                                                                                                                                                    The other two defendants, Yusuf Akinwale and YakubuOlayiwola were also granted bail with same conditions.

    However, the court refused to entertain the review application brought in respect of Adigun Oriyomi and ordered that he be further remanded in Ikoyi Prisons.

    A case of murder was instituted against Ajiboye and five others by the Lagos State government on behalf of the state.

    The defendants  were first arraigned before Justice Taiwo of Court 28, Criminal Division of the Lagos High Court, Igbosere, Lagos on November 5, last year.

    Ajiboye, Akinwale, Olayiwola and  Oriyomi, through their counsel, applied for bail and the application was heard on November 13.

    The court delivered its ruling on November 17,  refusing to  grant bail to all the defendants.

    A subsequent application was brought before the court on  December 19, 2014 applying for a review of the ruling of the court refusing bail to the defendants.

    The trial judge has, however, adjourned further hearing in the murder charge brought against the defendants  till February  4, 2015.

  • Court remands driver for alleged murder 

    The police in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have arraigned a 35-year-old truck driver in the employ of Dangote Group, Zaradeen Idris, at a Kuje Area Council Magistrate’s Court, for allegedly knocking down two pedestrians. He was accused of driving dangerously.

    Idris, a driver with Dangote Cement Company Obajana in Kogi State, was arraigned before Senior Magistrate Azubike Okeagwu.

    The prosecutor, Corporal Ocheche Samuel, told the court that the accused committed the offence in August.

    Samuel said the matter was reported at the Kuje Police Station, Abuja on September 29, by parents of the deceased who live at Gosa Airport Road.

    The prosecutor further said the accused drove dangerously along Gosa Airport Road and caused the death of Bello Habib and Olumakinde Kazeem.

    He said the accused also caused damage to a Peugeot 406 car with registration number Lagos AAA 437 BZ, an offence which he said contravened the provisions of sections 27 cap 548 of Road Traffic Violation (RTV).

    Idris pleaded not guilty after the charges were read to him.

    Magistrate Okeagwu adjourned the case to today for further hearing.

  • Woman held for girl’s murder, missing son

    A woman has been arrested for the murder of a four-year-old girl in Lagos.

    She was arrested by operatives attached to the Orile Police Station, following the death of Nosifat Mubo who was recovered after she was declared missing with her seven-year-old brother, Lateef, on October 3.

    Their father, Moshood Mubo of 305, Church Street, Lagos Island, reported at Adeniji Adele Police Station that two of his children left home around 6pm to buy biscuits on the street but did not return.

    On October 9, Lateef was recovered from a woman, Aminat Akanni of 20, Mosallashi Street, Alakara bus stop, Orile, who allegedly stole the siblings.

    When detectives at Orile Police Station, where the case was earlier reported, interrogated her, she confessed to stealing the siblings and taking them to where she “murdered” Nosifat.

    Further investigations revealed that Aminat is the step-mother of the children she stole, “owing to a misunderstanding she had with her husband and his first wife.”

    The woman was said to have confessed to drowning the child and dropping her dead body at Orile where she was discovered by the police.

    The command’s spokesman Kenneth Nwosu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), confirmed the incident, saying that the case had been transferred to Orile Police Station for further action.