The Nation Newspaper

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  • JUST IN: Gunmen kidnap ASUP chair, four others in Oyo

    The Chairman Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology Igbo-Ora, Mr. Opadijo Olujide, his secretary, Gbenga Alayande and three others have been kidnapped.

    It was gathered they were returning from a union meeting on Thursday in Saki when the incident occurred.

    A source said that four kidnapped comrades are members of the school chapter of ASUP while the other victim is one of their wives.

    “It is true. It happened on Thursday. They were returning from a union meeting in Saki. Five of them were kidnapped. Four of them are staff members of the school. The other one is wife of one of the victims.

    Read Also: Gunmen kidnap rescuers of Bayelsa accident victims in Rivers

    “The school authorities have been making frantic effort to secure their freedom. The police are monitoring the situation. The Commissioner of Police was in Igbo-ora in the morning (Friday).The school is being careful. But the school may update the public when it gets updates,” a source said.

    Police Public Relations Officers(PPRO) of Oyo State Police Command Olugbenga Fadeyi confirmed the incident.

    The PPRO said:”Some lecturers were abducted at the Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igbo-ora. The police is on the top of the situation.

    The Commissioner of Police went there in the morning for on-the-spot assessment. Other developments will be unveiled.”

  • Protest in Ughelli over alleged SARS shooting

    Residents of Ughelli in Delta State have protested the alleged killing of a young man simply identified as Mr. Patrick by agents of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

    SARS operatives had reportedly pulled the trigger on the victim’s leg for refusing them access to his phone.

    The incident was said to have happened on Thursday morning around Makolomi Street near Upper Agbarho area of Ughelli.

    The SARS team were further alleged to have left the victim at the scene with blood gushing out of his wounds.

    It was gathered policemen from the Ughelli station later rushed the victim to the Ughelli Central Hospital where he is receiving medical treatment.

    A witness reported: “The young man did not do anything. SARS operatives who were patrolling the area on Thursday stopped the victim and demanded that he must open his phone for them but he declined.

    “The operatives started beating him until they collected the phone from him but he refused. He is a very humble boy in the area.

    “When the incident was happening it was the women in the area that were bold enough to challenge them. When others were still flogging him, one of the operatives opened fire on his leg. They jumped into the vehicle and left.

    Read Also; Alleged rape scandal: COZA pastor Fatoyinbo fights back

    “It was other police officers from the Ughelli Police Station that came to rush to the man to hospital. He is there at the hospital as we speak.”

    Residents, including women and youths, took to the streets to protest the development.

    It was learnt that the protesters who set fire on tyres on major roads leading to the Ughelli Area Command called for an end to SARS operations, positing that several innocent persons have died from their onslaught.

    One of the protesters, who only gave his name as Igho, called on police authorities in the state to ensure that justice was served the victim.

    He said: “We no longer move freely because of SARS in Ughelli. Once they see two or three youths walking together, the next thing you will see is SARS operatives searching their phones.

    “We cannot continue like this. The police authorities should investigate the incident and stop their men from maltreating people,” he stated.
    Commissioner of Police, Mr Adeyinka Adeleke, said it was not clear if it was a policeman that shot the victim.
    “Somebody was shot but we do not know if it was a policeman that shot the person,” the CP stated.

  • Girl commits suicide 3 months after boyfriend killed self

    An apprentice at a tailoring shop in Lagos, Adenike Fatai, reportedly committed suicide just three months after her boyfriend identified as Bayo Atanda also killed self.

    The 25-year-old indigene of Kwara State who lived with her mother at Igbekele Street, Iyana Cele bus stop, Shibiri area of Lagos State has reportedly been battling depression since her boyfriend died and she took a poisonous substance suspected to be ‘sniper’.

    Though she left no suicide note, a quick check on her Facebook page revealed that she engaged in posts which centred on death and depression.

    It was further learnt that her trauma was heightened by her late boyfriend family and friends’ allegation of causing his death.

    Tawa, Adenike’s mother who confirmed her death told Punch that she met her dead after she returned home from evening prayer.

    She said, “That day, she finished cooking around 7pm and ate. She was outside after eating while I went to the mosque. Around 8pm, she came to the mosque to collect the key to our apartment and I told her to check the shop.

    “On getting home some minutes after, I saw her lying on the floor with a bottle of sniper beside her. I called for help but it was late.

    “She was learning tailoring in her sister’s place in Ikorodu. All of a sudden, her boss sent her away. She told me she had got another place to learn the vocation in Orile and that she would be living with a friend. I asked her to come and learn it at my place but she refused.

    Read Also; Alleged rape scandal: COZA pastor Fatoyinbo fights back

    “Whenever I asked to see the friend, she would say she was not around. It was when I threatened to disown her that she told me she was living with her boyfriend. I tried to convince her that what she did was wrong, but she said the man’s (Bayo’s) house was close to where she was learning tailoring. I met with the man and he said he really wanted to marry her. He looked very gentle. We were planning the introduction when he died.

    “On a Sunday around 11pm, my daughter called me and started crying on the phone. She said Bayo drank sniper. They took him to the Lagos Island General Hospital, but he died the following morning. That time, she said she would follow him and I tried to caution her.”

    Tawa admitted that Adenike got depressed after her boyfriend’s death and even relocated to Ikorodu area of Lagos state. She however said she (Adenike) returned after her condition improved.

    “I never thought she was thinking of suicide because she looked happy. Some clerics warned us that death was hovering around her and I prayed over it.

    “I learnt she called somebody that evening and told the person that she wanted to go and meet Bayo and that she would drink sniper. I don’t know the kind of love she had for him.

    “There was a day a friend of Bayo called her and accused her of killing him. I told her to ignore them. The mistake I made was that I should have changed her SIM card,” she added.

    Also confirming the death of his daughter, Adenike’s father said he never knew she was battling depression. Idris said he only spoke to her on the phone since he separated from her mother.

    NAN

  • PDP governors meet in Port Harcourt

    Governors of seven states of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) met on Friday in Port Harcourt, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

    According to Mr Simeon Nwakaudu, Special Assistant (Electronic Media) to Gov. Nyesom Wike, the meeting was attended by Govs. Umaru Fintiri (Adamawa), Emeka Ihedioha (Imo); Seyi Makinde (Oyo); Samuel Ortom (Benue); Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto); and Mohammed Mattawale (Zamfara).

    After the meeting, Tambuwal explained that the governors were in Rivers to commend Wike “for his sustained projects delivery’’.

    He said the governors urged him to continue to deliver quality projects and sustain good governance for the development of Rivers State.

    Read Also: How ex-PDP gov’s deal with Buhari’s men went awry

    Tambuwal also said that PDP remained strongly united in friendship and brotherhood.

    He said: “We are here as brothers and friends to the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, in the spirit of brotherhood and friendship.

    “We are here to encourage and support him for the good governance he has given to the good people of Rivers State.

    “The 100 days of the second term of Governor Wike is also why we are here.

    “The spirit in Port Harcourt and Rivers State is that of celebration and thanksgiving and gratitude to God for such a wonderful leadership by Governor Wike.

    “We are also here to join him and the good people of Rivers State in thanking God for his leadership and to thank God for giving the state a wonderful leader like him.”

  • Insecurity: Group calls on Buhari to tighten security in borders

    Perturbed by the spate of insecurity in Nigeria, a socio-cultural organization, Yoruba Koya Initiative, has advised President Muhammad Buhari to tighten the security in the borders in a order to tackle the prevailing insurgency.

    The group said doing so will also boost the nation’s economic activities.

    The President of Yoruba Koya Initiative, Mr. Sunday Akinyemi, gave the advice during empowerment programme and inauguration of Senator Ajayi Boroffice and Chief Olalekan Folorunsho as Patron and Alatunse of the initiative, in Osogbo, Osun State capital.

    Akinyemi, who said one of the objectives of Yoruba Koya Initiative is to defend the interest of Yoruba people, expressed the readiness of the group to work with other security agencies to combat insurgency and other crimes in the country.

    He noted that the peace and unity of Nigeria remains sacrosanct and must not be negotiated for any other interests, urging President Buhari to mount surveillance in the zones of the country to check the proliferation of arms that made the nation insecure, check the influx of bandits and kidnappers migrated from neighbouring country.

    Read Also: Adopt multi-level policing to address insecurity in Nigeria, Educationist urges FG

    President of Yoruba Koya Initiative commended Mr.  President over the border closure policy, of his administration, stressing that the decision has further demonstrated Buhari’s desire to secure the nation from insurgents.

    However, he urged the President to take proactive measures in eradicating unemployment, suggesting that the Federal Government should give priority to youth empowerment, this according to him would help in reducing the menace of insecurity in the country.

    Speaking, the Olowu of Owukuta, Hammed Adekunle Oyelude Makama, commended Yoruba Koya Initiative for contributing  to the development of the country.

    Oba Makama who described the socio-cultural group as a strong and powerful initiative, said he was very glad by the empowerment Initiative of the group.

    He said Yoruba Koya Initiative has distinguished itself by introducing empowerment programmes apart from the security functions of the group.

    He, therefore, urged the group not to relent in their efforts toward making life better to the Yorubas just as he advised them no to engage in any act capable of tarnishing their good image.

    Seriki Fulani in Osun State, Alhaji Adamu-Mina Yahaya, who spoke on behalf of Hausa, said there is need for more holistic intervention to arrest “this felonious situation in.the.country.”

  • Fayemi, Wike’s newfound friendship set tongues wagging

    There is no gainsaying the fact that recent weeks have been challenging for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The opposition party has been battling with cold since one of its  pillar of strength , perceived financier and governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, sneezed.

    The party has suffered one sleepless night after the other since the Rivers State governor stormed out of the venue of the presidential primaries of the party from which Alhaji Atiku Abubakar emerged the presidential candidate of the PDP in the build-up to the 2019 general elections. Since then, he has taken various other actions that left the minders of the party worried.

    For instance, in the aftermath of the National Assembly elections where Hon. Kingsley Chinda, the candidate he and other party chieftains supported for the minority leader’s seat in the House of Representatives lost to Hon. Ndidi Elumelu, Wike roundly condemned the panel set up by the party to investigate the ‘coup’ against the party, describing it as corrupt.

    Then came the dismissal of Atiku’s petition in the case he filed at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal against Buhari’s re-election. While the leaders and chieftains of PDP kicked against the judgment, Wike openly congratulated Buhari. Wike’s move sparked anger in PDP’s camp as chieftains of the party called his loyalty to question.

    In the midst of these came the rapport the Rivers State governor developed with his Ekiti State counterpart, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, since Fayemi took his stand on Wike’s side in the latter’s alleged demolition of a mosque in Port Harcourt. Fayemi has since followed this up with a visit to Wike in Port Harcourt where he also commissioned projects.

    The development has left many wondering if Fayemi’s actions were impelled by his position as the Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) or a prelude to an agenda that is yet to unfold. The more curious observers are even asking if Fayemi is the one anointed to midwife Wike’s final parting of ways with the PDP as  is being speculated in some quarters.

  • Confessions of an alleged serial killer

    • ’How I murdered seven women’
    • Says I enjoy killing when the urge comes on me
    • ’I killed my first victim in a Lagos hotel’

    It was confession time on Friday for the man believed to have been responsible for the serial killing of young women in Port Harcourt over the last few months.

    Thirty-nine year old Gracious David West told reporters in the Rivers State capital that he had also killed in Lagos and Imo States.

    He put the number of his victims at seven.

    He was arrested on Thursday by the police while en route Uyo from c.

    His arrest came hours after protests by women groups in Port Harcourt calling for the security agencies to fish out the brains behind the mysterious killings of women in hotels.

    West, who hails from Buguma in Asari-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State, claimed that he  killed five women in Port Harcourt and  one each  in Ikeja and Owerri.

    His modus operandi was to take his victims to a hotel, confiscate their ATM cards and thereafter kill them.

    He would then proceed to the nearest ATM and clear the accounts of his victims.

    His first killing was in Lagos.

    “I started the killing in Lagos, that was where I got money because the first girl had N85,000 in her account,” West said.

    “After that, I went to Port Harcourt, then Owerri. I returned to Port Harcourt. The last girl I killed I met her at the club.”

    Read Also: #ProtectPHGirls trends as Nigerians react to ‘serial killer’ in PH

    West said he was on his way to Akwa-Ibom when he was arrested by operatives of the special anti-robbery squad, Bori in Rivers.

    ”When the urge comes, I move into a hotel, invite a girl after and after eating and making love, I will bring out a kitchen knife and threaten her not to shout,” West said.

    He added: “I don’t know what comes over me to kill. After I have killed, I feel remorse and cry for killing, but after that, the irresistible urge to kill comes over me again. I kill alone.

    ”I was a member of the Degbam Cult group, I have since repented. I am not killing for any cult group. I just kill. I don’t know what comes over me to kill.

    ”The first woman I killed in one of the hotels in Ikeja had about N85,000 in her account. Before I strangled them after love making, I used the knife to cut the hotel bedding into a semblance of a twine which I used to bind their hands and feet, and also used the knife to threaten them.

    “The kitchen knife was sold to me by an aboki. I would threaten that if they raised the alarm, I would kill them with the knife.

    “Out fear, they kept quiet while I raised the volume of the television set in the hotel room to prevent any noise from my room. I never killed with the knife.”

    West also revealed that before he killed his female victims, he insisted on knowing their account balance and ATM pin number.

    “After strangulating them, I would steal their ATM cards, empty their accounts from any nearby ATM machine and move on.

    “It was not all the girls I slept with that I killed. I only killed whenever the irresistible urge to kill overwhelmed me.

    “l don’t have a house. My mother died through poisoning from her mate and I am homeless. I sleep in hotels.”

    He said that the phones he stole from his victims were sold to a customer in Waterlines Junction, off Port Harcourt/Aba Expressway and another buyer around MTN office by Oil Mill Market in Port Harcourt.

    West claimed to be an  ex-militant  rehabilitated by the Omega Power Ministry (OPM) which also got  a job for him at the Federal University of Science and Technology, FUTO, Owerri, through the Church.

    He ditched the job after stealing students’ property.

    Police Commissioner, Mustapha Dandaura who paraded the suspect  does not believe that West was acting alone.

    “The suspect is definitely not alone in these killings, though he had made useful confessions, but the command will go beyond his confessions to ensure that a conclusive end is achieved that serves the interest of justice ,” he said.

    Dandaura said his insistence that hotels in the state should install Closed Circuit Television Cameras, CCTVs, was beginning to yield positive results.

    He vowed that the Police, under his Command would fight crimes headlong in the state, adding that with joint operations with the army and other security agencies, the killings in Ogoniland was dropping, while “I have stabilized East-West road, the Elele-Owerri road.”

  • ‘I masterminded the killing of my gang’s leader’

    A notorious kidnapper, Nwobodo Uchechukwu, has revealed that he masterminded the beheading of the leader of his gang, Christian Nkemjika a.k.a School Boy, because he was very greedy.

    Uchechukwu was arrested alongside other members of his gang- Tony Rafael; Nnaji Romanus; Nwobodo Uche and Uchechukwu Ibekwe, by the operatives of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT).

    The suspects were arrested from their hideouts in Rivers and Imo States.

    They were said to have kidnapped the Chief Accountant of Plantgeria Limited, an oil firm based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Dr. S.M.C Maduagwu in February 2018 and collected N20 million ransom.

    Uchechukwu, 38, disclosed that School Boy collected more than the amount he collected as ransom on a kidnap victim he kidnapped on behalf of the gang.

    He stated that School Boy deceitfully declared a sum of N10 million instead of N20 million ransom he was paid by family members of the victim.

    He said: “I am a full time farmer, but I went into kidnapping when my wife fell sick and was down with stroke. Her doctor demanded the sum of N200, 000 deposit (for her treatment) and I approached School-Boy my gang leader; he gave me the sum of N100, 000 to give to the doctor. He told me about the accountant I was to closely watch or monitor and I did as he instructed for about one month till the day he was ready to kidnap the man. I trailed the man (victim) from the time he left his office and when he got to Oil Mill junction, Schoolboy and other members of the gang who were decked in polce abd army uniform abducted the man and took him away in their Toyota Hilux van.

    Read Also: Three suspected kidnappers shot dead in Kogi

    ‘’The man was taken to my farm where he was kept and negotiation for his ransom was concluded.  I wasn’t in the farm with them, but after the kidnapping, School-Boy gave me the balance of N100,000 to give to my wife’s doctor. Two weeks later School Boy informed me that N10  million had been paid as ransom for the release of the accountant release and that the man had been freed.

    ‘’At that time, I didn’t doubt him and all of us that took part in the operation to the home of a native doctor known as Romanus Nnaji and he started sharing the money. He handed me the sum of N1.5million to give to Ibekwe and Stanley, the informants that brought the job and he also gave me N500, 000 as my own share.

    ‘’Few months after that operation, I got a call that my brother had been arrested by the police over the kidnapping of the accountant and that the actual amount paid for the man’s freedom was N20million. I felt bad that School-Boy cheated every one of us by declaring N10 million as the only ransom that was paid and he kept the other N10million to himself and shared the one he declared with us.

    ‘’I said nothing at that time because the police were looking for me and I ran to a church in Akwa Ibom for prayers to ask God for forgiveness and told the people at the church about the police that were looking for me. But while I was at the church, the policemen trailed me  down to the church and luckily for me I was in the church’s toilet when I saw the police van and I fled into the bush.

    ‘’I trekked in that bush to Ndoni area of Rivers State. When I got back, I called School Boy and told him that the police were looking for me and I could not continue to run and I assured him that I will surrender myself but he threatened to kill me.

    ‘’I then ran to Imo State and I stayed there for three weeks and the police came again to look for me but I escaped. While I was running away to hide for the tide to pass, I called School-Boy to give me part of the N10million he refused to declare to the gang so that I could run out of the country, but he refused, and I felt the best thing I should do at the moment was to set him up and have him killed.

    ‘’I contacted some members of De-Gbam confraternity who had been looking for him and I gave out his location to them and they attacked and beheaded him. After they succeeded in the killing of School-Boy, I approached a lawyer in Owerri Imo  State where I was hiding with my pregnant wife to seek a legal advice on what I could do since the police were hunting for me everywhere. I was there when the nurse at the hospital where my wife had gone to deliver her baby told me on the telephone that policemen had trailed my wife to her hospital and I ran away again. I was later arrested in June 2019 by the operatives in Orlu Imo State,’’ he added.

  • Bauchi governor, NLTP and imperfect identity

    Before it is over, the controversy over whether to execute a Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) programme for herdsmen or serve it in the somewhat more inoculated version of National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) will have cost jobs, denuded political influence and prestige, and stoked pain, anger and suspicion all over the country.

    RUGA, which is hated in some parts of the country for its provocative and culturally flagrant acronym, was to be anchored by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in ways that stupefied many. NLTP on the other hand, though still viewed with extreme suspicion, emanated from the National Economic Council (NEC). Who first conceived it? It is not clearly stated. For now, flowing from the acrimonious debate over the relevance and security implications of RUGA, the more inclusive NLTP appears to be on the ascendancy, with a hefty budget of about N179bn proposed for its execution over a 10-year period.

    Neither NLTP nor RUGA is devoid of controversy, and may not even be the best scientific approach to solving the so-called herdsmen-farmers clashes. Both programmes came out of many decades of slovenly approach to tackling climate problems and desertification, which pushed herdsmen contentiously farther afield in search of grazing lands, and the increasing conurbation and population explosion that have constricted grazing lands. Unable to find the antidote to a fast-growing and menacing problem, the federal government simply watched, sometimes with futile gestures, as herdsmen and farmers locked horns. Now the problem has reached epidemic levels, and is demanding for a solution whether the government likes it or not.

    But rather than look at the problem carefully and cautiously and weigh every suggested solution against the backdrop of the country’s cultural sensitivities and political complexities, the government has made a fairly conventional assessment of the causes of the problem, stunted the need to seek more modern and efficacious solutions, and is now attempting to impose a solution whose future ramifications are unpredictable. RUGA was the more insensitive of the two solutions, but there is also no proof that even the NLTP has met with anything more than cautious and reluctant acceptance from so-called willing states. Indeed, there is no proof that governors, who are members of the NEC, have all confidently signed on to the sanitised variant of the two programmes, especially with the ongoing subterranean and contentious attempt to settle Fulani herdsmen in some unwilling parts of the country.

    To further muddy the waters, the declaration by the Bauchi State governor Bala Mohammed that the Fulani of West Africa have a transcendental identity, and must willy-nilly partake of the NLTP, has stoked controversy and imbued the programme with a suspicious hegemonic quality. The NEC is proposing an initial N100bn budget, fully funded by Nigerian taxpayers. According to Mr Mohammed, however, it would be pointless to attempt to exclude Fulani herdsmen from neighbouring West African countries, because you couldn’t tell the difference: they are all one and the same. They migrate seamlessly and share the same nationality. The governor was, in other words, declaring that the Fulani everywhere see themselves as Fulani first and foremost rather than through the lens of the countries of their birth. This is hugely controversial, ignorant and provocative.

    According the governor:  “I think there is a lot of mistrust and misconception as regards the Fulani man. The Fulani man is a global or African person. He moves from the Gambia to Senegal and his nationality is Fulani. As a person I may have my relations in Cameroon but they are also Fulani. I am a Fulani man from my maternal side. We will just have to take this as our own heritage, something that is African. So, we cannot just close our borders and say the Fulani man is just a Nigerian. In most cases, the crisis is precipitated by those outside Nigeria. When there is a reprisal, it is not the Fulani man within Nigeria that causes it. It is that culture of getting revenge which is embedded in the traditional Fulani man that attracts reprisal…We are already accommodating them. Do you delineate and really know who is not a Nigerian Fulani man? They are all Nigerians because their identity, their citizenship is Nigerian even though they have relatives from all be a $30bn [£22.8bn] company in terms of revenue,” said Dangote.

    Wao! Dangote is renowned for doing good business. Our sports administrators must sit up and embrace the reality that sports increases the GDP of countries that understand the dynamics of the industry. Spain’s economy, a growing one like Nigeria’s, relies greatly on the volume of cash generated from the sports sector.

    FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, Villarreal, Valencia are not all about football. They have basketball clubs, volleyball clubs, athletics clubs etc, which are professionally run. But football serves as the fountain where others seek succour, considering its followership as the king of sports.

    La Liga’s contribution in Spain’s national economy is no less than any other top-run industry in the country. The two elite division football leagues in Spain generate 185,000 jobs, €4.1 billion ($4.66 bn) in taxes and a turnover equal to 1.37% of the national GDP. This is one sport – football. Others are also run as businesses. Sample: Vuelta a España, a race around Spain and one of cycling’s biggest events.

    Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues spent a record £5billion on players this summer despite Premier League clubs, usually the continent’s most active shoppers, slightly reining in their spending, Deloitte has revealed.

    Honourable minister sir, sponsorship isn’t donation but value exchange based on inventories of benefits accruing to the firm(s) or individual. Indeed, sponsorship without television as a key element amounts to winking in the dark. Our sports is more of having a half empty glass than a half filled one, largely because those who administered it in the past lacked the political will, which Dare is exhibiting with his reposition of issues in so short a time.

    Indeed, there was no funding of sports here because most of the ministers were interested in fighting NFF chiefs and other federations’ helmsmen than creating a financial sponsorship model driven by the principles of Public Private Partnership (PPP).  Dare needs to find out what happened to all the Sports Lottery Fund and some others like the fund-raisers before the last two World Cup tournaments for the Super Eagles.

    The country seriously needs a Sustenance fund for our athletes which should be tied to big firms and/or rich individuals so that we can chart these sports ambassadors’ growth in the events. Besides, we need to re-introduce the fund-raisers we did at least one year before attending major competitions. President Buhari could commence it with a dinner where the big players in business are told what they stand to gain supporting sports. Such incentives as tax rebates would propel them to support sports for as long as they can be assured that the cash isn’t misapplied. The fund raisers will then be taken round the country for all the states to contribute their quota. However, a deliberate attempt should be made to let everyone know how much was realised and how the cash was spent. The minister could use the visits through the states to dialogue with the governors on his vision for sports.

    It is instructive for the minister to meet with sports friendly firms who have left the industry to find out what informed their exits. That way, past mistakes are corrected so that others can be encouraged to participate.

  • Unidentified woman steals two-month-old baby in Ekiti

    A yet-to-be-identified woman has reportedly stolen a two-month-old baby boy from his mother in Ado Ekiti

    The incident occurred on Friday around 1PM at the State Secretariat in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti state capital.

    A source who spoke on condition of anonymity said the woman tricked  the baby’s mother, Funmilayo Sunday to follow her to the State Secretariat under the guise to help collect some relief materials being given by government to flood victims.

    “On getting there, she sent the mother to help her to procure recharge card but ran away with the baby before the arrival of the woman, a source said.

    Read Also: Son fakes own kidnap to defraud dad of N500,000

    Narrating her ordeal, Funmilayo who was drenched in tears explained  that the abductor whom she suspected to be from the Eastern part of the country, had been patronizing her consistently at the Oja-Oba market, where she sells soup ingredients.

    She said the woman informed her on Wednesday that she would take her to the State Secretariat where her husband works and that the husband would facilitate the relief materials for her.

    The woman, who preferred to be anonymous, explained that the woman came to her shop with a list of possible beneficiaries and included her name making her to believe that she was being favoured.

    According to her, “the woman who had become a regular customer had this morning invited me to the Secretariat and pretended to be waiting for someone, having entered one or two offices under the pretence of making some arrangements.

    “She later took my baby and set from me and asked me to go and buy recharge cards and before I came back, she had fled with my baby,” she stated.

    The poor woman, who claimed she had lost a child recently before the delivery of the stolen boy, said the suspect  collected her phone to prevent her from  contacting the police