The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigerian news

  • Lagos: Baale denies involvement in land grabbing

    The Baale of Cardoso area of Ipaja, a Lagos suburb, Chief Moroof Owonla, aka Kaka, on Thursday, denied any involvement in land grabbing activities within the Ayobo-Ipaja Local Council Development Area of the state.

    A statement by his Media Adviser, Chief Babajide Osokoya, described Owonla as a consummate businessman in various sectors of the country’s economy, who would not engage in such unlawful activities.

    According to the statement: “Apart from being a traditional ruler of repute, High Chief Owonla sits comfortably atop successful businesses spanning hospitality, education, property, oil and gas and automobiles. He is the Chairman/ Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Owonla Hotels, Impressive Schools, Owonla Property Management Company, Rosebol Oil & Gas Limited and Kaka Auto Marts.

    ‘’It was, however, shocking that some residents in Ayobo and other communities in the area staged a demonstration to protest against the activities of land grabbers allegedly led by one Moroof Owonla, aka Kaka, who has been terrorising their communities.”

    Owonla said he had no personal or business relationship with the property agent, who issued a 14-day ultimatum dated September 10, 2019 to property owners in the community.

    He urged concerned authorities to feel free to carry out thorough investigations on the matter with a view to ascertaining those responsible for the controversial notice.

    The statement added: “We imagine what could have been the link between High Chief Owonla and the agent known as Gabfod Properties that informed the reported protest against his personality on the streets.

    ‘’For purpose of clarity, Chief Owonla was the property agent of late Chief Arimiyau Bello Ekundayo, when he won the case over the landed property in suit No. ID/1722/92 in the judgment delivered by Justice O.A Williams (Mrs.) of Ikeja High Court 7 on October 24, 2004, and he successfully managed the property until this year (2019), when the children and family of late Arimiyau Bello Ekundayo decided to disengage Chief Owonla and appointed Gabfob Properties Investments as their new land agent.

    ‘’Chief Owonla, a graduate of Business Administration from the Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, is equally a landlord on the said property, having bought 15 acres with genuine documents directly from the judgment creditor, late Chief Arimiyau Bello Ekundayo, long before his death,  and this his children and family can attest to.’’

  • Redeemer cometh for abused tenants

    It is no longer news that some of the most atrocious crimes against humanity are committed in the house rental sector in Lagos State.

    Unscrupulous and mindless estate agents, especially those not bonded to government aegies and operating loosely as wheelie-dealers, have been having a kill on unsuspecting home-seeking tenants and dashing so many hopes with reckless abandon.

    You hear or read of an agent collecting advance rent from 100 people for only one room or flatlet or flat or even fleecing members of the public on properties that are not even assigned to them for letting. And cases of victims are not helped by the disposition of some law enforcement agents to reported cases of fraud by dodgy estate agents or rent collectors.

    That the state government has responded to these unsavoury developments with the creation of a state real estate transaction department (LASRETRAD) in the ministry of housing is quite commendable to help bring to an end the woes of would-be tenants who did not come about their money easily.

    LASRETRAD seeks to regulate, monitor and develop an institutional framework for real estate transactions in the state with a view to protecting citizens from fraudulent and unscrupulous practices of some real estate agents who often use real estate transactions as a means to defraud and take advantage of unsuspecting tenants and purchasers of properties.

    This agency of government is also to monitor compliance with the state tenancy law of 2011 and other state legislation on land transactions. It is a body that should be patronized by citizens for their common good. Government information machinery should be revved to give maximum publicity to this vital public service.

    This columnist supports government in creating awareness to members of the public to avoid unregistered agents and swindlers in the real estate sector.

  • Kosegbe? No, these buildings must give way for the safety of all

    The new general manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency is a certain Mrs Abiola Kosegbe. Those who know her attest to her brilliance and commitment to the job of helping to minimise avoidable deaths in the state through building collapse.

    Collapse of distressed or poorly constructed buildings is a nationwide phenomenon. What makes Lagos case special or different is the nature of how buildings had sprung up, especially since the 70s, particularly in central Lagos which has had more than its fair share in incidents of building collapse.

    In several cases, nowhere are buildings rules and regulations breached more than on Lagos Island. There, recalcitrant and greedy house owners and developers put up structures that reasonable people see from the very start as disasters waiting to happen. And rather than being dissuaded by building control officials, they are compromised to look the other way, ostensibly after receiving dubious gratification.

    When gnashing of teeth occurs due to building collapse which had been caused by developers and compromised officials of state, families begin to count losses of lives and damage to limbs and properties, and members of the public begin to proffer solutions that everyone knew about but which do not hold water with culprits.

    Too many lives had been lost and a lot of deformities done to several. It is time therefore for government to find permanent panacea to this recurring problem. The LABSCA big boss name is Kosegbe, which means “Immoveable”. But given the terrifying dimension building collapse has assumed over the years, she must be ready to move those structures that pose grave danger to lives and properties, lest her own position in government is threatened.

    In tackling this worrisome problem, the government and the governed must come to a common agreement that the inevitable must be done. Government must lead this crusade by increasing the equipment needed to voluntarily bring down distressed or poorly constructed structures without doing damage to the fabric or texture of the surroundings; and upping the degree of sanctions on the owners of the affected buildings and the compromised officials that turned the Nelson’s eye to the infractions committed before the bubble of building collapse burst.

    Government ought to do more in the area of urban renewal and lead positive development in that regard, instead of abdicating its statutory responsibility to the citizens.

    Community leaders, led by traditional heads, must do more sensitization to get citizens support to save their own lives and properties and prevail on callous owners and developers not to deliberately put people’s lives in jeopardy.

  • Atiku: Any enquiry into God’s work?

    The presidential election tribunal, by a unanimous decision of 5 – 0, has ruled that President Muhammad Buhari’s re-election is valid.

    But the main contender challenging the decision, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is still not giving up, indicating immediately after Wednesday’s judgement that he was appealing it at the Supreme Court.

    My goodness! Is this love for the rule of law or an obsession for power for its own sake?

    I am not a lawyer, but my little understanding of litigation is that it is not commonplace to have a Supreme Court upturn a unanimous decision of an Appeal Court. You never can tell; maybe Atiku’s case will be radically different from the norm.

    If that happens, we wait to see where that takes the nation to. But if it doesn’t, then Atiku, who covets the presidential throne so badly, will have to take his case to Almighty Allah.

    I do not know why the serial presidential contender couldn’t accept his fate on this matter and prepare himself for another time but I do know that, like Haruna Ishola once sang: there’s no enquiry for God’s work or desire. If I were Atiku, I will lay the matter to rest and wish the President hearty congratulations.

  • Credibility, power and leadership

    The media report that a Nigerian senator called it an insult for Nigerians to criticize the senate for its decision to buy  jeeps or SUVs  for senators in the National  Assembly sets the ball  rolling for our discussion today. To  me the senators anger or seeming indignation is misplaced, if not mischievous and it is certainly  an insult  to Nigeria’s democracy  for a senator to  say  that sort of nonsense  in an age of transparency and accountability in the world’s  democracy.

    The  equivalent of the Nigerian senator’s outburst on the global  stage in terms of braggadocio and arrogance are  namely  the boast  of the Iranian Foreign Minister that it would be  a total  war if the US or  Saudi  Arabia retaliate  against the charge by both nations   that Iran was responsible for  the  drone and missile attacks on Saudi  oil facilities  this  last week. If   you add  to this innuendos on the  Nigerian   President’s  actions on institutions managed by his Vice  President  and  the  conclusions   of friction between the powers that be in Aso  Rock,  then  you will  see that mischief is abroad  in the governance  of  Nigeria and is an illwind that bodes no good.

    Let me start by taxing the credibility in the three events by exposing the fallacy in their respective emanation and origin. In  the first  case of the  furious senator, he conveniently forgot  that he is  an  elected official  responsible to his constituents and Nigerians  at  large who  have a right to question  the running  of the senate as well as the perks  and emoluments that a senator  takes home.

    No anger or calculated outrage can obscure or mask that fact of accountability and responsibility. In the case of the threat of total war on the US and Saudi Arabia by the Iranian Foreign Minister, it is a clear   case of   the leopard incapable of changing its spots. This is because   Iran’s opponents have always accused it of sponsoring terrorism globally and its threat of total war does little to create any credibility for its denial of the charge that it sent the drones and missiles that destroyed the Saudi oil facilities.

    In the case  of the aspersion being cast on the  activities of the Vice President while he held  fort for the President during his many absences  I think  it is a case of giving a dog a bad name  in other to hang it, as I feel this Vice  President is  like Caesar’s wife  above reproach on most  of these matters and he cannot  in any way  be compared to Nero, the ancient  Roman Emperor  who  fiddled  while Rome burnt  like his detractors would have us believe in these  past  few days  of  his vilifications.

  • Court orders forfeiture of funds linked to Oyo-Ita’s alleged associate, ONSA director

    A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the forfeiture of various sums of money estimated at over N1billion allegedly owned by a government official, Titus Okunrinboye Thompson and a former Director of Communications at the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Haruna Wando Mohammed.

    Details of the money include about N550million allegedly found in two Zenith Bank accounts belonging to Thompson, who the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) claimed acted as a front for the immediate past Head of Service (HOS) of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita.

    The other chunk constituting $287,500 and N291,367,914.35 was said to have been recovered from Mohammed, in relation to a surveillance contract awarded sometime in 2012 by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) to a private firm, RTCOM Limited. The contract was said to have been code named – Falcon Eye (FE).

    While the court ordered that the money recovered from Mohammed be permanently forfeited to the Federal Government, the one being held in Thompson’s two Zenith Bank accounts is only temporarily forfeited.

    On Thursday, Justice Folashade Giwa-Ogunbanjo granted the order of permanent forfeiture in the Mohammed case after EFCC’s lawyer, Mohammed Abubakar, argued the motion he filed to that effect.

    The two orders granted in the case, marked:FHC/ABJ/CS/694/2019 are:

    *A final order of forfeiture to the Federal Government of Nigeria of the sum of N291,367,914.35 recovered from one Haruna W. Mohammed in the course of investigation to be transferred to Recovered Funds Account domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria.

    Read Also: Bank seeks forfeiture of senator’s school over N150m debt

    *A final order of forfeiture to the Federal Government of Nigeria of the sum of US$287,500.00 recovered from one Haruna W. Mohammed in the course of investigation and which has been transferred to the Recovered Funds Account domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria.

    In the case involving Thompson, Justice Giwa-Ogunbanjo could not hear a similar motion filed by Abubakar.

    She noted that although the court had earlier in July 2019 ordered the interim forfeiture of the money and directed that the EFCC publish the order in a national daily, the respondent (Thompson) was absent in court and was not represented.

    Abubakar said the EFCC complied with the order and caused a publication to be made in a national daily on July 8, 2019.

    He noted that since the publication was made, neither Thompson nor Oyo-Ita (who he is suspected to have acted for) responded to the order, by making claim for the money, a development Abubakar said, informed his motion for final forfeiture.

    Justice Giwa-Ogunbanjo then adjourned until October 7, 2019 for the hearing of the motion for final forfeiture and ordered that hearing notice be issued to Thompson in relation to the next hearing date, scheduled for the hearing of the motion for perManent forfeiture.

    The EFCC said, in court documents, sighted by The Nation, that Thompson was an accountant in the Federal Ministry of Special Duties, when Oyo-Ita served as the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary.

    It was alleged that the money traced to Thompson’s two accounts in Zenith Bank (one containing over N500m, while the other has over N50m) were public funds allegedly  siphoned through a project called – Group Life Insurance – which was ostensibly meant for some staff of the ministry.

    In the case of Mohammed, the EFCC stated, in a court document, “that it received intelligence, sometime in 2017 “in respect of cases of defence contract/procurement fraud, gratification and money laundering against the former National Security Adviser (NSA), alleging conspiracy and criminal misappropriation of public funds involving the huge sum of money.

    “Preliminary investigation conducted by the Commission revealed that Ambassador Haruna Mohammed Wando was the Director of Communications at the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

    “Our investigation of the case further revealed that sometimes in 2012, the ONSA contemplated putting in place an ICT driven surveillance and security platform to check illegal activities within the Nigerian territorial waters. This was to enhance the security of Nigeria’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

    The project was meant to cover Nigeria’s coastline stretching 420 nautical miles from East to West including the territorial sea and the EEZ of the country.

    “In order to actualize this dream, a committee was set up to carry out an assessment of the country’s maritime security architecture and assets vis-à-vis the desirability and viability of the proposed project.

    “The Committee which mandate includes sourcing for relevant and reputable companies for the project was headed by the then Director of Communications of (ONSA), the said Amb. Haruna W. Mohammed.

    “Between April and June 2012, the committee invited relevant reputable companies to forward technical and financial proposals; companies which submitted proposal to that effect were however not awarded the said contract.

    “A company called RTCOM Limited which was not invited to submit proposal in that regard eventually ended up getting the job which job was code named Falcon Eye (FE).

    “Stamford International Limited (SIL) was considered as the proffered bidder and was first awarded the contract on 11th April, 2013. They applied for a mobilization fee of US$5.0 million which was not given to them, while on 10th June 2013 RTCOM Limited applied for the same amount and for the same purpose.

    “On 30th April, 2014 ONSA signed a contract with RTCOM Limited for the implementation of the Falcon Eye (FF) Project at a contract sum of $459,369,500.

    “40 per cent of the contract sum, amounting to $183,758,585 was paid by ONSA to RTCOM Limited on the 29th May 2014.

    “Investigation has linked RTCOM limited with bribery and corruption in the build up to the award and execution of the FE project which explains why the shady deals went through.

    “Further to the foregoing, investigation has established that RTCOM Limited has paid the sum of about US$1.0 million (in structured periodic cash payments) to the said Amb. Haruna W. Mohammed while he served as director at ONSA and Chairman of the Committee on FE as bribe and/or kickback.

    “Amb. Haruna W. Mohammed admitted in his extra judicial statement to have converted some of the USD received from RTCOM to naira and deposited it in his Eco Bank account number 0129640537 while 0129640544 had some of the USD balances.

    “Further to the foregoing, a total sum of N291,367,914.00 and USD 287,500.00  have since been refunded voluntarily by the suspect, Amb. Haruna W. Mohammed to the EFCC.

    “The sum of USD 287,500.00  was transferred to the EFCC recovery account through the OAGF FGN Asset Recovery US Account.

    “The sum of N291,367,914.00 was refunded by suspect through several bank drafts submitted by the suspect to the EFCC through the OAGF FGN Asset Recovery US Account.”

  • Buhari’s team divided over P&ID

    Since the news broke on August 16 that a British court had given Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID) approval to seize Nigerian government’s assets worth $9.6 billion, President Muhammadu Buhari has not hidden his desire to get the matter investigated .

    The President wants Nigerians whose hands were soiled in the failed project to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State’s capital, punished. In New York few days ago, he came hard on the project, dubbing it a scam.

    He is determined to know who played what role in Nigeria getting into the trap of P&ID, why the contract terms were not properly vetted, and why no one seemed to care about its execution.

    It has come to light, however, that members of the team constituted by the President to investigate the matter are divided over what approach should be adopted by the country to get over saga. While some members of the team share the President’s passion about investigating the matter, getting to the roots of it and punishing the culprits, others believe that investigation is not only time wasting but could lead the country to nowhere.

    The other group is, however, miffed by the proposal, wondering how anyone could be talking of a deal with “facilitators of a dubious contract.” They believe that Nigeria has a good case and should push on with the ongoing legal battle in the hope that the court will quash the judgment awarding $9.9 billion damages against the country.

    Although the team put together by the President appears to be forging ahead going by the go-ahead given Nigeria few days ago by a United Kingdom court to challenge the judgment, SENTRY can reveal authoritatively that all is not well with it. If the pro-arbitration option had their way, those rooting for thorough investigation would have been dropped from the team and   sent home from London where the team relocated to early in the week.

  • A troubled league

    The domestic league is dead. The clubs are slave camps. The country’s league seasons have no calendar. Weekly matches are marred by violence with the culprits (hoodlums, urchins etc) made to look like spirits due to inadequate security. Referees are beaten to pulp regularly because league venues don’t have close circuit televisions to track the beasts. Sadly, some of these battered referees don’t record their ordeal in their match reports, except such scenes happen in parts of the country where the media presence can overwhelm the influence of desperate club managers, owners and, sometimes, sports commissioners.

    Rather than secure an official television station for the competition to help curb violence and carnage, the organisers watched in awe as the previous league television station stopped the contract. A proactive league board would have accepted what the previous television sponsor offered and secure an arrangement where others could either show the games live or record them to be shown later.

    The composition of the board makes it difficult for the members to take binding decisions, especially punishing those who flout the body’s rules. The league board has taken a harvest of decisions with different interpretations, depending on the clout of the offending clubs. If a less influential team infringes on a law, it could get a five-match ban, with a decision to play outside the home state, for instance. If a bigger team flouts the same law, the referees would be punished for ineptitude and the offending club’s fans prevented from watching the next three matches.

    A disturbing example was the ban imposed on Kano Pillars’ captain for his unsportsmanlike conduct during the Super 4 game against Rangers at the Agege Stadium in June, 2019. Instead of banning the player from all competitions, the board stylishly allowed the Pillars’ star the opportunity of playing in the country’s oldest football competition, the Challenge Cup, which is now known as the Aiteo Cup. It is only in Nigeria that such a thing can happen because we politicise everything.

    Well managed league boards in Africa and Europe have begun, with the players sure of the season’s termination date, unlike ours which has become a league without end. It only ends at the dictates of the organisers, who are quick to adopt short cuts for the competition to end. Nigeria is the only league where clubs dictate how the season should end.

    When the organisers are not talking about the now fraudulent contraption called abridged league to hide their ineptitude, demoted clubs form a clique which canvasses that those relegated last season should remain.

    Our clueless administrators fall into the trap by extending the number of clubs in the elite class. It is a shameful circus of how the leagues shouldn’t be prosecuted. The organisers take delight in shifting the commencement  dates of the competition, the recent being the disgraceful pronouncement  that this 2019/2020 season won’t start because there are no sponsors. Isn’t it disheartening that the players have trained for several months without kicking the ball in any competition. Poor lads.

    Payment of players’, coaches’, officials’ and ancillary staff’s is almost forbidden. The so called administrators of the beautiful game (now ugly in Nigeria) are unperturbed about the sad development which turned our players into beggars and emergency cab drivers  for those who have cars in order to eke out a living. Unfortunately, the organisers cannot  secure a sponsor for the league. They drove away the sponsors they met in the league because of their tardy administrative style.

    Companies don’t work in a vacuum. A league without a calendar which will be complied with can’t get a sponsor. A league where administrators cannot stem the tide of violence at match venues is doomed because no firm wants its products and services enmeshed in controversies. A league where the target audience of sponsors (the fans) are scared of attending matches cannot generate cash internally for the clubs and for itself.

    A league where fans run through tear gas fired by security operatives to prevent mayhem isn’t one to attract positive comments from the globe. A league whose fixtures can be changed for spurious reasons, such as going to watch the World Cup, when only one goalkeeper in the domestic league makes the Super Eagles’ squad, underscores the organisers’ poor knowledge of growing the game. After all, matches weren’t played every day. Besides, World Cup fixtures were known months before the competition began.

    Sadly, our football chieftains who gloat around the country over their feats as match commissioners in FIFA and CAF competitions have not been able to implement the objective of using the domestic game as the nursery for the Golden Eaglets (through clubs’ feeder teams), Flying Eagles, Olympic Eagles, CHAN Eagles and Super Eagles. It suits them more to woo Nigeria-born lads in Europe and the Diaspora than to supervise the local game to produce more stars like we had in the past.

    To underscore the importance FIFA attaches to the local game, Enyimba FC and Ifeanyi Ubah FC goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa brought into the coffers of both clubs $237, 720 (N86 million) following the Super Eagles exit from the group stage as they failed to make it out of the group containing eventual finalist Croatia, familiar foes Argentina and debutants Iceland. Imagine if any Nigerian club had up to five home-based players in the Eagles for the World Cup? Simply multiply N43 million by five (N215 million from FIFA). Good money? Sure, but do our football organisers think this way?

    A league where touts sell match tickets at the gate yet the organisers don’t know why there is carnage. A league where 50 wiry security operatives with batons are trying to stop 3000 rampaging fans from beating up a referee, shows who the organisers are – jesters.

    When a referee is killed, we will constitute panels to find out how it happened, who did it, why and how? Innocent souls will be arrested while the roughnecks will be walking the streets, free as air, with instructions from their principals not be seen around any stadium. Of course, the noise over the dastardly act won’t last long; it will be buried with the victim whose family will be left to bear the burden of losing their loved one.

    Nothing seems to be new because these same characters run the competition yearly. Those who run the domestic game have the penchant for signing MOUs. They enjoy listening to themselves. Those with dissenting views don’t know what it takes to run the game. But this writer won’t give up until the right personnel are put in place.

    The first thing that stadia where games are played need urgently are CCTVs which can’t be destroyed to cover up malpractices. Besides, any stadium that is slated to host games must build special exit gates that will make it absolutely impossible to access the referees before, during and after matches. Any harm inflicted on match referees will translate to 10 points deduction from the offender’s total. Such a defaulting club should not be allowed to play in that venue for one year.

    With a live coverage of the domestic league, it will be easier to identify where a problem began. Those running the league met an existing television right sponsor and a title owner of the league. What happened to these two bodies which funded the operations of the organising body?

    Referees should be encouraged to sue clubs which send touts to beat them. The referees’ body should secure lawyers for them and refuse to discontinue such cases, no matter whose ox is gored. Asking clubs to pay assaulted referees’ hospital bills is not enough.

    A league whose representatives at the continental level are beaten at home by less-fancied clubs in another country should attract the ire of the organisers. Not so here. Nothing changes yearly. A league where new winners keep recycling players who failed with former winners isn’t one to celebrate. Except the league is run properly and clubs are compelled to have feeder teams and competitions instituted for them to play games, the league cannot perform its role of developing players for the national teams.

  • Finally, a clue to tackling killer herdsmen menace

    A friend once asked me what I would tell God, if He gave me the chance to suggest what He should do to make the world a better place. My response was that God should make it impossible for anyone to harbour a thought without the people around him knowing what he or she is thinking about. Every evil deed is preceded by a thought, and its execution would most probably be aborted by others, if they have a foreknowledge of it. Didn’t the good book say that the mind of man is desperately wicked and no one can know it? It follows then that the key to checkmating the manifestation of the mind’s wickedness is to prevent a deed before it is done.

    With the scary incident in which 36 cows were struck dead by lightning in Ijare, a community in Ifedore Local Government Area, Ondo State last Saturday, there is another wish I would table before God, if He gave the chance to do so: turn all the forests that harbour killer herdsmen in the South West, the South East, the North Central and other parts of the country into sacred lands in the same manner as Oke-Owa Hill where the cows in question met their waterloo.

    As the story goes, the unfortunate cows were led by some Fulani men to the top of the hill for grazing in spite of repeated warnings by some leaders of the community that the hill was a sacred ground that could only be visited by the traditional ruler of Ijare who has the grace to ascend it to perform some rituals once in a year. But like a hunting dog destined to get lost would ignore the hunter’s whistle, the herdsmen called the bluff of the residents and guided their cows to the hilltop. As the cows were busy devouring the lush grass on the hill, the sky roared in anger and instantly terminated their lives.

    Reports say the owners of the cows described the incident as an act of God, while some people tend to see it as a mere coincidence. For the Olujare, the traditional ruler of the community, however, it was a manifestation of the wrath of the gods against the herdsmen and their cows for destroying many farmlands in the area. The Olujare said the community had repeatedly warned the errant herdsmen against their destructive acts in the area, but they would not heed the warnings, adding that the issue had led to open confrontation between the herders and the farmers in the community on many occasions.

    “It has happened and there is nothing we can do,” said Olujare’s second in command, Chief Wemimo Olaniran.” We regard it as the act of God which nobody can query. There had been occasions like that with some individuals who desecrated the land. In the past, we did witness thunderbolt attacks when any part of Ijare, particularly the sacrifice places, was desecrated.”

    The Ijare incident will certainly be bad music in the ears of blood-thirsty herdsmen who in recent times have constituted themselves into terrors in different parts of the country. Until now, they have enjoyed a free reign destroying the farmlands for which poor farmers have toiled for years, killing, maiming and kidnapping innocent people for ransom. But it would seem that a solution is about to be found to their reign of terror, and it cannot be a mere coincidence that the solution is coming from Ondo State where deadly herdsmen have repeatedly assaulted elder statesman Chief Olu Falae and abbreviated the life of Funke Olakunrin, the beloved daughter of another Ondo-born elder statesman, Chief Reuben Fasoranti.

    Since the Ijare incident was reported early in the week, the once obscure community is said to have become a tourist attraction not just for ordinary Nigerians and even foreigners, but for monarchs from different parts of the country who are desperate for a solution to the menace of killer herdsmen in their domains. They are said to be trooping to Ijare for clues on how their communities can be transformed into sacred lands in the same manner as Ijare such that they can scare away the herders who are bent on overrunning their domains and turning them into grazing fields for their cattle. It is the amazing extent to which a gratuitous incident can transform the fortune of an obscure community in the blink of an eye.

    Even Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, who only a few months ago was recommending massive production of Indian hemp as a solution to the economic problems of Ondo State, can finally heave a sigh of relief from the vitriolic jibes that have been hauled at him by his horde of traducers since he mooted the idea as a long-term solution to the state’s social and economic problems.

  • Tipper crushes vulcaniser while urinating by roadside

    A 29-year-old vulcaniser has been crushed to death by a tipper lorry in the Akinhan area of Awowo in Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State.

    Sources said the victim, Adeyemi Abiodun popularly called olainukan was called by an unidentified motorist to help him fix his car’s flat tyre penultimate Wednesday.

    He was said to have crossed the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway to meet the customer and quickly fixed the bad tyre.

    Read Also: Five wedding guests die, several injured In Ekiti accident

    Sources said he was pressed and decided to urinate by the road side during which the tipper which had a brake failure hit him and died instantly.

    The driver of the truck fled immediately while irate residents prevented other tipper drivers from passing through the area.

    Normalcy was however restored in the community after about three hours.

    His remains were deposited at the morgue in Ifo General Hospital, while he was buried last Thursday amid tears by sympathisers.