The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Police

  • Police arrest two for car theft

    Policemen in Lagos have arrested two men who allegedly specialises in stealing vehicles from where they are parked.

    They were arrested around 10:00 p.m. on Wednesday at Ikeja, while attempting to open a Toyota car belonging to a worshipper at St. Paul’s Catholic Church.

    Policemen on patrol were said to have acted on intelligence report when they visited the spot and arrested the suspects who had various master keys in their possession.

    According to acting command’s spokesman, Famous-Cole Olarinde, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), they confessed that the keys were used to open and steal parked cars.

    He said: “They also said that once they come across parked Toyota cars, they use their master keys to open and move the cars away from the park and sell to a receiver.

    “The suspects and exhibits have been transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Sqaud (SARS) for discreet investigation and effort is on to apprehend other accomplices. They would be charged to court at the conclusion of the investigation.”

     

     

     

  • Police parade 26 suspected murderers, robbers, others

    The FCT Police Command has paraded 26 suspects over their alleged involvement in murder, robbery, car snatching and other criminal activities.

    Six of the paraded suspects were allegedly responsible for killing of a police Corporal.

    The suspects are: Ismaila Abdulwaheed, Saliu Saka Aka Abdu, Kayode Olusegun, Sunday Odo, John Paul and Ifeanyi Peter.

    Items recovered from them included one Blue Colour Golf Car with Reg. No.KWL421TC, One Nokia handset belonging to the deceased police corporal and three knives.

    Briefing journalists on their operation, the Commissioner of Police in charge of FCT, CP Muhammad Mustafa, said “on 14/01/2017 acting on intelligence, police operatives attached to the Command Special Anti-Kidnapping Squad (SAKS) recorded a major breakthrough that led to the smashing of a notorious six-man armed robbery syndicate that specialised in inflicting serious injury and even killing their victim after dispossessing them of cash and other valuables.

    “The syndicate which operated in an unpainted taxi is responsible for the gruesome murder of a police corporal who was robbed of his two phones, GOTV, cash and other valuables before he was stabbed severely on the chest by a member of the gang identified as Saliu Saka on December 29, 2016 after the deceased boarded their vehicle as a passenger.

    “The syndicate operated in an unpainted taxi and shuttle either from Berger to Airport road or Area 1 to Gwagwalada in search of passengers who turn out to be their victims. They are notorious for inflicting serious body injury on their victims, and even killing their victims in the process.”

  • Police arrest 423 suspects, recovers 97 arms in Kaduna

    Police arrest 423 suspects, recovers 97 arms in Kaduna

    The Police Command in Kaduna on Thursday said it had arrested 423 suspects in 2016.

    The Commissioner of Police, Mr Agoyle Abeh, said this in an interview with newsmen in Kaduna.

    Abeh said 384 of the suspects had been charged to court, while 39 cases were under investigation.

    “The command recorded 423 arrests in connection with various crimes which include kidnapping, armed robbery, culpable homicide, cattle rustling and grievous harm, among others,” he said.

    He said the command had also recovered 97 firearms of various category and cache of ammunition from the suspects.

    “These achievements were possible with the command’s vision to rid the state of criminal activities,” he said.

    The commissioner advised those with criminal intention to repent or face the wrath of the law.

    He appealed to the public be more security conscious and support the police in exposing criminals in the society.

  • Police, Shi’ites clash at National Assembly 

    Police, Shi’ites clash at National Assembly 

    The Army was called in to disperse protesters at the National Assembly yesterday.

    The Shi’ites group converged on the National Assembly to protest the continued detention of their leader, Sheik Ibraheem El-Zakzaky.

    But policemen and other security personnel attempted to disperse the protesters with tear gas.

    When the confusion did not abate an hour later, men of the Guard Brigade were drafted to quell the protests.

    The protesters regrouped at the adjacent Ministry of Foreign Affairs to continue their protest.

    Police spokesman Anjuguri Manzah said nine persons were arrested.

    “Nine of them were arrested and they will be charged to court for unlawful condcut,” Manzah said.

  • Update: Police arrest nine Shi’ite members

    The FCT police command has arrested nine people suspected to be members of a Shi’ite group, Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), during a protest in Abuja on Wednesday.

    The protesters, who marched to the Three Arms Zone in Abuja, were demanding the release of their spiritual leader, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky.

    El- Zarzaky is currently being detained by the government following last year’s clash between the Shi’ite and the Nigerian Army in Zaria, Kaduna.

    Confirming the arrest on the telephone Wednesday, the FCT Police spokesman, Anjuguri Manzah, said the nine Shi’ite members have been transferred to the command’s Criminal Investigations Department for organizing violent and unlawful protests in the city.

    Manzah added that the group did not notify or get a police permit before embarking on the protest.

    He said the leaders of the protesters will be charged to court for unlawful assembly.

    “We arrested nine people based on their conduct and the fact that they were not peaceful in their protest. The command was not notified about the protest

    “Nine of them were arrested and they will be charged to court soon for unlawful conduct,” the police spokesman said.

     

     

     

  • Police, Shi’ite clash at NASS

    … Army restores normalcy

    Security at the main gate of the National Assembly was restored by personnel of the Nigerian Army following a clash between policemen and protesting members of a Shi’ite group, Islamic Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) on Wednesday.

    The Shi’ite members converged at the National Assembly to protest the continued detention of their leader, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, by the government.

    However, trouble broke out when police and other security personnel attached to the National Assembly attempted to disperse the protesters with tear gas.

    The situation later degenerated into a free-for-fall as the protesters engaged the policemen in a scuffle.

    When the confusion refused to abate after about an hour, men of the Guard Brigade were drafted to quell the fight while all gates leading to the National Assembly complex were locked.

    The Shi’ite members later regrouped at the adjacent Ministry of Foreign Affairs to continue with the protest while some arrests were reportedly made by the police.

     

     

     

     

     

  • NTIC: Police arrest kidnap suspect, recover money

    One of the suspected kidnappers of three pupils and five officials of the Nigerian Tulip International Colleges (NTIC), Ogun, has been arrested.

    This disclosure was made by the Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) in charge of Zone II, Kayode Aderanti, during an interaction with journalists on Wednesday.

    According to him, the police would make some shocking revelations on the matter in a couple of days.

    The AIG denied knowledge of the payment of N50 million, insisting that the kidnappers succumbed to superior pressure from the police.

    Aderanti said the kidnappers gave up after they realised that their identities were known by policemen, adding that some of their relatives were held to pressure them into releasing the victims.

  • Police injure 10 as dead teachers’ children protest in Akwa Ibom

    Police injure 10 as dead teachers’ children protest in Akwa Ibom

    The police in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, yesterday detained three children of dead primary school teachers who protested non-payment of gratuities and pensions of their parents by the state government.
    Ten others were injured as policemen at the Government House gate used force to break the protest.
    Among those detained at the time of filing this report were the leaders of the group: Kenneth Enobong, Benjamin Benson and Utibe Akpan.
    The police used tear gas and gun buts to scare the protesters.
    Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) D. R. Abibo allegedly ordered the use of Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) to drive the protesters away from the Government House gate.
    Akibo was said to have ordered his officers and men order to beat up the protesters.
    “Beat up these people. If you cannot beat them, let me beat them by my hand,” he was quoted as saying in the full glare of reports.
    The police chief allegedly watched as some of the protesters were bundled into a vehicle.
    Akibo said: “I told them to leave the road and stand by the side so that they can listen to me. but they disobeyed me as the Commissioner of Police. Who are they that they can’t listen or obey a simple instruction?”
    The ACP represents the police at the commission of enquiry on the collapsed Reigners Bible Church International in Uyo.
    “We are handling this kind of case at the commission and I was trying to help them in their case. But they refused to obey me,” he said before leaving the scene in his Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV).
    It was learnt that a police Inspector ordered the other policemen to drive the other protesters away – as far as Ibom Plaza or beyond.
    Reporters covering the protest, including the Chairman of Correspondents’ Chapel, Denis Udoma, were attacked with tear gas and ordered to leave the scene with the protesters.
    The protesters, under the aegis of Next-of-Kin-of Late Primary School Teachers (NKLPST) in Akwa Ibom State, said they were forced into the peaceful agitation following government’s alleged insensitivity to their plight.
    The group’s spokesman Pastor Aniekan Thompson said they resorted to the protest when negotiations with the government failed.
    According to him, the affected teachers served the government since 1999, lived and died while waiting for their entitlements.
    Thompson said several appeals were made to the government and other officials, including the Head of Service (HoS), Mrs. Ekerebong Akpan, to no avail.
    He said: “After numerous protests, a committee on pensions, headed by the Leader of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Sir Udo Kirian Akpan, invited us for a meeting and we met on August 29 and September 19, last year, and agreed ‘…that since government cannot pay all the backlog of entitlements at once’, it will start paying in batches, from the September allocation. They said we should not protest again, that it was embarrassing to government.”
    The spokesman said government’s failure to settle the issues led to the death of many members and the educational pursuit of their children.
    Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) State Chairman Etim Ukpong said he advised Governor Udom Emmanuel to use the N14.5 billion Paris Club refunds to settle such cases.
    But the governor, two weeks ago, took the matter to the House of Assembly, asking the lawmakers to include the Paris Club cash in the proposed budget of N365.201 billion.

  • Residents, police seek end to violence

    Residents, police seek end to violence

    Worried by the increasing rate of violence in their community, residents of Shogunle in Lagos have held a Stakeholders’ Forum to tackle the problem.
    The forum, organised by the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria, Shogunle Central Branch, was attended by religious, traditional, political and community leaders and security operatives.
    Residents suggested how to boost development in the community.
    Delivering a lecture titled: ‘A brighter tomorrow: my role, your role’, Dr Tajudeen Yusuf, challenged the community to be accommodating irrespective of their differences.
    The Senior Lecturer at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) explained that many communities were not developing in Lagos State because of their leaders’ greed.
    He said: “For any community to develop, the leaders have great roles to play. They must be able to correct anomalies and shun violence. Good community leaders are not greedy; they are transparent and do not toy with their integrity,” he said.
    Shogunle’s Divisional Police Officer, Nucy Abibo, urged the residents to report any form of criminal activity.
    She explained that there would be better security in the community, if residents provide adequate information.
    “The era of being scared of revealing information to the police has passed. We should be free to provide necessary information to the police and I can assure you that it will be treated with utmost secrecy and your safety is guaranteed,” he said.
    Shogunle Central Community Development Association Vice-Chairman, Alhaji M. A. Olawoyin, said: “Let join hands to rid the area of immoralities.”
    Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) Chairman, Shogunle Unit, Revd Agbakwuru Kelvin, urged community leaders to be upright.
    MSSN Shogunle Central Branch president Yusuff Okewale, said: “There is no gainsaying that our society is plagued by numerous anomalies. These trends have not ceased as they continue to grow at an alarming rates.
    Examples abound from infrastructural decay to vices, such as gambling, stealing, armed robbery, and hooliganism – all of which will rob us of development,” he added.

  • Family urges police to wade into Ikorodu community crisis

    Family urges police to wade into Ikorodu community crisis

    Members of the Loti Mogun-Oja family of Ijomu in Ikorodu, Lagos State have appealed to the Lagos and Ogun state governments and the police to intervene in their land tussle.
    The fight over the large expanse of land located at Igode, a developing community in Sagamu Local Government Area of Ogun State, The Nation gathered, has already claimed two lives.
    Speaking with The Nation, the head of the Loti Mogun- Oja family, Alhaji Jimoh Lawal, said they decided to invite the governments and the police to the lingering problem because of its threat to security.
    ‘’The row over the disputed 34 hectares of land, began in May 2015, but got to a head in October of the same year, when a member of our family, Rasak Ademoye, with a few others, said they would be collecting land fees from any one who buys plots of land from the family, as well as other residents of the community. They said they had engaged an agent to take charge of the site.
    “But because our family is peace-loving, the elders came together and said such a thing should not happen. They claimed that they had also paid N300,000 to the agent. In order to avert the kind of problem which we believed such arrangement would bring, we decided to pay them the money so that peace will reign in the community.
    “The family later appointed three representatives each from the three branches that make up the Mogun-Oja Descendants family. Members were drawn from Igu Asemuti, Odunume and Mebude branches to monitor activities at the site.”
    But rather than bring about peace to the community, matters deteriorated as some people invaded the area, destroying buildings and injuring residents. The invaders also asked all old residents of the community to repurchase their plots of land.
    A resident, who declined to be mentioned, said the residents had not known peace since then. He added that many people had fled for safety.
    “Since the problem started, two people have been killed. The first person died in a shootout between the two rival groups. They came and demolished houses and threatened to kill whoever dares them. They said all of us should repurchase the land despite that we have been living there for years.
    ‘’Many of the residents have already vacated the community because they were chased away by thugs armed with dangerous weapons.”
    Lawal, who expressed sadness over the incident, said the family had lived in unity for years until recently.
    However, in their search for peace, the family has headed to court. Still, it urged the police to intervene.
    ‘’After several attempts to settle the issue amicably failed, we have to follow the path of peace. We have served them a court order. We have taken the step in the interest of peace, but are also urging the police to intervene now because we have observed that they are causing crisis in the community, and there is urgent need to curb their illegal actions before it degenerates into loss of lives,” a member of the family who pleaded anonymity said.
    However, in a telephone chat with The Nation, Rasak Ademoye, who is the allegedly masterminded the tussle, denied the allegations.
    Ademoye said the community is peaceful and that the crisis was in Maya in Ikorodu North Local Council Development Area, and not in Igode.