The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Police

  • My experience in hands of ‘one chance’ robbers – Model

    My experience in hands of ‘one chance’ robbers – Model

    For  Busayomi Adeogun, Tuesday, June 14, is unforgettable day. It was a day she left her Fadeyi home beaming with smiles and confident of signing a modelling contract.

    But no sooner had she boarded a commercial bus at Fadeyi bus stop which had eight other ‘passengers’ in it, did her smiles turn to tears.

    “Immediately I entered the bus from Fadeyi going to Oshodi, the guy on my left side started complaining that the passenger at the back was trying to pick his pocket. The next thing, he changed position and sat on my right side saying Onipanu owa o.

    “Immediately, the one at the back hooked my neck and said ‘don’t shout’. The one beside the driver said ‘allow her to lie down on the floor’. They dragged me flat on the floor of the bus, collected my bag and started asking me questions.

    “Where do you work? I said I am a student. Which school? What course? What level? My name and state? I kept answering the questions as he searched my bag and collected all the money inside.

    “He collected my ATM and asked for my pin and I told him. He handed it to one of them and they dropped him. I was crying and begging them to not kill nor ‘use’ me. So many things were going through my mind.

    “I remembered my mum and siblings as well as a story that happened 27 years ago that cannot be forgotten in my family. I kept begging them to spare me but the man in front said it depends on the amount of money they find in my account.

    “He said if they find huge amount, they won’t hurt me but if I gave them a wrong pin or there’s no money in my account, they will contact my family or rape me till I breathe my last. They were eight men. I started praying silently and asking God for mercy. One was already touching my breast. Another hooked my neck down and a third person used his legs to pin mine,” she narrated.

    Continuing, Adeogun said they put pepper on her eyes and tried to unzip her jeans trousers to probably rape her or apply pepper there too.

    According to her, the man who was dropped after he was given her ATM card called and the one who sat in front passed something to the ones behind and she was ordered to close her eyes.

    “I didn’t close my eyes. I told myself that if I am going to die, let me die but I must see what they want to do. Next thing, he put pepper in my eyes, on my breast and was trying to unzip my trouser but couldn’t. I was screaming that I can’t see and was protecting my eyes from further pepper. I was also trying to hold my jeans so that they don’t pull it down to put pepper in my vagina or rape me, after all they have already collected and done.

    “They collected my phones, power bank, my sister’s money in my bag and the change I had there. They packed everything and threw me off at Coker, towards Oshodi and left. I am still not myself till now.

    “I have never been handled like that in my life. June 14, my terrible day. I just want to close my eyes and forget everything but I can’t. It keeps playing on my head and is hurting me more,” Adeogun wrote on her Facebook wall.

    Efforts to reach the police command’s spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent  (SP) for comment on the issue failed as at press time.

  • Police procure drones, forensic laboratory to tackle crime

    Police procure drones, forensic laboratory to tackle crime

    The Nigeria Police Force has acquired equipment that would assist in solving complex cases like kidnapping, bank robbery, identity theft and others.

    The equipment include, among others, forensic laboratory, digital resource centre, modern interrogation room, surveillance tracking device and, aerial surveillance systems.

    The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Solomon Arase, who spoke in Abuja yesterday while commissioning the equipment, noted that they had the capacity to collect, store, merge and display the identity of targeted criminal elements, even at the crime scene.

    Arase explained that the facility will complement the existing forensic laboratory in Lagos.

    His words: “The Nigeria Police Force has been grappling with weak forensic capacity, which has been a major factor in our inability to manage complex criminal situations.

    “The asset is a traditional scientific investigation tool of police department all over the world. It is also a personal identity management system that the force ought to have had long before now.

    “The facility has a wide variety of applications for the positive identification of suspects through their fingerprints, iris and facial recognition functions. It is designed to collect, store, merge and display the identity of the targeted criminal element, even at the scene of crime.”

    Arase added that the system can also convert existing manual record of arrested suspects into digital and searchable format.

    He said the procurement of the facility was in line with the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari that all data-capturing government agencies should harmonise their data before the end of 2016.

    Urging his men to embrace technology, the IG said: “Let me remind you that modern policing is no longer by power, might or extra-judicial means, it is driven by application of technology, forensic science, intelligence and above all, citizen’s consent.

    “The force leadership, has by this commissioning, equipped you with a vital tool to guide your operations, investigations and prosecutorial engagements and you no longer have excuse to operate unprofessionally.”

    The Deputy Innspector-General of Police (DIG) in charge of the FCIID, Christopher Katso, explained that the facility includes personal body camera systems for policemen on operations, which could transmit live feeds to phones and the control room.

    Katso noted that the facility would improve the surveillance capabilities of the police and assist in tracking kidnappers, armed robbers and other criminal elements.

  • Firm donates police station to Akwa Ibom

    AKWA Ibom State Governor Udom Emmenual will today inaugurate a police station donated to the police command by a security firm, Messrs BASCON Nigeria Limited.

    The company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Bassey James, said the donation was part of the firm’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and his contribution to the government’s effort at ensuring a safe and secure environment.

    James, who is a security consultant, noted that it was necessary to assist the police in their duties.

    He said the facility, which is located on Airport Road, will be opened today by the governor.

    According to him, no stone should left unturned to assist the government’s drive to make the state a destination of first choice for investors by ensuring security of life and property.

    James said: “Matters of security should be the concern of everyone because government cannot do it alone.”

    The company chief, who recalled that he offered a similar gesture to the state’s Joint Task Force (JTF), called: Operation Aduma in 2012, promised more assistance in future.

  • Gunmen kidnap judge in Kogi, orderly killed

    Gunmen kidnap judge in Kogi, orderly killed

    Barely one year after a judge of the Kogi State High Court, Justice Samuel Obayomi was kidnapped and his police orderly killed, a judge of the Customary Court of Appeal in the state, Mr. Isaq Momoh Jimoh Usman has been kidnapped by suspected gunmen.

    His police orderly was reportedly killed during the incident which occurred along the Itakpe – Kuroko road Sunday evening while they were returning to Lokoja.

    The judge was said to have travelled to his village over the weekend and was returning to Lokoja when the suspected gunmen stopped his car along the Okene – Itakpe bye pass in Okehi local government.

    It was learnt that the suspected kidnappers mowed down the police orderly immediately while the driver of the judge received bullet wounds, before their victim was taken to unknown destination.

    A source said that the late police orderly made to prevent the kidnappers from abducting the judge when he was shot by one of the abductors, and his service pistol taken away.

    The remains of late police orderly said the source, was deposited at the morgue in an undisclosed hospital, and the driver who was said to have received several gun shots is receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital in Lokoja.

    Confirming the incident, the information officer, Kogi State Ministry Justice, Mr. Saqeeb Saeed, said that the Customary Court of Appeal judge was kidnapped along Okene – Kuroko bye pass on Sunday evening.

    Efforts made to confirm the killing of the police orderly proved abortive as calls made to the Kogi Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Wllly Aya was not responded to.

    Similarly, it was gathered that two yet-to-be identified women coming from Abuja were abducted along the Obajana – Okene road last Friday

    It would be recalled that a forth night ago, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase deployed a detachment of Special Anti-robbery Squad from Abuja, while apatrol helicopter was stationed in Lokoja to combat the menace of kidnappers in Kogi State.

    However, barely one week after the federal SARS operatives returned to their base, activities of the abductors appeared to have spiked in Kogi State again.

  • Imo judiciary, police and detainees in Owerri prisons

    SIR, The judiciary is supposed to be the last hope of the common man. The judiciary through its platforms (that is, the courts) provides the opportunity for the oppressed to express himself or herself. The oppressed common man gets justice through the courts. The oppressed common man secures his freedom through the courts. But most unfortunately in Imo State, it is not so. The oppressed common man is denied justice.

    Since Justice Paschal Nnadi became the Chief Judge of Imo State, the judiciary has gone on strike on three consecutive times. The first strike lasted for almost three months; the second for over two months. The third strike has entered its second month, and there is no sign that it would be called off. The law courts have been under lock and key, which has directly affected the fate of innocent prison inmates awaiting trials in Imo State. Honestly, this judicial imbroglio signifies incompetence in the hands of the current leadership of the judiciary.

    The Owerri Federal Prisons originally has the capacity for about 800 inmates, but today there are about 2400 inmates. Despite the fact that the courts in Imo State are not open, special courts sessions are held where suspects from the Imo State Police Command are brought or arraigned, and finally remanded at the over-congested Owerri Federal Prisons. This happened just few days ago.  Through this conspiracy, the population of inmates at the Owerri Prisons has continued to increase, to the detriment of both the prison officials and the inmates.

    Even when the courts are in session; corruption, long adjournments, absenteeism and perhaps deliberate manipulation of judicial process have been adopted to suffocate and indeed frustrate the desired freedom of these innocent awaiting trial inmates at the Owerri Prisons. The resultant effect is that these innocent inmates remain in prison custody for a long time.

    The Imo State Police Command and its very corrupt officers are part of this conspiracy against innocent inmates.

    The questions now are; if special courts are used to remand people in prison custody, even when the courts are not open, why can’t special courts be used to grant inmates with bailable offences bail? Why can’t special courts be used to discharge and acquit innocent inmates?

    At this point, it is expedient to let Governor Rochas Okorocha know that he cannot stand aloof and allow innocent inmates at Owerri Federal Prisons to continue to suffer in the hands of the moribund Imo State judiciary. He must step into the matter by ensuring that the judiciary calls off its strike.

    • Dr. Ikenna Samuelson Iwuoha,

    Owerri – Imo, Nigeria

  • House dismisses Police, Civil Defence’s opposition

    •Adopts establishment of Nigerian Peace Corps

    The House of Representatives has dismissed the opposition of the Nigerian Police Force  (NPF) and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NCDSC) as baseless.

    The Lower Chamber also adopted a bill for an Act to establish the Nigerian Peace Corps (NPC).

    This followed the clause-by-clause consideration and adoption of the report of the bill sponsored by Abdullahi Farouk (APC) by the majority of the lawmakers at the Committee of the Whole House chaired by Deputy Speaker Yussuff Lasun.

    The House dismissed the fears of the two, stating that the establishment of the corps would not only engender national reorientation aimed at prioritising performance of civic duties but also to empower youths with gainful employment.

    According to Farouk, if passed into law, the NPC has the potentials to empower, develop and provide alternative employment for youths, facilitate peace, volunteerism, community service and nation building.

    While presenting the report, Chairman, House Committee on Interior Adams Jagaba said the bill generated unprecedented interest as 90 memoranda were received from stakeholders and members of the public.

    According to him, the Bill got the support of majority of the stakeholders except the NPF and NSCDC.

    “Stakeholders were unanimous in their support that the NPC, when established will complement the efforts of other security agencies and enhance youth empowerment,” he said.

    The report was unanimously adopted when it was put to voice vote by Lasun.

    The bill requires the concurrence of the Senate before it could be forwarded to the President for assent.

  • Police invade Customs office in Lagos, arrest four

    Police invade Customs office in Lagos, arrest four

    Policemen and officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NSC) yesterday clashed in Ikeja, Lagos State.

     Motorists along Mobolaji Bank Anthony, traders and residents of Ikeja said there was serious crisis and pandemonium at the Customs office, Federal Operation Unit (FOU), Ikeja, when armed policemen, numbering about 50, wanted to force their way into the Customs office  after they  had removed the number plate of vehicles packed very closed to their office.

      While the police claimed they were enforcing a law enacted by the Lagos State government which prohibits indiscriminate parking, the Customs said they had not violated any law because the vehicles were parked neatly and very close to their office where they serve both the state and the Federal Governments.

     Residents and traders in the area  who witnessed the scene said that the police invasion happened at exactly 11.30 am and lasted for about three and half hours.

      The traders said that an Assistant Comptroller  of Customs, Mr Olomu and a former Acting Controller of the Unit who were trying to pacify the police and brought officers and men of the service under control were  harassed and molested by the police.

    Four Customs officers, it was gathered, were arrested  by the police at their main gate, while the Customs, in retaliation, managed to arrest and detained an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) .

      One of the residents who identified himself simply as Okwudili blamed the police for the unnecessary show of power.

     “What happened today has shown that there is no synergy between our law enforcement agencies.  What stops the senior police officer who led the team from seeking audience with the controller of the command. Granted that they were sent by the Lagos State Government, but that does not mean that they should molest ordinary citizens talk less a sister agency like Customs.

     “The police manhandled some of the Customs officers they arrested, while the Area Controller of Customs ( CAC)  tried to calm his officers down and restrained them. Would the police have invaded army barracks in the name of enforcing an order? You can imagine what would have happened if it were to be between the police and the soldiers.

      One of the traders in the area, Solomon Adeyemi, also called on the government to promote the relationship between its agencies.

     “Why must the police invade Customs office? Are they not serving the same government? Is part of there salary not being paid by the revenue generated by the Customs? If smugglers had invaded Customs office what would the police do? It is a shame that as the police invaded the area, some area boys who were in their support suddenly went wild and wanted to take advantage of the situation to raid our shops,” he said.

    The Deputy National Public Relations Officer of Customs, Mr Attah, who was at the scene told The Nation that  he was not happy because of the situation.

    “The police and Customs are agencies that have constituted authority.  I am very sure that those that are misbehaving would be called to order.  The senior officers are going to get on top of this and those that are found wanting would be dealt with.  What I can say is that what is happening is unfortunate and is unprofessional because one would have expected that when there are issues concerning a sister agency, the right thing to do is to call and report such issue to the head of that agency.

     Although, the Customs spokesman could not confirm the number of officers arrested by the police, but he did not deny it.

    Police Spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent ( SP) confirmed the incident.

    “The task force were carrying out their routine duties and when they got to the Federal Operation Unit of the Nigeria Customs Service, Ikeja, they were interrupted by a Customs officer. That is what led to the issue. But it has been brought under control.”

  • Eight suspected cultists arrested in Cross River

    Eight suspected cultists arrested in Cross River

    The Cross River State Police Command on Friday said it had arrested no fewer than eight suspected cultists who were involved in the killings of six persons alleged to be members of rival cult groups in Calabar.

    The new Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Ozi Obeh, while briefing reporters on assumption of office said his men have been deployed to all parts of the state to ensure that no cult group was given the opportunity to operate.

    “Following the cult war that claimed over six lives of some suspected cultists, I wish to inform you that the police have arrested eight suspects in connection with the killings.

    “I can assure you that we will get other members of the group where ever they are and bring them to justice.

    “No cult group will be allowed to operate under my watch as the Commissioner of police.

    “I am here to fight crime and other forms of illegality to the barest minimum,’’ he assured.

  • Court arraigns seven suspected cultists

    Court arraigns seven suspected cultists

    The police have arraigned seven suspected cultists before an Ebute Meta Magistrate’s Court for allegedly belonging to an unlawfully society.

    The suspects, Riliwan Okegbenro19;Tolulope Omolaja  23;Michael Green,20;Musiliu Lateef,20; Shola Ogundeji,22; Ayuba Sulaimon, 20; Olushola Sikiru,26, were said to be members of Aiye confraternity.

    It was said that the defendants conducted themselves in a manner that caused breach of peace.
    The defendants were said to have conspired with others at large on May 7 at 5pm at Pasokun Street, Aga – Ikorodu.

    The prosecuting police, Corporal Kokoye Olusegun said that the defendants committed an offence punishable under Section 409, 166, 41 and 42 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

    The defence counsel, Saka Bello and Imelda Adebambo prayed for the bail of their clients in the most liberal terms.

    The presiding magistrate Fowowe Erusiafe granted bail to the defendants in the sum of N50, 000 and two sureties in like sum.

    She added that each of the sureties must be blood relation of the accused persons.

    The matter was adjourned to July 18.

     

  • Boko Haram attack town in Yobe, cart away food

    Boko Haram insurgents on Monday night lunched an attack on Kannama town in the northern part of Yobe, state close to the Niger border with Nigeria.

    The attack was  on the first day of holy month of Ramadan.
    Security sources told our correspondent that the attack was a failed attempt by the insurgents to cause havoc on the town as no death was recorded.
    The State Police Commissioner Chika Abubakar Maidama who confirmed the attack disclosed that “no life was lost in the incident”. He however confirmed that three of his men were hospitalized at the Geidam General Hospital but have been discharged.
    The CP also informed that the insurgents carted away with food items and other valuables during the attack.
    The Spokesman of 27 Task Force Brigade, Lt. George Okupe also collaborated that no life was lost in the attack.
    Lt. Okupe said that enough security forces have been deployed to Kannama general area to boost confidence in the locales.
    Shehu Adamu, a resident of Kannama told our correspondent on phone that the “insurgents stormed the town yesterday by 9:00 in the evening shooting sporadically and attacked the divisional police station. They also attack some shops in the town in search of food”.

    In 2014 the Divisional Police Officer of the area was killed in one of the Boko Haram raids  carried  on the border town located some 34 kilometres away from Geidam town also in Yobe state bordering with Niger Republic.