The Nation Newspaper

Tag: threat to life

  • Police urged to investigate alleged threat to life

    A civil society organisation, the Campaign Against Impunity and Domestic Violence (CAIDOV), has written the Lagos State Police Command to investigate and prosecute anyone found culpable in the alleged threat to life of the sole administrator of Itire/Ikate Local Council Development Area (LCDA).

    In a letter to the Lagos State police commissioner dated July 19 and received on July 22, signed by its Executive Director, Gbenga Soloki, the group said a petition by Mr. Kazeem Omotosho, a businessman, necessitated the letter and that only a thorough investigation by the command would unravel the truth.

     According to CAIDOV, “on July 11 Mr. Kazeem Omotosho came to our office with a complaint that one ASP Ajibade called him that he was planning to assassinate the sole administrator of Itire/Ikate LCDA via a threat text message, which he (Kazeem) claimed was a lie and that such attempt was being made to tarnish his name.”

    The body said it discovered that Kazeem was a revenue collector for the LCDA and his contract was terminated by the sole administrator in a manner that could have led to a breach of peace, as those who the sole administrator contracted the revenue collection to invaded the parks without a letter, but forcefully took over the parks.

    CAIDOV said: “Although we would have treated the matter as internal politics of the parties or abuse of business deal, the alleged threat to life and the invasion of the parks by the agents of the LCDA, which could lead to a breakdown of law and order, necessitated this letter.”

    The group said the insecurity in the country made it to write the police, “because there is need to maintain peace at all time.”

  • Ex-soldier petitions police over threat to life

    Ex-soldier petitions police over threat to life

    A retired colonel, Babatunde Oluwayose, has accused the Special Assistant to Governor Ayo Fayose on Traffic and Environment, Ariyo Afolabi, of threatening to assassinate him and his wife.

    Oluwayose, in a petition to the Commissioner of Police, Ekiti State Command and Director, Department of State Services (DSS) and the National Human Rights Commission, alleged that Afolabi issued the threat on April 11 at 18.47 hours.

    The petitioner, who served as Special Adviser to former Governor Kayode Fayemi, said the number allegedly used by Afolabi to make the threat was 08033829346.

    According to a statement yesterday by the Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) , Taiwo Olatunbosun, Afolabi allegedly threatened to eliminate Oluwayose and his wife over the colonel’s alleged negative comments against the governor.

    Oluwayose, a cousin to the governor and Afolabi, hails from Afao-Ekiti in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area. The colonel belongs to the APC, Fayose and Ariyo are members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Olatunbosun said Oluwayose explained in his petition that his wife heard all the governor’s aide said because his phone was on speaker.

    Olatunbosun quoted the retired military officer as saying: “He issued a threat to me to the effect that ‘I will ensure that I kill you and your wife if you continue to make negative comments on the government of Governor Fayose’.

    “It is imperative to make this official report as a senior military officer who knows the security risk Afolabi has constituted to members of the opposition in Ekiti State.”

    He alleged that Afolabi is notorious for using thugs to attack members of the opposition.

    “In fact, he attempted to attack me with a plank of wood during  the last voter registration exercise in Afao-Ekiti,” Oluwayose said in the petition.

    “Afolabi should be held responsible if anything happened to him or any member of his family.

    “I have no business with Afolabi, and he is too junior to me to engage him in private matters, hence I am shocked at his brazen threat to kill me,” he added

    Denying the allegation, Afolabi said he called Oluwayose and advised him against attacking Fayose’s government , being his cousin and that he never threatened  to kill him over his political belief.

    “Colonel Oluwayose is my cousin and what I told him was that he should not join Fayose’s enemies to run down his government. I read his (Oluwayose’s) comment on social media where he justified what Senator Bode Olowoporoku said at the weekend that the Assembly under Fayose has only one graduate.

    “If I had wanted to kill him, would I have called him with my own personal phone?  He is my cousin and I can’t threaten him. I only advised him not to run down his cousin’s government, which I think should not have been taken to this level.”

     

     

  • OAU lecturer alleges threat to life

    OAU lecturer alleges threat to life

    A university lecturer, Professor Fatai Olasupo of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, has alleged that some traditional rulers in Ondo and Ekiti states are after his life.

    Fatai, a lecturer in the Department of Local Governments, who has been on a study of female traditional rulers for over ten years, said on several occasions, the Obas have threatened to kill him if he refusees to drop a research on the existence of female kings in Southwest  Nigeria.

    He spoke at a press conference held at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan yesterday. Though he did not mention the names of the obas, Professor. Olasupo claimed that when attempts to get him failed, some of the obas wrote a petition to the Vice Chancellor of  OAU to call him to order.

    “But my vice chancellor replied them that he cannot stand on the way of academic process,” he said. Insisting that both oral and documented history not only supported the existence of female obas, but also established the powerful influence of female traditional rulers in South west and some parts of the north, the varsity don condemned the continued oppression and suppression of female obas.

    He said, “I don’t know what I have done to them. The problem is that our male obas  don’t want to hear about female obas, yet these female obas are there. Go to most parts of Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Kwara and Kogi states, they are there. Just as the male obas have their cabinet, so also the female obas .

    Infact, the Iyalode is directly under the female traditional ruler in these areas. My research has shown that there are a lot of injustice, and discrimination against our female traditional rulers and we must not allow these to continue”.

    Earlier ,the varsity don  called on  governments at all levels and members of the organised private sector to develop every tourist sites within the country to increase the nation’s revenue base. Specifically, Professor Fatai mentioned the burial site of  Queen of Sheba (Bilikisu Sungbo) at Oke-Eri tourist centre, in Ogun state and urged the government to upgrade its facilities to international tourist standard.

  • Court dissolves 33-yr-old marriage over threat to life

    Court dissolves 33-yr-old marriage over threat to life

    A Mapo Customary Court in Ibadan on Tuesday dissolved a 33-year-old marriage over the claim of threat to life made by a retired civil servant, Mr Jimoh Babatunde, against his wife, Jelilat.

    Babatunde told the court presided over by Mr. Henric Agbaje that Jelilat had made two attempts on his life and had even confessed to killing one of their four children.

    “My lord, Jelilat confessed to have killed one of our four children in order to eventually eliminate me for reasons which I cannot actually tell.

    “Secondly, she put some stuff into my food recently to hypnotise and make me be in servitude to her,’’ the petitioner said.

    He said that his estranged wife had also tarnished his image and made him a laughing stock in their area.

    Babatunde also described Jelilat as insolent, disobedient and lacked any care for him and his children.

    “I did all I could to change her for the better by talking to her and reporting her to her parents, but nothing came out of it.

    “Now, she wants to sniff life out of me,” Babatunde said.

    However, Jelilat opposed the dissolution of the marriage and denied the allegations made by her husband.

    The respondent said that if the marriage was dissolved, she had nowhere to go and desired to remain the mother of her children in her matrimonial home.

    Jelilat pleaded with the court not to dissolve the union and promised to turn a new leaf.

    Ruling on the divorce petition, Agbaje held that it was clear that the relationship between Jimoh and Jelilat had turned sour and was irreconcilable.

    “The court frowns at any case of threat to life as the one currently been witnessed.

    “It is abundantly clear that there is something cruel about Jelilat’s disposition, otherwise, no man would want to part ways with a 33-year-old union.

    “In the interest of peaceful coexistence, the court has put an end to the union between both of you.

    “Jelilat shall take custody of the last child aged eight years old and Babatunde shall pay N12, 000 for accommodation and an addition N5,000 for the movement of Jelilat’s belongings,” he said.

     

  • Journalist raises the alarm over threat to life

    The Executive Director and Chairman, Editorial Board of Badagry Prime, a news magazine, Otunba Yomi Olomofe has appealed to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to help secure his life and those of members of his family. Olomofe spoke while narrating his ordeal in the hands of smugglers around the Seme Border of Badagry.

    Olomofe, who is also the immediate past President of the Rotary Club of Ajara, spoke on his hospital bed in Lagos where he is recuperating.

    He explained that the incident happened on Thursday, last week in the presence of Customs officers of Seme Command.

    Narrating how he narrowly escaped death, Olomofe said he was in the company of a colleague journalist on a visit to the command, saying some smugglers, who claimed journalists have been writing negative stories about them, pounced on him and beat him to stupor.

    He noted that he suspected a set-up because he was at the Seme Command on the invitation of the authority of the Service.

    “I wonder how anybody could have been waiting for me there. How do they know that I will be there?

    “They were beating me and they were threatening to kill any journalist that writes any story about them.

    “I was there with the correspondent of Tide Newspaper. I was lucky that a friend from Rotary Club came to take me away; I would have been dead; because I was left there almost lifeless.

    “This happened within the premises of the Nigerian Customs Service and I don’t know what they might do again. My life is not safe and that is why I am appealing to the police to come to my rescue.

    “I am fully resident in Badagry, my family lives with me. I have my parents, wife and children in Badagry.

    “These hoodlums are not unknown. They are known to everybody, but they are above the law. They even told me that they have killed many people and nothing happened,” Olomofe lamented.

  • Ex-Ebonyi PDP chair alleges threat to life

    The former Ebonyi State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Obinna Ogba, at the weekend, alleged threat to his life by some members of the party.

    He said they were threatening his life because of his intention to contest the governorship election in 2015.

    The politician, who spoke during an interaction with reporters in Ishielu Local Government, also alleged plans by the same group to destroy his business interests.

    He said the present leadership of the party lack the mentality of increasing the membership of the party.

    Ogba recalled that while his administration embarked on a concept called the ‘Personal Touch’ to woo aggrieved members, the present leadership was not interested in resolving issues affecting members, especially on the choice of candidates for elections.

    He said: “The present leaders have ruined the party. They drove away the people. They can’t keep people together. They can’t bring people together to build Ebonyi and the party.

    “PDP is a big umbrella. Therefore, they should bring in people and not scare them away. They should adopt the initiative for dialogue. It doesn’t remove anything from you when you ask another person what the problem is, so that it can be resolved.

    “The present governor ran for the governorship against us on the platform of another party. It was during my time that he joined the PDP. The same thing with Ama-Oti, the present chairman of the party in the state. I brought him to PDP and gave him the ticket to go to the House of Assembly.

    “Also Chris Nwankwo, who is a senator. We begged him to go to the National Assembly when he could have been useful to Ebonyi indigenes, but he refused, saying he must run on the platform of another party. That was why we sent Chris Nshi to the Senate.

    “It is human beings, who make parties and not papers. For me I’m not bothered. I’m in PDP and I will remain in PDP, but they should not kill the party. They have given me all kinds of names. Sometimes they say I’m in ANPP, ACN, nPDP, PPA; all these things are calculated to push me out of the government, but I’m not worried.

    “In Ebonyi, whether anybody likes it or not, all of us are stakeholders. The money, which comes to Ebonyi, belongs to all of us, including the children yet unborn. Inasmuch as you are from Ebonyi, you have a share in it. The only thing is that the governor was entrusted with our resources to supervise it for the benefit of all.

    “I have started receiving threats because I said I want to contest for governorship in 2015. People should be allowed to say their minds in a democratic dispensation. Nobody should be hunted because of the proclamation of truth in this state. Somebody said they will close my hotel because I want to run for governorship. I’m still watching and waiting.”