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Tag: thugs

  • We’ll shoot thugs, miscreants causing trouble at sight, Niger Council chair declares

    We’ll shoot thugs, miscreants causing trouble at sight, Niger Council chair declares

    Anyone causing unrest or seen with weapons in would now be shot at sight, the Chairman of Chachanga local government area, Aminu Ladan has declared.

    Ladan  who was speaking against the backdrop of the incessant unrest by miscreants and thugs within Minna metropolis, said that he has the backing of the State Government and has given the order to the security agencies to act as directed.

    Speaking during a security meeting at the palace of Emir of Minna over the weekend, the Council Chairman said that the days of arrest and bail has ended.

    He vowed any community leader covering or trying to bail of those arrested for causing unrest will be removed and dealt with.

    Ladan, while recalling how Minna known for peace and unity has changed, lamented some youths have become agents of destruction and unrest within the state capital.

    “The State Government has backed me up and has given him the permission to direct the police and order security outfits in the state to put an end to the days of arrest and bail of anyone caught disrupting the peace of the good people of the state and henceforth anyone seen causing unrest should be gun down immediately.

    “Those miscreants have already caused a lot of damage to the residents, the government and even to the security personnel as they have injured a lot of officers on duty including a DPO.

    Read Also: Tinubu steadily strengthening, repositioning economy — Oduah

    “They have become thieves, they attack security men and also damage government properties recently. This is among other reasons why the government has decide to gun anyone down who chooses to disrupt the peace of the emirate,” he declared.

    But the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of A Division, who applauded the directive, said that the police would only carry out such order if it is passed into law.

    He pointed that the police would have had no difficulty in putting an end to the insecurity caused by the miscreants and thugs but they had problems in the sense that anytime they arrested any of these miscreants, some powers in the State would call and order for their release.

    The meeting ended with the resolve that the security outfits in Minna would hold a meeting to decide on ways on how to put an end to the activities of the miscreants and thugs.

  • Alleged importation of thugs: Kano APC dismisses PDP’s allegation

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano State has dismissed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s allegation on the importation of political thugs from neighbouring states.

    The Acting State Chairman of the PDP, Rabiu Sulaiman-Bichi, had told reporters that the ruling APC in the state imported thugs from some neighbouring states.

    But the APC state chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Abbas, at a press conference of his own  dismissed the PDP allegation as not only untrue and unfounded, but a calculated attempt to dent the image of the party and the state government.

    Read also: Breaking: INEC adjourns collation of Sokoto rerun

    “How can we bring or invite people from other states to come to Kano, while we have people here, considering the population of Kano,’’ he said.

  • 12 held as thugs attack police sergeant at Mile 12

    Some suspected cultists yesterday attacked operatives of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit (Task Force) at Mile 12, injuring a police sergeant.

    The officer is said to be battling for his life at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja.

    Sergeant Damilola Adeojo, The Nation learnt, who was attacked with cutlass and broken bottles, is in LASUTH’s Emergency Ward awaiting tests on his brain.

    The task force apprehended a cult leader and 12 hoodlums during the raid.

    Read also: Three killed in robbers, police battle at Ojo

    Its Chairman Olayinka Egbeyemi, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), said in a statement yesterday that the raid followed residents’ petitions on cult activities in the neighbourhood.

    The statement reads: “The enforcement operations around Mile 12 today (yesterday) was carried out to flush out the cultists and miscreants disturbing innocent people around Mile 12.

    “We acted on series of ‘Save our Soul at Mile 12’ petitions submitted to our office by residents of Mile 12 and its environs.

    •The suspects… yesterday

    “During the attack, Sergeant Adeojo was injured with cutlasses and broken bottles. He is receiving treatment at LASUTH.”

    Egbeyemi vowed to end cult killings in the state, particularly around Mile 12, Bariga, Somolu and Lagos Island.

    The Mile 12 Market Traders Association has called for the establishment of a security outfit within the market to check street urchins.

    Its spokesman Femi Odusanya said fighting between street urchins and officials of the Lagos State Government at Owode and Kosofe areas often disrupted trading at the market.

    “The situation is sad because no fewer than  20,000 people visit  Mile 12 market daily and anytime we shut the market for just one hour, we lose about N100 million.

    “We appeal to the government to situate an armoured personnel vehicle and security officials around the area to forestall further incidents,” he said.

  • Thugs attack Osinbajo’s convoy in Ilorin

    Political thugs suspected to have sympathies for Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday allegedly attacked the convoy of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital.

    The attack is said to have culminated in life-threatening gunshots, which left at least two supporters of the APC injured.

    Many others allegedly got seriously injured while running for their lives.

    But a police source revealed the incident, which happened around Isale-Koko, Ilorin suburb, occurred when the Vice President’s convoy had left the area.

    When contacted, spokesperson of the state police command Ajayi Okasanmi could not confirm the incident.

    Reacting on the development APC governorship candidate in the state Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq condemned “the brazen attack today in Ilorin on the convoy of the Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo by armed PDP thugs.”

    In a statement by his media aide, Rafiu Ajakaye, Abdulrazaq said: “The vice president was at Isale Aluko suburb of Ilorin on a door-to-door campaign when some dare-devil gunmen opened fire at his convoy which included thousands of APC members and supporters.

    “In what is a reminiscence of the Offa robbery, this attack is the height of recklessness on the part of these street urchins who have long been empowered and armed by the discredited dynasty to terrorise our community and anyone who has contrary views to their amala politics.

    Read Also: I have not resigned, says Osinbajo

    “Coming just a day after two of our supporters were killed in Ojoku in the convoy of our senatorial candidate Architect Lola Ashiru, this is becoming too much and the madness must stop.

    “Going into an election with these thugs clearly on the loose is an existential threat not just to all of us challenging the misrule in our state but to the entire people of the state and their properties.

    “We call for immediate arrest and prosecution of these thugs. We also demand investigations to reveal those who gave the orders for these deadly attacks.

    “We call for all measures to be taken to ensure safety of lives and properties and sanctity of the ballot box in Kwara and beyond.

    “No one’s political interest should be at the expense of human lives and their properties.

    “We insist that a political contest is a contest of ideas and no one must be allowed to cow or kill others in the process.”

  • GOC: thugs will be dealt with

    The General Officer Commanding (GOC) 6 Division, Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Maj.-Gen. Jamil Sarham, has declared that personnel of the division will  deal with political thugs in Rivers State and other parts of Niger Delta.

    He made the declaration yesterday in Port Harcourt through 6 division’s Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Aminu Iliyasu.

    The 6 Division covers Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states.

    The GOC said: “Credible intelligence available to Headquarters 6 Division, Nigerian Army has uncovered an unholy plan by some political actors within its Area of Responsibility (AOR) to arm and sponsor miscreants, in addition to using military-like fatigue dress for deception to cause pandemonium at polling stations for their political gain.

    “While covert efforts are ongoing to track the source of the weapons and the agents involved, in conjunction with sister security agencies, authorities of 6 Division wish to unequivocally state that anyone found to be disrupting the electoral process, under any guise, will be decisively dealt with, in accordance with the laws, no matter how highly placed he or she is.”

    Maj.-Gen. Sarham also reassured the “good people” of Niger Delta of providing adequate security, in conjunction with other security agencies, before, during and after this year’s general elections.

    The GOC lauded the Niger Delta indigenes for the cooperation and assistance rendered to the division, particularly in information dissemination. He urged them to do more.

  • Our Girls; Adeyanju; AU; corruption; thugs

    Our Chibok Girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Inexplicably our Dapchi girl-child, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released.

    Who is DejiAdeyanju? Google him. Is it true that he is held by an arm of the authorities for 50 days? Can this happen to a human rights activist in 2019 with elections this weekend?

    Our research economists need to get to grips with the need to assess and publicise the cost of corruption in Nigeria. Have you ever thought about the road corruption in Nigeria and its cost in the loss of billions of hours and damage to millions of lives on a daily basis?

    A very simple case study follows…. In 1976 the short-lived but at the time visionary Lagos-Ibadan Expressway brought Lagos closer to Ibadan, just one hour instead of the Sagamu nightmare or having to go through Abeokuta. But it did not last because the road was, through a moral and monetary corruption, allowed to quickly collapse structurally through criminally negligent and prosecutable zero maintenance practices even though huge sums were being raked in from tolls on the users of the deteriorating road.  All this conspired to force traffic jams and new increased time separation of Lagos from Ibadan to 3-12 agonising hours. It took five hours to get to Lagos last Sunday afternoon!!! Corruption driven roads collapse destroying the private and work lives of citizens. Hundreds of kilometres of road, initially corruptly poorly built and corruptly certified by consulting engineers under the thumb of thieving politicians believed to be demanding 30-70% of the contract sums for ‘party purposes’ as good have caused a nationwide collapse of the road network during the last 30 years. Every year we hear of budgets to redo these corruption-driven rubbish roads. No heads ever roll for signing off these badly constructed substandard roads. Just more billions down the drain. Shamefully Nigeria seems permanently retrogressive. The political class has largely led us backwards or in reverse.  The longest lasting roads are those built in the 50s and 60s. We had railways in the 50 and 60s. I was travelling from Ibadan to Zaria in 1969 for NUGA games by train and Lagos-Ibadan in 45minutes on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Not now. Those roads and railways built in the 70s and beyond just have not lasted because of political myopia, over centralisation, anti-democracy policies and base corruption of political heart and mind.  You know the Romans built roads adding to them annually and they have lasted 2000 years. Nigeria takes forever to build any small rubbish road and spends forever before rehabilitation of the same road just like with its refineries.  The cancer of corruption is in money, maintenance and execution of projects and policies. Meanwhile we rot on the Lagos-Ibadan road, not expressway so long overdue for delivery.  Google China- Pakistan Road to see real roads.

    President Al Sissiof Egypt takes over the African Union chairmanship. This AU Summit seeks cooperation across the board in health care, economic development and progress. NEPAD is changing its name to African Union Development Agency along with other reforms. The AU Free Trade Agreement is moving forward without Nigeria. The AU is seeking increases in education and health budgets to meet UN guidelines of 15% for health and 26% for education to stem the tide of displacement, economic migration and lift millions out of poverty. Did Buhari or Osinbajo attend on behalf of Nigeria or were they on the campaign trail? Charity begins at home, I suppose.

    If you kill someone directly or allow or encourage anyone under your control to kill someone, then you are a murderer and the sentence for murder is life in prison or death. If you kill someone to take political advantages or political power in your village, community or nationally, you are not only a murderer entitled to a death penalty or life imprisonment, but you are also a coup plotter. You are murdering to divert the course of democracy and change the government against the will of the people-a coup by any definition. The punishment for coup plotting is prison or death. Violence, intimidation and bribery are also part of punishable efforts to divert the course of the democratic process -a coup.  The crime of murder is not diluted because it is done in the name of politics. The dead remain dead. The injured remain injured. An orphan status is permanent and made easier because it is the result of political murder.

    Many politicians have been seen with thugs and many citizens have already suffered at their hands. Thugs recruited to divert the course of democracy often become politicians themselves.  Any politician with thugs deserves to be disqualified in a modern ‘free and fair’ electoral process in Nigeria@2019.  Unfortunately idle youth have a job of begging at events and during the political cycle. If not given free money, which some politicians have to steal from the public purse to give to thugs and run campaigns, the thugs quickly resort to rowdiness and the destruction of nearby infrastructure and destabilise the democratic process.

    A free and fair and violence free election is not a Nigerian impossibility but a political developmental necessity. It happened before. You must help. Do not encourage thugs, murder, violence, intimidation and please Vote ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES this Saturday February 16-SDG 16.

  • Thugs injure ex-Deputy speaker, others in Ebonyi

    Many people were injured and properties worth millions of naira destroyed as suspected All Progressives Congress (APC) thugs waylaid and attacked the campaign train of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Edda, Afikpo South Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

    Among those injured was former Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mrs. Dorothy Obasi, who is also the Special Adviser to the Governor of the state, Chief David Umahi, on House of Assembly Matters.

    Edda is the hometown of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the state, Senator Sonni Ogbuoji.

    Briefing journalists in Abakaliki, the state capital, Divine Mandate Elders Council alleged that the thugs numbering over 100 also attacked the PDP supporters at the campaign ground.

    The Director General of the Divine Mandate Campaign Organization Fidelis Nwankwo accused the APC of instigating violence in the state.

    He also alleged the supporters of the party were behind the destruction of the campaign billboards of the PDP across the state.

    Nwankwo said: “Just yesterday, Thursday the 7th of February, 2019, as a procession of the Divine Mandate Campaign Organization headed for Edda for its local government rally, a bunch of APC thugs were mobilized and violently set upon the PDP procession which was lawfully going about their business.

    “Law abiding citizens were molested, beaten, and harassed by these mindless street urchins. Wanton destruction was also inflicted on vehicles and property of PDP faithful whose only crime was to express their freedom of association and political affiliation.”

    Governor David Umahi ordered the Nigeria Police Command in the state and the State Security Services (SSS) to arrest some of the suspected attackers.

    He also urged the public not to take laws into their hands.

    The governor spoke at the PDP campaign rally at Nguzu Edda primary school, Afikpo South Local Government Area of the state.

    “These three persons are here by declared wanted for obstructing the existing peace in Afikpo South, blocking people with guns and threatening to shoot them.

    “The Commissioner for Internal Security, Mr. Kenneth Ugbala will submit their names to the Commissioner of Police (CP) Awosola Awotunde and the SSS,” Umahi said.

    The PDP Gubernatorial candidate expressed satisfaction with the more than 25 various projects executed in the area by the local government Chairman, Eniduma Chima.

    He further commended other stakeholders and party supporters, for their various contributions to the development of the area.

    South East Vice-chairman of the PDP, Mr. Austin Umahi, who spoke at the rally, tasked security agencies and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on credible election.

  • ‘Thugs’ set INEC office ablaze

    Suspected thugs at the weekend set fire to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Isiala Ngwa South Local Government Area of Abia State.

    Reports said thugs stormed the office premises yesterday about 2am and set on fire the rooms containing unclaimed Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).

    It was gathered that youths, who were woken up by the ensuing commotion, rushed to quell the fire. They also alerted the police who came to help. Their efforts saved the situation from becoming helpless.

    Police spokesman Geoffrey Ogbonna, who confirmed the incident, said the entire building was not burnt; only one of the rooms was set ablaze through the toilet by unknown persons.

    Ogbonna also confirmed that the room was used to store PVC.

  • Suspected thugs destroy senator’s campaign buses in Ogun

    The protracted crisis within the Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) worsened yesterday.

    Thugs suspected to be loyal to the House of Representatives member representing Remo Federal Constituency, Oladipupo Adebutu, allegedly vandalised the campaign buses of the Buruji Kashamu/Reuben Abati Campaign Organisation.

    The suspected thugs were reportedly led by four boys called Eniba, Scorpion, Easy and Biggy.

    Kashamu and Adebutu were among dignitaries at the annual thanksgiving service of former Ogun State Governor Gbenga Daniel in Sagamu.

    Both Federal lawmakers have been locked in a battle of wits – until recently – over the control of the Ogun State PDP structure and the governorship ticket, which the court rule in favour of Kashamu.

    An eyewitness said trouble started when Adebutu spurned Kashamu’s attempts to exchange pleasantries with House of Representatives member at the Tabernacle of His Glory venue of the service.

    Adebutu’s surprising attitude was said to have made Kashamu to walk away to greet other dignitaries.

    Someone reportedly said Adebutu should respect his superiors, as the senator walked away.

    The comment was said to have angered Adebutu, who reportedly pushed the man, who almost fell.

    On regaining his balance, the man was said to have rained some blows on Adebutu.

    Unable to control his anger, the lawmaker reportedly stormed out of the church auditorium, despite entreaties from Daniel and other guests.

    It was learnt that he and a former Chairman of Sagamu Local Government Area, Prince Daisi Akintan, allegedly left the venue in anger and ordered their “men” to attack Kashamu and his supporters.

    Suspected thugs brandishing the cudgel, machetes and guns were said to have started attacking people, vandalising vehicles, banners, posters and billboards.

    Some gunshots were reportedly fired into the air.

    It took the intervention of a combined team of armed policemen, Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the Nigeria Vigilance Service (NVS) to restore normalcy.

    But by the time the dust settled, five buses belonging to Kashamu/Abati Campaign Organisation had been vandalised.

    They were left with smashed and broken screens and smithereens of glass.

    The incident was reportedly lodged at the police area command in Sagamu.

  • ‘Attacks on my campaign ground by thugs, a coup,’ says Paseda

    … Laments carting away of gift items meant for supporters

    The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Ogun State, Prince Rotimi Paseda, has lamented the coordinated attacks on his campaign ground by armed thugs, describing it as a “coup” orchestrated to disrupt the rally and prevent people from listening to his liberating programmes for the state.

    Political thugs suspected to be pandering to the interest of the opposition parties in the state broke into Paseda’s campaign ground in Ijebu at the weekend and for about 20 minutes, the hoodlums  held party members and supporters in terror with many scampering in different directions  for safety as gun shots rang out.

    The hoodlums struck just when the SDP governorship hopeful was addressing the rally, broke it off and began to shout opposition slogan, and the situation worsened when the guards at the event battled to prevent the hoodlums from seizing the stage, a development which led the thugs to shoot into the air.

    In the ensuing commotion, the campaign was brought to an abrupt end while security operatives hurriedly bundled the gubernatorial candidate and other VIPs at the event away to safety.  Gift items such as gas cookers, sewing machines, hair dryers, refrigerators brought to the venue for empowerment were carted away by the thugs.

    Paseda, who was taken aback by the attacks, said it was a premeditated one, but thanked God that there was no loss of life.

    He said: “In my state, most especially my senatorial district we have never been attacked before, we are very peaceful; I only associate with peace.

    “I think we started the campaign very fine until we saw a set of people who were not our party members. We tried to manage and calm them but they kept shouting the opposition slogans and the way it was done I think it was a coup plan because I’ve never seen that before. We have never had any attack on our campaign train until this particular incident.