The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Umar Manko

  • Lagos relatively peaceful – Outgoing CP

    The out-going Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Umar Manko, has described the state as “relatively peaceful.’’

    He made the statement on Thursday in Lagos while handing over to the state’s new Commissioner of Police, Mr. Kayode Aderanti.

    Speaking with journalists after a closed door meeting with Aderanti, Manko described his successor as “a seasoned police officer.”

    “He (Aderanti) is capable and up to the task. I do not have any doubt in my mind that he will continue from where we stopped.

    “When we came in, there were challenges of armed robbery and kidnapping, but we have been able to fight and brought them to the barest minimum.

    “I am sure he (Aderanti) will be able to maintain the tempo, “ he said.

    Manko, who had just being promoted to the rank of Assistant Inspector-General, urged journalists to accord the cooperation they gave him to the new CP.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the new Lagos police boss joined the Nigeria Police Force in January 1984 as Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police.

    He had B.Sc in Sociology from the University of Ibadan.

    Aderanti served the force in various capacities both within and outside the country and attended several courses both in Nigeria and abroad.

     

  • ‘Oh, my joy is gone’

    ‘Oh, my joy is gone’

    •Widow seeks cause of her husband’s death 

    Sympathisers found it hectic bringing the emotions of the 25-year-old woman under control yesterday. She wept like a baby over the death of her husband in yet inscrutable circumstances.

    “God, my joy is gone!” Mrs. Happiness Okpok, mother of four, exclaimed as a thick crowd of sympathisers struggled to pacify her at the family’s Anuoluwapo Street, Ifako-Gbagada, Lagos home.

    “I beg the state Commissioner of Police (Mr Umar Manko) to help unravel the sudden death of my husband.  His death is strange,” she pleaded.

    Narrating her ordeal to The Nation, she said her 47-year-old husband, Mr Sunday Okpok, who had for five years, driven his boss, Mr Oludare Senbore, left home as usual about 6 am on June 23, to resume work at Senbore’s 12B, Omoyele Pratt Street, off Oladunni Street, Ferrand Estate, Ifako-Gbagada home.

    Happiness recalled that when she called to check on her husband about 7pm that day, his phone was switched off, only to receive Senbore’s call after 10 pm, asking her to come and see him at Barracks bus stop, Ifako that night.

    She said: “I rushed there with a neighbour. On getting there, Mr Senbore and his wife alighted from their car. After they finished discussing in Yoruba language, he handed my husband’s phone and wallet to over to me. He told me that Sunday was involved in an accident and that he was taken to the General Hospital, Broad Street in Lagos. He asked me to go and see him in the morning.

    “I got there only to see my husband with a mask over his face. He could not talk or open his eyes; he could neither move nor hear anything. I was directed to buy some prescribed drugs and I did. I also paid for an x-ray. As it was my husband’s turn for the x-ray, I went to inform the medical personnel to bring him. That was when the doctor informed me that my husband had died. I saw my husband’s dead body with his tongue out of his mouth.”

    “Mr Senbore was called. He came and saw the corpse. He paid the mortuary bills for one week and told me to go and arrange with the church for his urgent burial, explaining that there was no need to keep the corpse for long,” Happiness said.

    She said that she was shocked when she visited the Lion Building Police Headquarters in Lagos, only to be told that there was no case of accident reported there.

    Documents on the deceased issued by Dr Salau T.M at the General Hospital, Lagos, on June 24, stated that the late Okpok suffered head injury, following which he died at 12.20 pm that day.

    To release the corpse, the mortuary managers demanded police extract, affidavit and Police Release Form among others.

    She said she did not know how to get the documents, adding that Senbore “is not helping.” She  suspects that her husband was murdered but arranged to look like an accident. “Why did he not report to the police if it was an accident?” She asked.

    The young widow said her husband left four children with her – two boys and two girls. She said she has no job and no business as she is still nursing the last baby and does not know where to  raise the mortuary bills which is N700 per day.

    “How do I raise money to transport the corpse to Etinan Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom State, our home town, for burial? How do I raise the children? My husband was owed three months salary before he died”, she added.

    When contacted, Mr Senbore said his deceased was involved in a tricycle accident on his way to his office, adding that he was not driving him at that time but was riding on a tricycle.

    “I only got to know about it after the accident. He was taken to the hospital where I paid for his treatment, but unfortunately, he died the following day,” he told The Nation, maintaining that he knew nothing about Sunday’s death.

    He also said he did not know who took Sunday to the hospital.

     

  • Police boss to appear before Assembly

    Police boss to appear before Assembly

    Lagos State Commissioner of Police Umar Manko is to appear before the House of Assembly on January 13.

    The House gave the directive at plenary on Monday after the Clerk, Ganiyu Abiru, read a letter from the commissioner demanding a specific date for him to appear before the lawmakers.

    The House had summoned the police boss on issues relating to cultism in Yaba and public schools without giving him a specific date.

    This made the commissioner to write back demanding a date.

    Moshood Oshun, Lagos Mainland II, raised the issue of cultism penultimate week.

    Manko will also brief members on an alleged brutality of two women, who were stripped naked by some youths in Ejigbo area of the state.

  • Businessman petitions police over eviction

    A businessman, Mr Boniface Ezeisi, the Chief Executive Officer of Boney Marcus Industry Limited, has petitioned the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Umar Manko over his “illegal eviction” from his office situated on 26, Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Road, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos, by a man simply identified as Major Okoro.

    Okoro, Ezeisi said, claimed to be Chief Security Officer (CSO) to Globacom chairman Mr Mike Adenuga.

    He said Okoro invaded the building one morning with some security operatives to eject its occupants.  Addressing reporters yesterday, Ezeisi said: “I called you people here because I was ejected from my former office by one Major Okoro who claims to be CSO to Mr Mike Adenuga. He said he got directives from Adenuga to remove all tenants from the property. I asked him if he had any court order , quit notice or written directives from Adenuga to carry out the said action, he (Okoro) said he didn’t need them, adding that he is above getting court orders or quit notices from anyone.

    “I still have properties worth about $750,000 inside the safe in the shop; they locked everywhere and station private security men within the building’s premises; we don’t have access to our properties.”

    Ezeisi spoke further: “I don’t believe Mr Adenuga knew about this action because if he did, there would have been a court order. I am 100 per cent sure that Mr Adenuga never made such order to evict us form the building.”

    In his letter to Manko through his lawyer, David Adjarho, he said Okoro perpetrated the act on May 24, at about 8am when he came in a black Toyota Prado SUV with some riot policemen who stormed the place in a Toyota Hilux Van.

    “ … Our client has lost over N20 million worth of goods due to the illegal and malicious acts of these fellows,” he added.

    The legal practitioner condemned Okoro’s alleged action and urged the police to ensure that his client gets justice.

    The letter has been referred to the Area F police Command “for immediate action,” while Mr Robert Obasogie is the inspector in charge of the case.

  • Lawmakers seek peaceful Xmas

    Lawmakers seek peaceful Xmas

    Lagos State House of Assembly yesterday urged Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola to direct appropriate security agencies, especially the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) to strengthen security around Lagos Mainland as a result of cult activities and to ensure security of lives and property during the Yuletide.

    The House, which was presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Kolawole Taiwo also resolved that the Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, be invited to brief members on security challenges.

    The resolution followed a Matter of Urgent Public Importance raised by a member, Moshood Oshun (Mainland I), that cultism had gone haywire in the area.

    He said a man was allegedly butchered in Bariga area in broad day-light, adding that cultists in higher institutions around the Mainland had moved into surrounding communities to initiate miscreants into their fold, leading to killings and counter killings.

  • Robbers kill 39 policemen in 12 months

    Robbers kill 39 policemen in 12 months

    Thirty-nine policemen were killed by armed robbers in various parts of Lagos State this year, it was learnt yesterday.

    The policemen were felled by bandits’ bullets in 54 robbery operations across the state.

    The Nation learnt that within the period, 322 cases of murder were recorded; 1,130 vehicles stolen and 149 robbers killed.

    Of the 1,130 vehicles, 557 were snatched, 568 were removed from where they were parked and five were driven away by drivers.

    The statistics, according to the state police command, also show that 472 robbers were arrested, while 390 arms, 16,034 ammunition and 919 vehicles were recovered within the period. The Police foiled 390 robbery operations.

    Commissioner of Police Umar Manko said the command had put in place strategies to ensure a secured environment, including more police patrol, intensive vehicular and border patrol, purposeful strategic raids on criminals’ hideouts, intensive patrol of all waterways and strategic deployment of gun boats and Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) at key locations.

  • Police rescue abducted Lebanese in Lagos

    Police rescue abducted Lebanese in Lagos

    A 61-year-old Lebanese woman, Alhaja Essa Dannawi, who was kidnapped at her residence in Lagos on May 2, has been rescued by the police, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Umar Manko, said on Thursday.

    Manko told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the woman was rescued on Sunday by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), led by SP Abba Kyari, without paying any ransom.

    “The family members of the victim were extensively interrogated by the police and after getting enough evidence, a 23-year-old man, who is a nephew to the victim, was arrested.

    “Thereafter, we immediately used him to stage and arrest the leader of the kidnappers, a 37-year-old Nigerian, and thereafter, rescued the victim at their hideout in the Oyingbo area of Lagos.

    “Investigations continue as we now have details of the remaining gang members who are at large,” he said.

    The police boss said that during interrogation, the prime suspect confessed that he organised the kidnap.

    “The prime suspect duplicated the victim’s room key and gave it to the suspected kidnappers who quietly walked into her room in her residence at Ebute Meta at about 3:15am and kidnapped her,” Manko said.

    He, however, added that the victim was in good health, while the prime suspect is still helping police investigations into the matter.

     

  • Police smash pastor-led kidnap gang

    Police smash pastor-led kidnap gang

    •’We will fish out Bamigbetan’s abductors’

    A 12-man kidnap gang allegedly led by a pastor, Solomon Eze, 33, has been smashed by the police.

    Lagos State Police chief Umar Manko, who paraded the suspects at the command headquarters in Ikeja, said the police would fish out the kidnappers of Ejigbo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) Chair Kehinde Bamigbetan. Bamigbetan, who was abducted on April 15, was released last weekend.

    The pastor was arrested with a landlord, three drivers, a commercial motorcyclist and a clothes seller.

    One of them, a suspected fake Lance Corporal, Joseph Onyeami, was said to have died when he jumped from a two-storey building at Agboju, a Lagos suburb, in a bid to evade arrest.

    The others are: Sunday James, 29; Emmanuel Iloakazi, 26; Ikechukwu Okafor aka Osuofia I, 37; Obinna Egbugha, 26; Ikechukwu Chedom, and Christian Ezinkwo aka Alhaji, 31. Onyeami is dead; five others are at large.

    Operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) recovered three AK47 rifles, 11 Ak47 magazines, each loaded with 30 rounds of live ammunition, from the gang.

    Manko said on April 6, about 2.00am, the officer-in-charge, SARS, Superintendent of Police (SP) Abba Kyari, received information that a robbery/kidnap gang that relocated from the east to Lagos planned operate that day. The police, he said, swung into action, tracking down Eze in Ajegunle.

    Eze, he said, confessed to several robberies and kidnapping in the state, after which the suspect led detectives to one of the gang’s hideouts at Ikorodu, where an AK47 rifle with serial number 6090 was recovered. The detectives, he added, arrested other members of the gang in Surulere, Ajegunle and Ajangbadi.

    All the suspects, Manko said, led detectives to Ajegunle where two AK47 rifles with serial numbers 28097 and 23451, including 11 AK47 magazines loaded with 30 rounds of live ammunition each, were recovered. The weapons, he said, were concealed in the gang’s operational vehicle, an unregistered Nissan Sunny car.

    They also led detectives to their detention camps at Ikorodu and Ibeju-Lekki where two houses were searched and sealed off.

    Eze, who hails from Osisioma village, Abia State, described himself as a “deliverance minister” at Bride Assembly in Ijesha, Lagos Mainland.

    Asked why he got involved in robbery and kidnapping, he said: “On October 15, 2012, I met a brother, Uchenna where I used to pray for people – Mountain of Mercy, Ikoyi, Osun State. After three days’ prayer, he started calling me. He asked me where I live and do prayer. I told him that I live in the Leadway Estate, Eruwe. came with one Ogonna on January 2. Ogonna collected my number and left. I did not see him for more than a month when I wanted to travel to Anambra for a church programme.

    “I left them in Ikorodu and travelled to Anambra. I was there when my brother, Kingsley called me that the police had arrested him because of me. I returned and reported myself at the Ajegunle Police Station. I was arrested and brought to SARS. Uchenna told me that his brother used to bring cars from abroad and asked me to follow him to bring them. We went and brought a Toyota Camry car. He gave me N30,000.

    “I only prayed for Uchenna before my encounter with them. I am married. My wife sells fruits and she is carrying a seven-month pregnancy. It was James that put me into trouble because I arrested him. I did not participate in four armed robbery and kidnap operations as he is claiming. I don’t even know that I was arrested for belonging to a robbery/kidnapping gang. It is a surprise to me because I have never been involved in this type of case.”

    James, the gang’s second-in-command, said he used to smuggle Okrika (second-hand clothes) wears from Ghana. A native of Ndieze Opoto in Ebonyi State, he said he took to robbery and kidnapping in December, last year, when he lost his goods to Customs men at the Togo border.

    He said: “Out of frustration, I met Victor Emmanuel, now at large at Mazamaza in Lagos. I narrated my problem to him and he promised to help me. He said we should look for a house. He contacted one Okeh living at Ajah. When we got a house, I called one Victor who said work had started; that we would be kidnapping people to keep there and collect ransom.

    “Our first victim was a woman. We blocked her on Lagos-Ajah Road, forced her inside our vehicle and took her to our Ikorodu detention camp. Her people paid N1 million. I got N100,000. In the second operation, we carried one man and collected N1 million. Like the second, our third operation was on the same Ajah Road. We carried a man and collected N2 million. We used N1.5 million to buy a Pathfinder Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV). My role was to take victims to our detention camp.”

    Iloakazi, a taxi driver who hails from Imo State, said: “I am a landlord in Shibiri area of Ajangbadi and used to drive Sunday James.

    “The Gulf car I was driving for him had its windshield and side mirror broken. He gave me N45,000 for the repairs. It was not the money I got from him that I used to build my house at Shibiri Ajangbadi. I was formerly working with Guinness Plc Nigeria in Lagos.”

    Okafor, a bus driver who hails from Ihiala in Anambra State, said: “Sunday chartered my car to Ijebu-Ode side and paid me N45,000. I only followed them once. They wanted to force the second one on me with gun, but I refused. I forgot to inform police about what they were doing before I was arrested. It was only Sunday I knew at the Jibowu motor park. I did not know that he is a kidnapper and armed robber.”

    Imo State-born Egbugha, a commercial motorcycle rider in Ajangbadi on the outskirts of Lagos, said he only took Chedom and Iloakazi on his bike on at different.

    Chedom said his brother duped him of N1.3 million after which another South African-based brother helped him with N700,000 which, he said, was “consumed by the high cost of living in Lagos.” He added: “My wife ran away with my son who later died after a brief illness and she became a full-time prostitute. One of my friends, the late Efiigbo, who used to go to Cotonou with me went to Onitsha and bought an AK47 for N1million. I took policemen to Nwafada’s place to get our operational AK47 rifle in his possession but he escaped. Onyeami aka Lance Corporal Joseph jumped down from his hotel and died when SARS men cordoned off the hotel.”

    Chedom, who said he broke his hand in an accident, said he participated in robbery with Sunday Emmanuel, Ikechukwu and Okwudili only once.

    Ezinkwo, a truck driver from Anambra State, said: “I am a victim of circumstance because my brother, Ikechukwu Chedom gave me a AK47 rifle to keep in my Nissan Sunny car.”

  • Lagos CP pledges to track down council chairman’s kidnappers

    Mr Umar Manko, the Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, has pledged not to rest until those who kidnapped Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan, the Ejigbo Local Government Chairman, were fished out.

    ASP Damasus Ozoani, the deputy police spokesman at the state command, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.

    Ozoani said that information received by the police indicated that the local government chairman was kidnapped around 11p.m. on Monday.

    Ozoani said the police were making efforts to unravel the circumstance surrounding Bamigbetan’s abduction, adding that they would try their best to rescued him.

    “The police are investigating the matter; we do not want to do our investigations on the pages of newspapers in order not to jeopardise investigators’ work,” he added.

    “We do not have the identity of the kidnappers and the driver of the vehicle used for the kidnap took to his heel.’’

    Meanwhile, sources close to the state government alleged that the suspected kidnappers had demanded 1 million dollars in ransom for his release.