The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Victims

  • Two accident victims need N27.5m for surgery abroad

    Two accident victims need N27.5m for surgery abroad

    Two road accident victims need N28 million for surgery abroad.

    They are Taofeek Alabi and Bashir Olamilekan – from Offa in Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State.

    Olamilekan is a 200-level Computer Science student of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, while Alabi is a welder.

    Olamilekan needs N25 million and Alabi, N2.5 million.

    The victims, who have been bedridden for months, are  appealing to Nigerians to come to their aid to enable them get well and return to their normal lives.

    In a save our soul (SOS) letter, the Offa Descendants Union (ODU) appealed to philanthropists, wealthy individuals and humanitarian groups to assist them.

    “Bashir Olamilekan, from Ikolaba compound, Offa is a 200-level student of Computer Science of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He was involved in an accident in front of the gate of the university on May 24, last year where he suffered spinal cord injury. The total amount of money needed for his medical treatment is N25 million,” the statement signed by the Chairman and secretary, Alhaji Fasasi Balogun and Prince Raheem Amototo, stated.

    ODU added that Alabi hails from Amuyo in Offa, saying he sustained internal bleeding.

    “The patient was later operated on January 30, 2016 with history of severe abdominal pain. He is now referred to UCH, Ibadan for proper medical attention that requires N2.5 million,” the statement read.

    The organisation said all donations should be sent to the Offa Descendants Union (ODU) home branch with First Bank account number: 3103386741. Other account numbers are Diamond Bank: Account Name, Afolabi Sikiru: Account no: 0024142738 and GTBank Asimiyu Oyewale: Account no is 0036487733.

    Life is no longer the same for Alabi, a bread winner before he had the accident, that injured his genitals. He and his family have spent their fortunes to get him back on his feet to no avail. He is now at home and awaiting help from kind hearted people.

    The Management of Fadoks Hospital, Iseyin, Oyo State where Alabi was initially admitted, said he would need a reconstructive abdominal surgery on referral to India.

    The Medical Director (MD) of the hospital, Dr. O. D. Fatukasi said Alabi had undergone surgery twice in his facility.

    In a referral letter to the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Dr Fatukasi urged UCH to take over the management of the patient.

    The letter reads: “Kindly take over the management of the above named patient who presented in our hospital on December 10, 2015, having been involved in road traffic accident (RTSA) and sustained ruptured spleen with attendant internal bleeding. He was admitted and repair carried out on the ruptured spleen. He got well and was discharged on December 22, 2015 when the condition improved.

    “Subsequently, he represented on  January 30, 2016 with history of severe abdominal pains with associated abdominal distension. He was readmitted and an impression of intestinal obstruction secondary to adhesion was made. Exploratory laparatomy revealed a 30cm gangrenous volvolus of the ascending colon from the ileo-cocecal junction short of transverse colon. We could not do a right hemicolectomy because the rest of the bowel was completely unhealthy and the condition of the patient was not conducive and not clinically stable, we therefore opted for colostomy on part of the gangrenous segment after releasing the volvolus.”

    Also, Mr Mbamalu Chibuike (PT) of Optimal Health Centre, Abuja where Olamilekan is being treated said that he “was presented in our facility on the June 16, 2015 with a-three month history of neck injury due to a road traffic accident in front of his school gate at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

    “This resulted in the weakness of both lower limbs. He is currently having bed sores due to prolonged lying which has been causing series of infections to him. He has been on regular physiotherapy due to financial constraints and this will not help him to achieve desirable functions.

    “He requires specialised management at Saket City Hospital for general body evacuation and examination; infection control; pressure sores management and stem cell surgery to improve his chances of recovery.”

  • US pledge support to fight Boko Haram, support victims

    US pledge support to fight Boko Haram, support victims

    The United States has said it will continue to support people affected by Boko Haram’s violence through ongoing humanitarian aid and victim support services.

    It also said it will remain committed to assisting its partners in the Lake Chad Basin region who are leading the fight to end Boko Haram’s wanton violence and restore peace.

    In a statement, the United States condemned the terrorist bombing at a mosque on March 16 near Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, during which dozens of people were killed and injured.

    It therefore extended it’s deepest condolences to the families of the latest victims of Boko Haram’s senseless brutality.

    It said Boko Haram continues to commit vicious attacks against innocent civilians, including children, adding that it has demonstrated repeatedly its disregard for the lives of the tens of thousands it has killed, raped, and injured and the millions it has displaced in the Lake Chad Basin region.

  • UNIPORT 4: Police absolve victims of alleged theft

    The four students of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) who were killed by a mob in Aluu, Rivers State, over alleged theft, have been absolved of their alleged crime by the state Police command.

    The four undergraduates of the university were killed by a mob on October 5, 2013, at Umuokiri community for allegedly stealing a Laptop and mobile handsets.

    The victims are Ugonna Obuzor, Geology (18); Lloyd Toku Mike, Civil Engineering (19); Chiadika Biringa, Theatre Art (20) and Tekena Elkannah, Mechanical Engineering (20).

    The Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Raphael Ezechi, who led the investigation into the alleged torture and gruesome killing of the victims, in his evidence-in-chief, yesterday, told the trial Justice Letam Nyordee that the victims were not thieves and did not steal anything from anybody.

    Ezechi said no item whatsoever was recovered from the victims by those that killed them and nobody made a report to the Police, the chiefs or community leaders that his property was lost or that any of the victims stole something from them.

    Ezechi maintained that the boys were innocent and that the alleged stealing charges hung around them was a guise to kill them.

    Twelve persons, including the paramount ruler of the community, Alhaji Hassan Welewa and an ex-police sergeant, Lucky Orji, are being prosecuted for the murder.

    Orders are Lawal Segun, Ikechukwu Louis Amadi (aka Kapoon), David Chinasa Ogbada,  Abiodun Yusuf,  Joshua Ekpe,  Abang Cyril,  John Ayuwu, Okoghiroh Endurance, Ozioma Abajuo and Chigozie Evans Samuel.

    Four of the accused persons, including the paramount ruler, were charged for negligence and admitted to bail. However, the remaining suspects, including the ex-police officer, are remanded in prison custody.

    According to Ezechi, “…fingerprints of all the suspects were taken for forensic examination, their mobile phones were retrieved from them and their phone numbers taken to service providers.

    “When the victims were being tortured and killed, nobody came out to say he/she lost any of item or accused the victims of stealing their items.

    “They hung the stealing charge on them to find reason to kill them.” He told the Judge.

    Earlier, the court had admitted 14 photographs shot at the scene of crime as identification (IDs), instead of exhibits.

    The court said the documents ought to have been admitted through the photographer that took them or the leader of the police team that were at the scene of crime at the time of their murder, and not the team that led the investigations.

    The witness earlier told the court that the leader of the team and the photographer could not be reached, as they have been transferred and promoted.

    Efforts to tender the photographs in evidence/ as exhibits by the state Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), who is the leader of the prosecution, Ibikiri Otoribio, was objected by the first accused, Segun Lawal, on the grounds that the photographs, having been taken with digital camera must have been printed out by a computer device, and that the prosecution did not meet the conditions as provided in section 84(4) of Evidence Act to allow for the admissibility of the said computer documents.

    His position was supported by the rest of the defence counsels, who urged the court to reject the documents and mark it rejected, so it will not see the light of the day again.

    However, Justice Nyordee, in his ruling, over-ruled the objection of the first accused, describing it as misleading.

    According to the judge, although the witness said the photographs were taken with a digital camera, he did not say that it was printed with a computer, holding that there are various other ways digital camera pictures could be printed without the use of a computer.

    He admitted the photographs as ID because of their relevance to the case, since the main authors of the documents were not available to tender them.

    The matter was later adjourned to March 10 for continuation.

  • ‘Rehabilitate victims of Ife-Modakeke feud’

    The Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, yesterday advised Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, to rehabilitate victims of the Ife – Modakeke crisis.

    The Ife-Modakeke crisis broke out in 1998  and spilled into 1999 and 2000 during the reign of Ooni Okunade Sijuade and the Ogunsua of Modakeke, Oba Francis Adedoyin.

    Over 70 persons were killed, scores displaced and properties worth hundreds of millions of naira destroyed.

    Alake gave the advice at his Ake Palace, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, when the Ooni visited him.

    Oba Ogunwusi, who arrived at the palace at 3:42pm, was accompanied by some Ife monarchs, chiefs, aides and 15 palace drummers.

    They were recieved by Oba Gbadebo, his wife, Olori Tokunbo, Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Taiwo Adeoluwa, Egba traditional rulers and chiefs.

    In his welcome speech, the Alake, who prayed for the Ooni’s longevity and peaceful tenure, urged him to be cautious in his search for unity in Yorubaland.

    Oba Gbadebo said the Ooni of Ife is one of the five principal monarchs in Yorubaland.

    He listed the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba of Benin, Alake of Egbaland and Awujale of Ijebuland as the four others.

    Alake, who lauded former President Olusegun Obasanjo for honouring the Ooni, said Obasanjo demonstrated humility by prostrating before the Ooni.

    He noted that the only challenge of the Yoruba traditional institution has always been fuelled by the ego of some traditional rulers.

    Oba Gbadebo said Ogunwusi’s reign and his visitations to Yoruba obas would engender the needed peace and progress of the race.

    Responding, the Ooni said the much needed unity of the Yoruba was achievable.

    He emphasised that love and unity of purpose ought to precede the much agitated progress of Yorubaland, which he promised to pursue.

  • Bristow crash: Controversy over victims’ whereabouts

    Bristow crash: Controversy over victims’ whereabouts

    Controversy Thursday trailed the whereabouts of 11 survivors of Wednesday’s Bristow helicopter crash.

    The victims, who were rescued alive around the ERHA oil field in the Gulf of Guinea, located about 85 nautical miles South East of Lagos Port and 40 nautical miles off Igbokoda, were said to have been ferried to the nearest hospital ashore by a speedboat, SURFER P2621.

    But fresh information obtained by The Nation on Thursday revealed that another Bristow helicopter airlifted the nine passengers and two crew members on Wednesday evening.
    The helicopter, it was learnt, was also recovered and loaded on a barge with the help of a crane.

    While some speculated that they were secretly brought to Lagos in a private hospital used by the oil company, others believed the victims must have been flown abroad.

    The Nation gathered that a certain Nicholas Oten might have been among the victims, while the name of the pilot was given as Captain Obinna.

    Marked N5BQJ, the helicopter, according to authorities ditched into the sea at about 10:20am while on its way to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, from Port Harcourt.

    All the passengers who floated on the water were rescued by a Merchant Vessel, MV DIJAMA, who launched two of its small boats and live rafts upon sighting them.

    At the time of filing this report, neither the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), nor the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) could give account of the victims whereabouts.

    Both agencies’ spokespersons told The Nation that the airline and the oil company involved took over.

    NEMA’s spokesman for the southwest, Ibrahim Farinloye said since no life was lost, the agency did not demand manifest.

    “It is a private matter really. The oil company and the airline have taken charge. We cannot be asking for manifest since there was no casualty. I do not know where they took them to.

    “But the incident occurred around ERHA oil field and the helicopter has been recovered,” he said.

  • NSITF pays N6.2b to Dana crash victims

    NSITF pays N6.2b to Dana crash victims

    The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has said that it has paid about N6.7 billion to British Tobacco in favour of victims of Dana Air crash, which occurred on June 3, 2012.

    NSITF also said that the dependants of the victims are currently on the insurance trust fund’s monthly payroll.

    Managing Director of NSITF, Mr. Umar Munir Abubakar, disclosed this in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, during an interactive and enlightenment forum on the ‘Employees’ Compensation Act, 2010′, organised by the fund and the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) for the South-South and South East geo-political zones.

    Abubakar, who also gave a breakdown of compensations the NSITF has paid out to many organisations, industries, individuals and persons with disability, also advised companies to always adopt and adhere to safety rules to avoid accidents and loss of lives.

    The NSITF boss expressed regrets that state and local governments in the country have refused to comply with provisions of the Employees’ Compensation Act, more than five years after it became effective in the country.

    Abubakar said: “Unfortunately for us, we are having a running battle with state governments and local government councils. They are yet to comply. Unfortunately for us again, some major government parastatals are yet to key in.”

    He further recalled that in 2010 when the scheme came on stream, several employers were caught unawares, a development he said, necessitated the shifting of the scheme to 2011 to allow them to start contributing from that year.

    Continuing, he stated: “From that time till now, we have registered as many as 33,000 employers in the private sector. To us, that was a great breakthrough. This year alone, we have been able to register no fewer than 9,395 employers.”

    He stated further, “Of course, we are not saying that is the end; we still have lots and lots of employers who are yet to comply, especially those who are outside the purview of the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA).”

    Since the project came into existence, Abubakar added that the same 33,000 employers have been registered by the insurance fund into the Safe Workplace Intervention Project (SWIP).

    Speaking earlier, the Director-General of NECA, Mr. Olusegun Osinowo, said the association became effective in year 2010 following the passage of the Employees’ Compensation Act by the National Assembly.

     

  • Police rescue four Kidnapped victims in Edo

    Police rescue four Kidnapped victims in Edo

    Edo State Police Command Tuesday rescued four kidnapped victims.

    They were rescued in the early hours of of Tuesday in a forest near Utekon in Ovia South East local government area of the state.

    The victims were traveling to Lagos from Benin City.

    The four victims are Sadiq Sarumi, Osayande Douglas,Gabriel Otaru and Pastor Martins Duru.

    The victims, according to Police, were travelling in a Toyota Signal space bus before they were accosted near Ovia River on Benin/Lagos road around 5pm on Monday by some suspected gun men.

    The armed men were said to have shot sporadically into the air to scare the travellers.

    A situation which prompted the driver of the space bus to abandon the car and ran into the bush.

  • Victims of a kind

    Victims of a kind

    Title: Biafra: The Victims
    Author: Ernest Onuoha
    Publisher:Alliance, Enugu
    Reviewer: Edozie Udeze

    Many stories and books have told and written about the Nigerian Civil war of 1967 to 1970. Some of these stories harp more on the genesis of the war; the events that led to the crisis and the personalities that played different roles in the imbroglio. It is only a few books that gave inner account of the human sufferings in the enclave called Biafra.
    Most importantly, the conditions of the conquered Igbos in the hands of the Federal troops soon after the war was declared over, have not been really explored. What was the situation of the people, mostly women and young girls in the hands of the rampaging soldiers the moment they heard that the war had come to an end? It is not only the traumatic conditions of the women – married and unmarried – in the hands of these gullible soldiers that preoccupied the attention of the author, but the attitude of the Federal government towards the culprits and the victims.
    A lot of women were raped daily and infected with diseases. Young girls, who had just survived the war were forced into marriage by these heartless and mean soldiers. But what could the subdued Igbos do? Many of the women began to paint and adorn their faces with charcoals to look ugly. Others perpetually strapped children on their backs to look like nursing mothers. Yet the soldiers soon discovered these tricks and thus began to unmask the women the more; defiling and demeaning them with effrontery.
    The book also chronicles stories of refugees; how people trekked miles from one location to the other to escape heavy enemy constant bombardment. In most situations, as soon as people arrived one location, tired, forlorn, weak, hungry, haggard, frustrated and all, the enemy plane would descend on the place and they would take off again. Hunger and total insecurity to lives and property thus became the most constant hallmark of the Biafran enclave. Owing to this, constant deaths of people from malnutrition and hunger dominated the enclave.
    In addition, most of the foreign currencies, sent by Igbos in Diaspora did not get to them. On page 38, the author noted that “while the Igbos at home suffered and died, our brothers and sisters in Diaspora passed through traumatic experiences. This was so because of the news coming from home. The news mainly was that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which was giving one-sided news of how the Igbos were totally overrun. Now, a lady in the United States of America just recovering from post natal experience went into shock and then bled to death on hearing that her village had been bombed and she concluded that her parents must have also died in the Federal air bombardments. Many of such cases occurred.
    In the commentary portion of the book, the author observed that usually when a marriage of any sort does not work, one of the partners must take a walk. Again, those who were the main casualties, the real victims of the war were those downtrodden mentioned above. Something must be done to remember the victims in form of remembrance, after all, even HIV/AIDs victims and unknown soldiers are remembered every year. This is the whole import of this book to the society, to the Igbo and to the history of the war.

  • Audu visits victims of ‘PDP attack’

    Kogi State All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the November 21 election Prince Abubakar Audu yesterday visited the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Lokoja, the state capital, where the party’s members allegedly attacked by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) supporters on Monday, were receiving treatment.

    Audu, who consoled the victims, noted that the party would pay for their treatment.

    The APC candidate decried persistent attacks and threats of attack by the ruling PDP in the state.

    He urged the APC supporters not to take the law into their hands, adding that a complaint on the attack had been lodged with the police.

    At least 23 APC supporters were reportedly injured, following an ambush by thugs suspected to be PDP supporters at Igalamela, Odolu Local Government Area.

    Kogi APC Governorship Campaign Council’s Chairman Humphrey Abah said the party’s supporters were returning on Monday in six buses from a rally at Ajaka at 6pm when they were allegedly ambushed at Akpanya-Odolu intersection by suspected PDP thugs.

    The campaign chief alleged that the attackers used axes and cutlasses to injure the APC members.

    He said the thugs, led by a prominent PDP chieftain in the area, broke the windscreens and windows of the buses.

    Abah said two of the victims were unconscious and rushed to the FMC in Lokoja on Audu’s directive.

    But the PDP in Igalamela/Odolu Local Government Area distanced itself from the attack.

    Its chairman in the area, Mr. Isah Adejoh, said the allegations were false and unfounded.

    Adejoh said the party had been preaching against violence He hailed security agencies for sustaining the peace, adding that the party would continue to appeal to youths for peace to endure before, during and after the election.

    The member representing Igalamela/Odolu in the House, Elder Friday Sani, urged PDP supporters to be law-abiding and shun violence.

  • Imo assures flood victims of support

    Imo assures flood victims of support

    The Imo State Government Thursday assured flood victims in riverine communities in Oguta Local Government Area of the State of government’s intervention to cushion their sufferings.

    The State Governor, Rochas Okorocha who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Eze Madumere, gave the assurance when he visited some of the flooded communities to ascertain the level of the havoc wrecked by the flood.

    The Deputy Governor described the flood as a disaster which has caused pain and huge loss to the people.

    He advised the victims to keep off the river banks to avoid accidents that could cause further loss of lives.

    The Deputy Governor said that the state government will deploy health workers and environmentalists to provide medication and prevent breakout of epidemics.

    Speaking further, he said he was in the know that the Deputy Chief of Staff, Government, Mr. Kingsley Uju had visited with relief material but that other relief items are on the way to serve as palliatives to them.

    He assured that the State will liaise with the Federal Government to ensure that they get necessary relief, to mitigate the impact of the flood.