The Nation Newspaper

Tag: vigilance

  • Police shoot two vigilance group members

    •’They’re robbery suspects’

    Two members of a vigilance group have been rushed to the emergency unit of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, after they were shot by the police.

    It was learnt that the victims were pursuing some robbery suspects when policemen opened fire on them.

    The incident unsettled the neighbourhood behind St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Yenagoa.

    An eyewitness said residents raised the alarm about a robbery, which was said to be an occurrence in the area.

    “The vigilance group responded to the call and immediately started chasing the robbers.

    “But unknown to them, a neighbour had called the police.

    “When the police came and met the vigilance group members, two of the police officers shot them in the stomach,” the eyewitness said.

    Sympathisers were said to have thronged the hospital to wish Emma Gabbuth, a refrigerator repairer, who hails from Emede in Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State and a young man said to have come from Atissa, quick recovery.

    But police spokesman Alex Akhigbe insisted that the victims were robbery suspects.

    He said the police received a distress call and on getting to the neighbourhood, they saw two men with cutlasses.

    “When the police asked the men to stop they refused and instead started running. Then the police shot at them.

    “They were disarmed and immediately taken to FMC for treatment.

    “As far as we are concerned, they are robbery suspects because we are not aware of a vigilance group in that area.”

  • Fashola calls for peace, vigilance

    Fashola calls for peace, vigilance

    Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) yesterday called for the cooperation of Nigerians to resolve the challenges confronting the country.

    The governor said only Nigerians can take the country out of the doldrums.

    In a Sallah message to the residents, Fashola said it is only by embracing peace, unity and fairness that Nigerians can put the country back on its leadership pedestal.

    The governor urged the people to embrace love, tolerance, forgiveness and brotherhood which Islam and other religions preach.

    He noted that Nigeria, with all its potential, has no business with poverty, if its citizens could give it the right focus.

    Fashola advised Nigerians to rid the country of intolerance, discrimination, cheating, violence and disobedience to the law and other ills.

    According to him, Nigeria will only assume its leadership position in Africa and among the black race when its diverse people embrace law and order, unity of purpose, equity and patriotism.

    Fashola urged Nigerians to celebrate the Eid-el-Fitri with moderation and in the same spirit they exhibited throughout Ramadan.

    The governor noted that such spirit encourages peace, sharing, brotherhood, kindness and fairness between Muslims and the followers of other religions.

    He urged Nigerians to be open and receptive to positive changes to enable the nation achieve real development.

    Fashola said human beings should always seek better ways of doing things.

    According to him, development can only take place when the people show understanding that constant innovation, expansion and general redevelopment often take place in developed societies where the right sacrifices have been made.

  • Offa ruse and need for vigilance

    SIR: Everywhere the human hawks of the inordinately distended People’s Democratic Party (PDP) perch they often leave no one in doubt of their abhorrent lack of respect for the sanctity of the ballot box. Though they peddle smattering understanding that political parties must test their popularity at the sanctuary of the ballot box, they are never comfortable with the outcome of a free and fair election. Since the party has no viable programmes with which to convince the electorate, it often violently subverts the electoral process and grossly distorts the choice of voters. The rerun election held in Offa Local Government Area, Kwara State, a few weeks ago is a ringing reminder that the PDP rigging machine irredeemably remains the proverbial spots on the leopard’s skin which cannot be washed off however torrential the rain.

    If PDP is breaking into factions owing to indiscipline, threadbare internal democracy, injustice, and irreconcilable differences, the long-suffering electorate and the upcoming All Progressives Congress must not be too lost in celebration as to forget vigilance. Whether whole or dismembered, PDP cannot go to any election without perfecting plans to rig awfully. Seeing that it has riotously frittered away the goodwill of the people and is without honour from Abuja to the hindermost part of Maiduguri, the rudderless party will always worship at the infamous temple of rigging.

    As the ongoing abominable justification of the electoral robbery at Offa shows and as the actions of the various spokespersons for the party in Abuja indicate, nobody needs doubt that the PDP men ruling Nigeria always have ‘a high blood pressure of words and anaemia of deeds’. All economic indicators show that the ruling hawks in Abuja are incapable of providing effective leadership. Yet, in highly insufferable decibels, they talk of winning the 2015 elections.

    Even in Osun State where a consequential majority of the people agree that the Aregbesola-led administration is responsive and responsibly performing, the fractured and fractious PDP which has no enduring records of performance in about seven years that it was in power there is arrogantly about town saying it will take back the governorship seat in the state in 2014. We are talking of a party whose worth and exertions in power were as brief as a sigh!

    PDP is dangerously desperate. Freeze its past records of ignominy and look to its latest reckless behaviour at Offa. So perniciously desperate is the party that when its councillorship candidate in the rerun election, Afolabi Jimoh Olawale, came clean about his party’s electoral robbery, the party ploughed further the depth of idiocy and shenanigan by flagrantly denying his candidacy. The party is still out there laying invalid claims to the mandate which from all available evidence it inexpertly stole.

    What the electorate at Offa said with their votes is not different from what many Nigerians have said in the past and will still say about the PDP in any elections – the party is not wanted, for it devalues their human dignity and scuttles their noble aspirations. If the roundly rejected party behaves as we have seen again and again, efforts must be intensified at all levels to increase the tempo of vigilance.

    The Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission is a compromised umpire. No time should be wasted in unbundling it. There must be stiff sanctions against all those who collaborated to change the choice of the electorate at Offa.

    Let the winner be given his mandate. But above all, Nigerians must more than ever before be vigilant and be ready to defend their votes against the soulless beings in the PDP who are offensively desperate to retain or grab political powers.

    • Jamiu Oyeleke,

    Ogbomoso, Oyo State.

     

  • Police arrest vigilance men for ‘killing two’

    The police yesterday in Abeokuta arrested members of the Vigilance Service of Ogun State (VSO) for allegedly killing two persons, Akeem Usman (32) and Raji Moruf (29) on the assumption that they were robbery suspects.

    The Nation learnt that the VSO team received a distress call by residents that suspicious persons were sighted around Sorinola Avenue in Abeokuta and upon arriving, they shot the victims, who were returning from Lagos.

    The Commander of the Vigilance Service in the state, Maj. Femi Bisiriyu (rtd), who described the killing as resulting from mistaken identity, said his men responded to a distress call.

    Said he: “The area is known to be volatile and has become the target of attacks. So when a distress call was received, our men raced to the place.”

    According to him, a VSO officer opened fired in self-defence upon sighting one of the deceased holding a gun-like object when attempting to open a gate.

    A survivor, Mr. Abayomi Awoyejo (30), an advertisement agent, told reporters that the VSO struck about midnight yesterday.

    He said: “We had no inkling of this calamity befalling us when we were leaving Lagos for Abeokuta. We wanted to come last week but embarked on the trip yesterday.

    “I was playing my palm-top CD in the sitting room when I dozed off. About 12 midnight, Lateef woke me up and alerted me to the presence of robbers.

    “We panicked and rushed to get the key to lock the door, but we could not locate the bunch of keys. We eventually found the key and attempted to open the gate.

    “Wasiu, Moruf and Lateef were about to open the gate when we noticed the shadow of somebody. Before those wanting to open the gate could do so, a bullet fired by someone in a nearby building hit Moruf.

    “He, (Moruf) ran back shouting for help, lamenting that he had been hit by a bullet. We provided first aid treatment by tying the affected arm. We later called our relations on the phone.

    “When we were making the calls, the VSO men entered our sitting room. We shouted that we were not armed robbers. But they did not listen, they molested us.

    “One of us, who challenged them, was hit with the butt of a gun. There was confusion when one of them shot Akeem at a close range on the thigh and he became speechless.”

  • Vigilance group brutalises man

    A 42-year-old man, Mr. Sunday Ajayi, was at the weekend brutalised by a vigilance group at Ojumose in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State capital.

    The incident, which occurred during the monthly sanitation, led to criticisms of members of the group, who were described as “arrogant and brutal” in their dealings with the public, especially on sanitation days.

    According to eyewitnesses, the victim, who said he was ill and was going to the next street for medication, was stopped by a woman member of the group.

    Mr. Ajayi was reported to have fled when he was ordered to stop. The woman, simply identified as Sola, ran after him and caught him.

    The sources said she hit him (Ajayi) with her boot, causing him to fall down before another male member of the group called Ade joined her to beat the victim.

    According to the sources, on realising that Ajayi had become unconscious, Sola and Ade attempted to flee the scene, but were apprehended by sympathisers, who had been watching the incident.

    The victim, after regaining consciousness, told the sympathisers, including the state Commandant of the Vigilance Group of Nigeria (VGN), Mr. Ajagunigbala Moses that “he ran so that they would not hand him over to the police.”

    Ajagunigbala, who pleaded for peace, promised to “do everything to get to the root of the matter and deal with the culprits.”

    Mr. Ajayi was taken to the State Specialist Hospital for medical aid in a vehicle belonging to the State Commandant.

  • Vigilance group head kills friend

    Property worth millions of naira was yesterday burnt when some youths angrily set a building ablaze over the killing of their friend identified as Amaosa Otabor.

    Otabor was allegedly killed by his friend, Lucky Amadasun, who is the head of a local vigilance group at Upper Uwa and Amadasun Street in Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area of Edo State.

    Residents of the building were chased away before it was set on fire. A vehicle and a motor-cycle were also burnt.

    The youths vowed to avenge the killing of their friend, if police investigation yielded nothing.

    Witnesses said the late Otabor (27) was shot in the chest and died before he was taken to the hospital.

    They said the incident occurred at Amadasun’s home on Sunday evening after an argument between Amadasun and his friend, Osasu.

    It was learnt that Amadasun pointed the gun at Osasu but Otabor intervened and was shot in the process.

    The victim’s cousin, Felix Ekhator, said they were informed about the incident at about 7:30pm but before they got there, his cousin’s body had been taken to the mortuary.

    Police spokesman Moses Eguaveon confirmed the incident and said investigation had begun.

     

  • Mark, Ekweremadu, Ndoma-Egba, PDP call for vigilance

    Mark, Ekweremadu, Ndoma-Egba, PDP call for vigilance

    Senate President David Mark, his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu and Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba yesterday condemned the suicide bombing in Kano.

    Mark, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan in Abuja, frowned at the renewed violence at a time Nigerians were heaving a sigh of relief.

    He said: “This act is condemnable. It is inhuman and barbaric. This is certainly not part of our culture. This is alien. It is forbidden. We cannot live like this. Something serious has gone wrong in the land. We must do well by returning to the basics. No matter the level of anger in a man’s mind, taking the life of another cannot be a solution. All of us across the divide must join hands to end this carnage in our land.”

    He said there are channels for aggrieved people or groups to express their feelings without resort to killings and destruction of property.

    According to Mark, “the issue is beyond leaving the matter in the hands of security operatives, everybody must join in the vanguard of protecting our communities.”

    He sympathised with victims of the bomb blast.

    Ekweremadu described the incessant terrorist attacks as “callous, ungodly, atrocious, and incongruent with Nigerian cultures and religious faiths.”

    The Deputy Senate President in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Uche Anichukwu, said: “While calling on the security agencies to fish the culprits, it is my fervent prayer that those behind these wicked acts come to repentance, embrace dialogue, patriotism, and respect for human life as prescribed by our laws, cultures, and religious faiths.”

    Ndoma-Egba, in a statement in Abuja, noted that the situation “seems to transcend our security agencies,” adding that, “whoever is responsible , no matter how highly or lowly placed should know by now that there are available channels for complaints against the system without resort to killing of innocent Nigerians and wanton destruction of properties.”

    He sympathised with victims of the bomb blast and prayed the Almighty God to heal the land.

    The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned Monday’s bombing of a luxury bus in Kano, which led to the death of many Nigerians.

    The party also condemned the killing of five school teachers by gunmen in Maiduguri, Borno State capital on Monday.

    A statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, yesterday described the attacks as cruel.

    Metuh said the party was shocked by the attacks and has been deeply saddened over the manner in which Nigerians were being killed for no just cause.

    Reminding the attackers of the sanctity of life, the PDP called on the perpetrators to have a rethink and urged them to learn to live in harmony and to eschew acts of violence.

    The party urged Nigerians to be more vigilant even as it charged security agencies to double their efforts.