Category: Crime

By Hope Abah Emmanuel

At least four people were reportedly killed in separate attacks on two communities in Benue State’s Guma Local Government Area.
On the phone, villagers told our correspondent that the incident occurred between Friday evening and Saturday morning.
“Two women were killed yesterday behind Yogbo Primary School, and another within the community” (Friday). Unfortunately, the chairman of the local government is from that village.
“The attackers killed one person at Ukohol today (Saturday).” “They also burned down many houses in several villages that were attacked in the area,” a villager said.
Other villagers reported that residents had fled the affected areas out of fear of further attacks.
Guma’s chairman, Mike Ubah, confirmed the incident to our correspondent in a text message.
Ubah said, “Four people were killed. Three of them at Yogboh while the remaining one was killed at Ukohor within the said period.”
Meanwhile, the police spokesperson for the Benue State Command, Catherine Anene, did not respond to calls or text messages sent to her mobile on the incident.

The suspected female ritualist, simply known as Toyin, who was rescued from being lynched by an angry mob after being apprehended during an alleged attempt to abduct an eight-month-old baby in Lagos State’s Ebute-Metta area, has died in hospital.

SP Benjamin Hundeyin, the state Police Public Relations Officer, confirmed the development to our correspondent on Thursday.

Toyin, he said, was hospitalised at the Federal Medical Center in Ebute-Meta after being badly burned by the angry mob that caught her engaging in the illegal act.

“The lady died in the hospital,” said Hundeyin.

According to the report, the suspect entered the private residence of a relative of the baby’s mother in search of her husband, Akeem.
After being informed that her husband was not on the premises and subsequently advised to leave, Toyin left the building but lurked around the area.

Upon realising that the only adult with the children had left, she went back into the building and was said to have attempted stealing a baby.

An 11-year-old girl, who was in the company of the children, prevented her and raised the alarm, causing residents of the community to apprehend Toyin.

The suspect was taken under the bridge in the Ijora area, where angry residents allegedly attempted to lynch her but the police later intervened and took her away.

Hundeyin had said Toyin sustained severe burns during the attack and was hospitalised.

The Edo State Police Command paraded a medical doctor, Abass Adebowale, on Wednesday for allegedly injecting a cab driver, Emmanuel Agbovinuere, to death in the state’s Benin City area.

After committing the crime, Adebowale allegedly dumped Agbovinuere’s body in a bush and stole the victim’s Toyota Voltron car.

He was said to have driven the car to the Osogbo area of Osun State, where he was apprehended by police on Monday.

Chidi Nwabuzor, the state Police Public Relations Officer, told the press at the police command’s headquarters in Benin City, Edo State, that Adebowale is a graduate of the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, and works as a medical officer at the Kaiama General Hospital.
He said, “The Edo State Police Command in an attempt to rid the state of crime and criminality arrested a medical doctor, Abass Adebowale, 36, for killing Emmanuel Agbovinuere, 39, a cab driver.

“The victim and the suspect met in July this year at an undisclosed hotel in Benin and that is where their relationship started. On Sunday, September 4, the suspect came from Kwara State and they met at the same hotel, where as a customer, he took him around to where he was to do his business.

“The cab man complained of leg pain and the doctor promised to help and injected some poisonous drugs in his system. That was what killed him instantly. For him to conceal the crime, he left the corpse in the man’s Toyota Voltron car, but later took the corpse to Ondo Road, Oluku, Edo State, and dumped the corpse there.

“When the Anti-Kidnapping Unit got notice of what happened, they mobilised and he was arrested in Osogbo, Osun State, with the deceased car.”

Adebowale, during the parade, said the victim’s death was not deliberate, adding, “I pray that the family find a place in their hearts to forgive me.”

Agbovinuere was said to have been survived by his wife, Mary, 27, and two children.

Meanwhile, the Osun State Police Command’s spokesperson, Yemisi Opalola, in a statement, confirmed Adebowale’s arrest.

Opalola said, “The suspect in the course of his stay in Benin after selling his car, injected his friend with a substance suspected to have killed him on September 03, 2022.

“He subsequently dumped his corpse in a nearby bush and took away his white Toyota Camry muscle. Luck, however, ran out on him when the vehicle driven by the suspect was intercepted by police operatives along Ejigbo/Ogbomoso Road. The police operatives were working on information from the Benin command.”

According to the National Hospital in Abuja, contrary to popular belief, it was the police who apprehended the phoney UN doctor posing as a humanitarian aid worker in the country.

Remember that one Obiako Chukwuemeka, who was impersonating a medical doctor working for the United Nations as a humanitarian aid worker, was allegedly identified by the National Hospital and taken to police, where he was immediately detained.
Confirming the arrest of the fake doctor, the National Hospital, through its Public Relations Officer, Dr Tayo Haastrup, stated that, contrary to reports, the fake medic was apprehended by police after his activities were discovered to be suspicious.

“No, it was actually the police that arrested him”, he said, promising to provide details of what transpired later.

It was gathered that the fake doctor told police upon arrest that he was working in partnership with the hospital.

The origin and age of the fake detained doctor are yet unknown.

“The National Hospital Abuja, handed over a fake doctor, one Obiako Chukwuemeka who disguised as a UN doctor on humanitarian aid, to the police at Central Police Station on Thursday.

“He is currently in our custody, and will soon be charged to court”, a newspaper had quoted a police source as saying.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) charged Olakunle Oluomo, Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, on Tuesday with allegedly diverting N2.5 billion from the Assembly.

The Clerk of the House, Taiwo Adeyemo, and the Director of Finance, Oladayo Samuel, were also arraigned alongside the Speaker.

They appeared in front of Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court in Lagos.

The EFCC accused Oluomo and others of forging receipts and signatures in order to divert large sums of money totaling billions of Naira.

They have pleaded not guilty to the 11-count charge that has been brought against them.

Meanwhile, the Speaker and others have been granted bail by the court.
Oluomo, who is the first defendant, was granted bail in the sum of N300 million, with two sureties in like sum.

One of the sureties, the court said, must be a Level-16 civil servant in the Federal Civil Service.

The other defendants were granted bail in the sum of N100 million each, with two sureties each in like sum, one of whom must not be less than a Level-14 officer in the civil service.

The court held that all the sureties must possess landed properties within the court’s jurisdiction, with evidence of three-year tax clearance, while swearing to an affidavit of means.

Oluomo and other defendants have been asked to submit their travel documents at the court registry.

Ogun State Police have apprehended three suspected kidnappers in a forest along the Imeko/Iwoye-Ketu road.

The trio, Aliu Abubakar (29), Umaru Tukur (24), and Yau Isah (25), were apprehended on August 29 during a police rescue operation.

The armed men, numbering around eight, had blocked the Termac/Iwoye road on that day and shot sporadically.

According to police, the hoodlums injured one Bode Ogunleye and Muhammad Basa while kidnapping Alhaji Fatai Abdulsalam, Alhaji Dauda Orelope, and Alhaji Rafiu Isah.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Ogun police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said upon the receipt of the distress call, the DPO of Imeko division had mobilized his men and those of the Amotekun corps, the So safe corps, hunters, vigilantes as well as Fulani/Yoruba youths and stormed the forest in search of the victims and their abductors.

“Due to the intense pressure, the kidnappers abandoned their victims and took to flight, leaving an unregistered Bajaj motorcycle behind at their hideout in the forest,” Oyeyemi said.

He explained that the victims were rescued unhurt, while the security operatives found three of the suspects where they were hiding in the forest.

“When they were searched, the key to the abandoned motorcycle at the scene of the kidnap was recovered in the pocket of one of them along with three cutlasses,” It was learnt.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, has ordered the transfer of the suspects to the anti-kidnapping section of the command’s CIID for discreet investigation.

A bus driver identified as Salvation Taylor Harry was gruesomely murdered while eight passengers were abducted in an attack on a commercial bus by deadly gunmen along Abonnema – Emohua- Kalabari road of Rivers State on Saturday night.

According to reports, the bus passengers had taken off from Mile One Park in Port Harcourt with the passenger on a trip to Buguma when the gunmen ambushed them.

The Chairman of Asari-Toru Local Government Area, Onengiyeofori George, confirmed the attack on the bus, the killing of the driver, as well as the abduction of the passengers.

In a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr John Paul Braide, on Sunday in Buguma City, the local government Council boss charged the Police to safeguard the Abonnema – Emohua- Kalabari road, the only route to Kalabari land.

Onengiyeofori George, who condemned the kidnapping incident on Saturday night, sympathized with the bereaved family of the driver over their loss.

He also ordered the closure of Buguma motor park after 6pm daily, warning all motorists and drivers alike to desist forthwith from endangering the lives of the people of Asari-Toru local government area by continuing to ply the route after the closure of the park.
He further advised passengers and all residents of Asari-Toru to be conscious of their personal safety by avoiding night traveling until security on the road is improved.

Motorists alleged that the Policemen manning the few checkpoints on the road were only interested in the money they collect from taxi drivers and illegal refiners of petroleum products.

The Chairmen of Emohua, Akuku-Toru, Asari-Toru and Degema, the four local government linked by the road had many times in the past promised to ensure improved security on the highway.

They made the same promise after soldiers were withdrawn following the killing of some of them in checkpoints by gunmen last year.

But the youths of Kalabari ethnic nationality said the chairmen are not doing enough to curb kidnapping along the Emohua/Kalabari road.

They noted that expressway is the only motorable road leading to the three Kalabari Local Government Areas veering off from Emohua.
Kalabari Clan Chairman of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Comrade Edward Asiki-Tams told journalists that the youths of the region are ready to provide lasting security on the road in synergy with the Nigeria security operatives.

“Our challenge is lack of commitment on the part of the Chairmen to provide us with the needed tools and logistics to secure that road.

“If we man that road, no person born of a woman can kidnap, rob or commit crimes on that road.”

The IYC chairman also advised politicians in the affected LGAs to empower the youths so as to bring them out of the creeks.

“No job creation, skill acquisition programmes nor any meaningful engagement for the youths. The youths are hungry and as a result prefer to remain in the creeks.

“Though hunger can not justify crime, but if they get empowerment from the politicians, philanthropistts and business moguls in our area, a lot of them will leave the creeks and that will help to reduce the crime rate,” he said.

While calling on the kidnappers to immediately release their victims unconditionally and forthwith desist from perpetrating such barbaric and criminal act.

He noted that upsurge in kidnapping can also reduce the Kalabari voting strength if it’s not promptly and holistically addressed before 2023.

“This consistent kidnap incident mainly on the Emohua-Kalabari road will cause political fear mongering that will lead to poor participation in the ongoing INEC continuous voters registration exercise which may possibly reduce our voting strength.

“In every responsible clime, security has always been citizens duty, therefore let us give maximum support and cooperation to governments at all level devoid of political colouration, acrimony and ethnocentrism in making our environment a safe heaven, he added.

The Rivers State Police Command through its Spokesperson, SP Grace Iringe-Koko, confirmed the incident.

She assured that the adequate security has been mobilized to the road to forestall future occurrence.