Woman's Younger Brother & His Friends Stab Husband To Death

A 23-year-old woman, Blessing Ede's younger brother and his friends stabbed her husband to death following an argument over baby-walker.

Trouble started last year December, when after an argument, the deceased, Mr. Isaac Ede, 36 asked his wife to go and stay with her parents in Uvuru, Imo State and should remain there until he sent for her to return to their home in Port Harcourt.

Daily Sun reports that he did not contact her until April, 2014 when he called her on phone to come back and pack her things out of his house.

In May, the woman returned to Port Harcourt to do her husband's bidding. On that fateful day at about 11p.m, she came to the house with her younger brother, Emmanuel Anuforo and two of his friends to pack her belongings out of her husband's house.

As she was packing her things, she wanted to take along the baby-walker and an argument ensued between the couple. In the heat of the argument, her younger brother and his two friends descended on the husband and stabbed him with a sharp broken bottle and he died.

Emmanuel and his friend were said to have fled the scene, leaving his sister behind. She was alter arrested by the by policemen from the State Criminal Investigation Department of the Rivers State Police Command as neighbours raised the alarm.

During interrogation, Blessing admitted having an argument with her husband but said she didn not send her brother and his friends to kill him.

"I didn’t send my brother Emmanuel and his two friends to kill my husband. It was the devil. We have been married for two years. I have one child for him and right now I am six months pregnant. I cannot explain what led to the death of my husband. It was impatience that led to it. I want the family of my husband to forgive me for what I have done. With my six months pregnancy I will suffer if I am sent to prison for murder," she said.

The Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Tunde Ogunsakin said, based on the findings of detectives investigating the matter, the wife was a troublemaker.

OMG! How pupils in Oyo community school are forced to drink cattle urine

In Opoo, a remote community at the outskirts of Okaka in Itesiwaju Local Government Area of Oyo State, life is a different mix for Abiola Bankole and her two little siblings – Yemi and Ibukun.

Their school, Community Primary School Opoo, boasts only three classrooms with no basic facilities to support any meaningful academic exercise. Two out of the three classrooms have their roof completely blown off by the wind while the only surviving one shared by the entire school of about 150 pupils is half way from finally caving.

More than half of the schools population wear mufti to classes because their parents cannot afford uniforms. Many of the children carry their books to school in sacks or with their bare hands.

 Not only that, pupils drink water mixed with cattle urine and faeces as the only source of water in community is shared by both animals and human begins.

 For the three siblings and dozens of their little colleagues in this tiny agrarian community, there is nothing to dream about in the future.

 The harsh environment they live in and the terrible condition under which they learn at this dilapidated school building rob them of the frills that come along with formative years.

“We have encountered a lot of problems in this place especially on the bad condition of the school,” Ojelabi David Abioye, headmaster of the school, explained to our correspondent. “We have taken a lot of pictures to the local government and written several letters yet nothing has been done about this. They have promised us several times to do something about the situation but it is still the same.

“Last week, we were also at the local government office to complain to them because there is almost nowhere left for the pupils to learn. The only classroom the entire school is managing at the moment is gradually being taken over by termites and other dangerous animals that are destroying the entire building and the little furniture in it. Whenever there is heavy wind and storm, we can’t stay in the classroom because the remaining roof might collapse on us,” he said.

Abioye, who became head-teacher of the school about 17 years ago, told Saturday PUNCH that the present situation is making learning almost impossible for the children of Opoo and surrounding settlements who are serviced only by the school.

Giving an insight into how bad things really are, Abioye revealed that himself and one other teacher, Julius Solola, are the only ones teaching the entire school of around 150 pupils because government has refused to post in more hands to assist them. The workload, he says, is neck-breaking.

“Government has not employed teachers for a long time and that is why the situation is very bad at the moment. The other teacher (Solola) joined me here nine years ago and we have been doing the job of about 10 people alone. We used to be three here but one person was transferred to another school outside this locality.

“Personally, I have lodged several complaints at the local government office but all they tell me is that the government has not taken a stand on our case, that until that is done, nothing will happen.

“This is really affecting the pupils because the environment is not conducive for any form of learning. In fact, most times we have to bring out benches and desks for some pupils to be taught under a tree outside the school building while the others manage to learn in the only classroom. There is no library or any modern equipment with which to teach the pupils.

“Once it starts raining, we ask all the children to go home because the roof is very bad. For that day, that will be the end of studies,” he said.

The size of each of the classroom is only a few yards larger than the space inside most commercial buses in Lagos and other major Nigerian cities, our correspondent observed during the visit. Pupils squeeze themselves into less than 15 desks in the only surviving classroom while several others watch the teacher from the corridor, leaving a sizable number to sit on the bare floor under the orange tree outside the school building, waiting for their turns to be taught in the classroom.

While teaching was going on, two pupils from Basic One engaged in a scuffle, attracting the attention of the headmaster who whipped them lightly for distracting the rest of the class. Shortly, pupils from Basic One and Two who had been sharing the only one class at the same time were asked to move out for their seniors in Basic Five to come in for their turn. On other days, the three categories are taught at the same time crammed into different rows inside the same classroom.

The commotion of having at least 100 pupils in this tiny room at the same time on such days can best be imagined. Screaming, crying and distraction of all forms are always the situation. The pupils can hardly concentrate in a classroom whose temperature is far below normal, leaving many of them drenched in sweat while the two teachers attend to them the best way they can.

Following the jam-packed nature of the class when Saturday PUNCH correspondent visited, many of the pupils looked worn out and very stressed by the time they came out of the classroom. The situation is not peculiar to this particular day; it is a familiar scenario which now threatens the academic and wellbeing of the young pupils.

Also, the once vibrant and well-stocked health centre established only in 2007 now lays prostrate. Overgrown by weeds and taken over by insects and dangerous reptiles, it is a pale shadow of its former self. Expectant mothers on the verge of delivery are either rushed to hospital on motorcycle, if it’s available, or escorted on foot to the nearest town seven kilometers away. Some mothers have not been able to survive this tough test, community leaders told Saturday PUNCH. The babies had come too quickly along the bumpy and narrow road leading into the settlement just before their mothers got to the nearest hospital or received any medical help.

It is a similar experience for sick indigenes of the area that have mostly relied on local herbal concoctions or had to make the long trip outside Opoo to get medical help.

“One of our pregnant women almost died recently while we were taking her to the hospital in the next town,” Orimatanmi Aderounmu, head of Opoo community told our correspondent. “It was late in the evening and we could not get a motorcycle on time to rush her down, so she delivered along the road. Thank God one of our women had little experience in this aspect; she was the one who assisted in the delivery of the child before a nurse came in the following day to look at her and the child.

“We are really suffering. The lack of a functional health centre or hospital is really affecting us. Whatever happens to us here, we have to go all the way to Okaka to get medical attention.

“Personally I have been to the local government office several times to let them know what we are passing through but nobody seems concerned with our situation. I let them know that we are too many in this settlement not to have a good health facility with drugs and doctors to attend to our medical needs. But nobody is ready to listen to our cries.

“The health centre we have here has been closed down since last October. Before that time, the doctor and other medical staff used to be on ground on regular basis and the hospital was regularly supplied with drugs. But since that time, we have been left to suffer,” he said.

Chronic typhoid fever, constant stomach upset and rheumatism are among the major sicknesses prevalent here. But the lack of potable water in the entire community now leaves many residents and especially children at the mercy of an even more dangerous disease. They are at risk of cholera and an epidemic outbreak.

Opoo’s only water source is a shallow hole that springs forth dirty water. It is shared by both humans and cattle. The pupils wait for cattles to drink, urinate and pass out their faces before they take same water to drink. When our correspondent visited the site, Fulani women were seen washing dirty clothes directly into the water source just moments before children from the settlement arrived to fetch water. It is a practice that has gone on for a long time but now puts many households in this locality in grave danger.

“If you see the water we drink, then you will understand why there are so many sicknesses in this community,” Aderounmu cuts in. “We are suffering from typhoid and many of the children are always complaining of stomach pains.

“The Fulanis take their cattles to the only source of water we are managing to drink here. In the process, the cattles urinate and defecate inside the water. But because we don’t have a choice, we wait for them to finish before fetching water from the place. The water is not good at all but since government has refused to help us, we have to keep managing it like that.”

Like many tiny agrarian communities tucked away in remote parts of the country, Opoo and neighbouring settlements are yet to taste electricity supply. The people rely on a few transistor radios for latest information in the country. Mobile phones are mostly out of reach as a result of drained batteries.

“Only one person has generator in this place. It is only when he has petrol to put it on that we can charge our phones, if not we give anybody going to Okaka to charge for us. This is how we have been surviving over the years,” Aderounmu told our correspondent.

Indeed, life in this tiny Oyo settlement is a mix of pains, sufferings and neglect. It is a case of flagrant deprivation in the face of crushing and widespread poverty. Predominantly farmers with little or no education, many adults have grown up the hard and tortuous way.

 The community’s only school established in 1997 to connect their children to a world of limitless opportunities which education offers is now a thin line away from total collapse while the hospital in the centre of the town is a distant contrast from what it used to be. Unless relevant authorities and corporate organisations quickly rise to the occasion, little children like Abiola and Yemi might watch their dreams fizzle into thin air while sick residents could be swallowed by an impending epidemic hovering upon Opoo.

Fresh conflict looms in Lagos university hospital

                                Doctors may down tools again.

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The Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, doctors may down their work tools in the coming week.

The resident doctors just resumed from an almost one month industrial action embarked upon by both the Association of Resident Doctors, ARD,
as well as the Joint Health Sector Unions, JOHESU, (Luth Chapter).

They had been protesting poor infrastructure, inadequate man power, poor welfare, poor working environment, unnecessary hike in the amount spent by patients for simple procedures and operations and haphazard residency training programme.

The workers returned to work last Thursday after some of their grievances, including reduction of the amount paid for admission and surgery down to 50 percent, were addressed.

However, doctors in LUTH have informed PREMIUM TIMES of the likelihood of yet another showdown with the management.

The source said the health workers may commence another strike in the coming week after the Chief Medical Advisory Committee, CMAC, Chris Bode, refused to sign up many of the resident doctors planning to sit for the forthcoming West Africa Postgraduate College Examinations.

This means the careers of the doctors will be negatively impacted.

Mr. Bode had been at the centre of a controversial appointment letter, which was issued to newly appointed resident doctors, meant to send them out of training immediately after passing their Part 1 instead of the usual Part 2 examination.

But for the intervention of the Minister of Health following a protest by ARD and the National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD, the letter was withdrawn.

This did not go down well with the CMAC who sources say vowed to deal with the resident doctors.
To carry out his threat, Mr. Bode refused to sign up many of the resident doctors planning to sit for the forthcoming West Africa

Postgraduate College Examinations that has a June 30 deadline.

Sources say Mr. Bode did not mince words and cited the protest and strike by the resident doctors as his reason. He remained adamant even after the intervention of the association’s president, Olubunmi Omojowolo.

“By refusing to sign these resident doctors for the examination, it simply means the management is going against its promise not to victimize any doctor on account of partaking in an industrial action and this may spell doom for the CMAC whose appointment has been characterized by a lot of controversy,” a senior doctor with LUTH stated under anonymity.

“In the current situation where there are very few specialist doctors in the country to cater for a teeming population, efforts should be geared towards increasing their number, otherwise the era of going abroad for medical care termed medical tourism which is seriously draining the national GDP may never become a thing of the past.

“Therefore, any action that will mitigate against achieving the goal of improving our health sector through increment in the number of Specialist doctors should be condemned by all well meaning Nigerians” a resident doctor who simply described himself as Dr. Obi said. He refused to give his full name for fear of being victimized by the LUTH management,” the doctor said.

Efforts to contact the CMAC or the Public Relations Officer, PRO, of the Institution, Hope Nwawolor, were futile.

The both refused to pick their calls and would not respond to text messages sent to their phones.
Also, the Chief Medical Doctor, CMD, of the institution, Akin Osibogun, coul not be reached.

INVESTIGATION: Massacre in Gboko: Soldiers at Dangote’s factory kill 7; company, govt. abandon victims’ families

                     Mothers wailed uncontrollably during the burial of the victims.

A tale of blood and murder in a Benue community. There is no justice from  government or compensation from Africa’s richest man whose business is linked to the crime.

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For 19-year-old Terhile Jirbo, it was another answer to the call of nature. But when gunfire rang out that afternoon of March 18, what seemed a harmless routine would leave a fatal scar on him and his community in Gboko, a major town in the North-central state of Benue.

Members of Mbayion community in Gboko had responded after a soldier shot Mr. Jirbo for emptying his bowel near the Gboko Cement factory, the second most lucrative cement factory belonging to Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote. The attacker was one of two-dozen troops securing the multibillion-dollar factory.

In protest of the shooting, the community members marched outside the factory, and for hours, they asked for justice.

But as they hurled insults at the soldiers, asking them to leave the community, the troops responded with gunfire, according to state officials, witnesses, and community leaders.

Shot on the leg, one woman laid bloodied on the ground, and tried to crawl to safety. Then, a soldier closed up on her, pointed his rifle directly at her head and blasted, a witness said.

The woman’s brain matter splattered on another bullet-ridden victim, a man feigning death next to her. That man survived the attack even after a bullet ripped open his abdomen, spilling out his intestines.

When the shooting and the confusion subsided over three hours later, the death toll stood at seven – one woman, six men.

The victims – aged 36 and below – were all shot dead by troops of the Nigerian army, survivors and community members said.

By chance or fate, Mr. Jirbo, the teenager whose shooting by a soldier ignited the fracas, survived the attack. But he would be deformed for life, his mouth disfigured and emptied of almost all teeth in the upper region. A member of the more than two-dozen military team guarding the multibillion-dollar Gboko cement factory shot him in the mouth.

His offence: relieving himself near the Dangote factory complex, and refusing to pack the waste with his mouth when ordered to do so by the soldier.

In the outburst of violence that followed, the soldiers shot dead Doose Ornguze, 19, female; Luper Nongo Igber, 20, male; Timothy Terngu Mase, 21, male; Myom Mbaume, 25, male; Aondoyima Tyokase, 26, male; Iornenge Anum, 35, male and Aondoakura Tseeneke, 36, male.

Bodies of victims of the shooting in a hospital in Markurdi shortly before burial.

They were killed in violation of their rights to life and human dignity as enshrined in Chapter Four of the Nigerian Constitution.

Eight others were seriously wounded in the attack, among them Thomas Igber, Sesugh Nongo, and Joseph Akpa Yaji.

Months of investigation by PREMIUM TIMES has shed light into a deadly violation of human rights perpetrated by state forces at a time Nigeria faces international scrutiny over human rights abuses in its war against suspected Boko Haram militants.

Community leaders spoke of how the Dangote group and the federal government brushed aside the killings, offered no assistance to the families of those killed or wounded by the troops. The government, also, has yet to punish or publicly identify those responsible for the massacre in the town.

While the military and the Dangote group confirmed the attack and the killings to PREMIUM TIMES, both have failed to impress the community on the steps they took to show sympathy, offer compensation to bereaved families or even help bury the dead.

Four months after the killings, that situation has remained the same despite repeated petitions by the community to the highest civilian and military authorities, including President Goodluck Jonathan, Senate President David Mark (an indigene of Benue State), and defence minister, Aliyu Gusau.

The Dangote group said it has reached out to the community since the killings, but did not state exactly what help it offered, and whether or not the offer was accepted.

But Sebastian Hon, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and an indigene of the community punctured that claim. “We wrote to Dangote about the killing of our youth since March but he has not found it expedient to reply the letter,” Mr. Hon said. “He never offered any assistance towards the treatment of the youth who sustained gunshot injuries or contribute to the burial of the seven youth who were killed.”

The community said it decided to bear the cost of autopsy on the victims, their embalmment and burial on behalf of the affected families, after help failed to come from the company whose guards killed them.

Army officials and witnesses said after the shooting of Mr. Jirbo – the man wounded in the mouth – the commander of the army unit on duty rounded up the soldier who shot him, disarmed him, seized his belt and beret and secured him in a guard room.

The army would not say what has happened to the soldier, or other soldiers who later opened fire on protesters, killing seven.

A spokesperson for the army, Olajide Olaleye, a Brigadier General, told PREMIUM TIMES investigations into the incident “are continuing”.

Faeces of Death
The first gunshot that day was fired at about 1p.m., witnesses and Mr. Jirbo, who survived the shooting, said.

Mr. Jirbo had walked into the popular BCC Layout for a haircut. The layout is named after the factory’s former name, Benue Cement Company, before its acquisition by Mr. Dangote.

Daily, hundreds of trucks wait at the bay area to convey processed cement to other parts of Nigeria. In queues snaking into a long distance, the truck drivers wait for their turns, sometimes for days.
That time lag provides a bustling neighbourhood life of sorts, which allows locals make brisk business selling everything from food to drinks to bush meat.

There are bars and shops and salons around the area, and in some parts, young men play snooker. Sometimes, they play against the military guards, with whom they also share drinks occasionally.

But despite the heavy human and vehicular activities in the vicinity, the government failed to provide basic facilities such as toilets in the area, which sits just by the Dangote cement factory.

The area is overgrown with tall weeds and marked by broken walls of what used to be a perimeter wall separating the cement factory from Mbayion community. When pressed to ease themselves, locals and drivers use nearby bushes.

Mr. Jirbo recalled playing snooker with a popular soldier among the guards, known by his nickname 13-13, that March morning. After the game, he stopped at one of the salons for a haircut, and headed for the bush afterwards to relieve himself.

He was tidying himself up to leave when a soldier manning one of the security posts inside the expansive factory accosted him, and challenged him for defecating in the area, Mr. Jirbo said.

He argued that the space was not part of Dangote’s property, and besides, it was a common practice for people within the layout to clear their bowels there.

That explanation failed to impress the soldier who barked orders at the teenager, asking him to pack the waste with his mouth and threatened to shoot if he failed. Mr. Jirbo said he pleaded and asked to use his hands.

Jirbo after surgeries.

The situation degenerated in seconds, and the soldier pointed his rifle at Mr. Jirbo’s mouth while ordering him to act fast or risk being shot, the survivor recalled.

Mr. Jirbo failed to comply, and the price was horrific. The bullet tore his mouth open, ripped it of almost all teeth and threw him to the ground. He managed to spring back to his feet, and then ran into the community where he collapsed.

“The soldier was inside the security post at the trailer park,” he narrated to PREMIUM TIMES. “I saw two soldiers but it was one of them that shot at me.” His account of the incident was corroborated by other witnesses.

On a recent visit to Mbayion months after the attack, he sat on a wooden chair, his face contorted as he struggled to answer our reporter’s questions with his now severely stitched mouth. He sounded furious as he spoke.

Jirbo before the attack.

Midway into the interview, Mr. Jirbo’s uncle fetched the boy’s picture before the attack. The difference was clear and heart wrenching.

A stocky young man, he lost his two parents in 2012. Since their deaths, he has lived with an uncle, Moses Garba, and worked as a loader at the Gboko Timber Market.

The attack on Mr. Jirbo would unleash horror on the laid back Mbayion community.

Hurls of abuses, hail of bullets
As news of the shooting spread within the community, angry youth gathered for a protest.
For them, the attack was one too many from soldiers they accused of everything – from incessant harassment of residents to snatching of their girlfriends.

In a short time, dozens of youth swarmed the trailer park, where for hours, they cursed the soldiers, taunted them and their families, asked for justice and demanded they leave the town, witnesses said.

As the number of protesters grew, the demand became even more forceful, with some youth asking that the trigger-happy soldier be handed over to the community in addition to the troops leaving the area.

“The youths didn’t throw even a stone or stick. They were simply insulting the soldiers and asking them to leave the community,” said Yaji Gaav, an indigene of the community who arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting.

Mr. Gaav contested the claim that where Mr. Jirbo used as toilet was part of the Dangote property.
“The impression people who have not been there have is that the place in question is a fenced area within the company. Of course, that is not true. It is an open place. People go in and out of the place without hindrance and people even go there to defecate,” he said.

PREMIUM TIMES visited the scene. It did not fall within the Dangote complex, and clearly bore the filthy markings of a site routinely used as public toilet.

The siege by the youth on the property continued even after the commander of the military unit, an officer identified as Prince, arranged for the injured man to be taken to Penuel Hospital in Gboko, where he was treated.

To forestall a breakdown of order, Prince summoned the Mbayion community youth leader, Iorwuese Chamegh, and explained to him that a soldier had “mistakenly” shot a teenager, and requested that he helped pacify the protesters.

“When I got there, he (Prince) told me that a soldier made a mistake by shooting a boy in the mouth. As we were talking, our youths were shouting and asking the soldiers to go. The youths neither threw stones nor sticks at the soldiers. It was just verbal attacks,” Mr. Chamegh said.

“They were defenceless; there was no aggression on their part. Even if there was aggression, they were not armed and we begin to wonder why soldiers should be sent to guard private premises when there is no war,” said Sebastine Hon, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, an indigene of the community.

But what followed just as the commander and the youth leader spoke, shook the small town and left blood on its streets.

Mr. Chamegh said as he tried to pacify the youth who had thronged the area, the military commander asked him to leave immediately.

He turned to leave, then gunfire rang out.

“I heard gunshots and saw somebody falling down at my back. I started running. I am not sure Prince (military commander) was involved in the shooting because he was leaving the place on a motorbike just as the shooting started,” he said.

Witnesses say the military, not able to stomach the taunts, went berserk not long after the gunshot victim was taken to hospital, and started shooting at the youth and pursuing them into the community.

It was unclear who ordered the shootings. There is no evidence that the Dangote Cement Company did. But PREMIUM TIMES confirmed that the rampaging troops blocked the Gboko/Makurdi highway and advanced deep into the surrounding communities, chasing fleeing demonstrators and shooting at them.

Joseph Akpa Yaji, 24, who witnessed the incident, was shot in the back as he tried to help the only woman killed in the attack. The bullet penetrated his back and exited from the stomach, spilling his intestines out. As he lay on the ground next to the girl he attempted to save.

He played dead to survive.
“I pretended as if I was dead while the girl was still struggling to get up and run away.”

Then a soldier walked close to the two, apparently attracted by the girl’s attempt to crawl to safety, and fired shots point blank into her head, Mr. Yaji said.

“The girl’s brain and blood covered my body and the soldier, who might have thought I was dead, left the place,” he said, his face contorted in anger and grief.

The military would not give details of what happened or how it happened beyond saying that investigations were ongoing.

The police also said investigations were continuing in cooperation with the military.

The body of the slain protesters remained in the open until the evening of that day when the Chairman of Gboko local government council, Nathan Zenda, and other leaders of the town, walked round the town collecting bodies of those killed.

In addition to that of the woman, six more bodies of young men were retrieved. The remains were transferred to the University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi, for autopsy and embalmment.

An outraged paramount ruler of Gboko, Gabriel Shosum, the Ter Gboko II, told PREMIUM TIMES the killings were “one of the highest level of provocations” against the people of his kingdom.

History of Distrust
The former Benue Cement Company, [BCC], originally partly owned by the Nigerian government and the Benue State government, was bought by Aliko Dangote in 2004 under the government’s privatisation programme.

At more than three million tons of cement output yearly, the Gboko factory is only second to the Obajana plant in Kogi State – key contributors to Mr. Dangote’s lightning wealth rise that has seen him become Africa’s richest man, worth $24 billion.

The Dangote Cement Plc is Nigeria’s largest cement manufacturer with ambitious plans to expand into 14 other African countries. Dangote Cement is the largest company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, having listed its shares in October 2010.

The company insists it has done well for its host community.

“For that community, we have done so much,” Anthony Chiejina, a spokesperson for the Dangote Group, told PREMIUM TIMES. “If you check, just last month, the group reached out to displaced persons in the state. The governor was there and everybody attended. We gave items worth more than N45 million to the community. We went with 15 truck load of relief items.”

The company also listed a N10 million scholarships provided to indigenes of the area, and the provision of a clinic as some of its corporate social responsibility projects.

But the community insists the company was is not doing enough. Locals say accessing the scholarship has remained frustrating, and question why the victims of the attack were taken elsewhere if the medical facility in the community was functional.

“If a company is situated in a community, there are some amenities the people are supposed to enjoy. Gboko community is not enjoying anything from Dangote,” said Mr. Shosum, the paramount ruler of the area.

For years, those concerns bred tension between the Dangote firm and the community. That anger exploded in 2011 when locals pushed for improved opportunities, a re-enactment of the frequent friction in the Niger Delta between host communities and oil multinationals.

As trouble flared that year following the killing of a local, allegedly by a cement truck, anti-riot police and soldiers were deployed to the community to keep the peace. The soldiers would stay permanently eventually.

Some community members wondered why soldiers, instead of police officers, were drafted to guard a private property.

The spokesperson for the Nigeria Army, Brigadier General Olaleye, said as Africa’s richest and the biggest private sector employer of labour in the country, the Nigerian government has a duty to keep Mr. Dangote’s businesses safe, when threatened.

“Once an area has been labelled a high risk area, whether it is public, private or otherwise, it is our duty to provide adequate security. Internal security is our business,” Mr. Olaleye said.

“For instance, churches, schools and other organizations that are not owned by the government are being guarded by the military now. Is there any state where Nigerian soldiers are not deployed now?” he said.

Convoy of seven coffins
After a long wait and police procedures, on May 9, exactly 41 days after the murders, heartbroken Mbayion people set out for Makurdi, the Benue State capital, to receive the bodies for burial.

Local leaders and the community’s own brightest, including the SAN, Mr. Hon, and retired service men, set out to Makurdi for a trip that would return seven coffins home.

After identification by family members, the wooden caskets were lined outside the morgue at 3.45p.m and set for the journey from Makurdi to Gboko, about 73 kilometres.

Relatives wailed and sobbed. Women cried and wiped their soggy eyes with the tips of their wrappers.

The woman who was shot in the head that day was the only female killed in the attack.

Doose was the only woman killed in the attack. A soldier shot her point blank in the head.

Since losing her parents years back, 19-year-old Doose Ornguze, a resident of Tsekucha, near Mbayion, had managed to provide parental cover to her two younger siblings, drawing support from her yam trade, a thriving business in Benue State.

Against all odds, she kept herself and siblings in school and maintained a small house their parents left behind. One of the two siblings, Samuel, was in Port Harcourt when he was told that Doose had been shot and killed.

“My sister suffered so much to provide for me and my younger sister,” he lamented.

After due examination attended by half a dozen pathologists, the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi, confirmed the seven victims died of gunshots.

But its verdict of what happened to Ms. Ornguze turned out most ghastly.

The hospital identified the following as the cause of death: “Blunt force trauma to the left aspect of the skull with comminute skull fracture and extensive brain laceration, bone and brain tissue loss. Caused by a very fast moving object like a bullet shot from a fairly close range”.

The mechanism of death was found to be: “Brain laceration with extensive brain loss”.

Zungwenen Mase, the father of one of the victims said his son, a truck driver, went to the parking bay to retrieve his trailer when a bullet caught him. He said his only demand was for Dangote to leave Gboko.

“My son was innocent. My son didn’t commit any crime. Why Dangote? Why would you kill my son?” Mr. Mase queried.

But it was the sight of a mother, who convulsed and twisted in angst as she watched the coffin of her son brought out of the morgue, that threw the crowd into fits of sobs and tears.

Memshima Nongo is the mother of 20-year-old Lupe Nongo Igber, who was also killed. Mrs. Nongo said her complaint was appropriately laid to the community and she hoped the authorities would act.
“Lupe why have you decided to go now? Who will close my eyes when I die? Please God; don’t allow the death of my innocent child to go unpunished,” she wailed continuously.

Also an indigene of Tsekucha, in Mbayion, Mr. Igber was also unable to complete secondary education. He trained as truck driver, like many who ferry cement from Dangote’s factory. It was a living that supported Mr. Igber, his wife, a child, mother, brothers and sisters.

The first truck driver whose father wanted Dangote out of town, was Timothy Terngu Mase, 21, male. He was an indigene of Tse Shie, Mbagar, Mbayion. As a driver, he served with a private company in Obajana, Kogi State, where Mr. Dangote has another cement plant.

He was home on a visit to his family when the troops invaded his community.

Mr. Mase’s dream was building a truck-driving school in Gboko to enable indigent youths acquire the skill which had made him self-reliant. When the bullets flew in his town, he was hit in the heart.
Myom Mbaume, 25, male, was also killed.

A small scale grower of yam, millet, guinea corn and maize, from Tsekucha, he left behind a wife, two children, a mother and five siblings. His devastating family said they needed nothing but justice for his killers.

In the fourth coffin was Aondoyima Tyokase, 26, male from Tombo, Mbatsaase Tse-Orban in Buruku Local Government Area also of Benue State.

Without an education, he trained as a barber and opened a shop near Dangote Cement factory.

Popularly known as Chief Barber, it was Mr. Tyokase who barbed most of the guards at Mr.

Dangote’s expansive plant. When troops came calling with their bullets, that familiarity did not help.
Iornenge Anum, 35, male, an indigene of Igber, Tsekucha, was next. He was a carpenter and his workshop was located near the cement factory. Mr. Anum left behind a wife and three daughters, all in primary school.

Then there was Aondoakura Tseeneke, a 36-year-old man and the oldest of those killed. He had three wives and five children. He was an indigene of Tse Hon, Mbawav, Mbayion in Gboko Local Government Area. Mr. Tseeneke sold retailed cooking gas at a shop near Dangote Cement Company. The rampaging soldiers shot him in front of his house, witnesses said.

The University Teaching Hospital confirmed all died of gunshots.

Loaded one atop another on a Dyna mini-truck, the bodies left Makurdi at about 4.00 p.m. for Gboko.
After a two-hour drive, the delegation arrived. And one after the other, the community leaders returned the corpses of the slain youth to their families.

As the coffins were offloaded from the truck, wails and cries rented the air. The community leaders advised that each family conduct private burials to keep the tension down. The crowd called for justice.

Fading justice
Since the shooting, the community has made no progress in its search for justice, leaving a lasting outrage among residents.

The community said it wrote letters to President Goodluck Jonathan; Mr. Dangote; the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar; the National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, among others, seeking redress.

No reply came at the time of this report.

Police spokesperson for Benue State, confirmed the attacks, but said investigations were ongoing.
“As it is now, the investigation is still on. We are liaising with the military to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book. I can assure you that whoever committed any crime will be brought to justice,” said Daniel Ezeala, of the Benue State Police Command.

The National Human Rights Commission said its investigation was ongoing as well, and would be made public once ready.

Anthony Chiejina, a spokesperson for Dangote Group, however told PREMIUM TIMES the company was in discussions with the community.

He denied the company failed to respond appropriately to the tragedy.

“Who is telling you that? Mr. Chiejina asked. “We have been having rapprochement with the community. We cannot sweep the matter under the carpet because lives were involved and being a responsible company, there is no way we would deny that lives were not lost.”

He added: “Anybody telling you that nothing has been done is unfair. Lives were involved and even if it was one person, it is life and has to be taken very seriously.”

That claim was rejected by the paramount ruler of Gboko.

“We have not received any response to our letters to Mr. Dangote or any of these people,” Mr. Shosum said.

On Mr. Chiejina’s claim that Mr. Dangote has done so much for the people of the area, the paramount ruler said, “I have never seen it. In fact, there is no clean water for residents of the factory environs.

 There is no hospital there. There is absolutely nothing there.”

Building Collapse In Lagos Kills One, Leaves Five Injured

A building collapse claimed a life of one of the builders leaving several injured at Okegbo village in Ikorodu, Lagos, yesterday, June 24.

It was gathered that earlier the building was used as a poultry farm until its unnamed owner took a crucial decision to construct a multi-storey building on it. The incident occurred when six construction workers were working on the decking when it suddenly fell dragging them along.

Three of them Olaoluwa Olayinka, Mubarak and Yaya have been trapped under the debris. Unfortunately Olayinka passed away while two other workers were rescued. Shagamu road division police officers, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency and the Lagos State Fire Service officials were seen at the scene of the accident.

A food seller and a witness of a tragedy, Toyin Alabi, who escaped the death narrated: “I went to the building site to sell amala to the workers. But for Yinka, I would have been dead by now. He was the last person to buy food. While I was waiting for them to finish eating so as to take my plates get paid, he angrily told me not to hasten him, that I should come back for my plate and money. I left angrily. But barely had I stepped down than the building collapsed. Had I stayed back, perhaps, I would have been dead by now or be among those in the hospital.”

Functional Social Networking for Nigerian journalists, Abuja – LIVE UPDATES

The United Bank for Africa, Everything Journalism, and The Journalism Clinic are hosting the Abuja edition of its one-day social media summit for journalists — ‘Functional Social Networking for Nigerian journalists’.

The summit aims at boosting the capacity of Nigerian journalists to maximize the use of social media for news gathering, building online communities, and engaging with their audiences.

A team of speakers – media professionals and scholars -will attempt to answer four questions during the summit: Does One Platform Suit All? What Does It Profit Us? What Can You Teach Me About Social Media? And Ethics: Why It Matters in Social Networking?
 
We are serving you live updates as the event unfolds.

Liveblog

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13.03

The Nation Newspaper Online Strategy

Mr. Otufodurin said the content going to website is different from the one going to the print content.
He said the online Editor is in charge of Headlines, Captions, comments, photographs, facebook, twitter etc.

He said Any Senior Editorial staff that is computer literate and digital savvy can be online editor. He however said only interested not frustrated Senior staff should be posted.

He said not many senior level or even middle level traditional journalists fit this role. Online Editors must think Global and write as such on their stories.

He also said Online Editors should be Online friendly. He said stories should be edited to catch the attention of the average reader.

Headlines, he said should also tell the story because not many people eventually read the full story."Apply inverted pyramid style as much as possible" he said.

He also said online Editors should be as brief as possible and vary content presentations.
He said beyond breaking news related content should be generated. Online Editors must think outside the box for story ideas, he said.

He advised that links specially related to stories should be included in stories and Hashtags of trending topics should also be followed diligently.

He said online editing is about speed and accuracy." When in doubt, check out and hold on until you are sure" he said.

He said Online Editor is not a one man department and must be adequately staffed.

12.49
Online Editing: Tips, Tools and Take-Aways By Lekan Otufodurin, Managing Editor, Online, The Nation Mr. Otufodurin advised Journalists in Nigeria to overlook the prevailing challenges they face and make progress. He also advised Journalists to be functionally active in the Social Media because it is also a channel for professional progress. "If you apply for a fellowship today, they will ask for your Social Media Accounts, if you don't have, they will not consider you," he said. He said an online editor is in charge of editing the web line content of a typical media organization. "we are in age now in which the competition is not between The Punch and Vanguard but with medium such as Premium Times, the Cable and SharaReporters,"He said.

 

12.44
Many participants complained about the quality of Internet service in Nigeria as an inhibition to Journalism.

Tony Ochogbo, the Director Public Affairs at NCC, responded as at April this year, Nigeria had 129.3 million active lines, 63 on the internet, number 10 in the world and 1 in Africa.

He said progress has been made and that telecom is an ecosystem that has power as a critical factor. He said spectrum level cannot be expected to operate at 100% when power is not always available.
He said most of the products highlighted by UBA this morning would not have been possible just three years ago.

He said all ATM's that people go to withdraw money from use telephone lines and all the bill payments made from the comfort of people's houses is as a result of progress made in the telecom industry.

He said no service provider got the approval to set up a base station in Abuja in the last two years.
He said the NCC has recently advertised for Infrastructure companies to come on stream to provide the necessary infrastructure for telecom companies.

 

12.30

Crowdsourcing: What an Investigative Journalist can do with it by Yemi Adamolekun, Executive Director, Enough Is Enough.

Ms. Adamolekun began by giving EIE's experience in crowd-sourcing-The 2011 Social Media tracking Center and Citizens solutions to end terrorism. She said there no news platform in Nigeria that actively engage audience in Nigeria like the social media. She said in the 2011 post election violence was picked up by the Social Media before any traditional one. She said 164,349 SM contents were tracked in 2011 elections. On ending terrorism she said over a 1000 tweets calling for an end to terrorism were sent in two days after girls were abducted in Chibok.

 

12.10
A presentation on Banking on the Internet – THE UBA STORY - followed Dr. Anderson's. The presenter said e-banking is just about digital banking he said the era of persons needing to go to the bank branch to carry out simple transactions is fading. "You can sit in your seating room to do your banking." He also said any customer using internet banking enjoys a lot of benefit, including security,(not having to ferry cash around), bill payments and comfort. He said the UBA has developed a mobile banking platform that any customer can carry out all basic transactions with their phones. He said anyone not using mobile banking is losing a lot.

 

11.36
Earlier, when the chairman of the event, Richard Ikiebe, gave a short remark

11.35
The next speaker is a Medical Doctor, Anderson Uvie-Emegbo. He will speak on SOCIAL MEDIA: 10 QUESTIONS THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY MUST ANSWER. Dr. Anderson is a leading Pan African Digital Management Consultant, International Faculty, Strathmore Business School, Kenya and Adjunct Faculty, School of Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University. He tweets @andyemegbo and his personal website is www.andyemegbo.com He said his presentation will dwell on travel because travel and Social Media has a strong relationship. He said all the negativity being expressed about the Social Media actually happens offline and is only relayed on the platform. Dr. Anderson is now playing three short videos for participants.

11.27

A Participant, Ijeoma, observed that Mr. Awofesu failed to highlight the negative impacts of Social Media such as the relay of wrong information leading to negative consequences. Another participant from NCC, Tony Ajegbo, also said many people using Social Media are often not knowledgeable about the topics they discuss on the platforms. He said Bloggers have a responsibility to properly educate their followers. "It is time to look at depth, knowledge and capacity and not just to blog" he said. A female participant said she is attending the event so as to be counseled on how to embrace SM and also find the time for it. Kingsley another participant said there is a form of campaign between those who take advantage of the SM for information dissemination and the average Journalist. Mr. Awofesu, responding to some of the questions, said part of the problem has to do with the way they Youth, for instance, appreciate Social Media as compared to the elite. "What the youth go for in the Social Media is ridiculous." He said most serious issues hardly excite the average youth but "post something trashy and see how it goes viral." "If you understand what your readership wants, you have a responsibility to give it to them, I am not saying that is ideal" he said. He advised the lady without time for SM to just pick on the most relevant platform and give it few hours a day. Garba Shehu, a social commentator, argued that mainstream media has Social Responsibility to maintain a certain moral standard. "The Social Media strongly encourages half naked women but we don't allow that" he said. "Chairman of the occasion said mainstream media should know that the audience have moved and they either need to move with them or remain irrelevant.

11.19
A presentation by Pelu Awofeso on Social Media 101 followed Mr. Adeniyi's. Mr. Awofeso Pelu Awofeso, Travel journalist, is currently promoting @TravelNextDoor (www.travelnextdoor.com), a domestic tourism project exclusively driven by social-media. He said Social Media is on a Bullet Train - that journalists need to catch up with - and the world is on Information Over drive. He argued that stories have longer life spans and effective feedback online than in Print. He described Social Media as a good place to hang out with a billion of the 6 billion people in the world - 900 million persons on facebook, 200m on twitter and 155m on Linkedln. In his vieww, Social Media is about Building a Community and sharing and bonding with it. He said the primary aim of every SM user is to build a community to promote certain goals and ideals, he said. "Time is gone where people hoard information" he said. He said if people are not sharing your stories, it is like you are not writing. Most importantly he said Social Media is about Customer Service where corporate bodies respond to their customers effectively to raise their profile. He said if Journalists continue to shy away from the Social Media, they can be pushed away by street Journalists.

11.11
At the end of his presentation, a participant asked Mr. Adeniyi his view on the regulation of the Social Media in Nigeria. "Even in China who are trying desperately to do that it is not working, so i don't subscribe to what they are trying to do here," he responded.

10.40
Former spokesperson of President Umaru Yar'adua, Segun Adeniyi and Chairman of the Editorial Board of Thisday presented the first paper titled "I am A social Media Alien." Adeniyi has never been in any Social Media Platform. He said he is already too busy reading and replying emails and does not need to add to his trouble. He also said he saw no reason on engaging people he does not even know. "Every morning my firsts job is to delete all these junk mails," he said. He said many persons take advantage of social media to abuse each other and display their private lives. He said misses nothing by being out of the Social Media. "Once I write my column, i don't look back and don't read whatever comments followed." There are also millions of other people like me, some of them, celebrities are not in the Social Media. Mr. Adeniyi listed some celebrities who abhor the Social Media because it is an invasion on their privacy. "As Bradd Knows I barely even know how to turn on the Computer" -Adeniyi quoting Angelina Jolie's lack of media tech knowledge.

10.28
Chairman of the event, Richard Ikiebe of Pan African University in Lagos, addressed the summit shortly after the UBA representative. He said his university is working with Google to train Nigerian Journalists on Social Media for a possible period of three months. He also argued that online piracy can be reduced if it is challenged.

10.23
Representative of UBA CEO making a brief remark said Lagos event was a success and hoped Abuja will be same. He said UBA is involved in the programme because they traditional support the Media and also stated that the bank is one of the few to appreciate online media at its early stage. He said UBA is also one of the very first Banks to embrace Social Media and they are ranked among the top three in the use of Social Media today. "Our social media strategy aims at engaging us with our customers" he said. "Digital is the future of the media." He said forums such as this is important to curb the rise of 'online pirates'. According to Nigerian Communication Commission, 66 million Nigerians use the internet.

10.04
Guests and participants are trickling in. Already in the House are Olusegun Adeniyi, Chido Onumah, Garba Shehu, Yushau Shuaib, Taiwo Obe and several Journalists

UPDATE: Why I Buried Ex-Customs Officer, Daughter Alive ─ Herbalist

A 64-year-old native doctor, Alhaji Olatunji Azeez who confessed to killing a retired customs officer, Angela Uzo Kerry and her adopted 10-year-old daughter, Obiagulum after selling the victim’s landed properties was yesterday paraded by the Lagos State Police Command.



L-R: The suspect, Alhaji Olatunji Azeez, Kerry and her daughter, Obiagulum

The suspect who led the Police to the building where he buried his victims committed the crime on May 10, 2014.

It was reported on Monday, June 23 that the decomposed bodies of the woman and her daughter were found in Azeez’s house in Ire Akari Crescent, Ajuwon Akute, Ogun State by operatives of the Lagos State Special Anti-Robbery Squad and the building was marked as a kidnapper’s den bythe police.

Azeez, an Oyo State indigene with three wives and five children, said he was forced to kill the customs officer and her daughter after she threatened to kill him over a sum of money.

He explained, “I have been a trado-medical doctor for about 30 years, but I knew Angela over five years ago. She initially came to me for protection from family attacks. One of her friends called Lizzy introduced her to me. The relationship began to grow, and she kept patronising me for one thing or the other.

“Then, about three years ago, she mentioned her barreness problem, adding that the daughter that was with her was adopted. I was shocked. But when she told me her age, I told her it was impossible to make her pregnant. But she insisted that prophets in the churches she went had assured her she would get pregnant.”

According to Punch Azeez later lied to the woman that she would get pregnant and collected N9m from her for the job.

Azeez added, “I did the normal concoction for her, but it didn’t work because of her age. But I collected the money because I knew if I did not, she would go to where they would collect it. After some months without result, she came to my place to complain. She then demanded a refund, but I told her that I could not repay it. She then began to threaten me. Within a month, I tried to repay N2.5m. On that fateful week, she came back for the remaining N6.5m.

“It was Saturday, May 17. She came with her daughter and insisted that she wanted her balance. She said as a retired customs officer, she could kill me if I didn’t pay back the money. Then I thought, I must kill this woman before she killed me. The hole at the back of my house was not built for killing. It was dug for drainage during rainfall.”

Azeez added that he went to the backyard, covered the hole with a white cloth that Angela normally saw in another shrine in his house.

He said, “After we talked, we moved with her daughter to the place. I said she should kneel down on the mat with her daughter. She did so and fell into the pit with her daughter. The operation was successful because no member of my family was around in the house.

I then began to cover the pit up with sand. I poured in roughly 50 buckets of sand. The following day, I got two bricklayers to cement the portion. But I had first taken out the belongings she brought.”

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, stated that the police had concluded their investigations on the case, adding that the native doctor was going to be charged to court for murder.

He said, “The woman and her daughter were reported missing on May 10 at the Oko Oba Police Division by the family.

“Azeez was eventually arrested through a tracking device installed on the victim’s Toyota Camry. Azeez, an herbalist, had hypnotized the woman for a long time. He had taken over N200m from her both in cash and property. We discovered he cleverly constructed a well in his house, lured the woman with her daughter into the room, and buried them alive.

“We were able to recover the decomposed bodies of the victims from the well. We also picked their property which was buried along with them. We have finished our investigations, and he will be charged to court for murder. We will leave the rest to be decided by the court.”

Cheating Husband Runs Over Pregnant Wife With Tricycle

A four month pregnant housewife named Njideka narrowly escaped being killed by her husband, one kingdom Ike who allegedly ran over her with his tricycle for interfering in his relationship with his lover.

Njideka who is from Okigwe local government area of Imo State was said to have travelled to her village and on her return home, she caught her husband kissing and cuddling with his lover in their matrimonial home.

An eyewitness, Mr Robinson Akunesi said the husband and his mistress were about leaving the house after their alleged romp but before the wife could utter a word to ask what he was doing with another woman in their home, he jumped into his tricycle , which he uses for commercial purposes, and ran her over.

The eyewitness revealed that the woman was hooked to the side of the tricycle and dragged along for few kilometres before she was rescued, adding that she was saved by the grace of God.

Leadership reports that the pregnant woman was taken to a nearby clinic by a good Samaritan for treatment of the injuries she sustained during the incident.

The husband reportedly fled with his mistress after the incident.

Two Little Sisters Found Dead In Shallow Stream In Ebonyi

Two sisters were found dead on Friday, June 20, in a shallow stream in Ephuenyim village in Ndiagu Okpuitumo community in Abakaliki local government area of Ebonyi State.

According to the traditional ruler of the community, Eze Pius Nwangele, the deceased children, Ibuchi Nwangele, 8, and Oruomachi Nwangele, 2, were discovered about 8pm on Friday at a shallow stream in the village.

He disclosed that the girls had disappeared some weeks ago and the community had undertaken an intensive search for the children.

As the cause of children's death still remain unknown, the Ebonyi State Governor, Chief Martin Elechi, the state commissioner of Police, Mr. Maigari Dikko, and the senator representing Ebonyi North zone, Senator Chris Nwankwo, visited the family.

The traditional ruler of the community said the community suspects fowl play by the co-wife of the father of the children, one Mrs. Felicia Nwangele, who had been having a running battle with the mother of the children.

Policeman Land In Court For Allegedly Stealing Walkie-Talkies

A policeman, Saidu Muhammed, has been arraigned in Katsina, northern Nigeria for allegedly stealing and selling 1,074 walkie-talkies entrusted in his care.

According to a report published by the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, the accused officer is the Communications Officer of the Katsina State Police Command and was arraigned at a Chief Magistrate’s Court on Monday, 23 June, 2014.

The report stated that Mr. Muhammed, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, is charged with “breach of trust by servant.”

It was gathered that the police prosecutor, Okolo Usman, told the court that the command entrusted 1,500 walkie-talkies in the care of Muhammed in his capacity as O/C Communications on July 8, 2013.

And when the command conducted a stock of the items, it was discovered that only 426 walkie-talkies remained.

Usman said the officer confessed during investigation that he stole and sold 1,074 pieces to one Mr Chucks in Abuja at the cost of N1,500 each.

However, Muhammed pleaded not guilty to the charge  brought against him.

The Chief Magistrate, Mr Nuradeen El-Ladan, before adjourning the case to 10 July, 2014, for further hearing, granted the accused person bail in the sum of N50,000 and two sureties in like sum.

El-ladan said each surety must possess a landed property within GRA in Katsina and must be indigenes of the state.

Nigerian internet users on GSM networks increase to 66 million

MTN still had the highest number of data users with 33.8 million.

—————————————————-

The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, on Monday said internet users on the nation’s Global System for Mobile Communications, GSM, networks increased to 65, 813, 890 in the month of April.

According to the Internet Subscriber Data released by the NCC, the users that browsed the Internet through the GSM networks increased by 1,839,863 within the period.

The number of internet users on the networks was 63, 974, 027 in March.

The data showed that Mobile Telecommunications Network, MTN, Nigeria, occupied the first position and had 33,835,981 users in April, as against 33,940,628 users in March, thus losing 104,647
users.

Globacom, occupying the second position with 13,221,754 users that browsed the World Wide Web, WWW, through its network in April, added 539,322 users to its record of 12,682,432 users in March.

Airtel Nigeria was placed third with 11,962,651 users in April, as against 10,847,187 users in March, hence, adding 1,115,464 Internet subscribers.

Etisalat, which was placed in the fourth position, offered Internet services to 6,793,504 customers in April, adding 289,724 more subscribers to the 6,503,780 users in March.

The increase in the number of Internet users shows that telecom subscribers were also embracing the evolution of data as the next revolution in the industry.

The increase in data usage showed that service providers were working to ensure the desire Internet/broadband penetration in the country.

(NAN)

3 Nigerian youth shot dead at birthday party

The three were allegedly shot by members of the Special Task Force on Jos Crisis.

———————————

Three youth were shot dead allegedly by security agents on Sunday night at a birthday party around Bukuru Low Cost, Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State.

Several witnesses said some members of the Special Task Force on Jos Crisis, STF, opened fire on the youth at the party at Joenice Joint, a beer parlour at Nyango Gel, Bukuru Low Cost Area. Apart from the dead, some of the party-goers escaped with injuries.

Nantel Miri, the father of one of the deceased, said his son, Timshak, 20, was shot dead by suspected security agents who stormed the party venue. He said he reported the matter to the Police Divisional Office, DPO, in Bukuru on Monday.

Mr. Miri said the remains of his son and the two other victims were deposited at the mortuary of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH.

He called for a thorough investigation of the incident so that those who committed the crime would be brought to book.

One of the youth who escaped and asked not to be named for fear of victimisation, said an argument had ensued at the party venue between two youth. It was almost resolved when the owner of the “joint” insisted on inviting the STF patrolling the area, he said.

“When the soldiers came to the venue, they opened fire on us. I was lucky to have escaped,” the youth narrated.

A resident of the area, one Rintim, said the incident caused him a sleepless night as a result of fear. 

He described the incident as “pathetic” and appealed for the appropriate investigations.

Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Abuh Emmanuel, in his office on Monday at the headquarters of the Police Command, denied any knowledge of the incident.

“I have not received an official report from the Divisional Police Officer Bukuru concerning such an incident, but my office would investigate and get to the root of the matter,” he said.

The spokesperson of the STF, Ikedichi Iweha, a captain, did not pick calls to his phone. The owner of the drinking joint could not be found at the time of filing this report.

Late Singer Kefee’s Branama Kitchen shuts down (PHOTOS)

Late singer Kefee‘s restaurant, Branama Kitchen, has been shut down. The eatery, which used to play host to numerous celebrities amidst merriment and loud music was closed.

None of its staff were present and its doors were secured with padlocks. Sources said the last time the restaurant was opened was on Friday, June 15, 2014, and was shut down not long after the singer’s death was reported.

‘I don’t know when next it will be opened but nobody has come to open it since it was shut down last Friday‘, another source said.

The restaurant which is located in the Mende area of Maryland, Lagos was opened in February 2012 and was born out of Kefee’s passion for delicacies and hospitality....

More pics below:

Photos from Caroline Danjuma's Baby Shower

 Caroline Danjuma who already has two boys is expecting her first girl child with husband, Musa Danjuma..Her fabulous baby shower took place today ...

Congrats to her

Igbo Group To Boko Haram: We’ll Revenge Any Attack On Igbo Soil

PAN Igbo socio-political organisation, Obigbo, has warned Boko Haram insurgents to regard the South East as a no go area, noting that any attack on Ndigbo on Igbo soil would be met with reprisal attacks.


It also said that Ndigbo would not be part of any activity that will disintegrate Nigeria, adding that the Igbo would not watch while her people were killed in Igbo- land.

The National Leader of the group, Chief Charles Ahize while briefing newsmen in Lagos urged all the governors of the south eastern states to tighten security in the region.

He said: “We want to make it aboundantly clear to the Boko Haram insurgents that if any life is lost on Igbo soil, there will be a reprisal of monumental proportions that the country will find difficult to contain.

“It is no longer in doubt that there is a clear and present danger to the lives and property of Ndigbo in Igboland. Obigbo, hereby, sounds a clear note of warning to the Boko Haram insurgents and their financiers that the South East is a no go region. Any attack on Ndigbo on Igbo soil would be considered crossing the rubicon.”

It would be recalled that on June 16, the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), has said they will bring down Nigeria if the Boko haram sect bomb any part of the Southeast.

This threat was coming after the discovery of two deadly improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at the Living Faith church in Owerri by the Imo state policeon Saturday, June 15.

Meanwhile in In May, MASSOB had called on Ndigbos residing in the northeastern part of the country to come back home following the incessant attacks by Boko Haram in that region.

69-Year-Old Man To Spend Next Six Months In Jail In Abeokuta

Mr. Arolagbade was asked to spend the next six month in jail because of fraud.

It was gathered that the accused had unlawfully obtained the sum of N90,000 from one Bosede Sojirin on April 3, 2012 at Abiola way, Abeokuta under false pretence to secure a- three -bedroom flat for her

Arolagbade was charged with two counts of fraud and stealing.

The prosecuting officer, Sunday Eigbejiale, an inspector, said the accused did steal the sum of N90,000 property of Sojirin.

He said the offence committed by the Arolagbade was contrary to and punishable under section 419 and section 390 (9) of the Criminal Code Laws of Ogun State, Nigeria 2006.

The counsel to the accused, however, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy. He pleaded that the accused person was old and should be given option of fine.

The presiding magistrate, Martins Akinyemi, found the accused guilty of the two counts he was accused of , adding that the case had suffered several adjournments in instant of the accused to be able to settle the debt he owed but failed to do so.

He later sentenced the accused to three months imprisonment on count one and three months imprisonment on count two, which he said, would run concurrently.

Niger Delta fishermen reject Shell’s $50m

Thousands of Nigerian fishermen have rejected an offer of $50 million from Royal Dutch Shell for “some of the largest oil spills in history,” their British lawyers said Friday after winning a landmark court ruling.

Shell already accepts responsibility for paying compensation and cleaning up spills caused by its own failures. But the London High Court decided that Shell can be held legally liable for spills caused by oil thefts, if it fails to provide reasonable protection for its pipeline infrastructure.

The court case involves one of Nigeria’s worst environmental disasters. Amnesty International called it “a shot across the bows for Shell” and said the ruling “paves the way for Shell to finally be held accountable for devastating oil pollution in the Niger Delta.”

Shell played down the judgment, saying in a statement that it was favorable in limiting litigation to “an assessment of actual damages sustained” in spills.

The oil company, Nigeria’s biggest petroleum producer, claimed that the court found Nigerian law “does not hold pipeline operators responsible for damage caused by oil theft.”

But Judge Robert Akenhead of the London Technological and Construction Court ruled Shell is responsible for taking reasonable steps to protect its infrastructure, including installing leak detection systems, surveillance equipment and anti-tamper equipment.

Shell does not have such equipment in its Nigerian fields, though they are considered mandatory in oilfields in the developed world.

It is the first time Shell has had its environmental record in Nigeria on trial by a British court. The thousands of compensation cases in often corrupt Nigerian courts drag on for years and often end with victims being paid a pittance. Until now, Shell has paid compensation only for spills caused by equipment failure.

Oil thefts in Nigeria have reached an industrial scale, with some $35 million worth stolen daily, according to figures this week from the country’s national conference.

Shell has a woeful record of cleaning up spills in Nigeria. It has yet to clean up the 2008 and 2009 spills that triggered the court case, saying the Bodo community has refused to give it access.

Mutiu Sunmonu, managing director of Shell Nigeria, said the company has accepted responsibility for the “deeply regrettable” spills and urged the fishermen to accept Shell’s “sensible and fair compensation offers.”

Martyn Day of London law firm Leigh Day said Shell’s offer of 30 million pounds (more than $50 million) amounted to about 1,000 pounds ($1,700) for each of 30,000 people who lost their livelihoods. He called it laughable.

Bodo Creek is one of Nigeria’s worst environmental disasters, with some experts saying it caused the largest loss of mangrove habitat ever caused by an oil spill.

Shell documents say the leak started Oct. 5, 2008 and a total of 1,640 barrels of oil was spilled.

Government and community documents say the leak started Aug. 28, and industry experts estimate up to 4,320 barrels of oil was flooding Bodo each day for at least 72 days.

Amnesty International has accused Shell of manipulating oil spill investigations and wrongly reporting the cause and volume of oil spills devastating the Niger Delta, and of making false claims about cleanup measures

Son Of Late Emir,Sanusi Ado Bayero,Explains Why He Left Kano

The new emir of Kano welcomes his guests at the emir's palace on June 14, 2014. Credit: Vanguard.

Ado Bayero said he left not because of illness as alleged by some, but rather because of his concerns about security in the state. "I am not a troublemaker. That was why I left Kano," he stated. "Because if I am in Kano, even if I just step out of my house it can create a lot of problems which can affect the security in the state." he added.

"I don’t want anything that will degenerate to street riot and all that. The peace and security of my people are paramount to me. I left the state intentionally; nobody compelled me to do so and nobody can stop me from returning to Kano. I will return at my own time."

This was also the reason why he did not join his brothers when they paid visit to the new emir on June 14, Ado Bayero said.

He called on the media to avoid reporting that could provoke riots in Kano. "I am a man of peace and that was what our late emir taught us. Throughout his reign, he preached peace in the state, country and across the world. I don’t want crisis no matter how small and please you people should help us to sustain peace in the state. It is the responsibility of you the media to preach peace."

Lamido Sanusi, who previously served as the governor of the Central Bank, was elected emir on June 8. Two other contenders were Ado Bayero, the District Head of Gwale, and Wamban Kano Abbas Sanusi.

Several people were feared dead as pro and anti-Sanusi protesters clashed in city of Kano shortly after the new emir was elected. The police blockaded the palace explaining the move by the need to protect the place from hooligans. Only after the four-day siege was lifted, the new emir was able to enter his official residence.

I predicted Kefee's Death - Ara

Nigeria's renowned talking drummer Ara disclosed that she told Keffe about her death..According to Vanguard,she said

“I want to use this forum to appeal to my colleagues in the music industry. Less than two years ago, I had a dream about Keffee and immediately called her and narrated it to her, I also appealed to her not to make a joke of it….the rest is history.

Early this year, I had a dream and contacted Efe of NOW music as he’s the only one I could call and told him to please organise a forum for all musicians to assemble and pray against death amongst us (please confirm from Efe). It’s sad we had to lose my girlfriend, sister and 

colleague…so sad. When a revelation comes like that, it means there is a way out. Once again, we need to come together as a body under one roof to rebuke and pray about this revelation I had early this year. Yes, we all have different sources of prayer but this is a prayer we all must observe together. I beg you all. I didn’t want to speak out but I have no choice than to”

Arisekola buried in Ibadan amid tears

The remains of Mr. Arisekola were laid to rest at 11.15 a.m. in his Ibadan residence.

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The remains of the Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Abdul-Azeez Arisekola, were buried in his home in Ibadan, Oyo State on Friday amid tears by family members, friends and associates.

Mr. Arisekola died in a London Hospital on Wednesday.

The corpse was brought to Adamasingba Stadium at exactly 10.05 a.m. in ebony casket for prayer.
After the prayer led by the Chief Imam of Ibadan, Haruna Suara, the corpse was taken to his Oluwokekere House, Ibadan, for interment.

President Goodluck Jonathan was represented at the burial by the Minister State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, the Minister of Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan and Chairman of FERMA, Jide Adeniyi.
Also present were the APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu; Industrialist, Kola Daisi; businessman, Oba Otudeko; and former Inspector General of Police, Musilu Smith.

Governors Rauf Aregbesola of Osun and Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun, were also there.

Former Arch-Bishop of Ibadan, Alaba Job; Primate Ola Makinde and Abimbola Fashola, wife of Lagos State Governor, also attended.

The National Missioner, Ansar-u-deen Society of Nigeria, Abdurahaman Ahmad, implored the rich to emulate the philanthropic virtues of Mr. Arisekola.

“Arisekola was generous, friendly and accommodating to all and sundry, especially the downtrodden”, he said.

Also Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State extolled the virtues of the late religious leader, describing him as a philanthropist of philanthropists, who served the poor and also helped the rich during his lifetime.

“Aare was to the Nigerian masses what the late President Nelson Mandela was to the South Africans.
“He served the poor and helped the rich.

He came to serve humanity and served them to his very last.

“He was accommodating, spiritual, religious and intelligent. He had been serving the poor from the age of 19. He was the greatest philanthropist of our time.

“Aare gave everything he had for the benefit of the people’’, the governor added.

Mr. Ajimobi said it was the good works done by the late business mogul that motivated his government into declaring seven days of mourning and a public holiday for him.
He said such a feat was unprecedented in the history of the state.

The remains of Mr. Arisekola were laid to rest at 11.15 a.m. in his Oluwokekere residence in Bashorun, Ibadan.

Security operatives had a hard time controlling over one thousand people who forced their way into the premises with many falling and sustaining minor injuries.

(NAN)