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Post Date : March 25, 2021

Man escapes ritual killing in Imo hotel

A middle-aged man, Anayo Ukadike, Thursday, alleged that he escaped from some persons that attempted to use him for ritual purposes in one of the hotels in Imo State. In a petition to Imo State Police Command in Owerri, Ukadike said he escaped through an exit door when he was attacked by three able-bodied men as he was inside his Room 45 lodge. Ukadike said it was a ritual attempt, as he said he reached out to the management of the hotel who pleaded that he should not report his encounter to the police. He said: “It was the worst experience of my life. The hotel is located at Marathana Avenue, New Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. “I was unfortunate enough to book a room in the hotel on March 10. I escaped death only by Divine Providence. Their antecedents proved the fact that they are in the business of killing people for ritual purposes. “I was brutally attacked in my Room 45 in a Commando style by three able-bodied young men, who broke into my room. But to their greatest surprise, I was able to escape after using my last strength to hit the particular one blocking the exit door. “The attitude of the management and staff of the hotel, when contacted, proved that the attack was planned, coordinated and executed by them. “The management pleaded with me not to contact the police, promising they will trace the attackers.” When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, confirmed that the command “received the write-up, and we are now working on it.”

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Post Date : March 25, 2021

Court jails professor for rigging election

A high court in Akwa Ibom state has sentenced Peter Ogban, a professor of soil science at the University of Calabar, to three years in prison for manipulating election results, The Cable is reporting. Ogban was the returning officer in the senatorial election in Akwa Ibom north-west in 2019. He was prosecuted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The court found him guilty of altering results of the election to favour the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). More to follow

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Post Date : March 25, 2021

Two Months After, Access Bank Fails To Refund Customer’s Failed Transaction of N200,000

It has been two months and counting since Daramola Nasiru made a transfer of N200,000 from his Access Bank account to his Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) account via the Quickteller app. On January 26, 2021, Daramola’s Access Bank account was debited but Access Bank failed in crediting the receiver account, GTB. Noticing this irregularity Daramola reached out to Quickteller, the financial application he used in making the transaction. Quickteller told him it was a failed transaction and he should contact his bank, Access. “I sent a mail to access bank since January 28th 2021, with proof from Quickteller that it was a failed transaction but up till date my funds haven’t been reversed,” Daramola told FIJ. “Access Bank claims it was a successful transaction and I asked them for proof. Send me the beneficiary account since you guys claim it was successful. I went as far as showing them my account statement for the beneficiary. I even went to their office in Auchi, Edo State, they told me its from their own end.” On Tuesday, FIJ placed a call to the customer care line of Access bank. A lady who simply identified herself as Nkwoma answered the call, saying “What I will advise you to do is to inform the person to give us a call.” When this feedback was delivered to Daramola, he placed a call to Access Bank that same day, but there has been no progress. Source: F.I.J

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Post Date : March 25, 2021

Businessman files N55 million suit against MTN for barring his line

The Uyo based claimant says he lost ‘millions’ by being barred by MTN for four months. BySamson Adenekan March 25, 2021 4 min read A businessman, Sylvanus Ukpong, has sued telecommunication giant, MTN, for barring his line. Mr Ukpong, in the writ of summons filed at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja,on March 12, 2021, noted that MTN, by its action, blocked him from accessing partners and potential customers. In the court documents exclusively obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, the claimant told the court that his Civil Construction and Agro-Allied Company based in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, relied largely on telephone calls to stay in touch with business partners and solve business-related challenges. He said the action of the network provider, had therefore, cost him millions of naira in the last four months. He prayed for, among others, in his suit, an order directing the defendant, MTN, to unblock his line with immediate effect. He also urged the court to award general damages of N50 million in his favour and against MTN, and another N5 million to cover for filing and prosecution of the suit. He stated he had been using the MTN postpaid line 0803-746-6663 since 2008 and, was enjoying his “solemn relationship” with the network provider until early November 2020 when he was barred from making calls. He was initially paying up to N100,000 as his monthly call credit to MTN Nigeria, and later reduced it N40,000, Mr Ukpong said while recalling his long-standing patronage of the network provider. But he said in early November 2020, he was barred from making calls over an alleged N31,560 airtime bill incurred in October, a bill he said had been off-set by his recharge card vendor, Ime Esema, whom he made electronic bank transfer to. He said, prior to the incident, he had submitted a type-written letter to the MTN Nigeria branch office at 40, Ikot Ekpene Road, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, requesting that his line 0803-746-6663 be migrated from postpaid to prepaid. He said his request was rejected on the grounds of the company’s claim that it could only accept handwritten letters. “On that same October 15, 2020, I submitted a hand-written letter to the MTN office, but they also rejected the letter, saying that there was no internet network for them to process my request. “On November 2, 2020, at 6.37p.m., I received the following text message from MTN, ‘Dear Customer, your Oct 2020 bill is N31,560. Please pay on or before Nov. 5, 2020 to keep enjoying our services. Thank you.’ “On November 3, 2020, I recharged my MTN line 0803-746-6663 with N15,000 and on November 4, 2020, I recharged the line again with N30,000, thereby bringing my total recharge to N45,000. I expected this amount (N45,000) to clear up my N31,560 and for the MTN line to be left with N13,440 to enable the process of the migration from postpaid to prepaid,” the claimant stated. Mr Ukpong said his letter requesting migration from postpaid to prepaid “was accepted later but not granted.” He added that his follow-up call to the MTN customer care line 180 at 7.36 a.m. on November 5, 2020, yielded no result, as the official who answered the call told him that “there is nothing we can do here, you have to go to the Uyo office” before hanging up on him. According to him, this was followed by a call from another official of the company who introduced himself as his account officer and persuaded him not to migrate from postpaid to prepaid. “But I insisted that I needed to migrate the line for proper management of my personal finances. He promised that the matter was going to be treated that same day,” he added. Mr Ukpong said he realised his line had been barred two hours after speaking with the MTN official. “Two hours after speaking with the MTN official on November 6, 2020, I noticed that I was unable to make calls with my MTN line 0803-746-66630. I was able to receive calls, however. It was obvious to me then that my line had been barred by MTN. “I immediately called the MTN customer care line 180 to make a fresh complaint that I have been barred from making calls. The official who picked the call told me that I was indebted to MTN and that was why they barred me from making calls. “I explained to her that my October bill from MTN was N31,560 and that I had recharged the line with N45,000 vouchers which was enough to clear the bill, she then said it must have been a “technical error” and that it would be corrected between 15 to 24 hours. I told her that my business was going to be so negatively affected if I could not make calls for that length of time,” Mr Ukpong explained to PREMIUM TIMES He said all his efforts to get MTN to resolve what its official called “technical error” had been futile while his businesses had continued to suffer many losses. “I have sent two emails to MTN requesting that they should furnish me with information regarding how much I have recharged my line between November 1 to November 6, 2020, but up till now MTN is yet to respond to it,” he said. Mr Ukpong said he engaged the services of two law firms, who equally wrote to the defendant on the subject, but got no response from the telecom company. MTN, in its first reaction to PREMIUM TIMES through its spokesperson, Funsho Aina, last Saturday, asked this reporter to send an email through the official channel. Mr Aina acknowledged the email and promised to “review and revert ASAP” but there has been no official reaction from MTN so far. In another interview with this reporter on Tuesday morning, Mr Ukpong said his barred line had been unbarred, a development which reportedly came two days after this newspaper reached out to MTN and chronicled the complainant’s

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Post Date : March 25, 2021

Senate considers bill to support families of fallen servicemen/women

A bill that seeks to establish a support fund for families of fallen servicemen has scaled second reading at the Senate. The bill titled, ‘Families of fallen servicemen support fund bill, 2020’ is sponsored by the senator representing Benue South, Abba Moro. The second reading of the bill comes about a month after it was introduced to the Senate. This Bill seeks to, among other things, establish a support fund for families of selected security personnel who died either in or out of combat (this means in the course of an official assignment or not). It also seeks to enhance the capacity of widows of fallen servicemen to act as role models to their children through guidance and counselling and public enlightenment programmes. The agencies considered in the bill include the Army, Air Force, Navy, Police and Civil Defence Corps. Others are Nigerian Customs, Immigration, Drug Law Enforcement Agency and the Nigerian Correctional Service. The legislation, which many have described as timely, comes amidst lamentations of neglect from the families of fallen soldiers by security agencies. It also comes at a time when the country is at, perhaps, the peak of her fight against insecurity and insurgency. Some families have also decried how difficult and almost impossible it is to get the gratuity of a member who has died in active service, PREMIUM TIMES had reported. Some provisions of the bill, however, prescribes that families of late servicemen be given financial aid ranging from N2 million to N5 million as well as counselling and mental evaluation. This reports aims to bring to the fore, some major provisions of the bill. For starters, a board will be constituted to oversee the fund as well as financial and educational empowerment given to families of the fallen servicemen – which will be exempted from paying income tax on any income accruing to the Fund. Having established the security agencies and the interpretation of “combat” and “non-combat”, the bill states that any security operative “whose body is not found after a combat operation or an attack on his contingent in which heavy fatalities were recorded would be presumed dead if his/her whereabouts remains unknown for more than three months after he went missing.” ** When any member of the named security agencies dies a combat death, the Board shall pay the spouse the sum of N5 million and shall counsel her on such entrepreneurship programmes that will enable her to invest the sum profitably for the welfare of the children left behind by the deceased. ** When any member of the named security agencies dies a non-combat death, the Board shall pay the spouse the sum of N2 million and shall counsel her on such entrepreneurship programmes that will enable her to invest the sum profitably for the welfare of the children left behind by the deceased. ** When any member of the named security agencies dies, whether in combat or not, the surviving children registered under the National Health Insurance Scheme shall enjoy free education from primary to tertiary institution on the bills of the Fund or on such tuition free education policy as may be declared by the Federal and State Governments for families of fallen servicemen. ** For this purpose, the Board shall verify and maintain an updated database of the surviving children registered under the National Health Insurance Scheme as forwarded from time to time by the named security agencies. And whenever any such child gains admission into any university or any tertiary institution of learning in the country, the institution concerned shall grant free accommodation and free tuition education status to the child upon the tendering of a Letter of Introduction from the Board. ** The Board shall pay a designated allowance to the child for every academic year until he or she graduates. And as soon as any beneficiary of this policy completes his or her compulsory National Youth Service with nothing less than Second Class Lower Division or Upper Credit for Higher National Diploma, graduates shall be given special consideration above other applicants in any employment or recruitment 17 exercise they may apply. The Board shall be saddled with the responsibility of receiving into a designated account and managing the monies accruing to the Fund, assisting families of fallen servicemen identify economically viable enterprises for income generation and provide technical and financial support for their implementation. The Board shall: ** Enhance the capacity of widows of fallen servicemen to act as role models to their children through guidance, counselling and public enlightenment programmes. ** Create, arouse and sustain the interests of the Federal, State and local governments, the Nigerian public, the corporate world and the international community on the need to support families of security operatives who die in the line of duty. ** Exercise control over the management of the Fund with a view to ensuring accountability and proper utilisation of the Fund as well as liaise with Security Agencies, Ministries, Extra-Ministerial Departments, the State and local governments for necessary collaborations towards effective discharge of their duties. ** Enter into contractual agreements for the purpose of building housing and educational facilities in each state for the welfare of the widows and kids of fallen servicemen, and such other contractual agreements as may be necessary; provided that every such agreement shall contain a clause that it is subject to approval by the joint session of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and the Bureau of Public Procurement. The Board will also allocate such houses and educational facilities built in the states to families of fallen servicemen, for their welfare and for the advancement of their education free of charge. The Board will prepare and submit the annual expenditure and income of the Fund as well as quarterly report for approval. ** The chairman or any member of the board who violates provisions of the bill, commits an offence and shall upon conviction be liable to life imprisonment. ** The Chairman or

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Post Date : March 25, 2021

Killer of Kogi PDP women leader gets 12 years jail sentence

A high court in Idah, Kogi State, on Wednesday, sentenced Ocholi Edicha to 12 years and six months in prison over his involvement in the killing of the state Peoples Democratic Party women leader, Salome Abuh. According to Punch newspaper, Mr Edicha was convicted of criminal conspiracy, armed robbery and culpable homicide. The prosecution called five witnesses during the trial. The report said the court agreed with the oral testimony and witnesses’ accounts and statement made to the police. Although the defendant denied making statement to the Nigeria police, he accepted some aspects of the statement, which was later admitted by the court. Mrs Abuh was shot and her residence set ablaze in Ochadamu in Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State during the state’s governorship election in 2019. After the incident, the police paraded six suspects, including Mr Edicha. The State Commissioner of Police, Akeem Busari, while parading the suspects in Lokoja said they were arrested on November 22, 2019 by the police in collaboration with local vigilantes. He named them as Ocholi Edicha, Adamu Haruna, Onu Egbunu, Musa Alidu, Attai Haruna Egwu and Attah Ejeh. Mr Busari identified Ocholi Edicha as the ring leader of the mob that set Mrs Abuh’s residence ablaze.

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Post Date : March 25, 2021

Parents of Afaka students: We want Kaduna to negotiate with bandits over abducted children

Sani Friday, a parent of two of the abducted students of Federal College Of Forestry Mechanisation, Afaka, Kaduna state, says he and other parents want the government to negotiate with the bandits. Friday, who is a representative of the parents, said this on Thursday in an interview with Channels Television. About two weeks ago, gunmen attacked the school around 3 am, kidnapping at least 30 students. Days after the incident, Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna, said his job as governor is to enforce the law and prosecute people who commit offences, and not to negotiate with bandits. Commenting on el-Rufai’s decision not to negotiate with the bandits, Friday said the parents are worried that the government will try to use force to rescue the students. He said doing so may make the bandits eliminate the hostages, adding that the parents want the government to negotiate with the bandits. “It is the same state government which sometime ago told the entire Kaduna state that if it cost him paying bandits to stop killing the citizens of Kaduna state, he will pay them. But that statement was about a year or two ago,” he said. “One of the fears we have is if the government feels they can use force to bring out these children, it will be a disastrous move because these bandits are well-equipped. They may decide to eliminate the children if they discover that the government is trying to use aggressive force on them because they are using our children as a shield for themselves. “The best way we want government to go about this is to first of all, negotiate. Even if they want to put any other security measure on ground, it should be after this. “Parents are crying, why is it that it’s in our time that we’re going through all this? If the state government feels they cannot negotiate, let the federal government do something for our children to be reunited to us.”

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Post Date : March 25, 2021

Insecurity: Imo Chief Judge Relocates Court To Owerri

The Acting Chief Judge of Imo State, Justice Ijeoma Oguguo, has relocated the Etiti High Court in Ihite-Uboma council area to Owerri High Court premises, citing the spate of insecurity in the area. The Chief Judge, who gave the order in a memo signed on her behalf by the Chief Registrar, C. N. Okereke, a copy of which was made available to newsmen in Owerri, said that the lives of lawyers and litigants were no longer safe. It was gathered that the decision followed the burning of the Ihitte Uboma police stations by some angry youths protesting the killing of two siblings by a police officer. The memo said, “The movement is temporary and was as a result of the fire incident and safety of judicial workers”. In the last month, no fewer than four police stations have been attacked by hoodlums in the state. In the latest attack on the Umuelemai police station in Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of the state, a police inspector was killed and another woman police constable abducted. The abductors are yet to make contacts about her whereabouts more than four days after the incident.

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Post Date : March 25, 2021

Leah Sharibu Gives Birth to Her Second Child While in Captivity

Three years and five weeks since her abduction in Dapchi, Yobe State, a United States-based group, US-Nigeria Law Group, has lamented the plight of the abandoned Dapchi “heroine Christian” schoolgirl, Leah Sharibu, with reports she has given birth to a second child in captivity. It would be recalled that Leah, still held in captivity, was forced to accept Islam before being married off to a top Boko Haram commander after she refused to renounce her Christian faith. Leah was among 110 girls, aged between 11 and 19 years, who were abducted by the terrorists from Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, on February 19, 2018. Convener of the US-Nigeria Law Group, Emmanuel Ogebe, said in a statement that “despite an offer by an American pastor last month to surrender himself in exchange for Leah’s freedom, there has been no tangible response from her captors. “That notwithstanding, intelligence received on the status of Leah indicates that she has delivered a second child in captivity. While we have not corroborated this by multiple sources, a usually knowledgeable source indicated that she delivered a second child late last year. This means both children were born in 2020 as the terrorists announced her childbirth earlier in 2020. We are still investigating this.” The Guardian newspaper on January 1, 2019, named Leah Sharibu as its 2018 ‘‘Person of the Year,’’ aptly describing her as “A goddess of resistance”. To commemorate the March 21 third anniversary of the release of the Dapchi girls returned by their captors and “abandonment of Leah Sharibu”, the US group in its commemorative statement, said “until she is released, Leah remains a poster child and symbol of a failed state that can’t protect its children. The group also lamented the “full-scale onslaught on education in Nigeria by Islamist extremists: Boko Haram wars against education; bandits mass kidnap of children in school; and religious violence against Christian mission school owners in Ilorin over hijab controversy.” Source The Guardian Nigeria

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Post Date : March 25, 2021

Soldiers kill 11 gunmen in Abia

Soldiers of the 144 Battalion, stationed at Ariaria junction, along the Enugu – Port Harcourt expressway, Wednesday, killed 11 gunmen who engaged them in a fierce gun battle. This is coming 48 hours after three policemen were ambushed and murdered by hoodlums in Abiriba, in Ohafia council area of the state. The gunmen, said to be numbering about 50, engaged the soldiers at their checkpoint at the Ariaria junction. Sources told Vanguard that before the gunmen arrived the area; the soldiers had gathered intelligence and laid in wait for them. As soon as the gunmen arrived, they opened fire, but the soldiers responded. In the ensuing gun duel which was said to have lasted for over 30 minutes, 11 persons were shot dead in the duel as they bowed to superior fire power of the soldiers. Other members of the gang reportedly fled with bullet wounds. However, there are conflicting reports about the number of casualties; while some sources said 16 persons were killed, among them, a soldier, a top military source in Aba said only 11 gunmen were killed while there was no casualty on the side of the army. “No soldier was killed, but we killed 11 of the gunmen. I assure the public that there was no casualty among the soldiers.” he said. Reacting to the incident, Abia State government commended the soldiers for their gallantry, stressing that it is committed to the protection of lives and properties of the residents of the state. Commissioner for Information,Chief John Okiyi Kalu, who stated this, warned youths of the state not to put themselves in harm’s way by attacking security agents under any guise. “It is a good development; we welcome every necessary measure to protect the good people of Abia State. We call on our young men and women not to put themselves in harm’s way by attacking security agents under any guise. We also urge them not to allow themselves to be used by politicians for any reason to cause insecurity. Abia State government will do everything possible to protect law-abiding citizens without fear.”

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