Crime Facts

Truck loaded with live bullets falls in Onitsha

Onitsha residents are currently in fear, as a truck fully loaded with cartons of live bullets fell into a ditch and spilled its content all around the street, in the commercial city of Anambra State. Nigerian Tribune learnt that the incident occurred on Sunday morning on Awka Road in the city as early worshipers made their way to churches. The incident attracted heavy security presence to the Awka Road area and Shoprite axis of the city. It was gathered that the truck, a Mercedes Benz 911 model was said to be moving the goods out of Onitsha to an undisclosed location when the driver lost control and the vehicle skidded off the road and fell into a gutter. According to an eyewitness who spoke to some journalists around 6.50 am at the scene of the accident on Sunday, “the truck fell around 5 am, the driver and his conductor after sustaining minor injuries tried to evacuate and conceal the content of the truck but they could not do much before daybreak when some police operatives arrived the accident scene only to discover the truck was laden with a confinement of live bullets.” The police subsequently called for backup and instantly arrested the truck driver while his conductor escaped. When contacted, the State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Ikenganya Tochukwu, said he was not aware of the incident, but promised to get back to our correspondent after confirmation.

NSCDC Arrests 30-Year-Old Serial Rapist In Sokoto

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Sokoto State Command, has arrested a suspected rapist who specialized in abusing minors in the state. The suspect, 30-year-old Hamza Yusuf, was said to have violated 10 minors but only three were so far identified. Addressing newsmen, the state Commandant, Umar Musa Bala, said all his victims were below 10 years old. He said that the suspect was rescued at the point of being lynched by a mob. “We received a distress call that a serial rapist was arrested and being lynched in Mabera area, and we swiftly swung into action. “We rescued him from mobs who wanted to kill him and brought him to our office. “We were able to identify three of his victims who are all below the age of 10 and medical investigation proved penetration beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said. Bala added that the suspect would be released on bail because of the ongoing strike by judicial workers, adding that stringent conditions would be attached to his bail. “He must produce a surety that is well recognized in the society. Who will bring him to us on request,” he said. He called on parents to be alive to their responsibility now that raping was becoming rampant the society. On the forthcoming Sallah celebration, Umar said the command would deploy 700 personnel, especially to flashy areas. He called on the general public to report any suspicious movement in their areas to security agencies closer to them. The suspect, however, attributed his action to the devil’s work and promised not to go back to it again.

Bandits Kidnap 12 Muslim Worshippers During Midnight Prayers In Katsina

Twelve Muslim worshippers have been abducted by bandits while observing Tahajjud at a mosque located in the outskirt of Jibiya town of Katsina State. Tahajjud is a midnight prayer that is being observed during the Holy Month of Ramadan. A resident of the affected community, Mallam Fahad Mukhtar confirmed the abduction to Channels Television on Monday morning. He explained that the gunmen arrived at the mosque around 2:am on Monday shooting sporadically. They finally abducted the worshippers, numbering 12, and took them into the forest. arrived at the mosque around 2:am on Monday shooting sporadically. They finally abducted the worshippers, numbering 12, and took them into the forest. READ ALSO: Gunmen Kill Community Leader, Wife, Daughter-In-Law In Kaduna Mukhtar, however, said residents have earlier been warned of the attack. “Prior to their coming, people were informed on so many WhatsApp platforms that there might be an attack around 12:am. “Our prayer is that May Almighty Allah intervene and look into our condition in Jibia. This attack happens almost on daily basis. It’s not something new. “Our leaders and sponsors of the insecurity in our country should recall that there will be a day of judgement,” he said. Mukhtar however said there has been series of bandit attacks in the area. He said this recent attack follows an earlier attack where 40 worshippers were kidnapped and 28 managed to escape. Another resident of the area, Muhammadu Sani also confirmed that the bandits have earlier abducted about forty worshippers. Police authorities in the state are yet to react to the incident as phone calls to the spokesperson of the state police command, SP Gambo Isah were not returned.

Former Emir Sanusi Confirmed As Supreme Leader Of Tijjaniyya Sect In Nigeria

The controversy surrounding the appointment of the former Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, as the Grand Khalifa of the Tijjaniyya Islamic Movement in Nigeria, as finally been laid to rest. Sanusi has now been officially appointed the leader of the movement in Nigeria by the Supreme Global Leader of the Sect, Sheik Mahi Niyyas in Senegal after inviting the former Emir the West African country. Controversy first surrounded his appointment on March 13, 2021 following a brief ceremony to that effect in Sokoto during the Tijjaniyya movement’s National Maulud. However, in order to formally consummate the appointment, the Tijaniya leaders invited the former Emir to Kaolack in Senegal for the closing ceremony of Ramadan Tafsir on Sunday, where they officially approved his appointment. Announcing the decision during the event, Sheikh Mahi tasked the former Emir to rise to the occasion and be a good ambassador of the Sect in Nigeria. The position was previously held by the late Emir of Kano Sanusi (Muhammadu Sanusi’s late grandfather) and lately held by the late philanthropist, Khalifa Isyaku Rabiu.

Gunmen Attack Anambra Vigilante Office, Police Station

Gunmen have attacked the Anambra State Vigilante office at Ozubulu, Ekwusigo Local Government Area in a spate of insecurity in the state. Ozubulu police station was also attacked by the gunmen but the attack was repelled by the officers. Confirming the incident, police spokesperson in the state, Ikenga Tochukwu said the attack on the vigilante office was carried out around 7.00 p.m on Sunday. “The hoodlums who came with a Toyota Sienna vehicle and motorcycles started shooting sporadically. “Unfortunately two yet unidentified persons sustained gunshot injury,” Tochukwu said. He added that no police officer sustained an injury during the attack on the police station and the police building is secure and safe. “Meanwhile the hoodlums in a bid to escape set ablaze a Toyota Corolla parked not very far from the station. An investigation is ongoing and efforts are in top gear to arrest the perpetrators of the ugly act. However, normalcy has been restored in the area,” he added. Last week, two police officers were killed during an attack on Obosi Police station, Idemili North local government area of Anambra State. They also razed the station and two operational vehicles. The attacks are the latest in the series of attacks on security facilities and officials in the southeast region of the country. The government blamed a secessionist group, IPOB, and its security arm, ESN, for the attacks but the group denies responsibility for the attacks.

Stray bullet kills Imo NSCDC officer in her home

A female security personnel attached to the Imo State Command of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCD, Glory Chinenye Nkwoch, was on Thursday killed in her home by a stray bullet. The incident, Tribune Online gathered, happened at Orlu metropolis last Thursday during the recent sporadic shootings by combined security operatives that resulted in the killing of the nine bandits in the locality. The NSCDC personnel was sent to her early grave while staying in her house at Orlu by a bullet from a gun duel between the security operatives and the hoodlums. The Public Relations Officer of Imo NSCDC, SP Lowel Chinemere, confirmed the incident to Tribune Online in Owerri on Sunday. He said that investigation into the incident had commenced to unravel the circumstances that resulted in the killing of the lady officer. According to him, the body of the officer had already been deposited at the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, where efforts to save her life after she was rushed there failed.

Reps Minority Caucus Asks EFCC to Investigate Bala Usman Over Alleged N165bn Loot

The Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the suspended Managing Director of the Nigerian Port Authority, Hadiza Bala Usman over alleged mismanagement of N165 billion. The Caucus disclosed this in a statement signed on Monday by the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Honourable Ndudi Elumelu. They insisted that such huge economic crime against the nation should not be left to an administrative panel of enquiry, but committed to an anti-graft agency for an independent investigation. They insisted that such huge economic crime against the nation should not be left to an administrative panel of enquiry, but committed to an anti-graft agency for an independent investigation. READ ALSO: Zamfara Govt Paid N400m For Scholarship In One Month – Matawalle It, therefore asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to immediately “take in the indicted Managing Director, Hadiza Bala Usman, and commence a system-wide investigation with a view to prosecuting her, if found wanting”. “Our Caucus holds that the mere suspension of the indicted Managing Director of the NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, and the resort to an administrative panel of enquiry even after the report by the Supervising Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, exposed an unremitted and possibly diverted operating surplus of N165 billion, amounts romancing and perfuming corruption by the APC-led Federal Government. “The Minority Caucus also believes that the recourse to an administrative instead of a full-scale criminal investigation can only serve as a decoy to shield some other APC government officials involved in the looting spree at NPA and other affiliated agencies in the transport sector,” the statement read in part. The lawmakers expressed concerns that by committing the alleged NPA looting to an administrative panel, political manipulations and partisan influences had taken precedence over what should have been a system-wide investigation into a monumental fraud. “This is because, apart from the unremitted N165 billion cited by the Minister, other documents and reports from the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation had also uncovered several sleazes, including unremitted deduction to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) amounting to N3,667,750,470. $148,845,745.04, Euro 4,891,449.50 and £252,682.14. “This is in addition to audit query of N15.18 billion allegedly stolen through inflated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects/programmes under the watch of the suspended NPA Managing Director. “As representatives of the suffering people of Nigeria, our Caucus is particularly very worried that such monumental lootings are going on at a time terrorists, bandits, unknown gunmen, and criminal militias are reigning supreme across the length and breadth of the country and life has consequently become the cheapest article in the country,” the lawmakers said. They added that such resources if channelled to the security sector and well managed would have made a world of difference in addressing the problem of insecurity in the country.

The Factual Errors of Dr Femi Okunnu on the Status of Lagos

By Adewale Adeoye I do not know what Dr Femi Okunnu stand to gain from his piece, but he obviously went on a mission to distort the history of Lagos State and its civilisations. We are talking of history. We are not talking of politics. He should allow experts to lead him through this straightforward highway. He admitted Awori were the first settlers in Lagos but he failed to acknowledge two things about the Awori: They are the original owners of Lagos State (not just Lagos Island) and secondly, their ascendancy was more some 300 years before the encounter with Benin. Awori left Ile Ife on the instruction of Oduduwa who asked them to settle where ever AWO-RI. Passing through the sea-shore they had placed the calabash (AWO) on the ocean and in line with spiritual injunction, when the AWO sank, they decided to settle there Again, he wrote about “invasion of Lagos by Benin”. In the first place there were no records of war between the Awori and Bini. What we heard and read was about mutual sharing of power between the owners of the land, the Awori and Bini Royalty. He also mischieviously evaded a major point: The Bini royalty that came to Lagos were of Yoruba descendancy and that was why Awori who came from Ile Ife accepted to share power with the Bini royalty. Again, Oba Ado who reigned from 1630-1669 was the second Oba of Lagos. He was son of Ashipa, whom the Oba of Benin appointed as the first but at the same time, Oba Ado came from B son of Oranmiyan, a Yoruba prince. Unfortunately, he portrayed the Bini royalty as a stranger. Oranmiyan left Bini in 1300 and it was after his exit that his own blood came back to Lagos. Mr Okunnu wrote about Nupe connection with Lagos. He should be honest to admit that Chief Oshodi Landuji Tapa (c.1800 to 1868) was Oba Kosoko’s war assistant. We are talking of one individual. There was nothing like Nupe as an ethnic nationality settling in large numbers in Lagos. There were Yoruba individuals that settled in Sokoto around 1700. There were Hausa that came and settled in Ibadan in 1800, that does not make the territories they settled Yoruba or Hausa. Mr Okunnu also wrote about the Brazilian returnees but he failed to admit that they were actually largely of Yoruba people returning home. Many of them were from from the Yoruba hinterland but preferred to settle in Lagos because it met their new found social and cultural milieu. Till date, the only dominant culture, religion and language in Cuba and Latin America is Yoruba He wrote about Badagry. He failed to state the fact that the Badagry dynasty that is dominion is Yoruba who had migrated to Togo and Ga in Accra but returned to Badagry in the 16th century. De Wheno Aholu-Toyi 1, the 15th Akran of Badagry said and I quote “As a matter of fact and for the avoidance of doubt, the earliest Monarchy for Badagry stool had its root from Accra and the old Gold Ghost through Ga/Ewe speaking group historically reputed to have migrated from the ancient Ketu Kingdom (part of Oduduwa major Kingdom which left Ile Ife around the mid-twelfth century (1257) and established the Badagry Kingdom” When Mr Okunnu wrote about Lagos, what is he talking about? Is he talking of Lagos State or Lagos (Eko), a smaller piece of land in downtown of Lagos? He appears to have forgotten that the title Oba of Lagos is a new phenomenon. It used to be Eleko of Eko. Eko is different from Lagos State. His authority should be restricted to Islale Eko, which represents less than 3 percent of the entire landmass of Lagos. He should know he cannot speak for the over 51 traditional and indigenous territories in Lagos. Dr Okuunu has also forgotten about the new Lagos that emerged in the early part of 18th century and the later part of 19th century including but not limited to sprawling dominions like Somolu(Ijebu), Mushin(Ijebu), Ikorodu(Ijebu), Ketu (Awori and Ekiti), Abule-Egba, Ijora ( a mix of Awori and Igbomina Yoruba from Kwara and Osun States and places like Ikeja, Onigbongbo all Awori land. It is very unfortunate how some of our educated people can display a rabidly poor sense of history and a complete lack of understanding of what strategic interests means. Dr Okunnu appear comfortable with Lagos swallowed by alien hegemony. What does he think about the encircling terrorists? Will Bini or Nupe Kingdoms be able to save Lagos when the city comes under threat from outsiders? Does he in his simple reasoning ever imagined Lagos can be saved from total annihilation through narrow and parochial narratives or by tactical alliance with the rich culture inherent in Yoruba civilisation? What does he think should be the long term strategic interest of Lagos: an alliance with your immediate neighbours who share your history and culture or an empty assumption that sworn enemies from 1000 miles away will be a better shield because in all, Dr Okunnu wrote for the convenience of narrow, sectarian and self serving politics rather for the utilitarian good of Lagos? To compare Fulani invasion in some Northern territories to Yoruba in Lagos is an embarrassment to himself and the tendency he represents. Its also patently unfounded. Is he suggesting there was a language and culture that preceded Yoruba in Lagos? That is ridiculous. Dr Okunnu should let the world know his own family tree What Dr Okunnu has done is an attempt to build castles in the air. His fallacy collapses in the face of superior logic

ENDSARS: Judicial panel of enquiry of vanity

By Ibe Pascal Arogorn Frederick Nwabufo wrote, “The streets of Nigeria are coursing with the blood of innocents felled by guilty bullets of state agents. The Nigerian flag has turned scarlet from being a sponge soaking up the living fluid of harmless citizens who thought that the murderers would respect the symbol of the nation and spare their lives. The bodies of citizens are broken, littering the alleys. Young Nigerians who only ventured out with nothing but the flag, their fist and voice to protest against police brutality became victims of the violence they are campaigning against. Is it not time for the judicial panel of enquiry be dissolved. Up till now, cross examinations on whether the Nigerian army shot at peaceful protesters at lekki tollgate on 20 October 2020 hasn’t ended. Even with photos, videos witnesses , and international reports yet the probe panel is cross examining. From onset this EndSARS judicial panel of enquiry was instituted by various state governors across the 36 states in Nigeria, it was just a joke. After tensions flew up in the air after the protests escalated, the federal government fear that it might turn into a revolution like in Egypt. This became real reasons for setting the EndSars judicial panel of enquiry. For 7 months after the protest, the panel has only rewarded few people involved in the hands of police brutality. In Nigeria, a system can’t fight itself. After all sett and done, they will sit at a table of kindred . Nothing will come out of the judicial panel of enquiry. They have compromised long time ago. The nemesis of having untruthful government Ibe Pascal Arogorn, a journalist, writer and public affairs analyst writes from Orlu , Imo state.

ALERT: Debris Of Chinese Rocket May Hit Abuja This Weekend

There is a tiny chance that the debris from a Chinese rocket could hit Abuja this weekend. Citing experts and officials, NBC, an American news platform, said a piece of a rocket launched by China in late April is expected to re-enter earth’s atmosphere between late Saturday and early Sunday. “It’s 10-stories tall and twice as heavy as a school bus, and it’s set to crash back to Earth this weekend — but no one is quite sure where or when.” “The 98-foot-long, 20-ton section of China’s Long March 5B rocket is tumbling through space in an uncontrolled orbit at 18,000 miles per hour after blasting off last month carrying part of the country’s new space station., according to experts and officials,” NBC said in its report. Beijing, capital of China, the American cities of New York and Los Angeles, Madrid in Spain, and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil were listed as other places where the rocket could land. Scientists say the risk of it killing anyone after it re-enters the planet is small but not impossible In a tweet on Friday, The Aerospace Corporation, a US nonprofit research firm, said its prediction for landing was eight hours on either side of 4:19 GMT time on Sunday. It pinpointed an area near the north island of New Zealand as a possible re-entry point but said it could happen anywhere across large parts of the planet. Don Pollacco, a physics professor at England’s University of Warwick, who tracks space debris, was quoted to have said, “You have got a big lump of metal in space that’s in a declining orbit because it’s rubbing up against the atmosphere. It will hit the atmosphere, bounce around a bit and it’s correct to say most of the planet is covered by water, so that’s where it will likely land. “But there’s a chance it won’t.” Asked about the rocket Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said it would burn up on re-entry calling its descent “common international practice.” “The probability of causing harm to aviation activities or activities on the ground are extremely low.” he said.