Crime Facts

GODFATHERISM: Delta senator kneels before ex-convict, Ibori

James Manager, a ranking senator from Delta State, has been seen kneeling before James Ibori, a two-term governor of the state. Manager, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker, represents Delta South Senatorial District. First elected in 2003, Manager is currently on his fourth term at the upper chamber of the National Assembly. Although he left power in 2007 and was later convicted for fraud in the UK, Ibori wields a huge influence in Delta. He has been instrumental to the emergence of all those who have governed Delta since he left power. While in UK prison, there were reports that politicians went there to consult with him over Delta politics. Manager served as sports commissioner under Ibori.

Oyedepo right to have sacked 40 pastors – Fatoyinbo

Biodun Fatoyinbo, Senior Pastor, Commonwealth of Zion Assembly, COZA, has backed Bishop David Oyedepo for sacking 40 pastors. He said there is no room for laziness or unfruitfulness in the house of God. Oyedepo’s sack of 40 pastors of Living Faith Chuch Worldwide, has elicited anger on social media. Oyedepo, while addressing his congregation on Wednesday justified sacking of his pastors, noting that they were sacked because they were unfruitful to the church. The winners chapel cleric rubbished reports that the pastors were sacked because of money or income they generate for the church. Reacting to the development, Fatoyinbo expressed support for Bishop Oyedepo’s action. He said there is no room for laziness and unfruitfulness in the house of God. The COZA pastor said that if the sack happened in a bank, there would be no report on social media. “If you were fired by the Bank for not meeting up with your deliverables, will you go on social media?” He wrote. The COZA pastor also quoted a bible verse Luke 13:6-9 where a man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and there was no fruit and was asked to cut down the tree.

Sunday Igboho arrested with Nigerian, German passports -Lawyer

Ibrahim David Salami, the counsel for Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, in Benin Republic, has said that the rights activist was arrested with Nigerian and German passports. This is contrary to claims that Igboho was tried for possessing a Beninise passport despite not being a citizen of the country. Salami told BBC Yoruba that “It is not true that Benin Republic passport was found on Sunday Igboho when he was arrested. “What was found on him were Nigerian and German passport. His wife had only her German passport on her at the point of arrest.” Following the bloody raid on Igboho’s Sooka residence, the Department of State Services arrested and detained 13 of Igboho’s associates, adding that during a “gun duel,” it had killed two of Igboho’s supporters later identified as Adogan and Alfa. DSS had presented seven AK-47 rifles allegedly recovered during the raid on Igboho’s house on July 1, as well as three pump-action guns, 30 fully charged AK-47 magazines, 5,000 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, five cutlasses, one jack-knife, one pen knife, two pistol holsters, a pair of binoculars, a wallet containing $5, local and international driving licences in his name, ATM cards, a German residence permit No. YO2N6K1NY bearing his name, two whistles, 50 cartridges and 18 walkie-talkies. Others were three charm jackets/traditional body armour, two laptops, one Toshiba and one Compaq laptop, Igboho’s passport and those of his aides. Meanwhile, the Federal Government had on July 17 said Sunday Igboho is trying to acquire a new passport to flee the country. It added that the government had placed Igboho on the stop-list in order to facilitate his arrest and directed the security agencies to apprehend him anywhere he is found. In the security circle, a person whose name is on the stop-list is denied all constitutional rights and privileges a citizen is entitled to. The Federal Government’s directive against Igboho was contained in a letter by the Nigeria Immigration Service dated July 9, 2021, addressed to the Director-General, Department of State Services, the Inspector General of Police and the DG, National Intelligence Agency. The activist, a spearhead of the separatist agitation for the Yoruba Nation, had been declared wanted by the Department of State Services on allegations of stockpiling arms to destabilise the country, which he has since denied.

Nigeria Experiencing Its Worst Unemployment Crisis – World Bank Report

A report by the World Bank suggests that Nigeria’s unemployment crisis in recent times is the worst in the nation’s history. The report, which raised an alarm over the nation’s rising unemployment situation was published by the World Bank with support from the Korea World Bank Partnership Facility (KWPF) and the Rapid Social Response (RSR) trust funds. According to the research paper, the nation’s expanding working-age population combined with scarce domestic employment opportunities is creating high rates of unemployment, particularly for youth. This situation has also been worsened by the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Between 2010 and 2020, the unemployment rate rose five-fold, from 6.4 percent in 2010 to 33.3 percent in 2020. “The rise in unemployment rates has been particularly acute since the 2015- 2016 economic recession and has further worsened as COVID-19 led to the worst recession in four decades in 2020” the paper read in part. The unemployment rate is defined nationally as the percentage of the labour force population who could not find at least 20 hours of work in the reference period, which the paper says was significantly higher for youth (42.5 per cent) compared to non-youth (26.3 per cent). It was also discovered that women are particularly vulnerable in Nigeria’s labor market. “Compared to 46.4 percent of the male population who are fully employed, only 40.6 percent of women are fully employed”. The share of fully employed came up significantly lower in rural areas compared to urban areas. It was the viewpoint of the World Bank Report that the socio-economic challenges facing Nigerians in the last 10 years have led to a tremendous increase in the number of citizens seeking asylum and refugee status in other countries. According to the Washington-based institution, the number of international migrants from Nigeria has increased threefold since 1990, growing from 446,806 in 1990 to 1,438,331 in 2019. Despite this trend, the share of international migrants as a proportion to Nigeria’s population has remained largely constant, increased slightly from 0.5 per cent in 1990 to 0.7 per cent in 2019. In the report titled: ‘Of Roads Less Travelled: Assessing the Potential for Migration to Provide Overseas Jobs for Nigeria’s Youth’, the World Bank further estimated that there were 2.1 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria in 2020 alone. The recent rise in irregular migration notwithstanding, the share of international migrants in Nigeria’s population was much lower compared to the shares in Sub-Saharan Africa and globally. The World Bank while noting that key sectoral documents such as the National Labor Migration Policy (2014) and National Employment Policy (2017) offer suitable suggestions to leverage managed migration for providing overseas employment opportunities to Nigerian youth, the issue of migration is absent or less salient in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP 2017–2020). “With Nigeria receiving more than US$25 billion in remittances in 2019, the absence of migration as a mainstream development tool to provide jobs to the bulging youth population is perplexing,” the transcripts stressed. Adding that “the drafting of the new ERGP provides a good opportunity for labor migration to be mainstreamed as one of the key strategies to generate employment for Nigerian job seekers”.

Anambra Community offers land to Unizik, free of charge

Umueje community in Ayamelum local government area of Anambra State has offered a portion of its land to Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, free of charge. The Traditional ruler of the community, Igwe Elias Uyammadu Nneli, disclosed this to Journalists, shortly after a court session at the Federal High Court, Awka, on Thursday, presided over by Justice Nnadi Dimgba, that struck out a case brought to it by one of the community’s illustrious son, Mr Benson Amuluche. Igwe Nneli explained that the land was given to the institution to put up its Annex agricultural faculty in the area and also to create job opportunities for the teeming youths from the community. ‌ Tribune Online gathered that Chief Amuluche brought a case before the court to stop the community giving the land to the school management, alleging that the school should be paying royalty to the community which the traditional ruler and his cabinet kicked against. They claimed that land ownership in the community was based on communal basis and that the constitution, right from inception, do not give land to visitors on royalty. Igwe Nneli urged the plaintiff to have a rethink and join hands with the leadership of the community in bringing the desired development into the community In reaction to the judgement, the counsel to the community, Barrister Lawrence Obiora, said the plaintiff, Mr Benson Amuluche, were looking for a declaration that they are the owners of the land that was given to the University. The counsel said the contention of the community had been that the case was a land matter bothering on a declaration of title to land and that the court found out it has no legal jurisdiction to handle the matter and that the parties involved should meet the appropriate court. The former Deputy president-general of the community, Chief Felix Chidube, while saying the land was given to the institution in 2020, reasoned that the judgement favoured the community and will bring the desired partnership the community had wanted with UNIZIK. He said, “the land was given in consonant with the laws of Umueje community. Some communities have been looking for this opportunity and we saw it as a privilege to give out our community land to the institution. The court struck out the suit and we are very happy, he said. However, the prosecuting counsel refused to comment on the matter when he was approached by Journalists, immediately after the court session.

Igboho’s trial adjourned till July 26 as Nigeria fails to file charges

Maxwell Adeleye, communications manager of Ilana Omo Oodua, says Nigeria did not file any charge against Sunday Igboho when he was arraigned at Cour De’appal De Cotonou, Republic of Benin on Thursday. Igboho was arraigned at the court after his arrest at the Cardinal Bernardin International Airport, Cotonou on Monday night. He was arrested with his wife on their way to Germany. Adeleye said Igboho lawyers told Ilana Omo Oodua after yesterday’s hearing that the court said Nigeria and Benin Republic have no extradition agreement, while also ruling out possibility of Igboho being handed to Nigerian government. A statement signed by Adeleye on behalf of Ilana Omo Oodua noted that Ropo, Igboho’s wife, was released by the court because she had no case to answer. The statement said: “Yesterday, the court set lgboho’s wife free since it has been found that she has committed no offence and there’s no complain whatsoever against her. Consequently, her German passport was returned to her. “The Lawyers handling the case reported after the proceedings that Sunday lgboho cannot be extradited to Nigeria for two principal reasons: That contrary to insinuations, Nigeria and Benin have no Extradition Agreement. “That Nigeria has not been able to come up with charges that could lead the court to order lgboho’s extradition to Nigeria. What Nigerian government came up with were mere allegations against Ighoho such as trafficking in arms and inciting violence that could result in the social disturbance without evidence which the government of Benin Republic considered spurious and untenable, and insufficient to warrant extradition. “Lastly, the case has been adjourned till Monday July 26, to allow the Nigerian government bring up whatever evidence they may have, and Mr. lgboho has been taken back to the police custody.” Igboho was declared wanted by the Department of State Services earlier in July after his Ibadan house was raided by operatives of the DSS. Two people were killed by the DSS in the late night raid while 12 other persons were arrested and later paraded in Abuja. They have since been charged to court.

Man Beats Wife To Death Over N1,000 In Adamawa

A 41-year-old man, Usman Hammawa, has been apprehended by the Adamawa State Police Command for allegedly beating his 36-year-old wife to death over N1,000. A fight ensued after Rabiyatu Usman demand her husband refund N1,000 she lent him. Government Area of Adamawa State, applied force on his late wife by hitting her head against a wall, which made her unconscious. She was rushed to the hospital where she was confirmed dead. The accused was arrested by the police in Ganye LGA following complaints received from his late wife’s relatives. Usman, a civil servant with Ganye LGA, had five children with the deceased after 16 years of marriage. The image maker of the Adamawa State Police Command, DSP Suleiman Nguroje, said the Commissioner of Police, CP Aliyu Adamu Alhaji, commended the locals and police for exposing and making it impossible for the criminal to escape justice. However, he directed for discreet investigations to be conducted and ensure that the suspect is prosecuted accordingly.

Produce Igboho’s aide court orders DSS

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Friday has granted the applications of the 12 detained aides of Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho. Justice Obiora Egwuatu in his ruling on the ex parte application before the court, ordered that the Department of State Service should produce the detained aides of Sunday Igboho in court on the next adjourned date. Justice Egwuatu also ordered the DSS to show cause why the applicants should not be admitted to bail. The matter was adjourned to July 29 to take place during the court vacation. Recall that the 12 detained associates of Yoruba Nation activist, Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, had instituted a suit against the Department of State Services and its Director-General, Yusuf Bichi. Sunday Igboho arrested with Nigerian, German passports -Lawyer BREAKING: Benin court adjourns Igboho’s hearing till Monday -Ilana Oodua The applicants’ counsel, Pelumi Olajengbesi, moved his ex parte motion praying the court for an order “mandating and compelling the respondents to produce the applicants” to enable the court “inquire into the circumstances constituting grounds of their arrest and detention” since July 1, 2021 and where it seems fit, grant applicants bail.” They also sought the order of the court mandating and compelling the respondents to produce the applicants before the court and “show cause as to why the applicants should not be granted bail in accordance with the provision of Section 32 of Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 and other extant laws in Nigeria.” Olajengbesi argued that the applicants are citizens of Nigeria with inherent rights. The ex-parte motion was supported by an eight-paragraph affidavit, exhibit, 11-paragraph affidavit of extreme urgency, affidavit of non-complicity of action, and a written address.

Igboho: We ask our God to deal with Buhari’ — Ayo Adebanjo

Ayo Adebanjo, leader of Afenifere, Yoruba socio-political group, says the federal government has no right to seek Sunday Igboho’s extradition from Benin Republic. He asked “God to deal with Buhari”. A few weeks after Ighoho was declared “wanted” by the Department of State Services (DSS), Benin Republic’s security forces arrested him in Cotonou while he was trying to flee to Germany. Nigerian authorities have been pushing for the extradition of the Yoruba nation agitator from the Francophone country. Igboho’s arrest has generated reactions from prominent voices in Nigeria, especially from the south-western part of the country. The Agbekoya Farmers Society said it “is ready to fight for Igboho’s freedom” while demanding that “nothing must happen to him”. On Thursday, in a chat with Arise TV, Adebanjo added his voice to the stream of reactions. He described Igboho as a “political prisoner”, and said the federal government has “no right” to seek his extradition. The 93-year-old Afenifere leader said Nigerian authorities are only terrified of Igboho’s popularity, saying “the-power-that-be wants to kill him because he’s leading a popular revolt”. He then said, “Buhari may depend on chariots and everything, but we have God. And we call on our God to deal with Buhari”. “He [Igboho] is a political refugee. He didn’t commit any crime here. He didn’t waylaid or kill anybody. He didn’t run away from anybody after committing a crime. He ran for his life because the-power-that-be wants to kill him because of his agitation. Because he’s leading a popular revolt,” Adebanjo said. “When they see the crowd that Igboho is pulling at every meeting, that is what is terrifying them. Can Buhari summon the crowd that Igboho is summoning each time he holds a meeting, even with the fact that he [Buhari] gives money to who will attend the meeting, that is a rented crowd?” “You’re looking for somebody’s life, and you ask him to come and surrender himself. Who will do that? He has muzzled everybody: the press can’t talk, and there is a limit to questions that broadcasters can ask now without them closing the station. Keeping everybody quiet. But I tell you, Buhari may depend on chariots and everything, but we have God. And we call on our God to deal with Buhari. Because we are helpless, and he has all the ammunition of power. “

Bandits Invade Zamfara Community, Kill 3 Persons, Abduct 7

Bandits have again attacked the Dansadau community within Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State, killing 3 persons and abducting 7 others. A source in the community told Channels TV that the armed bandits attacked the community around 2:30am and the siege lasted for about 4 hours, ending in the early hours of Friday morning. He also confirmed that armoured personnel carrier belonging to the Nigerian military was also set ablaze by the bandits. This attack is coming barely a few days after 100 kidnapped victims from Manawa village under the Dansadau district were released by the marauders, and barely a week after a military Alpha jet was shot down by gunmen in the state. As of the time of filing this report, the state police command was yet to confirm the latest attack, though the public relations officer promised to get back to our correspondent with more information. Dansadau community is about ninety-nine kilometers from Gusau the Zamfara State capital and is one of the hottest zones in terms of banditry, kidnappings, and other related crimes in the state.