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Post Date : July 14, 2022

Baba Ijesha jailed 16 years for sexual assault

  An Ikeja special offences court in Lagos has sentenced Baba Ijesha, the embattled actor, to 16 years in prison for sexual assault involving a minor. The Yoruba actor has been in a protracted legal battle after he was said to have sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl. On Thursday, Oluwatoyin Taiwo, the judge presiding over the case, convicted Baba Ijesha of indecent treatment of a child, sexual assault, and attempted sexual assault in a two-hour judgment. Taiwo, however, discharged and acquitted him of count one and count six, which were: sexual assault by penetration and attempted sexual assault by penetration. The case was then stood down for a few minutes before the judge handed the sentence to the embattled actor. Taiwo added that the jail term will run concurrently. Baba Ijesha was arraigned on June 24, 2021. During the trial, six prosecution witnesses testified against him. They are Princess, the 14-year-old minor, Olabisi Ajayi-Kayode, a child expert; Aniekan Makanjuola, a medical doctor; Wahab Kareem, the investigating police officer; and Abigail Omane, a policewoman. Prior to the court verdict, he was facing a six-count charge of indecent treatment of a child, sexual assault, attempted sexual assault by penetration, and sexual assault by penetration. The charges were proffered against him by the Lagos state directorate of public prosecutions (DPP).

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Post Date : July 14, 2022

‘Kwankwaso not a threat to APC’

  Dr Salihu Lukman, All Progressives Congress (APC)National Vice-Chairman, North-West, says the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) is not a threat to APC in 2023 general election. Lukman, also the immediate past Director-General of Progressives Governors Forum (PFG) said this when he spoke with newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja. He, however, said that the APC would work hard to achieve success in the 2023 general elections because it was not taking anything for granted. Lukman said that the difference between APC, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other political parties was that the party has mass followership among the people. “We have made it very clear that the difference between APC in 2015 and Kwankwaso in 2023 is that APC is grounded in the minds of the people. “You can see for yourself, but in the case of other parties, including the PDP, they are hoping and waiting for us to mismanage ourselves on the basis of which they pack whatever we are not able to achieve. “Now, the reality is that we are not taking anything for granted, we are not dismissing people we are going to work hard,” he said. Lukman also supported the Tinubu/Shettima president ticket of the party saying that the APC leadership considered all factors before arriving at the ticket. He assured that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the party would protect the interest of all Nigerians if he emerged as the president with the support of the electorate in 2023. “My position which I have always buttressed is that politics is about contest and managing interests, certainly, the party leadership must have considered all factors before arriving at its choice of a running mate. “In the end, we have to convince Nigerians that Muslim-Muslim ticket or however you look at it does not mean discrimination against anybody,” he said. Speaking on his ongoing fact-finding tour of North West, Lukman said it was basically to hear from aggrieved members of the party and get suggestions on how to unite the party, ahead of the general elections. He said the key issue was basically reconciliation, adding that there was need to listen to aggrieved party members who unfortunately lost primary elections. “So the recommendations include setting up committees at state level to go round and meet everybody and try to pacify, and that is being done across most of the states. “The second issue has to do with complaints that some people who left the party are still holding on to federal appointments. “There are other issues which of course, are very critical as we have reflected in some of the statements we issued,” he said. This, he said, included issues of insecurity, unity among party members and the question of mobilising for voter registration.(NAN)

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Post Date : July 14, 2022

Police uncover baby factory in Delta, arrest suspects

  Operatives of the Delta State Police Command have uncovered a baby factory located within Obodogba community in the Okpanam Oshimili North Local Government Area of the state. Disclosing this to journalists in a signed press statement on Thursday, the spokesman for the state Police Command, DSP Bright Edafe, affirmed that three pregnant women were rescued from the den while two suspects; Promise Ejogu, aged 25 years and Aruna Sulieman, aged 29 years were arrested. According to the PPRO, the Police Command foiled the syndicate following information gathered that there was a baby factory located somewhere in Obodogba community, Okpanam. “Acting on the information, on July 10, 2022, at about 0730hours, operatives of the State Investigation Department stormed their den in Okpanam community, and successfully rescued three pregnant women, while the two suspects were arrested,” the PPRO said. It was gathered that one of the suspects, Promise Ejogu, is a brother to the ring leader of the syndicate who reportedly engages in sexual activities with these women to get them pregnant. The PPRO said that the suspects are currently in custody while efforts are ongoing to arrest the other members of the syndicate.

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Post Date : July 14, 2022

Ngige misinforming Buhari about strike, says ASUU president

  Emmanuel Osodeke, president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), says Chris Ngige, minister of labour, has been misinforming President Muhammadu Buhari on the union’s strike. On July 11, Buhari appealed to the union to reconsider its ongoing strike because the action is taking a toll on parents and students. Speaking on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme on Thursday, Osodeke said if the president had been properly briefed he would not have made such a statement. Concerning the negotiation, the ASUU president said the union is not aware of the figure being circulated by federal government as the amount needed to resolve the strike.   “If the president had been properly briefed by the committee through the minister of education, I don’t think the president would have said enough is enough, go to your class while we are negotiating,” he said. “It is the labour minister and his group that would have gone to the president to tell him that if we chase out his people, we refuse salary. “We are not aware of where their so-called figure arrives from. In all our agreement and discussion, we didn’t talk about 1.2 trillion or 2.4 trillion, or whatever. We didn’t.   “We didn’t calculate the quantum of what we would need. We calculated what each member of our union will earn. “If this man who is telling you this figure can tell a lie that ASUU chased out his members from the negotiation table, why would he not tell a lie about the figure. “The ministry is churning out fake figures. We negotiated with the ministry of education, so wherever they got the documents is their business.”

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Post Date : July 14, 2022

Stop Vote-Buying, Focus On Long-Term Gains — Don Jazzy

  Legendary Nigerian music mogul and beatmaker, Don Jazzy, has urged Nigerians to shun vote buying. The Mavin boss further stated that he understands it might not be easy to resist selling one’s vote as “ vote-buying has corrupted our electoral process.” Describing vote-buying as a menace, the music producer via his verified Twitter account told his fans to focus on the long-term gains if they vote for the right leader. “I know stopping the menace of vote buying that has corrupted our electoral process might not be easy. I can only urge Nigerians to be more mindful of the long-term gains of voting the right people into offices despite the attempts to financially sway their voting decisions,” he said. I know stopping the menace of vote buying that has corrupted our electoral process might not be easy. I can only urge Nigerians to be more mindful of the long-term gains of voting the right people into offices despite the attempts to financially sway their voting decisions. 🙏🏾 — ITS DON JAZZY AGAIN. 🐘 (@DONJAZZY) July 14, 2022 Don Jazzy further advised his fans and followers to desist from being “tools of disruption and violence that could mar our elections.” “We have a duty to sensitise ourselves to avoid being tools of disruption and violence that could mar our elections and disenfranchise voters at the polls. People should be able to exercise their rights without fear of coercion or intimidation,” he said. We have a duty to sensitise ourselves to avoid being tools of disruption and violence that could mar our elections and disenfranchise voters at the polls. People should be able to exercise their rights without fear of coercion or intimidation. — ITS DON JAZZY AGAIN. 🐘 (@DONJAZZY) July 14, 2022

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Post Date : July 14, 2022

Over 40 people unaccounted for as flood destroys houses, roads, bridges in US

  southwestern Virginia caused by heavy rains in the area on Wednesday. According to local authorities, over 100 houses were also destroyed by the flood, while roads and bridges have been eroded by mudslides and high water according to Virginia state emergency official’s news briefing in a local TV WYCB, based in Bristol. Reuters reported that about 18 search-and-rescue teams, including swift-water rescue crews have been deployed to the area in and around Whitewood, Virginia, early Wednesday. Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy, Eric Breeding disclosed these to reporters. Breeding said there were no confirmed fatalities or serious injuries so far, and that the 44 people mentioned as unaccounted reflected the number of individuals whose families have reported their whereabouts as unknown after floods struck. They were not considered “missing” as yet, since many were likely to have been merely left unreachable because of telephone and electricity service interruptions in the region. Meanwhile, Governor Glenn Youngkin has declared a state of emergency in southwestern Virginia in order to accelerate disaster aid to the flood-damaged area. The downpours blamed for the flooding were part of a larger storm system that struck the mid-Atlantic region Tuesday night and early Wednesday, with showers continuing into the morning hours. “Heavy rainfall caused flash flooding in Buchanan County, along with power outages, impacts to roads and other infrastructure and significant resource and operational challenges,” Youngkin said in his declaration.

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Post Date : July 14, 2022

Cancel South-East visit, IPOB advises British envoy

  The Indigenous People of Biafra has cautioned the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, to cancel her planned visit to the South-East. The proscribed group made the call after it raised the alarm over an alleged plot to assassinate the envoy during her visit. According to IPOB, which claimed it got the information through its intelligence arm, the M-Branch, the idea is to assassinate Laing in the South-East and blame it on its members. Revealing that the British envoy to Nigeria had “deep hatred” for the actualisation of Biafra restoration, the group warned that the information became expedient to put the world in the know of the assassination plot, saying, “we respect the sanctity of life”. The IPOB Director of Media and Publicity, Emma Powerful, stated this in a statement on Thursday, made available to The PUNCH. The statement reads in part, “The global movement and family of the Indigenous People of Biafra, under the leadership of our Liberator Mazi Nnamdi Okwuchukwu Kanu, wish to advise the British High Commissioner, Catriona Laing to be more conscious of her environment. “We as well call on British High Commissioner to shelve her regular visits to different parts of the Nigeria country-side especially the Biafraland otherwise referred to as South-East. “The reason for this sincere security advice is to save her life. Despite her hatred for Biafra and Igbos in particular, we have optimal respect and value for the sanctity of life, especially visitors to our land. “In view of the recently intercepted intel by our M-Branch, the IPOB Intelligence Unit Department, there’s an orchestrated conspiracy to perform a sacrifice big and powerful enough to strengthen the potency of the British hatred against the Igbos and Biafra. Such high profile plan is zeroed toward using a highly placed person capable of making headline news globally as a scapegoat. “The leadership of IPOB do hereby advise that Ms Catriona Liang, must as a matter of life and death suspend all her planned activities involving travels within Biafran Territories. “Those that are threatened by Biafra restoration project have perfected evil plans to assassinate Ms Catriona Liang, the British Envoy on Biafra soil as a quick and cogent reason for Britain to disengage their weapons supplies to Ukraine and concentrate same towards Nigeria to be used against Biafrans. “Their aim is to quash the agitation for Self Determination and to kill as many Indigenous Biafrans as possible and other residents in Biafra land. “We want to make it unequivocally clear to the International Community that IPOB is a non-violent Self Determination movement and we understand the usefulness of diplomacy and we respect diplomatic relations. “In spite of the Nigerian government’s unprovoked attacks, arrest, torture, illegal detentions, rape, killings and forceful disappearance of our family members especially oue youth, IPOB has not changed our peaceful non-violent agitation into armed struggle.” It added, “IPOB does not wish the British envoy death or dead. However, if she ignores this advice and walks into the trap already set by the enemies of the Biafra struggle, that will be considered suicidal. “We also want to let those masterminding the assassination plot of a British envoy to understand that nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, will slow down let alone halt the Biafra restoration project. We, therefore, advise the British envoy never to lose your guard even while we’ve successfully burst their plan. “It is worthy to note that we had never attacked British persons, citizens, institutions, investments and properties of any kind, and we do not have such intention now or in the future, notwithstanding being at the receiving end of the British unpleasant attitudes, Igbophobic, Biafraphobic and stringent policies.”

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Post Date : July 14, 2022

ASUU Strike: FG has completely abandoned education — Ebo

  CHAIRPERSON of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Federal University Otuoke, Bayelsa State chapter, Dr Socrates Ebo, has lamented that the ongoing strike by universities teachers in the country is a clear demonstration that governments have completely abandoned education. Ebo, in a statement in Yenagoa, while reacting to the negotiation between the Union and the government team led Nimi Briggs Committee, said it is sad that government has completely abdicated its responsibility as far as education is concerned. The ASUU chairperson who questioned the sincerity of the government in implementing the recommendations of the various committees, also decried what he described as the lack of coordination between the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Education with regards to the strike. According to Ebo, “When a government sets committee after committee and disowns their recommendations, you know that the government lacks coordination. “What is certain is that there is no coordination between the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Education over the ongoing ASUU strike. The two ministries are clearly working at cross purposes.” He berated the federal government for deploying the hunger strategy on varsity lecturers on the assumption that the brute force of hunger would force the striking lecturers back to the classroom. “Our Union is negotiating with the government team which is the Nimi Briggs Committee. The committee is an agent of government not an agent of ASUU. The committee has reached some agreements with ASUU and presented the proposals to the government. “That was exactly what the government mandated it to do. A sincere government would have signed the agreement without hassles. Even if there are gray areas, a sincere government would have implemented the areas it considers agreeable while working to fine-tune areas of disagreement. “All these point to the clear unwillingness of government to speedily resolve the impasse. The government on the other hand deploys the hunger strategy on the assumption that the brute force of hunger would force the striking lecturers back to the classroom. “Let me tell you how worthless a lecturer’s salary is today. 10 years ago a fresh PhD holder earned N138 000. Ten years ago, 200L LG refrigerator cost about N30 000. A Lecturer II could afford to purchase 4 of such refrigerators with his one month salary and still have reasonable change. Today, 10 years after, a fresh PhD holder’s salary has been reduce to about N128, 000 by IPPIS. “Same 200L LG refrigerator now costs about N190 000. The same salary that could purchase 4 of them and have change 10 years ago cannot purchase one such refrigerators. Yet the same lecturer is still receiving same amount. It has even been reduced to N128 000 by IPPIS! This is a perfect demonstration of government economic brutality against lecturers,” Ebo stated.

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Post Date : July 14, 2022

APC Postpones Official Unveiling Of Vice Presidential Candidate

  The All Progressives Congress has postponed the official unveiling of former Borno State Governor, Kashim Shetima, as its vice presidential candidate for the 2023 general election. Shetima was meant to have been presented to party members at the APC national Secretariat on Thursday, but the Chairman of the APC Press Corp told reporters the event has been moved forward. He said a new date will be announced in due time and that the date would probably be sometime next week.   The Press Corp chairman said the directive for the postponement was given by the party’s Deputy National Secretary. No reason has been given for the decision which comes amid controversy over the choice of a Muslim-Muslim ticket by the party.   More to follow…

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Post Date : July 14, 2022

US court sentences Nigerian man to 8yrs imprisonment for defrauding Americans

  United States district judge, Theodore D. Chuang, on Wednesday, has sentenced a Nigerian man, Oluwaseyi Akinyemi, popularly known as “Paddy Linkin” to eight years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, two counts of mail fraud relating to a social media advanced fee fraud scheme that targeted elderly victims. Judge Chuang also ordered 35-year-old Akinyemi, a resident of Hyattsville, Maryland to pay $486,119.07 in restitution to his victims. The ruling was published by the Department of Justice, US Attorney’s Office, District of Maryland on Wednesday. The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Acting Special Agent in Charge Selwyn Smith of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; Acting Special Agent in Charge Troy Springer, of the Washington Regional Office, U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General; and Chief Malik Aziz of the Prince George’s County Police Department. “Akinyemi committed elder fraud and CARES Act COVID-19 fraud, which are both priorities for this Office,” Barron said. “Akinyemi not only took advantage of a nursing care patient, a national health crisis, and an employment crisis, but he also caused financial harm to at least 13 elderly victims.” According to his guilty plea, from July 10, 2018 to April 29, 2019, Akinyemi and at least one co-conspirator engaged in a social media based elder fraud scheme. Members of the conspiracy targeted elderly victims on social media platforms, representing themselves as agents of both real and fabricated government organisations and offered victims non-existent financial rewards if the victims first sent cash, money orders, or gift cards to cover associated “taxes and fees.” His accomplices even impersonated social media accounts of the victim’s friends to vouch for their fraudulent financial scheme. Thinking that they would get a financial reward, the victims sent cash, money orders, gift cards, and other valuable items through the mail to Akinyemi as well as other members of the conspiracy in order to obtain a financial reward. Akinyemi, who lived in Landover, Maryland at the time, received packages under the aliases of Paddy Linkin,” “Flex,” “Joseph Kadin,” “Anna Marcos,” and other aliases. After receiving the fraudulently obtained funds, the Nigerian kept a portion of the funds and provided the rest of the fraudulently obtained cash to co-conspirators in Nigeria. Akinyemi admitted that this advance fee fraud scheme defrauded 13 victims from around the United States, ranging in age from 47 to 78 years old, of a total of $478,145.07. During an interview with law enforcement on April 25, 2019, Akinyemi confirmed that he had received packages from victims throughout the country, detailed the scheme to defraud, and informed investigators that people in Nigeria were responsible for soliciting the victims to send money to him. Further, Akinyemi stated that he received approximately $80,000 in the mail in the year prior to his interview. At least five victims suffered a substantial financial hardship as a result of the money that was fraudulently obtained by Akinyemi and his co-conspirators during the execution of the scheme. A total of nine unemployment insurance claims were filed using the address of Akinyemi’s D.C. nursing care client. As stated in his plea agreement, 10 CARES Act Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (“PUA”) claims were filed with the state of Maryland using Akinyemi’s Landover residence as the mailing address, with an intended loss of more than $170,000. In total, Akinyemi and his co-conspirators used the identities of 19 real individuals to file fraudulent CARES Act unemployment insurance and PUA claims, causing an actual loss of more than $7,000, and an intended loss of $250,000 in state and federal benefits.

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