The Police in Ebonyi State, Thursday said it has arrested the commander of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB/Eastern Security Network, ESN in Abakaliki It added that during its operation stolen vehicle, improvised explosive devices, IED, murdered police officers’ uniforms, long range riot gunners and their cartridges, among other items were recovered by the command The police operation, which took place “on one of the biggest and most notorious Camps of the IPOB/ESN located at Obegu, a boundary area between Onicha-Isu and Ishielu LGAs of Ebonyi State” was necessitated by a “credible information gathered that the hoodlums were operating/wreaking havoc in the State with a Toyota Sienna space bus, which they robbed at gun point from the owner within Ishielu axis.” Disclosing this in a statement, the Police Public Relations Officer, Ebonyi State Police Command, SP Chris Anyanwu added that “A quick trail and joint effort with a team of detectives attached to Ohaukwu Division led to the arrest of Sunday Ubah a.k.a Bongo, the State Commander of the IPOB/ESN in Ebonyi State.” According to him, “The miscreant who gave revealing pieces of information about the activities and modus operandi of the criminals, initially claimed that he is their PRO and native of Umunnochi in Isuikwuato LGA, Abia State. However, a scrupulous investigation aided by his antecedents/profile with the Police Command proved that he is a native of Obegu, Onicha LGA of Ebonyi State and indeed the factional Commander of the outfit in Obegu. “,During the gun duel that ensued while the hoodlums were tracked down and pursued along Agba-Isu road on Wednesday 14/12/2022, a couple of Police operatives sustained minor bullet injuries while two of the hoodlums were neutralized, one (the Commander) apprehended while others escaped with various degrees of bullet injuries. “As a follow-up, a joint team of the Command’s Tactical Teams, the Military and DSS, armed with credible information courtesy of the suspect, swooped on swooped on the houses/residences of the Commander and others. Search Warrants executed and the following massive incriminating exhibits recovered.” Other items recoverd include: Thirty (30) pieces of IEDs using safety fuses primed in non-electric initiator/detonator, “Sixty-three (63) wraps of Super power 90mm gelatin; Two (02) Solar prime 90mm gelatin; Sixteen (16) Danger 90 gelatin; Twenty (20) Ideal power 90 gelatin 50mm, “Two hundred and thirty-nine (239) pieces of plain Non-electric detonators, 7. Fourteen (14) pieces of primed nonels, Ninety-nine (99) pieces of one-inch safety fuses, One complete roll of Safety fuse. “Two proscribed Biafran flags, silver-coated daggers, assorted fetish substances, charms, manual welding/fabricating cylinder, Four long-range riot gunners, 124 smoke cartridges, four police uniforms belonging to slain Policemen, assorted military/police boots, Military camouflage uniforms “A defaced/hand-painted Toyota Sienna space bus, First-Aid box, bag containing foodstuff, improvise solar panels, CCTV gadgets.” Meanwhile, the arrested suspect is helping the detectives of the Command to carry out further investigation on the matter.

  The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC said the Commission was not behind the travails of former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu. The embattled Ekweremadu, had claimed the Commission is behind his bail refusal by the United Kingdom authorities. Ekweremadu also told Justice Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court in Abuja that EFCC was responsible for his travails at the London Court where he had been in detention over alleged organ harvest. The senator’s allegations were contained in an application he filed before the federal high court seeking an order of the court to set aside interim order granted in favour of the Federal Government for the forfeiture of his 40 properties in and outside the country. However, in its counter affidavit, the EFCC argued that the allegations made against it by Ekweremadu’s son showed he was not conversant with the proceedings in the criminal prosecution against his parents in the London court, which was why he thought the EFCC “has a hand in the predicament and travails of his parents.” The EFCC, while not denying communicating with the UK authorities, said its July 18 2022 letter to the Crown Prosecution Service, UK, was in response to the Crown Prosecution’s letter of July 17, 2022 “was a mere routine to a counterpart government agency in accordance with the global best practice of information sharing with other law enforcement and other agencies in the USA and UK “The response of the respondent to the Crown Prosecution Service was never an instigation or encouragement to the Crown Prosecution Service to detain Senator Ike Ekweremadu or anyone else, as the respondent was neither linked to nor had any interest in the subject of investigation in the U.K., namely trafficking a person with a view to exploitation, that is, organ harvesting. “Both the Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service in the U.K. are independent agencies with wide discretion to carry out their duties/responsibilities and cannot be influenced by anyone, including the respondent. “The respondent, being a foremost premiere and flagship law enforcement agency does share information and intelligence with other law enforcement agencies worldwide including the Metropolitan Police of the UK, FBI of the United States, KGB of Russia and other renowned law enforcement agencies. “As such, the innuendoes, insinuations speculations and presumptions manifest in the aforementioned paragraphs of Lloyd Ekweremadu’s affidavit are unfounded and unkind to the respondent,” it said. The EFCC, which claimed to have been investigating Ekweremadu for money laundering before now, argued that no law requires it to initiate forfeiture proceedings or criminal charges against a suspect within a particular number of years or a time frame. It added that “the filing of the instant forfeiture proceedings was a mere coincidence with the arrest of Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife, Beatrice N. Ekweremadu in the UK. Lawyer to the EFCC, Sylvanus Tahir, SAN argued otherwise and prayed the court to reject the motion since the case was not directed at Ekweremadu, but at the property, to which some individuals and organisations were already laying claim. Meanwhile, Justice Inyang Ekwo has adjourned till January 25 next year for the ruling.

  Traditional rulers have told Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State that there was need for circumspection in the debt issues between him and his predecessor, Adegboyega Oyetola. The monarchs gave the advice when Governor Adeleke was addressing the council of traditional rulers at their monthly meeting. At the meeting, Adeleke said the state was indebted to the tune of N407.32 billion besides debt owed local contractors. Reacting, the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrosheed Akanbi said he was not disputing facts presented before the monarchs, but Oyetola as governor cannot borrow such huge amount. He said: “Since you said what you presented today is from the Accountant-General, I don’t want to discard it. “If somebody has put us in this mess question him, let’s give room for fair hearing. I don’t want to jump to conclusion. “But I know Oyetola cannot do such. But if he has done so, according to what was presented today, the former governor should tell us. We deserve to know the truth.” Also, the Olowu of Kuta, Oba Adekunle Oyelude urged the governor to concentrate on governance with a view to deliver on his 100 days in office as promised during his electioneering campaign. “Mr Governor, you need to leave brickbat to your party and face governance. There is a lot of landmines ahead of you. “You have to face governance with a view to meeting our expectations and your promise on 100 days in office, the days are counting,” he said.

  The International Criminal Court on Thursday threw out an appeal by Dominic Ongwen, a Ugandan child soldier-turned-commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army, against his conviction and 25-year sentence for war crimes. Dominic Ongwen, who was himself abducted aged nine by the rebel group led by the fugitive Joseph Kony, was found guilty last year of murder, rape and sexual enslavement in northern Uganda during the early 2000s. “The appeals chamber unanimously rejects all the grounds of appeal” against his conviction, said Judge Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza. One ground of appeal against his sentence was rejected by majority and the rest unanimously. Dressed in a dark suit and tie, Ongwen briefly waved to the public gallery but otherwise remained impassive as he listened through headphones to the judgment. Appeals judges said that although Ongwen had been kidnapped as a “defenceless child” it did not mitigate his guilt. They also rejected his arguments about mental illness, and said he had a key role in LRA atrocities as an adult. The LRA was founded three decades ago by former Catholic altar boy and self-styled prophet Joseph Kony, who launched a bloody rebellion in northern Uganda against President Yoweri Museveni. Defence lawyers argued earlier this year that Ongwen, who is believed to be in his mid-40s but whose birth date remains unclear, had been scarred by his own experience as a youth in the LRA. “Dominic Ongwen was, and still is, a child,” Ongwen’s defence lawyer Krispus Ayena Odongo told the court in February, adding that Ongwen still believed he was “possessed” by the spirit of Kony. ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said last month said he would ask judges to confirm charges against Kony despite his absence, as the rebel leader is still at large. – ‘Scapegoat’ – Ongwen surrendered to US special forces who were hunting Kony in the Central African Republic in early 2015 and he was transferred to the ICC to face trial. The LRA’s bid to set up a state based on the Bible’s Ten Commandments killed more than 100,000 people and saw 60,000 children abducted, spreading to Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic. Ongwen, whose nom de guerre was “White Ant”, was found guilty on 61 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which also included charges of himself turning young abductees into child soldiers. Prosecutors portrayed Ongwen as leading a reign of terror by the LRA, personally ordering the massacres of more than 130 civilians at the Lukodi, Pajule, Odek and Abok refugee camps between 2002 and 2005. Judges ruled that Ongwen had not suffered from mental illness despite his own history of being abducted on his way to school by the LRA, described by experts as one of Africa’s “most brutal militia forces”. Ongwen’s lawyers had appealed the conviction on 90 different grounds and the sentence on 11, saying there were errors in “law, fact and procedure”. “The trial was a proxy prosecution, a prosecution of the LRA using (Ongwen), a child soldier, as a scapegoat,” Krispus Ayena Odongo said in court papers. Kony should be in the dock instead of Ongwen, since it was he who had decided on the distribution of women and children as sex slaves, he added. “Kony remains unapprehended; he has escaped the tentacles of various states,” Odongo added.

  The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says Nigerians who registered for Permanent Voters Card (PVC) more than once will not be issued new cards. INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Obo Effanga said this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday while commenting on complaints by some Nigerians who are unable to collect their PVCs since the Commission resumed distribution for new registrants. “Remember that before now INEC had issued information that those who attempted to do multiple registrations, subsequent registrations were cancelled. Some of these persons who said they didn’t collect their cards actually fall under that and they won’t tell you that’s what happened,” Effanga said. For some people who said they were asked to check back for their PVCs in January 2023, the INEC REC wondered if they were really told that as he said there were few instances where the cards were not available and the people affected were only told to check back. He said there are still a few more cards INEC is expecting this week and the next. INEC resumed the distribution of PVCs across Nigeria on Monday and is expected to end it on Sunday, 22 January, 2023. The exercise is part of the commission’s preparation for the 2023 general elections. Large turnouts of intending voters have been reported in most PVC collection centres across the country. INEC has been encouraging all eligible voters to collect their PVC as only those with it would be allowed to vote during the 2023 general elections.