Minister of Works Dave Umahi, on Tuesday, alleged that some “elements within” are sabotaging the Federal Government’s plans to redesign and construct yet-to-be-completed federal roads using reinforced concrete. He also stated that ‘those elements’ would be sent to the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission and gave all contractors, yet to comply with the new directive, 14 days to sign an addendum for the concrete road pavement “There are some elements within that also fighting me who are also benefiting from the system. And that is the greatest problem we have and they are just pretending. And I will flush those elements out and send them to ICPC to handle them because nobody can hold this country to ransom,” Umahi told State House, correspondents after he emerged from closed-door talks with President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja. This comes one month after he explained that the short lifespan of roads necessitated his recent proposal to the President to pursue the scheme. Umahi, who had alleged connivance between non-compliant contractors and some members of his team to adopt the use of reinforced concrete, announced that he had secured the President’s backing to proceed with the new policy. Consequently, he issued a 14-day ultimatum to contractors still on the sidelines. So I’m giving them the last chance to conform to what will help Mr. President to reset the country. “We are also leveraging on the contract we signed; it is 14 days’ notice we are going to give,” he revealed. However, the minister said some contractors who are now complying can purchase bags of cement at specially discounted rates from major producers such as Dangote and BUA. He explained, “I’ve had more than 10 meetings with contractors where we discussed this. We developed the design. We’ve developed the cost of doing concrete from the first principle: how much is cement? “The cement factories, the Dangote and the BUAs have agreed to give special discounts to our contractors who are going to engage on concrete road pavement and many contractors are already doing it. “Not all the contractors are in this gang up. Many contractors have come to sign addendums to doing the road’s pavement. Those who are meeting are going to be losers. And before them, they will see that we will do the job and we will do it very well.”

  Justice H. Mu’azu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Maitama, Abuja has sentenced the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Orio Business Connect Limited, Alhaji Kabiru Haruna, to seven years imprisonment. Haruna’s journey to prison began on December 14, 2021, when EFCC first arraigned him on eight count charges bordering on obtaining by false pretense to the tune of Thirty Three Million Seven Hundred and Five Thousand Naira (N33,705,000). One of the Count Charges reads: “You Alhaji Kabiru Haruna, being the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Orio Business Connect Limited and you Orio Business Connect Limited on or about the 6th day of May 2017 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honorable court with intent to defraud obtained the sum of Six Million, Nine Hundred Thousand Naira (N6, 900,000) from Mr and Mrs Clement Anunwa as part payment for three plots of land at plot 527 Cadastral Zone B00,Kukwauba Distract, Abuja which land you represented to them was allotted by the Minister of Federal Capital Territory which presentation you knew is false and thereby committed an offense contrary to Section 1(1)(a) of Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences ACT 2006 and punishable under section 1(3) of the same Act. He pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to him. The matter thereafter went into full trial. Prosecution counsel, Samuel Ugwuegbulam, called many witnesses and tendered several documents before the court. In his judgment, Justice Mu’azu found Haruna guilty, convicted and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment. The court also ruled that Haruna and Orio Business Connect Limited should jointly pay the nominal complainant the sum of Thirty Three Million Seven Hundred and Five Thousand (N33, 705,000) being proceeds of the crime. Trouble began for Haruna when two petitioners: Dr. Oby Joyce and Chief Clement Anuwa approached the EFCC narrating how the convict defrauded them with the pretence of securing three plots of land for them at Plot 527 Cadatral Zone B00, Kukwauba District, Abuja. He neither delivered the landed property to them nor returned their money to them.

  Two people are reported to have died following a clash between local vigilantes and some persons said to be herders in Ubulu-Uku, Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State. Although the Delta State Police Command put the death toll at two, residents of the community who trooped out to protest the killings said eight people died in the Monday attacks. The Commissioner of Police in the State Wale Abass explained that the incident is under investigation but cautioned residents against taking laws into their own hands. Meanwhile, the police command has also given an update on the case of the two-year-old boy who was shot dead allegedly by an officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) during an operation by officials of the agency in Okpanam, near Asaba, the state capital some months ago.

  The Zamfara State Police Command has paraded two suspects, Mansur Haruna and Ibrahim Nababa, over the killing of a veteran journalist, Hamisu Danjibga, in the state. While parading the suspects on Tuesday evening at the Police Command Headquarters in Gusau, the Zamfara State capital, the Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Dalijan, said Hamisu, a reporter with Voice of Nigeria (VON) was suspected to have been killed by his nephew, Mansur and his friend, Ibrahim He said the suspects were arrested when the police swung into action following the journalist’s death. According to him, the prime suspect, Mansur, has confessed to the police how they struggled with Hamisu as they wanted to kidnap him. The prime suspect is the son of Danjibga’s elder brother. He lived with the late Danjibga here in Gusau. He had wanted to join the Nigerian Army but Alhaji Danjibga said: ‘No, with the type of criminal tendencies I’m seeing in you, I’ll never be a guarantor for you to join the Nigerian Army’. “Alhaji Danjibga sent him out of his house and he went to stay with his friend Ibrahim Nababa. It was at the friend’s house they planned how to kidnap Danjibga. When they finished the plan, they went to his house and when they met him, they wanted to take him away from the house but he resisted. “He said: ‘You, my son, it is you that wants to do this kind of a thing to me. I am not going anywhere’. It was at that particular point the boy brought out a knife and stabbed him three times in the chest. His friend carried a cutlass and cut him two times on his head. He fell there instantly and died. They carried his body and put it inside a soakaway in an Islamiyya school,” the commissioner said. The police also arrested a suspected bandit who specialises in bringing military hardware from Aba in Abia State to a bandits’ enclave in the Kaura-Namoda Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

  Israeli ambassador to Nigeria, Michael Freeman, has said Nigerians in the country as well as citizens of other countries are safe. Addressing journalists at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, Freeman described Saturday’s attack by Hamas, where almost a thousand people died in less than 24 hours, as the gravest since the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the genocide of European Jews during World War II which lasted between 1941 and 1945. It was time that Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population. Describing the attack, Freeman said Hamas is a terror group that wants to wipe out the Israelis, but said Israel will terminate every one of them. “[Hamas] these are a terror group that have no mercy, and have decided that they want to slaughter the Israelis and destroy the State of Israel,” Freeman said. “Nearly a thousand Israelis were murdered in one day. That was the gravest number of Jews killed in one day since the Holocaust. “But, do you know it is not only Israelis? They killed Arabs, they killed Israeli-Arabs, they killed others from different countries.” The ambassador said Israel has begun a war against Hamas, stating that it was not against the Palestinians, Muslims, or Arabs, but solely against Hamas. He also said Nigerians and other nationals living in Israel are safe, as the Israeli government and troops will ensure their safety. Freeman said the Israeli forces will eliminate Hamas so that there will not be a repeat of this in Israel or any other country. “There is no justification for Hamas to attack. They have no right to hold children and women. Their major headquarters is under a hospital in Gaza. We are focusing on ensuring that everybody is safe, and how we are going to do that is to eliminate Hamas,” Freeman said. Speaking about the safety of Nigerians, Freeman said, “Everyone is safe in Israel. Nigerians are safe. We will do everything we can to avoid civilian casualties. But the civilians will get killed, we should be prepared for that.”

  The State of Palestine has petitioned the United Nations, demanding that Israel leaves what it described as “its territory” amid the ongoing conflict. On October 8, the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel in a shocking move. Over 1,500 people have been confirmed dead in the conflict with fears that the death toll could increase. Addressing a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, the Palestinian Ambassador to Nigeria, Abdullahp Shawesh called on the UN to apply international law on Israel and compel her to seize its occupation of Palestinian territories. Shawesh stated that the applicability of the law will bring a halt to the conflict, otherwise, the Palestinians will continue to exercise what he describes as their legitimate right to liberate and defend themselves. According to him, Israelis have continued to pulverize Gaza, bombing the third oldest church in the world, killing nearly a thousand Palestinians, out of which 140 are children and 105 women. He stated that 4,100 are injured while 123,000 are currently internally displaced with the numbers expected to rise. As Israel orders a siege on the Gaza Strip cutting off electricity, water, food and fuel, videos continue to show explosions levelling buildings. The Palestinian ambassador however insisted that they are not deterred but determined to defeat and end Israeli aggression and occupation of their territories. Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to Nigeria, Michael Freeman, on Monday accused Iran of being the mastermind behind Hamas’ attack on Israel. Freeman claimed that Iran was funding the conflict in order to destabilise the region surrounding Israel. “It’s a major concern for us. We know that Iran is behind these attacks by Hamas. Iran is the one who gave permission. Iran is the one who funds Hamas. They are doing everything in order to destabilise the region,” he said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily They are also backing Hezbollah and Lebanon; they are backing other terror groups in the West Bank. They are backing terror groups in Syria. Iran is doing everything because they don’t want to see progress. They don’t want to see peace, they want to see death and destruction,” he said.

  A Nigerian Army Special Court-martial sitting in Abuja, on Tuesday, sentenced the former Group Managing Director, Nigerian Army Properties Limited, Maj. Gen. Umaru Mohammed, to seven years imprisonment. The court also ordered him to pay back $2,178,900 and N1.65bn to the Army properties and NAPL. Mohammed was tried on 18 counts bordering on forgery, misappropriation of funds, and conspiracy among others. Although he pleaded not guilty to all allegations, the court found him guilty of 14 counts. Details later…

  The Enugu Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) has arraigned one Chris Okafor before Justice O. Eyah of Enugu State High Court, on four- count charges bordering on stealing and obtaining money by false pretences to the tune N64, 890,000. He was arraigned on Tuesday, October 3, 2023, based on claims of a petitioner linking him with an alleged fraudulent property transaction. Count One of the charges read: “That you Chris Okafor and Lion of Judea Real Estate Company Limited between the months of March, 2017 and December, 2018 at Enugu State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did commit a felony to wit: stealing by fraudulently converting to your personal use the sum of Fifty-Nine Million, Two Hundred and Ninety Thousand Naira (N59, 290,000.00) property of staff of Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA), the said sum being part payment of the purchase of 79 plots of land located at Obinagu Obeagu Awkunanaw, Enugu South Local Government Area, Enugu State”. The defendant pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to him. In view of his plea, EFCC Counsel prayed the court to remand the defendant to a Correctional Centre. Justice Eyah thereafter ordered the defendant to be remanded in Enugu Correctional Centre, and adjourned the case to November 15 and 16, 2023 for trial.