A video currently trending on social media shows a housemaid who allegedly stole N5million naira from her employee after just nine days on the job The housemaid who was said to have come from Cotonou named Kumenu Tope Samenu, has confessed to stealing money from her employer’s room in Lagos.
In a video shared by one one Uju Patricia on Facebook, Tope confessed that she usually uses a spare key to open her madam’s room and steal her money which is usually in Pounds and Dollars. She even opened a bank account where she keeps the money she steals. As at the time she was caught, she had allegedly stolen over N5 million. This story has not been confirmed yet.
– As part of efforts by the federal government to curtail the crisis in the Niger Delta, acting President Yemi Osinbajo has given a new directive to oil companies
– The acting president, who spoke in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state, asked the petroleum minister, Ibe Kachikwu, to liaise with the oil companies to ensure this is done
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has reportedly asked all international oil companies operating in the Niger-Delta region but with head offices in other parts of Nigeria to relocate to the zone.
It is believed that this is the first time such order would be given by the presidency since 1999 when Nigeria returned to democratic rule.
It is widely known that the oil companies carry out their operations in the region that is now seriously affected by spillage, but have their head offices in Abuja and Lagos.
Vanguard reports that Osinbajo gave the directive at a town hall meeting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom which he visited as part of efforts to end the Niger-Delta crisis.
Osinbajo asked the minister of state for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu to begin the process of engaging the international oil firms to ensure the directive is adhered to since it was the right thing to do.
He revealed that the petroleum ministry was working with the oil firms working on illegal refineries to establish modular refineries to achieve the desired result.
He further noted that the ministry of Petrolum and the Presidential Amnesty Office are doing their best with state governments in the Niger Delta to the benefit of the youths in the area.
Emphasizing that the government was committed on the Ibaka deep Sea port project, he added: “Indeed as a matter of fact, in the 2017 budget there is already a provision for the Ibaka port. There is already N1billion provision.
“It is a matter we take seriously to partner with the Akwa Ibom state government.”
He also pleaded with the region to attract private investments in their domain in order to boost employment for the youths.
The 17 year old marriage of popular Nollywood actor, Emeka Ike to his wife Suzanne was on Thursday dissolved by a Lagos Island customary court following a suit filed by the wife.
Suzanne had in the suit accused Emeka of incessant beating, molestation, and torture, which she said she could no longer endure.
But Emeka in his response denied beating, molesting or torturing his wife. He urged the court not to dissolve the marriage.
Upon hearing the duo, the three-man panel presided over by Awo Awosola ruled that “From all evidence before the court, the marriage between the couple had broken down, and it is irreconcilable, consequently, the marriage is hereby dissolved.”
Emeka Ike was however granted the custody of the four children even as the court ordered that Suzanne should have unhindered access to them.
A bank draft of N300 dated July 20, 2016, was also received by the court which Suzanne used in refunding the bride price, paid to her family during their marriage.
The actor had earlier told the court that his wife had moved out of their matrimonial home five times without any reason.
He further told the court that the only time ‘devil’ entered their marriage was when his wife paid for the children’s school fees.
Five weeks after he was rescued by daredevil members of his gang in the premises of an Owerri High Court, Henry Chibueze, a notorious kidnapper in the South-East and South-South zones popularly known as Vampire, is dead.
Vampire was killed during a shoot-out with the police at Omu Awa forest, Ikwerre, Rivers State, in the early hours of yesterday.
Police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), said the “dreaded and deadly kidnap-for-ransom kingpin” was killed by the Police Special Forces, led by Abba Kyari of the Inspector-General of Police’s (IGP) Intelligence Response Team (IRT) at 1am on Thursday.
He said that five suspected members of the gang were also arrested and a cache of arms and ammunition recovered from them.
Moshood disclosed that the gang had been responsible for many kidnappings and robbery attacks in Imo, Abia, Rivers, Delta and other states in the South-East and South-South. He noted that the members of the gang would be paraded and charged to court on completion of investigation.
Those arrested were identified as 26-year-old Obinna Elah, Arinze Abecheta, 24; Chukwu Ebuka Ikeazota, 23; Samuel Ugochukwu, 24, and Clifford Aheana.
“Chibueze, the Vampire, was the criminal spirited away by his gang members on January 27, 2017, from the premises of an Owerri High Court,” he said. “He was arrested in 2015 and had been in prison custody following the kidnap of the wife of a government official.”
Chibueze, who was brought to the court alongside other suspects, had escaped when gunmen, in a sports utility vehicle that had been parked at the premises, opened fire as soon as he disembarked from the prison van.
“The suspect was then spirited away by the gunmen, leaving five prison officials and some bystanders wounded by the gunfire. Two other suspects were taken along with him.”
The Public Relations Officer of Nigeria Prisons Service, Mr. James Madugba, said that the accomplices had been mistaken for operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), hence no alarm was raised when they were spotted at the court.
Chibueze, who was paraded by the DSS before the Ino State governor in 2015, admitted to having carried out several kidnappings in the state and beyond before his arrest. After his escape in January, Governor Rochas Okorocha announced a N5 million bounty for information that would lead to his arrest.
The Inspector-General of Police, on the killing of Vampire, said: “He was shot dead during a gunfight with the police. A gang opened fire on our men and our men returned fire for fire. He was fatally wounded, but died on the way to the hospital.”
Meanwhile, there was wild jubilation in the Imo State police command, as policemen rejoiced over the death of Vampire, who they described as notorious.
The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has said three million Nigerians lost N18 billion in the Ponzi scheme, popularly called Mavrodi Mundial Movement (MMM).
Its Managing Director Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim attributed the figure to social media while speaking yesterday at the NDIC day at the 38th Kaduna International Trade Fair.
Ibrahim, who was represented by his Deputy Director, Corporate Affairs, Hadi Suleiman, lamented that despite repeated warnings by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the corporation, Nigerians still patronised MMM.
He emphasised that virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin, Ripples, Monero, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Onecoin for Internet-based transactions are not authorised by the CBN due to the risks involved.
He warned that any person or groups of persons, who invest in the Ponzi scheme did so at their own risk.
“The Ponzi scheme is the phenomenon of illegal fund managers, popularly called ‘Wonder Banks’, which have continued to defraud unsuspecting members of the public of their hard earned money. This phenomenon has been a source of concern because despite our repeated warnings over the years, some members of the public have continued to fall victims of their fraudulent practices.
“We would like to reiterate the fact that these fund managers are illegal as they are neither licenced by the CBN to take deposits from members of the public nor are those who patronise them covered by the NDIC deposit insurance scheme.
“I want to also draw the attention of some cooperative societies, which often go beyond their primary mandate by accepting contributions from members as cooperative societies are only recognised to mobilise savings from their members.”
Advising the public on the dangers of keeping large sums of money at home or in market shops, he said there are 978 licences microfinance banks nationwide of which seven are spread across Kaduna State.
He noted that with the advent of the cashless policy and the subsequent licensing of mobile money operators (MMOs) by the CBN, the corporation has extended deposit insurance cover to the subscribers of MMOs to the maximum limit of N500,000 per subscriber per bank through its Pass-Through Deposit Insurance Framework.
Indigenous People of Biafra arrested on 20th January, 2017 during Trump Solidarity rally, have been discharged and acquitted of all charges against them today at Magistrate court Port Harcourt.
News reaching BVI Channel this morning states that 45 Indigenous people of Biafra regained their freedom, after the court ruled out ever charge levied against them by Federal Government of Nigeria through the prosecuting council.
According to the Chief Magistrate, Andrew Jaja, “I have no other reason to detain this innocent people here anymore, they are free of crime and are lawful people, I hereby discharge them all with immediate effect.”
They were charged for treason and treasonable felony.
The trial of Radio Biafra Director and 3 others Nnamdi Kanu is to begin on March 20.
He will be tried along with three others— Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu and an engineer, David Nwawuisi.
Justice Binta Murtala Nyako gave the defendants the opportunity to file another bail application but warned that they must be prepared for the trial. She struck out six of the charges. The remaining five were sustain.
Justice Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja, in a ruling, held that the six counts were not supported by the proof of evidence the prosecution submitted in court to support the charge it filed against Kanu and others.
The ruling was on separate notices of objection filed by Kanu, Onwudiwe and Nwawuisi, challenging the validity of the six counts.
Justice Nyako said the proof of evidence failed to disclose any prima facie case against the defendants in relation to the six counts.
The six counts are 3, 5, 7, 9, 10 and 11 in which they were charged with managing unlawful organisation, intention to manufacture Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) to be used against some Nigerian security agents and alleged improper importation of a radio transmitter.
Justice Nyako was of the view that the allegation in Count 3 relating to “managing of unlawful society punishable under section 63 of the Criminal Code Act” could not be substantiated by the proof of evidence.
She said the proof of evidence failed to show that IPOB was indeed an unlawful organisation, noting that the prosecution failed to show that IPOB had been proscribed or that it was not registered either in Nigeria or London.
The judge said the alleged, “improper importation of goods contrary to section 47(1) (a) (i) of the Customs and Excise Management Act” levelled against Kanu in Count 5 did not disclose the elements of the alleged offence bordering on the importation of a Radio Transmitter known as TRAM 50L.
The judge held that the allegation in Count 7 accusing Madubugwu of “managing of unlawful society punishable under section 63 of the Criminal Code Act” by accepting and keeping a container housing the radio transmitter which he allegedly knew was to be used for Radio Biafra, also did not disclose any element of the alleged crime.
She said count 9 in which Onwudiwe and Nwawuisi were charged with “conspiracy to commit treasonble felony contrary to Section 516 of the Criminal Code Act” did not disclose the elements of the alleged crime.
Justice Nyako said the count failed to disclose which of the acts of installation of the transmitter on the MTN mast site at Ogui Road, near St. Michale Church, Enugu State, and the agreement on the payment of N150,000 was the act that constituted the offence of conspiracy to commit treasonable felony.
The judge also struck out Count 10, which accused Nwawuisi of engaging in the “management of unlawful society punishable under section 63 of the Criminal Code Act”.
The prosecution had accused Nwawuisi of the offence for allegedly permitting the installation of Radio Biafra transmitter on the MTN mast for the purpose of propagating the objective of IPOB after being paid the sum of N150,000 by Onwudiwe.
Justice Nyako said the count could not stand because the proof that the IPOB was an unlawful society was not provided in the proof.
The judge also struck out Count 11, which accused Onwudiwe of “knowingly committing an act preparatory to an act of terrorism” by allegedly “carrying out research for the purpose of identifying and gathering of improvised explosive device-making materials to be used gainst Nigerian security operatives carrying out their lawful duties”.
The prosecution alleged in the count that Onwudiwe had by the act, committed an offence of “terrorism contrary to section 2(1)(a) of Terrorism (Prevention) Amendment Act 2011 as amended in 2013”.
The judge agreed with the defence that since the offence only had to do with an intention to commit a particular act, it was the magistrate court that had the jurisdiction to entertain such charge.
The judge sustained Counts 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8.
They are, in count 1, charged with “conspiracy to commit treasonable felony contrary to Section 516 of the Criminal Code act” by conspiring among themselves to broadcast on Radio Biafra “for states in the South-East and South-South zones and other communities in Kogi and Benue states to secede from the Federal Republic of Nigeria with a view to constituting same into Republic of Biafra”.
In count 2, Kanu is charged with treasonable felony by broadcasting in London between 2014 and 2015, calling for the secession of Republic of Biafra from Nigeria.
Count 4 accused Kanu of “publication of defamatory matter contrary to section 375 of the Criminal Code Act” by referring to the then Maj-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) and now President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as “a paedophile, a terrorist, an idiot, and an embodiment of evil” in a broadcast on Radio Biafra on April 28, 2015.
Count 6 accused Kanu of “improper importation of goods contrary to section 47(2)(a) of the Customs and Excise Management Act” by allegedly concealing a radio transmitter in a container of used household items and declaring the transmitter as part of the used household items.
Count 8 which accused Madubugwu of being in possession of one Emerald Magnum Pump Action Gun with serial number TS 870 – 113 – 0046 and one Delta Magnum Pump Action Gun with serial number 501 as well as 41 cartridges/ammunition without lawful authority or licence, was also sustained.
Madubugwu was said to been caught with the firearms at his house in Ubulusuzor in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State in October 2015.
German authorities have arrested two Syrians suspected of being members of the extremist Nusra Front, with one of them alleged to have been involved in the murder of dozens of civilians.
Abdalfatah HA, 35, is suspected of war crimes over the killing of 36 Syrian government employees by his unit in March 2013, the federal prosecutor’s office said.
The statement said he carried out “so-called Shariah death sentences”.
A spokeswoman for the prosecutors’ office, Frauke Koehler, declined to confirm German media reports that the man came to Germany as an asylum seeker.
The other suspect, 26-year-old Abdulrahman AA, belonged to the same combat unit as Abdalfatah HA and both participated in an armed battle against Syrian government troops, including taking over a big arms depot near Mahin in November 2013, the statement added.
The men, whose surnames were not published due to German privacy rules, were arrested in the western cities of Dusseldorf and Giessen and their apartments were raided.
They were due to appear before a judge.
Prosecutors said the Nusra Front unit the men belonged to also included Abd Arahman AK, a Syrian in his early thirties who was arrested in Germany last June on suspicion of being part of a plot to carry out a bomb attack in Dusseldorf.
Human rights groups have pressed governments to bring people suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria to trial, as part of an effort to resolve the long-running conflict.
The European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) said it has helped submit the first criminal complaint in Germany against six high-level Syrian military intelligence officials, in the hope that federal prosecutors will take up the case under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
This allows German courts to try crimes committed outside the country, though legal experts say that they are unlikely to do so unless there is a reasonable chance of bringing the perpetrators to Germany.
The ECCHR complaint was filed together with seven Syrian torture survivors and two Syrian lawyers.
“In Syria there is total impunity, which produces further violence. Without justice there will be no political solution to the conflict,” Mazen Darwish, one of the Syrian lawyers, was quoted as saying in a statement.
ABEOKUTA— Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, condemned attacks by South African youths on Nigerians and other African nationals in their country.
Obasanjo’s condemnation came as Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, is set to lead a seven- member delegation of the Senate to South Africa over the attacks.
This is even as militants in Niger Delta have called on the Federal Government to order all South African-owned businesses out of the country within 30 days.
Obasanjo, who blamed the attacks on the insincerity of the government in South Africa, spoke while receiving the leadership of the Nigeria Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Kuru, Jos, who paid him a courtesy call at Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
He said the current development in South Africa betrayed the contribution of Nigeria to the struggle for the emancipation of the country during the apartheid era.
He blamed the exodus of Nigerians and other African nationals in search of non-existing greener pasture on their leaders and called on African heads of government to ensure good governance for the overall development of the continent and its teeming population.
Obasanjo blamed South African youths for their immaturity, while hitting their leaders more for allowing fellow Africans to rise against themselves.
Ekweremadu leads Senate delegation to S-Africa.
Similarly, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, is to lead a seven-member delegation of the Senate to South Africa.
The delegation, which is charged with the responsibility of engaging South African parliamentarians on the matter, also has as members Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan, APC, Yobe North; Senate Chief Whip, Senator Olusola Adeyeye, APC, Osun Central; Senator Shehu Sani, APC, Kaduna Central; Senator Magnus Abe, APC, Rivers East and Senator Stella Oduah, PDP, Anambra North.
Militants give S/African firms 30-day ultimatum.
Meanwhile, militants in Niger Delta have called on the Federal Government to order all South African owned businesses out of the country within 30 days.
In a statement in Port Harcourt, yesterday, the militants, acting under the aegis of Niger Delta Watchdogs, Niger Delta Volunteers and Niger Delta Strike Force, said they would not keep quiet while South Africans continued to kill and maim Nigerians doing business in their country.
Generals John Duku, Ekpo Ekpo and Hart Bradford said if South African investments did not pull out of the country at the end of the 30 days ultimatum, they should be ready for any form of attack.
The militants said: “Failure to close down these companies within one month, we shall mobilize in full force and commence massive attack on South African-owned investments in Nigeria, we shall also make sure that all MTN masts and offices are brought down.”
‘’We want to state that the attack will mark the end of this nonsense because we would not fold our arms and allow this to continue.”
‘’Therefore, we call on the Nigerian government to immediately close down all the business premises owned by South Africans,’’ the militants said.
The Notorious Kidnapper Henry Chibueze alias Vampire has been killed by the Police Special Force led by the IGP Intelligence Response Team (IRT)
The said criminal named Vampire was reported months ago escaped from court as his men stormed the court premises, shooting sporadically and whisking the guy Chidiebere aka Vampire in the process. He is notorious for his high rate of crimes ranging from Arm robbery, kidnapping and other violent crimes.
