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WE PLANNED TO KIDNAP LEBANESE BIZMAN IN IBADAN BECAUSE HE OWED MY FRIEND —SUSPECT

WE PLANNED TO KIDNAP LEBANESE BIZMAN IN IBADAN BECAUSE HE OWED MY FRIEND —SUSPECT

Follow @NigeriaPI BUT for the eagle-eyed policemen from Sanyo Division in Oyo State Police Command, a Lebanese with a company in Ibadan, the state capital, would have become a victim of kidnappers and, at best, coughed up some money as ransom. This disclosure was made by the state Commissioner of Police, Sam Adegbuyi, on September 6 while briefing journalists on the arrest of four suspected kidnappers, three of whom came from Benin, Edo State, to carry out kidnapping. He gave the names of the suspects as Sunday Udoh, Ogiemudia Ehosa, Paul Osarenkhoe  and Yakubu Jimoh. The police commissioner said that the policemen were on a stop-and-search duty on August 29 when they discovered guns with three of the suspects. On interrogation, the suspects reportedly confessed that they were on their way to kidnap a victim at Jericho area of Ibadan. He added that further investigation by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad led to the arrest of the fourth suspect. Exhibits recovered from the suspects included a locally made pistol, a locally-made cut-to-size single barrel gun, 20 live cartridges, a camera and a bag containing criminal charms. Speaking with Crime Reports, Sunday, on whose instance others came to Ibadan, said: “I was working for a Lebanese company as a welder in Ibadan and was being paid N18,000 monthly. But I lost the job after I was dismissed over allegation of stealing money which I knew nothing about. I became jobless so I started thinking of what I could do. I left for Benin, Edo State and started working as a casual worker with a road construction company. That was where I...
Patience Jonathan Faces Fresh Probe Over N5b Abuja Hotel

Patience Jonathan Faces Fresh Probe Over N5b Abuja Hotel

Follow @NigeriaPI EFCC sends team to Port Harcourt, Yenagoa over four other choice assets linked to ex-First Lady •May forfeit alleged properties to Federal Government •Four accounts containing $19m to remain frozen •Commission insists Mrs. Jonathan must explain source of fund Former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan appears to have more explanation to make to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) besides the $19 million just frozen in her accounts. Mrs. Jonathan has just been linked with five choice properties including a N5billion hotel in Abuja, The Nation gathered yesterday. The EFCC is currently studying documents on how the Abuja hotel (names withheld) was built. It has also dispatched a team of investigators to Yenagoa, Bayelsa State and Port Harcourt, Rivers State for the purpose of establishing the ownership of four properties in the two cities. The anti-graft agency is likely to confiscate the five properties once it is able to confirm that they belong to Mrs. Jonathan. One of the pieces of evidence the EFCC has in its possession in its probe of the ex-First Lady is her cumulative pay and perks as a civil servant in Bayelsa State where she rose to the post of Permanent Secretary. Sources said the pay details are far below the $31million which the ex-First Lady claimed as her legitimately earned money. The EFCC is insisting that Mrs. Jonathan must account for how she came about the cash wired into the five accounts to which she is a signatory or forfeit it to the Federal Government. One of the sources familiar with the probe said the money used in acquiring the...
EFCC Seizes Shema’s Passport Over Alleged N7bn

EFCC Seizes Shema’s Passport Over Alleged N7bn

Follow @NigeriaPI The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has seized the passport of the immediate past Governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Ibrahim Shema, as part of investigations into the alleged N76bn fraud perpetrated by Shema. Shema was detained by the EFCC on Friday after he voluntarily walked into the head office of the EFCC. However, a source close to the ex-governor told SUNDAY PUNCH that despite meeting the bail conditions, the anti-graft agency refused to release him. The source said, “You will recall that the EFCC declared Shema wanted even though they knew he was not on the run. They had invited him for questioning in June but when he arrived at their office, he was informed that the detective in charge, Mr. Hyecinth A. Edozie, was out of Abuja, and that a new date, after Sallah, would be communicated. “However, they never informed him of a new date and then went ahead to declare him wanted. On getting to the EFCC on Friday, the ex-governor presented a stamped document acknowledging that he had honoured the EFCC’s invitation in June. “After being grilled for several hours, the EFCC gave him bail conditions, including that he tenders his passport and property documents of his sureties which he did. However, the EFCC still refused to grant him bail and said he should wait till Monday.” The anti-graft agency started investigating Shema following allegations levelled against him by his successor, Governor Bello Masari, who is a former Speaker of the House of Representatives. Masari had accused Shema of financial impropriety and diversion of billions of naira. The governor said he had “concrete...
MOTHER OF SEVEN ARRESTED FOR CHILD STEALING •SAYS ‘A FRIEND ASKED ME TO DO THE JOB’ •I ONLY ASKED HER TO TAKE A PROSTITUTE’S CHILD —FRIEND

MOTHER OF SEVEN ARRESTED FOR CHILD STEALING •SAYS ‘A FRIEND ASKED ME TO DO THE JOB’ •I ONLY ASKED HER TO TAKE A PROSTITUTE’S CHILD —FRIEND

Follow @NigeriaPI Thirty-six-year-old Adejoke Popoola is a mother of seven children born to different fathers. She had her last baby, almost three months ago, through caesarean section. But the labour pain she must have experienced while going through the births of her seven children did not make her have consideration for other mothers when she decided to connive with another woman to steal other people’s children for sale. But the long arm of the law caught up with her in Ogbomoso town, Oyo State, two weeks ago, when she was arrested by the state police command for allegedly stealing a four-year-old boy (name withheld) at Oja Igbo area of the town. Two other suspects connected with the stealing, one Mrs Abibat Oyesanya and a male staff of the social welfare department in a ministry in an undisclosed state in the South-West, were also arrested. Disclosing this last Wednesday, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Sam Adegbuyi, who was represented by the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Adekunle Ajisebutu, a Superintendent of Police, said the suspect perpetrated the act while the boy was playing in front of his father’s house. Adegbuyi said the suspect was, however, stopped in her tracks when the sibling of the stolen child who saw her raised the alarm which attracted the victim’s father and other sympathisers. He added that the father and sympathisers ran after the woman who had escaped from the scene with the child strapped to her back, apprehended and handed her over to the police at the Owode Division in the town. The police commissioner further stated that the case was...
Jide Omokore Returns N200m To FG

Jide Omokore Returns N200m To FG

Follow @NigeriaPI The Chairman of Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Nigeria Limited, Mr. Jide Omokore, has returned N200m to the Federal Government, Sunday PUNCH has learnt. It was learnt that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has also traced and frozen eight bank accounts allegedly belonging to Omokore. Reliable sources in the commission told our correspondent that the eight accounts were opened at different branches of Skye Bank Plc. Omokore, who is an ally of the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, among five others, are currently standing trial before a Federal High Court for an alleged $800m (N247bn at an exchange rate of N309/$1) fraud. A top source at the commission said, “During investigations, we traced about eight accounts to Omokore in Skye Bank. Most of the accounts are company accounts. Some were domiciled in Marina, Adeola Hopewell and some other branches on the (Lagos) Island. “We were able to identify about N200m. He raised some bank drafts in the name of the Federal Government and the money has been deposited into the Federal Government account while investigations continue.” The commission had on Monday, July 4, 2016, arraigned Omokore, and five other individuals and firms, before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja on nine counts bordering on money laundering and procurement fraud. Those arraigned with him were a former Managing Director of Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited, Victor Briggs; a former Group Executive Director, Exploration and Production of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Abiye Membere; a former Manager, Planning and Commercial of the NNPC, David Mbanefo ; Atlantic Energy Brass Development Limited and Atlantic...