by Admin | Oct 10, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI One of the four pupils of the Lagos Junior Model College, Igbonla, Epe, Lagos State, who were abducted by gunmen last Thursday, has fallen sick. A source close to the family of the affected schoolboy told PUNCH Metro on Sunday that the kidnappers, however, assured the parents that they had administered treatment to him. Our correspondent gathered that negotiations on the ransom were in progress as the victims’ families were running around to raise the sums demanded by the gang. PUNCH Metro had reported that the attackers, comprising five men and a woman, at about 8am on Thursday, stormed the school and abducted four pupils, a teacher and a vice-principal. The victims, who were reportedly rounding off prayers at the assembly hall, were taken away by the abductors, who shot sporadically into the air. The pupils, identified as Isaac Adebisi, Okonkwo Emmanuel, Abu and Jeremiah; the English Language/Civic Education teacher, Lukman Oyerinde, and the Vice-Principal, A.O. Oyesola, were taken away in a speedboat. It was reported that the kidnappers, who called a parent of one of the schoolboys, demanded N30m for the victims, requesting N5m for each of the six. PUNCH Metro learnt on Sunday that one of the schoolboys had fallen ill. The family members reportedly pleaded that the gang should collect the amount raised so far and let go of him. The source said, “The men called on Saturday and Sunday and told us that one of the boys was sick. They said his temperature was high. They called one of the relations of the pupil and wanted to know the drug they could use...
by Admin | Oct 10, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI Eight more senior judges are under investigation and will soon be arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS) as part of its latest attempt to cleanse the judiciary of corruption, Daily Trust gathered yesterday. Seven judges were earlier arrested in different states across the country between Friday night and Saturday morning over alleged corrupt practices. A top official of the service told Daily Trust that the seven senior judges arrested were still in custody and would be arraigned in court any moment. The judges in custody last night are: Inyang Okoro and Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court, Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Kabir Auta of the Kano High Court, Mu’azu Pindiga of the Gombe High Court, Mohammed Tsamiya of the Court of Appeal, Ilorin and the Chief Judge of Enugu State Justice I. A. Umezulike. The DSS said Saturday that it recovered over N93 million and $530,000 cash from three arrested judges. The source said the judges were allowed access to their families and were cooperating with the agency. “We still respect them. They are not being treated like common criminals,” he said. As part of the investigations, three registry staff from various courts were also invited for questioning, the source said. He added that the corruption cases against the judges were disturbing and investigations were carried out with “facts and figures.” He said the current clampdown on the judicial officers was based on intelligence, and not on the perception of ordinary Nigerians. “We received petitions against these judges on cases they are handling. The worst part of it is where they...
by Admin | Oct 10, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI Barely 48 hours after the Department of State Services, DSS, had taken seven suspected corrupt judges into its custody, details of what led to their arrests and how they were picked up from their homes by operatives of the agency began to emerge last night. Competent sources close to the operations told Vanguard that the agency could no longer watch and allow corrupt judges use their positions to engage in sabotage, subversion and espionage latching on huge proceeds of corruption. A source said that unknown to most Nigerians, some of the judges had been collecting huge bribes to subvert the will of the people, using the proceeds to acquire choice property and build fat bank accounts without putting in enough efforts to do the job they were paid to do. The source said that based on series of petitions from concerned Nigerians to checkmate the excesses of the corrupt judges, the DSS moved in and began a covert investigation, which finally led to the establishment of prima facie evidence against them. As we speak now, we have incontrovertible evidence of brazen corruption against the seven judges in our custody and we are ready to charge them to court, even tomorrow. ‘’By our own analysis, the rot in the political scene – election rigging, inter and intra-party crises and election petition trial from tribunal to Supreme Court – gave rise to the deep corruption in the judiciary. In the economic sphere, Nigeria lost cases to foreign investors due to the collusion of judges with foreigners, leading to the loss of hundreds of billions of Naira by the country,...
by Admin | Oct 9, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI SaharaReporters has learnt from sources at the Department of State Security (DSS) that the overnight raid on the residences of some nine court judges, culminating in the arrest of several of them, came as a result of petitions and decisions of the National Judicial Council (NJC), a statutory body that regulates the activities of judges. A statement issued by the DSS stated that the agency had recovered large sums of foreign and local currencies. The DSS gave a breakdown of the recovered funds as follows: SUMMARY OF RECOVERED MONEY 1. NAIRA – N93,558,000.00 2. DOLLARS – $530,087 3. POUNDS – £25,970 4. EURO – €5,680 Other foreign currencies were also recovered. The funds were recovered from just three of the arrested judges. The DSS revealed that its operatives also seized banking as well as real estate documents from several judges. The agency is making preparations to arraign the arrested justices in court early next...
by Admin | Oct 9, 2016 | Blog |
Follow @NigeriaPI A pall of darkness descended on the nation’s judiciary on Friday night and the early hours of Saturday, as gun-wielding security agents swooped on the residences of senior judges, breaking doors and threatening to harm their family members and aides. The raids were carried out by agents of the Department of State Services in Abuja, Port Harcourt and Gombe. The judges affected are of the Supreme Court and Federal High Court. At least two of the judges had recently ruled against the DSS and condemned its disregard of the laws of the land during its operations. The actions of these agents of state, observers say, are reminiscent of the executive lawlessness and human rights abuses that characterised the nation’s military era, including the period that President Muhammadu Buhari spent in power as a military dictator. Expectedly, the actions of the agents attracted widespread condemnation from Nigerians with the Nigerian Bar Association, declaring a state of emergency in the judiciary and asking for the immediate release of the judges. The DSS, at the end of the operations, which lasted at least 12 hours, arrested Justices Sylvester Ngwuta and John Okoro, both of the Supreme Court bench, as well as Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court in Abuja. The security operatives also searched the house of another judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba, but he was not arrested. Justices Ademola and Dimgba’s duplexes are separated by a fence at the Apo Legislative Quarters, Abuja. Justice Dimgba occupies 30A, while Justice Ademola lives at 30B. Both houses are on S.O Ogbemudia Crescent, Zone E, Apo...
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