by Admin | May 19, 2017 | Blog
Follow @NigeriaPI A Nigerian, identified as Eneh Wilfried Amobi, has been arrested in India for allegedly possessing cocaine worth $1.4m at a suburban railway station in Mumbai. The Indian newspaper, The Hindustan Times said a team from the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) caught him after a tip-off by a ticket checker. According to an official, Wilfried Amobi , 47, was caught with a large quantity of contraband. “Wilfried said he was as a tourist and as he wanted $200 to return home, he offered to smuggle the drug,” Kumar Sanjay Jha, NCB zonal director, Mumbai and Goa region told HT. The drugs weighing 1.3kg was to be delivered to someone in the city, an official said. The drugs were concealed in courier packets and were in his bag. “As foreign nationals are asked to show passports even for domestic flights, couriers prefer trains,” said Jha. The agency said Amobi was one among the many couriers entrusted by a city-based cartel to smuggle the drugs into the city. “We suspect that at least four people were involved. The packets changed hands at various railway stations to dodge authorities,” said Jha. According to the police, the suspects booked tickets in first class AC, second AC and AC 3 tier. According to a source, Amobi got down from the Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani Express and was about to take a local train. A ticket checker stopped him and asked for a ticket. NCB said it was all part of a trap to buy time after which Wilfried was caught. Emir Sanusi cannot escape probe – Kano Speaker, Rurum vows According to the NCB, cocaine...
by Admin | May 19, 2017 | Blog
Follow @NigeriaPI Kano – The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission today secured the conviction of Umar Yusuf, and Ibrahim Ahmed Bebeji, former Chief Clerical Officers in the Account and Internal Audit Department respectively at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Dala, Kano State. The duo was convicted for conniving to misappropriate the sum of N3, 180,853 (Three Million, One Hundred and Eighty Thousand, Eight Hundred and Fifty Three Naira Only) belonging to National Orthopaedic Hospital Dala, Kano State. The convicts perpetrated the fraud through the manipulation of receipt paid by patients. Upon their arraignment on 29th July , 2015 they pleaded not guilty and in order to prove the case against the convicts, counsel for the prosecution, Musa Isah called a total of four witnesses and tendered several exhibits. In her judgment today, Justice Aboki held that the prosecution established the ingredients of the offence of Conspiracy in count one and she accordingly convicted them as charged. Also on counts two and three, the trial judge found the first accused person guilty as charged and convicted him accordingly. The second convict was discharged and acquitted on count two and three. Before passing the sentence, counsel representing the convicts pleaded for mercy . Consequently, the first convict was sentenced to four months imprisonment and a fine of N50,000 (Fifty Thousand Naira Only) on each of count one and three. On count two the first convict was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment and fine of N200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira Only). The first convict was also ordered to restitute the sum of N639,428 (Six Hundred and Thirty Nine Thousand , Four Hundred and...
by Admin | May 19, 2017 | Blog
Follow @NigeriaPI An activist lawyer and Director, Prisoners’ Rights Advocacy Initiative, Mr. Ahmad Adetola-Kazeem, has identified lack of job opportunities as one of the reasons many prison inmates return to crime after being released. According to him, except inmates are adequately prepared to be gainfully engaged after prison life, many will always return to crime and find their way back to the prison, compounding the problem of prison congestion in the country. Adetola-Kazeem said this during the presentation of certificates to 120 inmates and some prison officials at Ikoyi Prisons, Lagos who underwent a three-day skill acquisition, business development and value reorientation workshop organised by PRAI, a non-governmental organisation. The workshop, which took place between April 18 and 20, 2017, featured practical sessions in which the inmates and prison officials were taught how to make shoes, belts, small chops, produce detergents, disinfectants, among others. The workshop was divided into three areas — Event Management, which encompassed decoration, ushering and security; Art and Craft; and Production and Catering — with the inmates given the liberty to acquire training in their areas of interest. Speaking on the rationale behind the initiative, Adetola-Kazeem said, “We have assisted over 100 inmates directly by securing their freedom when they were illegally detained without trial. But the challenge has always been how do you bring them out and make them stay out? That was why we decided to go beyond litigation. “Sometimes they return to prison after being released by engaging in crime because some of them don’t have hope or means of survival. The actual problem is that they feel they don’t have hope....
by Admin | May 19, 2017 | Blog
Follow @NigeriaPI The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday re-arraigned the son of a former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Mahmud; and the son of the late Ibadan multibillionaire, Chief Alao Arisekola, Abdullahi, for conspiracy, obtaining money under false pretence and uttering. Also arraigned on 38 counts before a Lagos State High Court on Tuesday were Ochonogor Alex and the companies of the defendants, Eterna Plc, Axenergy Limited and Star Inspection Services Nigeria Limited. The EFCC claimed that the defendants conspired among themselves and obtained the sum of N3,121,393,098 from the Federal Government under the guise that the money was for the importation of Premium Motor Spirit. One of the charges read in part, “Mahmud Tukur, Ochonogor Alex, Abdullahi Alao-Arisekola, Eterna Plc, Axenergy, and Star Inspection Services Nigeria Limited on, or about April 28, 2011 within the jurisdiction of this honorable court, by false pretence and with an intent to defraud, obtained the sum of N176,385,103.56 from the Federal Government of Nigeria which sum was in excess of the amount due to Eterna Plc as subsidy for the importation of 17,343,668 litres of Premium Motor Spirit by purporting to have imported the product through the mother vessel, MT. Emirates Star, with the bill of lading bearing April 28, 2011, as against the actual mother vessel of Gunhild Kirk with the bill of lading date of April 3, 2011.” The defendants pleaded not guilty when the charges were read to them. The prosecutor, Mr. Tayo Olukotun, requested for a trial date in view of the plea of the defendants. Counsel for the 1st and...
by Admin | May 19, 2017 | Blog
Follow @NigeriaPI Two former directors of the defunct Integrated Microfinance Bank Plc. were granted bail on Thursday by a Federal High Court in Lagos over alleged $166m fraud. The accused persons: Ademola Akinteye (Managing Director) and Gabriel Adepoju, (Director), are facing a 10-count bordering on fraud. They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges. The trial judge, Justice Mojisola Olatoregun, granted them bail in the sum of N10m each with two sureties each in like sum. The judge also ordered that the two sureties must not be lower than executive directors in a known financial institution. He also ordered that the sureties must depose to an affidavit of means with evidence of three years tax payment. The court, however, ordered their remand in custody pending the perfection of their bail terms and fixed June 16 for the substantive trial of the accused. In the charge marked, FHC/L/234c/16, the accused were alleged to have recklessly and without collateral, approved credit facilities to themselves to the tune of over $166m and N33.3m. The first accused, Akinteye, was alleged to have at different times withdrawn N11m from the bank’s account and diverted it into a company’s account named, Deblad Nigeria Ltd. He was also alleged to have unlawfully withdrawn about $166m and remitted same to the account of one Temitope Muhammed. The second accused, Adepoju, was alleged to have withdrawn N22.3 million and diverted same to a company named, Gad Press Ltd. According to the prosecutor, A. I. Charles-Okoli, the offences contravened the provisions of Sections 18 (1)(a) and 18(3) of the Banks and other Financial Institution Act Laws of the Federation...
by Admin | May 18, 2017 | Blog
Follow @NigeriaPI An Ijede Magistrates’ Court in Ikorodu, near Lagos has sentenced two brothers to 42 months in prison for breaking into three shops. The Chief Magistrate, R. O. Davies, told the convicts on Friday: “the two of you sound enlightened and ought not to see crime as a way out of hardship. “The two of you have pleaded guilty to the first two counts levelled against you and therefore, will face the punishment for that. “Crime is not the way out of difficult situations and cannot be excused on any ground. “Having admitted to two out of the three counts, I sentence you each to six months in prison on the first count and three years each on the second count,’’ Davies ruled. He also ordered that trial on the third count, which the convicts did not admit to, would continue as they served their sentences. Earlier, Jundullah Mohammed, 26, and Jamiu Mohammed, 23, had pleaded guilty to two out of three counts brought against them. The convicts were arraigned on three counts of burglary, stealing and breaking and entry. They, however, did not admit to the count of stealing N4, 000 in the course of committing the offences. But, the Prosecutor, Insp. Isaac Aminu, had told court that the convicts committed the offences on May 1 at about 1:30 a.m. He said that the crime was committed at Omotoro area of Ijede Road in Ikorodu. “They did break into three shops belonging to three women, Precious Chidi, Fadeke Opera and Omotola Martins. “And amongst their crimes was stealing of N4, 000. He said that the offences contravened...
by Admin | May 18, 2017 | Blog
Follow @NigeriaPI The defendants were docked for allegedly collecting the sum of N111,500,000.00 as a bribe during the weeks leading to the 2015 presidential election. Justice P.I. Ajaku of the Federal High Court sitting in Benin City, Edo State on Thursday ordered that the duo of Uluocha Obi Brown, an Administrative Secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Delta State and Percy Okojie, a renown legal practitioner and former President, Rotary Club, Benin-City be remanded in prison custody, following their arraignment before her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on an 8-count amended charge, bordering on conspiracy and money laundering to the tune of N 111,500,000 (One Hundred and Eleven Million, Five Hundred Thousand Naira only). The defendants were docked for allegedly collecting the sum of N111,500,000.00 as a bribe during the weeks leading to the 2015 presidential election. They are among the over 100 INEC Officials that allegedly collected part of the $115million (N23bn) disbursed by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison- Madueke, during the countdown to the 2015 presidential election. Brown was arrested sometime in 2016, following an intelligence received by the EFCC on the activities of some INEC Staff, who allegedly connived with the West African Network of Election Observers (WANEO), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), in defrauding the Federal Government huge sums of money, running into billions of Naira during the 2015 general elections. Count one of the charge read: “That you Uluocha Obi Brown and Percy Okojie and others now at large on the 27th day March, 2015 at Benin within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did conspire among...
by Admin | May 18, 2017 | Blog
Follow @NigeriaPI A 45-year-old man, Kayode Oladapo, who posed as a travel agent, was on Friday hauled up before an Abeokuta Magistrates’ Court for allegedly obtaining N300,000 from a woman on the pretext of procuring Turkish visas for her and her son. The accused, whose address is unknown, is facing a two-count charge of fraud and stealing. Oladapo, however, pleaded innocence of the offences. But the Prosecutor, Insp. Olakunle Shonibare, insisted that the accused committed the offences sometime in 2015 at Onikolobo area of Abeokuta. Shonibare said Oladapo, who posed as a travel agent, had promised to assist the complainants, Mrs Folashade Willams and her son, Akinwunmi, to secure two Turkish visas and was paid N300, 000. “After collecting N300,000 from the complainants, the accused failed to get the visas as promised but converted the money to personal use.” The offences contravened Sections 390(9), 419, and 516 of the Criminal Law of Ogun State, 2006. The Magistrate, Mr Idowu Olayinka, granted the accused bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum. Olayinka said the sureties should produce evidence of tax payment to the Ogun Government and should be resident in the state. She adjourned the case until May 22 for hearing. Source: Today...
by Admin | May 18, 2017 | Blog
Follow @NigeriaPI The Intelligence Response Team of the Inspector-General of Police has arrested three students and one other person, who allegedly posed on Facebook as customs officers auctioning cars. The Leader of the IRT, ACP Abba Kyari, confirmed the arrest in Lagos on Thursday. He said that two of the students were from the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, and one from the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, both in Edo. Kyari said that the suspects also posed on some other social media as customs officers auctioning cars. “After several complaints to the I-G about activities of some fraudsters posing as Nigeria Customs officers on social media and defrauding millions of naira from innocent Nigerians in the guise of auctioning cars, I-G Ibrahim Idris directed the IRT to trace and arrest the criminals. “After analysis of intelligence on ground, two IRT teams were deployed to Edo, and eventually, four suspects were arrested in Ekpoma. “All the suspects confessed to the crimes and stated how they swindled millions of naira from innocent Nigerians while posing as customs officers auctioning cars. “Exhibits such as customs documents, pictures of genuine customs officers they impersonated, bank account numbers they used for the crime, and communication between them and their victims, were found in their phones and laptops,” Kyari said....
by Admin | May 18, 2017 | Blog
Follow @NigeriaPI A 29-year-old housewife, Onyinyechi Akunne, was on Monday in Lagos sentenced to seven years imprisonment for stabbing to death her 35-year-old husband, Abuchi Akunne, with a kitchen knife during an argument at home over lotto tickets known as “Baba Ijebu”. An Ikeja High Court sentenced her following a plea bargain where the initial charge of murder was changed to a charge of causing grievous bodily harm to which she plead guilty. Justice Josephine Oyefeso also rejected a clause in the plea bargain agreement where it was proposed that the housewife should serve a sentence of community service instead of a prison term. “In view of the defendant’s pleading guilty, I hereby find her guilty of one-count charge of grievous bodily harm. “I hereby sentence her to seven years in prison starting from the day she remanded in prison custody which was March 28, 2015,” Oyefeso said. Before the sentence was pronounced, Akunne’s counsel, Mrs P.O. Onu, in her plea for mercy, told the court to temper justice with mercy. “The defendant is a first-time offender, she is a mother of a toddler which she gave birth to while in prison custody. Her daughter is a year-and-seven months old, she still has a lot to offer to the society,” Onu said. The judge ordered that the convict’s daughter after weaning her, should be removed from the female prison and be kept in the custody of the relations. During Akunne’s arraignment on March 6, the State Prosecutor, Mrs C.K. Tuiyi-Carena, had told the court that the accused committed the offence on March 28, 2015 at her residence located at...
by Admin | May 18, 2017 | Blog
Follow @NigeriaPI A 22 year old lady along with six other suspects have been arrested by the Decoy Team of the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos Police Command over the sale of a day old baby for the sum of N250,000. The lady, Miss Onyinyechi Osoneye, was arrested on Wednesday by the operatives who were working on intelligence over the sale of her baby to Mr and Mrs Ike Nwata. It was gathered that Onyinyechi with the connivance of her mother, Mrs Joy Osoneye concealed the pregnancy from her father knowing his strict position for having a child out of wedlock. It was further revealed that the man who impregnated Onyinyechi had long been informed of the pregnancy but declined to be the one responsible for it. A source revealed that Onyinyechi was admitted at Peninsula Hospital, Ikota, Lekki – Ajah Expressway, where Mrs. Glory Ehinmi, 35, delivered the lady of a baby boy on 1 March, 2017. The source further disclosed that Onyinyechi when arrested had declined the fact that she was pregnant and sold her baby. She was reported to have thereafter burst into tears on further interrogations. She disclosed that Mrs Glory Ehinmi took the baby from her at the point of delivery and gave it to Mrs Prisca Okocha, 45, her sister and the owner of Peculiar Hospital, Orile, who offered Onyinyechi’s mother N250,000. The source disclosed that Okocha thereafter contacted Mrs Regina Anyanwu, 59 who subsequently brought the buyers, Mrs and Mr Ike Nwata. Mrs. Okocha confessed to investigators that she sold the baby for N850, 000 but gave the mother N250, 000....
by Admin | May 18, 2017 | Blog
Follow @NigeriaPI Gunfire rocked the Lanre, Igando area of Lagos as teams of policemen from Anti-Kidnapping Squad and Special Anti- Robbery Squad stormed a kidnappers’ hideout to rescue a white man. The operation was led by the officer in charge of Anti-Kidnapping Squad, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Mr Akinade Adejobi, and the second in command of SARS, a Superintendent of Police (SP), Mr. Amadu Adamu. The policemen, who surrounded the building, before storming in, found the white man tied. They also recovered four AK47 rifles, fully loaded, two English pistols, 60 magazines and 5,000 ammunition. The kidnappers are suspected to have scampered on getting information that policemen were already onto them. It was gathered that in their attempt to escape, the abductors abandoned their cache of arms. According to a police source, the teams of police were instructed by the state’s Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, to go after the kidnappers, immediately he received information about the abduction of the white man. The victim was said to have been rescued less than 24 hours after he was abducted. It was also gathered that the policemen had been tracking the kidnappers since Thursday. The search narrowed down to a building located at the Igando area of the metropolis, close to the Igando Police Station. The rescue operation took off around 4pm and before 6pm, it was over. Residents of Igando, who heard the area rocking with gunshots, thought armed robbers were in operation. The Lagos Police Command Headquarters was filled with jubilation as the team of policemen arrived with the recovered weapons and still badly shaken victim....
by Admin | May 18, 2017 | Blog
Follow @NigeriaPI An Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court in Lagos State on Thursday admitted a self acclaimed pastor, Jeremiah Adanlawo, to N700,000 bail. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the accused was charged with N3 million fraud. The Chief Magistrate, Mrs Y.O. Aje-Afunwa, granted Adanlawo bail with two sureties in like sum. Aje-Afunwa directed that the sureties must show evidence of payment of three years tax to the Lagos State Government and adjourned the case till July 12. The accused, who resides at Pasede Village, Awoyaya, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, is facing a two-count charge of stealing and fraud. Earlier, the Prosecutor, Insp Peter Nwangwu, had told the court that Adanlawo committed the offences in 2008 at Ayeteju Town, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos. Nwangwu said that Adanlawo fraudulently obtained N3million from one Jacob Oluwole on the pretext of selling four plots of land to him at Ibeju Lekki in Lagos State. The prosecutor said that the complainant later discovered that the accused had duped him of his hard earned money. “The accused converted the money to his personal use and absconded to an unknown place and all efforts to recover the said money proved abortive,’’ Nwangwu said. He also said that the accused threatened Oluwole on the few occasions he was able to reach him on phone, forcing the matter to be reported to the police. The prosecutor said the offences contravened Sections 285 and 312 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011. The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges and his lawyer applied for bail in liberal terms. (NAN) source: Daily...
by Admin | May 18, 2017 | Blog
Follow @NigeriaPI The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday, arraigned the duo of Buhari Fannami and Ba-Kura Abdullahi before Justice M. T Salihu of the Federal High Court Maiduguri, for allegedly giving false information to the agency under the whistle blowing policy. EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, in a statement said Fannamit had misled the EFCC with the information about illegally acquired monies purportedly buried at the residence of one Ba’a Lawan but the information turned out to be false after the execution of a search warrant. The charge reads, “That you, Buhari Fannami on or about the 8th day of May, 2017 at Maiduguri, Borno State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did make statement to Officers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission under the Whistle Blowing policy to the effect that large sums of money being the proceeds of crime were buried in the residence Ba’a Lawan at Pompomari Layout along Pompomari Bypass, Maiduguri which information/statement you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under sections 39 (2) (a) and 39 (2) (b) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act 2004 respectively”. The accused person pleaded not guilty to the charge. Counsel to the prosecution Alkassim Ja’afar asked for a trial date and prayed the court to remand the accused person in the prison custody pending trial. Justice Salihu adjourned the matter to June 7 and 8, 2017 for hearing and ordered the accused to be remanded in the prison custody. On his part, Ba-Kura Abdullahi also gave false information to the effect that large sum...
by Admin | May 18, 2017 | Blog
Follow @NigeriaPI Blood flowed in Etogi community, Mokwa Local Government Area of Niger State, when gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen, in the early hours of Saturday, killed 21 people and injured about 15 others. This latest attack is almost two months after the last herdsmen’s attack on Lefu community, in Gurara Local Government Area, where seven people were killed and 10 others kidnapped. It was gathered that the Saturday night attack was in reprisal for an earlier disagreement between some Fulani youths and members of the affected community, which ked to the death of a herder. According to a source close to the community, the herdsmen were offered land by the community as their settlement, on the agreement that a certain amount of money would be paid to the village head every year. Trouble started when the herdsmen failed to remit the agreed amount this year, claiming that the land in question now belonged to them. This did not go down well with the youths in the community who went on rampage, leading to the death of a herder. The herders were said to have reached out for support from their kinsmen elsewhere and launched an attack on the community mosque, when Muslim faithful were observing their early morning prayers. Malam Mairo Mohammed, who lost a brother in the attack, told Daily Sun on phone that the attackers, who laid siege to the mosque, waiting for early morning worshippers, killed everybody in the mosque, including the Imam. Women and children, who were woken by the commotion, took to their heels, with about 15 of them sustaining injuries in...
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