Five suspected kidnappers of both Yoruba and Fulani tribes were on Thursday evening arrested in their hideouts after a gun duel between them and combined forces of soldiers, local vigilante and hunters at Ero Dam, Odo Owa community in the Oke-Ero as well as Ekiti local government areas of Kwara State.
Following their arrests, enraged members of the communities trooped to residential houses of the victims to burn their property including exotic vehicles, such as Prado jeep, to ruins.
Tribune Online gathered that the onslaught on the suspected kidnappers followed intelligence reports, as they were trailed by the security operatives to their hideout around Ero Dam while there was an exchange of gunshots when they resisted arrest.
It was also gathered that the Kwara state government mobilized military personnel that busted kidnappers’ hideouts in parts of Ekiti, leading to the arrest of some suspects.
The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has given the Federal Government conditions that must be met to suspend the one month-old strike.
The National President of ASUP, Anderson Ezeibe, said at the last meeting with government officials, some offers were made which requires the approval of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the union.
He confirmed that NEC accepted government offers with conditions that it must be implemented and funds release for the payment to lecturers and to polytechnics.
Ezeibe, who spoke at the congress of Yaba College of Technology, revealed that the Federal Government has agreed to make available #15billion revitalization fund to improve and upgrade infrastructure in the state and federal polytechnics.
According to him, members are awaiting the release of #4billion for the payment of ten months arrears of the new minimum wage.
The ASUP president disclosed that officials of the Federal Ministry of Education wanted the union to call off the strike based on promises made by government.
Ezeibe revealed that ASUP rejected government demand to call off the strike, insisting the release of funds and implementation must be made first before the union will consider suspending the industrial action.
He said during the strike, the Federal Government inaugurated Governing Councils for federal polytechnics, constituted visitation panels, promised to reconstitute the renegotiation committee and while CONTISS 15 issue is receiving attention.
Other demands yet to be addressed according to him, include payment for peculiar allowance, problems on IPPIS and new scheme of service for polytechnics system.
Recalled that ASUP members nationwide on April 6, embarked on strike to protest government neglect of the polytechnic system and non implement of their demands. The industrial action has crippled academic activities in state and federal polytechnics.
West African Examinations Council (WAEC) has given one year window for candidates whose results are cancelled as a result of wide spread Malpractices to challenge the result within the stipulated time or forfeit the result.
The implication of this development is that, the examination body will no longer entertain any appeal on results cancellation based on malpractice from any candidate in both school-based and private diets of its exams after one year the results had been officially released.
The Nigeria Examinations Committee of WAEC, which is the highest decision-making organ for the organisation on exam-related matters in Nigeria, made the decision at its 71st meeting held in Lagos between Tuesday, 27th and Wednesday, 28th.
NEC with Federal Government nominee as chairman comprises four representatives each, from the state ministries of education and the Department of Education of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), All Confederation of principals of secondary schools( ANCOPSS) and the universities; the Registrar to Council; the Head of the Nigeria National Office; Head of Test Development Division and Head of Test Administration Division of the Council.
The acting Head of Public Affairs unit of WAEC Nigeria, Mr Demianus Ojijeogu, gave this hint in a statement made available to newsmen on Friday.
According to him, the decision has taken immediate effect and covers all the previous cases.
He said part of NEC decisions on this matter was that WAEC would no longer keep exhibits of established malpractice against candidates again beyond one year as it would dispose off those documents thereafter.
He pointed out that this policy is applicable to old cases except there is or are pending court litigations in that regard.
Mr Ojijeogu, who also said NEC was frown at schools, teachers and exam officials who aid malpractice at their centres, disclosed that those who indulged in the practice during the last year’s school-based exam, the second series for the private candidates for the same year and that of this year, which results were recently released and cases against them been established would be reported to the ministries of education of their respective states for appropriate sanctions.
He, however, said on the part of WAEC, schools found in such practice would be derecognised and would not present candidates for future exams for a certain number of years which he did not state.
He said all the affected candidates, teachers and schools would also be duly informed of the various NEC decisions as applicable.
The U.S. Mission has announced it will prioritise student visa applicants and ensure Nigerian students resuming this fall get visa interview appointments in advance of their program start date.
Susan Tuller, the U.S. Mission Country Consular Coordinator disclosed this on Friday, April 30.
She said the Embassy in Abuja and Consulate General in Lagos will make every effort to assist student visa applicants in a timely fashion while keeping personnel and customers safe.
“As we continue to prioritize the health and safety of our staff and customers, processing student visas remains a high priority for the U.S. Mission in Nigeria,” Country Consular Coordinator Tuller said. “We will increase the number of student visa appointments in May and June to ensure that we can offer appointments to as many students as possible. If your U.S. studies are scheduled to begin this Fall, we encourage you to schedule your appointment as quickly as possible.”
Ms Tuller explained that all student visa appointments must be booked through the U.S. Travel Docs website at www.ustraveldocs.com/ng/. She warned applicants against the use of third-party services, including touts, and fixers who broker visa appointments.
According to her, agents or third parties often seek to benefit by charging a fee for their services and they may not always provide the correct information, which can harm an applicant’s chances of qualifying for the visa.
“Both Nigeria and the United States benefit when Nigerian students study at one of our world-class educational institutions. To prepare for your U.S. educational opportunity, we encourage you to check out EducationUSA Advising Centers at our American Spaces in Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, and Calabar, or at educationUSA.state.gov,” she added.
Nigeria sends more students to American colleges and universities than any other country in Africa and is the eleventh largest source worldwide of international students to the United States.
In the academic year 2019-2020, a record-breaking number of nearly 14,000 Nigerians pursued graduate and undergraduate degrees in the United States.
The Presidency, has given likely reason why Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka called for the impeachment of President Muhammadu adding that the refusal of the President to grant request for contract may have triggered the impeachment call.
The revered Cleric is the Spiritual Director of Adoration Ministry, Enugu, has in his sermon at his adoration ground had said that God is angry with President Buhari and told him to resign or the National Assembly should impeach him.
He said on Wednesday that the anger of God was on the President over his inaction on the wide spread of killings across the country.
The fiery Catholic cleric was one of the strong supporters of President Buhari in 2015 and 2019 elections as he described the President as the awaiting messiah for the country.
Reacting to the call for the resignation of the President, the Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba said that Father Mbaka had approached the President for contract which was not given to him.
The statement with the title, “Father Mbaka is everything apart from what he claims” read, “An outsider distilling the avalanche of verbiage, will be surprised that after supporting the President two times to win the Presidency, Father Mbaka has made a complete U-Turn, preposterously asking President Buhari to resign or be impeached.
” Here is the point of departure: Father Mbaka asked for a meeting and to the shock of Presidential Aides, he came accompanied by three contractors. The President graciously allowed them in, and to everyone’s surprise, Father Mbaka asked for contracts as compensation for his support.
“Anyone familiar with President Buhari knows that he doesn’t break the laid down rules in dealing with contracts or any other government business for that matter. He requested the appropriate authorities to deal with the matter in accordance with laid down rules.
“Inside the Villa, discretion prevailed, that if those pictures and requests were made public, the followers will turn against the religious leader. None of it was released. Now, this is what is eating Father Mbaka.”
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has arrested a Lagos banker identified as Elizabeth Modupe Osunjuyigbe over alleged fraudulent diversion of funds to the tune of over N34m.
EFCC’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwajuren in a statement said, the suspect was arrested on Friday April 29, 2021 after she allegedly sent a fraudulent request sometime in January to the Branch Service Manager of Access Bank, Adeola Odeku, Lagos State, to issue a draft of the sum of N31,330,165 in favour of one Best Timland Nigeria Limited as payment of rent to the landlord of one of the bank’s branches in Akwa-Ibom State.
The statement read;
“The suspect, who was arrested on Friday April 29, 2021, allegedly sent a fraudulent request sometime in January to the Branch Service Manager of Access Bank, Adeola Odeku, Lagos State, to issue a draft of the sum of ?31,330,165 in favour of one Best Timland Nigeria Limited.
“Investigations revealed that the suspect allegedly forged a solicitor’s letter dated January 19, 2021 directing the bank to issue the draft in favour of Best Timland, claiming that request was for the payment of rent to the landlord of one of the bank’s branches in Akwa-Ibom State.”
Uwajuren said the suspect will soon be charged to court for trial and prosecution.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi (FUAM) on Thursday urged the Federal Government to provide adequate security in educational institutions from the grips of heavily armed kidnappers.
Chairperson of ASUU-FUAM, Dr Simon Ejembi, said the call became necessary following the spate of insecurity in the country which continues to deteriorate every passing day.
Some students of FUAM were abducted on campus by gunmen a few days ago from a lecture hall where they were reading.
Ejembi said that the event added to the list of campuses and secondary schools premises that have been attacked in the country in recent times.
“The current trend of students and staff abduction can only suggest that there is a siege on the educational system which apparently targets a complete crippling of the major organ of national development and this should not be condoned by any responsible government.
“ASUU-FUAM condemns the recent attack and abduction of our students and the unchallenged siege in totality and in all ramification and call that the perpetrators of this dastardly acts must be urgently brought to book.
“We, therefore, call the powers that be, the relevant security agents and agencies to save this nation from total invasion by some elements inimical to the development of this great nation and from losing its sovereignty,” he stated.
As reactions continue to trail the pedophilic behavior of Nollywood Actor, Olanrewaju James aka Baba Ijesha some Nigerians celebrities have taken to their social media accounts to react to the viral confession video of the actor, in which he tacitly admitted Sexually molesting the minor.
In the video shared on social media by actress, Iyabo Ojo, popular comedian, Adekola Adekanya, known as Princess, was asking Baba Ijesha why he sexually assaulted the young girl and Baba Ijesha kept pleading for forgiveness.
Baba Ijesha has been accused of defiling Princess’ ward, a 14-year-old girl who was first allegedly defiled by the same man when she was just 7 years old.
However, Baba Ijesha kept blaming it on the devil, saying he had spiritual problems.“Please, don’t do this. Forgive me, I am sorry. I will not do it again. Please forgive me in the name of God. Please help me beg her. I know I have offended you but please forgive me. I know I have done something bad, but please forgive me, not for my sake but for God’s sake,” he said.
Meanwhile, some Nigerians, including celebrities have reacted to the viral video.Nollywood actress, Uche Jombo, tweeted: “SICK. Even after this. They plan to bail him out, God!!!”
Musician, Korede Bello said: “Humans are only sorry when they are caught,” while another Nollywood actress, Adesua Etomi said, “Arghhhhhhh.”Linda Cas Daniels said, “Such a disgrace, this is so sad to watch; may our urges not throw us into shame, mastering control over your body is very important. There is no excuse to rape.”
Stephanie O Grunzweig said: “All those asking for video should be blacklisted, must it be made public before justice is served? I pray the victim gets help. Princess, fight on, Baba Ijesha will not go free. No to rape!”
Eni Abiola said, “Ha! This man is supposed to rot in jail. Can you imagine – 7-year-old (girl), what did she have on her by then? He did not even repent after that, he then came back after 7 years. Could it be that he’s trying to use her for ritual? Olori bu ru ku ni e baba agbaya (Shameless old man).”
El-yaqoub Hameeda said: “The most annoying thing is that they always blame the devil.”Raldreal Nsofor said: “He is not remorseful. Haba! Seven years is enough for Someone to change and this man came back to repeat what he did to the same girl seven years ago. Chai, he is bad. Na wa oo. If not for this video, he would have denied it. Chai. Thank God for this video.”
Tolu Oladebo Abu said, “Forgive you? Do you know the negative impact of what you have done to the life of this young girl?”Edna Duru said: “Just hand him over to the police. What a disgusting, nauseating and horrible thing to do. There are mature women everywhere. Only God knows how many kids he has raped. Shameless idiot. I think the penalty should be to cut that thing that’s dangling in between the legs of any rapist and child molesters.”
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, April 28, there was a video shared by Princess, where she gave a detailed account of how the victim who resides with her, was allegedly molested by the actor seven years ago.
She noted that the victim recently opened up to her that it was the actor who molested her.She then installed CCTV cameras in her home and lured him to visit her in order for him to be caught in the act. It was reported that it was during the visit that the actor attempted to molest the victim.
A 26-year-old painter, Moses Olaitan, has been arrested by Operatives of Lagos State Police Command for allegedly Impersonating, Oba Elegushi, Saheed Elegushi, to defraud a yet-to-be-named United Kingdom (UK)-based woman of N51 million.
The suspect and 48-year-old Segun Olusola had used the names and pictures of the Oba of Ikateland to collect the money from the woman for a fake marriage proposal and rites.
Olusola has since been arrested by the police, claiming to have only received N3.5million from the money.
The prime suspect, Olaitan had posed as Oba Elegushi and proposed marriage to the victim whom she met on Facebook.
Olaitan said that he was going through the Facebook account when he came across the lady and checked her profile and discovered that she was rich and that he could get money from her.
The suspect said “before then, I had some pictures of Oba Saheed Elegushi on my Facebook account. I downloaded more and changed my Facebook profile to perfect the purpose of what I wanted to do and I sent a friend request to her and she accepted me and we became friends. We chatted every day.”
He also continued that “one fateful day, I told her that she was beautiful and I wanted to marry her and that the only thing that would stop me from marrying her is that she would have to perform some traditional rites and it will cost us a lot of money which she agreed to perform.”
The suspect also stated that he was sleeping when the woman called her to send his account details for the marriage rites.
“I don’t have an account number, the first person that came to my mind was Mr Segun and I went to him and explained what I wanted to use the account for and I promised to give him some of the money after receiving it,” he added.
The suspect also continued that “a week after she sent the money into the account I provided and I gave him N2.1 million, while I took the remaining money.”
The state police boss, Hakeem Odumosu, who paraded the suspects before newsmen on Thursday said that the suspects stopped chatting with the victim after they had collected the money.
He assured that the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.
Some suspected gunmen have reportedly abducted a Professor of Engineering and former Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prof. Osadolor Odia, at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma.
The Don was said to be on his way to his farm at Egoro, Ekpoma, on Thursday morning, when the incident occurred.
A source at the university, who pleaded anonymity to the Punch, stated that the news of the Professor’s abduction threw the school into a panic.
“I can confirm that Prof. Osadolor Odia was kidnapped today (on Thursday) on his way to his farm,” the source stated.
According to the source, the suspected kidnappers have already made contact with the family of the professor and are demanding N18 million ransom.
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the University, Edward Aihevba, said he received the news of the abduction of Odia as general information, adding that he has no details of how the incident occurred.
However, the spokesman of the Edo State Police Command, Kontongs Bello, said he was not aware of the incident and promised to contact the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Ekpoma.
