An Abeokuta Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting in Isabo, on Friday, remanded a truck driver, Nurudeen Bashir in prison custody for allegedly assaulting a Vehicle Inspection Officer in Abeokuta, the state capital.

Bashir was accused of inflicting injuries on a motorcyclist while attempting to escape from the VIO.

The prosecutor, Inspector Bukky Abolade, told the court that the accused was stopped by the VIO on duty last Wednesday at Aro in Abeokuta, but failed to produce his vehicle documents.

Abolade explained that Bashir took away one of the officials who entered his vehicle to Oke-Ata, where he and others at large assaulted the official.

The Chief Magistrate, Adeola Adelaja, ordered that Bashir be remanded in the prison custody till December 14, when his application would be considered.

A total of 22 suspected criminals, mostly teenagers, were on Friday paraded by the Bayelsa State Police Command at the state police headquarters, Yenagoa.

Among the suspects paraded were those involved in the killing of a 17-year-old student of the Niger Delta University, Seifeya Fred and a police corporal, Sammy Saturday, in November.

The state Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mutan, said the suspects were apprehended with the assistance of the state vigilante service and other stakeholders.

The Commissioner who resumed office a few weeks ago, said he observed that most of the prevalent crimes in the state like armed robbery and rape were all related to cultism, calling for the cooperation of Bayelsans to curb it.

He said the command as a counter security measure will no longer wait for the criminals to come out and perpetuate their nefarious activities but will intensify their operations on their hideouts.

He said, “As a counter security measure, we will intensify our operations on the hideouts of armed robbers and cultists. We will continue to carry out targeted raids on criminal hideouts and conduct stop and search operations.”

A lawyer, Mr Promise Jones, has accused officers of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, Osun State Command, of assault.

Jones, in a petition addressed to the Director, Department of State Services and the Osun State Police Command and dated November 26, 2018, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent on Sunday, said he was in the Osun State office of NAPTIP to assist his friends who had come from Akure, Ondo State, to secure the bail for a suspect.

According to him, the suspect, Mr Steven Okei, had been granted bail, but he could not meet the conditions.

Jones explained that when he met one Mr Abu, an operative of NAPTIP, and told him his mission, the officer informed him that only the commandant had the power to vary bail conditions.

He stated, “Because of what he said, I decided to see the commandant, at least to pacify her to vary the bail conditions. But Abu refused all entreaties to allow me see the commandant. I asked for the procedure, but he refused.

“At that juncture, I made a move to go and see the commandant in the most gentlemanly manner. Making way to the commandant’s office, Abu ran after me and started threatening me in the presence of two other lawyers from Akure.

“While still on the spot, Abu, one Mr Ariyo and another NAPTIP official, whose name I do not know, descended on me, beat me up by landing me heavy fist blows at the back of my neck, they pushed me forcefully and threw me on the ground.”

When contacted, the acting Public Relations Officer, NAPTIP, Osun State Command, Oluwafemi Akeju, dismissed the allegation, saying those mentioned by Jones never assaulted him.

He said, “We have a procedure in our office. If you have any issue to discuss with us, you have to begin with the officer in charge of the matter. If he can’t resolve it, then you will proceed to the squad leader.

“If the matter can’t still be resolved at that level, then the head of operations will be contacted. If he can’t handle it, then the state commandant will be contacted.

“The lawyer just demanded to see the state commandant against our protocol and we never harassed him as claimed. We don’t do that here. We don’t carry arms; we don’t harass or intimidate people. We can’t even keep suspects.

“When we want to release a suspect on bail, you will be given the bail bond containing all the conditions that must be met. The man didn’t say the whole truth. We are friendly to people.”

A Lagos-based businessman, Sunday Omojola, has asked the police to investigate the murder of his son and ensure that those responsible are brought to book.

Sunday, in a petition to the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, urged the police to discreetly investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of his son, Adegbenga Omojola, adding that the killers of his son were pressurising the authorities to transfer the case to Abuja so as to frustrate investigations.

Adegbenga was shot dead on November 21, 2018, by some unidentified land grabbers, who invaded Lasisi Street, Oke-Ira Nla village in the Ajah area of Lagos.

It was gathered that the 36-year-old fashion designer was shot dead in front of his shop, while he was trying to escape from the gunmen.

Our correspondent learnt that six other people were injured as a result of the pandemonium that followed the action of the alleged land grabbers.

According to Sunday, there has been a land dispute between his family and another family.

He accused the other family of employing the services of the land grabbers to invade the village and shoot his son.

Sunday stated, “Around 8pm on Wednesday, November 21, 2018, a group of armed men, numbering over 40, invaded Oke-Ira Nla village in Ajah, Lagos.

“Sule Owolabi, a member of the Obodo family, who accompanied the hoodlums to the site on motorcycles, pointed my late son to them. My son was shot dead immediately. Several other villagers, who fled in different directions, received gunshot wounds.

“I was contacted on the phone in Ekiti State, where I had gone for a business deal that my son had been shot dead. I returned to Lagos the next day and went straight to the Langbasa Police Station that was handling the matter.

“The case was later transferred to the state Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Panti. Surprisingly, the killers of my son, whose corpse is still in the mortuary, started writing series of fictitious petitions against me, trying to implicate me in a bogus gunrunning allegation so that I will not be able to pursue the case of the murder of my son.

“I was the one they were targeting. We heard when they were planning the attack. Indeed, I asked Adegbenga to leave the village, but he told me that he had so much work to deliver to customers before Christmas.”

The state Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Chike Oti, who confirmed the incident, said the police had commenced investigation into the matter.

“The matter was reported and officers from the Langbasa Police Station led by the DPO arrested seven persons suspected to have a hand in the death of that man and the matter is been investigated by the homicide section of the state Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Panti,” Oti stated.

Operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Imo State Police Command have arrested two suspected kidnap kingpins said to have been on the command’s wanted list for a long time.

The state Commissioner of Police, Dasuki Galadanchi, stated that the suspects, Chukwudi Nnabugwu, 29, and Chimezie Victor, 38, were arrested by the F-SARS operatives led by the Commander, Geoffrey Victor, between November 25 and 26, 2018.

Describing the suspects as notorious, Galadanchi noted that they were nabbed following a tip-off.

Galadanchi said the suspects allegedly killed a policeman at Avo and made away with his AK-47 riffle.

The CP stated, “They were arrested at Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State by F-SARS operatives led by Victor Godfrey through a tip-off.

“The notorious kidnappers are Chukwudi Nnabugwu, aka Water, 29, and Chimezie Victor, 38, from Ukweze Egbema, Rivers State. Victor, as of the time of his arrest, was secretly receiving treatment for gunshot injuries on his private parts.

“On interrogation, his wife corroborated that her husband was a kidnapper, having kidnapped one woman, whose husband was living abroad.

“In the same vein, she confessed that in 2016, her husband was shot by Umuguma police operatives on his left hand and his Nissan Pathfinder impounded at the station, while he escaped with bullet injuries.

“It is important to note that the suspects were the ones who killed a policeman at Avo area and went away with his AK-47 rifle.”

The CP added that the arrest of the suspects was an indication that the community policing strategies of the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, which his Command was implementing, were yielding results.

A 40-year-old man, Abdulrahman Sani, has been stabbed to death in Daura, Katsina State.

Sani was murdered on his way home shortly after a visit to his lover.

Although the police have arrested a suspect, the motive for the attack has not been established.

The deceased, who lived in the Kwari Quarters in Daura, was said to have paid his lover, Amina Suleiman, a visit at her home in the Kurunbai Quarters but was hacked to death by a man who was lurking in the shadows shortly after his companion saw him off.

Suleiman, who witnessed the incident from her home, informed the police that she saw one barber, Sani Salisu (28), committing the crime.

The case was transferred to the Katsina Police Headquarters for further investigation.

The suspect was charged with culpable homicide, which the police said violated Section 221 of the Penal Code.

This was contained in the Police First Information Report on the incident read in court on Friday.

The police prosecutor, Inspector Sani Ado, told the Katsina Senior Magistrates’ Court that investigation into the case was ongoing and requested that the matter be adjourned till January 22, 2019.

The presiding Senior Magistrate, Hajiya Fadile Dikko, granted the request and subsequently adjourned the case till January 22, 2019, and ruled that the suspect be remanded in prison custody.

The Anambra State Police Command on Saturday night 1 December, 2018, raided a brothel on Ring Road, Enugwu-Ukwu in the Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State.

The policemen arrested underage sex workers allegedly being patronised by old men in the area to catch fun.

The brothel, which the operators allegedly disguised as a restaurant, was raided following a tip-off by concerned indigenes of the community.

A community leader in the area, who pleaded anonymity, told our correspondent, “We can’t be here and allow such iniquity to be happening under our watch. You need to see the level of sins these young girls and old men commit in that place on a daily basis.

“That was why we alerted the police. The brothel was sealed after the raid, while some suspects were whisked away to the state Criminal Investigation Department, Awka, the state capital.”

On Sunday the raid followed a joint petition by the Enugwu-Ukwu traditional authority and the Enugwu-Ukwu Community Development Union to the police headquarters in Awka decrying the activities of the brothel and its patrons.

The petition stated that passers-by on the Ring Road, Enugwu-Ukwu, were being harassed and embarrassed by underage commercial sex workers.

The President-General of the union, Bonny Ozo-Nkwuaku, who supervised the raid, warned that Enugwu-Ukwu had no place for such an illegal act.

He said the development had bred criminality and moral decadence among the youth in the area.

He stated, “Enugwu-Ukwu people are known for their industry and enterprise. We live very decent lives and we are law-abiding. We cannot tolerate such an illicit business in our community.

“We have also discovered that most of the commercial sex workers and their patrons are not from Enugwu-Ukwu; we can’t allow them to come here and soil the name of our town.”

A Tweet by Louis Ojei, @louismichael99, has brought to the attention of Abike Dabiri, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Relations and Diaspora to the alleged murder of a Nigerian, Michael who was stabbed to death yesterday, 5th Dec 2018 by a bus conductor in Ghana.

In a bid to confirm Ojei’s identity, since, he had changed his Twitter name to that of Deji Adeyanju, who was arrested by police on November 28, during a protest in Abuja and charged to court, Dabiri asked him to properly identify himself.

She said, “You are using a cloned name. Use a proper name. Identify yourself. To be sure you are not “ Jibril from Sudan”. Then, (I) can get the details.”

In identifying himself, Ojei said, “Lol…well everyone is cloned now until (the) Jubril thing is over and Adeyanju Deji is released. I’m Louis Ojei by name, I happen to meet the deceased on a family vacation to Ghana sometime in July. He has a store where he sells phone accessories in Ghana. He’s from Imo state or so.

“Got a call this morning that he was stabbed by a bus conductor last night on his way back from shop, the conductor is with the Ghana police according to them but I think the Nigeria government has to be involved in this else the case won’t have weight.”

Ojei also shared a photo the passport of the deceased, which bore the name, Nwankwo Ilechukwu Mishack, who was born on June 5, 1985.