Unknown gunmen yesterday allegedly set ablaze the warehouse accommodating the relief materials meant for distribution to the 2012 flood victims in Benue State. This was coming just as the Benue State Committee on Relief and Rehabilitation of Flood Vict...
The police on Wednesday arraigned two Indians and three Nigerians in the Federal High Court, Abuja, for damaging an NNPC pipeline in Okene, Kogi.
The Indians, Kamal Sharma, 32, and Ashok Agarwal, 66, were charged with dealing in petroleum products without appropriate authority or licence.
The charge stated that Sharma and Agarwal conspired with the three Nigerians and others at large on Jan.15 to commit felony.
It added that the Indians committed an offence punishable under the Miscellaneous Offences Act.
The three Nigerian accused, Fatai Afolabi, Emmanuel Igboke and Tukur Mohammed, are also standing trial for damaging the oil pipeline.
The Prosecution counsel, Mr Friday Ibadi, said that the three committed an offence punishable under the Miscellaneous Offences Act.
The prosecution noted that Afolabi, Igbokwe and Mohammed, through their illegal act on Jan.15, interfered with the free flow of petroleum products from the oil pipeline in Okene and, therefore, committed an offence.
The other defendant, Prism Steel Mill Ltd, managed by Sharma and Agarwal, was used to warehouse the stolen petroleum product, the prosecution added.
However, the accused pleaded not guilty to the four-count charge.
Mr Lawal Rabana (SAN), counsel to Sharma, Agarwal and Prism Steel Ltd, urged the court to release his clients on bail.
Rabana pleaded: ``My lord, I am seeking your discretion in an application for the bail of these people on health grounds.
``My lord, the prosecutor is aware of the fact that Agarwal is 66 years old and has a terminal ailment that requires regular management.
``In fact, the offence for which my clients are charged with is not felony because they did not participate in the alleged damaging of the NNPC pipeline in Okene.
``Sharma and Agarwal do legitimate business in the country with their company, Prism Steel Mill Ltd, and they shall not jump bail if given.''
Mr Daniel Alumun, the counsel to the other accused, urged the court to grant his clients bail as well, adding that ``Section 35 of the Constitution guarantees their liberty.’’
He said the accused were assumed innocent till it was proved otherwise.
The prosecutor, however, opposed the bail application, saying that the offence for which they were charged was severe.
``The law, under which the accused applicants are charged with stipulates life imprisonment as punishment for act of economic sabotage,’’ Ibadi said.
The Judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, reserved Feb. 25 for ruling and ordered that the accused be remanded in prison.
Gunmen, who abducted six foreigners off the Bayelsa coastline, on Wednesday demanded for a ransom of N200 million for their freedom.
A Russian, three Ukrainians and two Indian sailors were abducted on Sunday when their vessel was attacked off the coastline.
The Police Public Relations Officer of Bayelsa Command, Mr Fidelis Odunna, confirmed the development in a telephone interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yenagoa.
Odunna said that the Police Anti Kidnapping Squad was already trailing the suspects to secure the victims' freedom.
“We have already dispatched our men to track down the kidnappers.
``Contact has been established with them and they are asking for N200 million,” he said.
NAN recalls that Gov. Seriake Dickson recently signed into Law a bill prescribing death penalty for Kidnapping in Bayelsa
A Jos Upper Area Court on Wednesday sentenced a 25-year- old man, Emmanuel Ochene, to three months imprisonment for stealing a travelling bag. Ochene was convicted for stealing a traveling bag valued at N50,000 belonging to one Mr James Okoro. The cour...
Three persons, including two bankers, were on Wednesday docked before a Yaba Magistrates’ Court for alleged forgery and theft of N1.5million.
The accused: Kelechi Amechi, 35, Rita Kpaakpa, 29 and Lawrence Amechi,42, are each facing a three-count charge of conspiracy to steal, stealing and forgery.
The accused persons, who reside at No. 32 Kunle Ajayi St., Ketu, and No. 21a, Fakunle St.,Ogba, respectively pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Police prosecutor, ASP. Ade Adeola said the offence was committed on Nov. 4. and 14, 2011 within the premises of the FBN micro finance bank, Ogba branch.
He said Rita Kpaakpa and Kelechi Amadi, who were at the time, employees of the bank, conspired to obtain the sum of N1.5million from one Mr Omotayo Afolabi, under the pretext facilitating his transactions.
He said the duo, on the same date forged the signature of one Mr Vincent Akabueze, on a guarantors form for a loan request of one Nosiru Bamidele.
``The accused obtained the total sum of N1.5millon, from one Mr Omotayo Afolabi, under the pretext of securing the money as a processing fee.
“They also filled a guarantors' form on behalf of one Nosiru Bamidele and unlawfully used Mr Vincent Akabueze as the guarantor and forged his signature for a the loan request", Adeola said.
The prosecutor said that Amadi and Kpaapka on Nov. 14 2011, again allegedly forged the signature of one Mr Femi Awoyinka on another guarantor's form for a loan request of Lawrence Amechi.
Adeola said the offences contravened the provisions of sections 285, 363 and 409 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Lagos State.
Magistrate P.A Ojo granted the accused bail in the sum of N500,000 each and two sureties each in like sum.
She adjourned the case to March. 8 for further hearing. (NAN)
The House of Representatives has set up an adhoc committee to determine whether or not there is a syndicate behind the 45,000 ghost workers detected in the Civil Service. The lawmakers made this disclosure while reacting to statement credited to minist...
The Bayelsa State police command yesterday announced the killing of a 200- level student of petro chemical engineering of Niger Delta University, Ammassoma, Mr. Tariebi Tyger, during a forceful initiation exercise by some unidentified cult group. Accor...
Police detectives in Asaba, Delta State, are interrogating 16 workers of a popular Catholic Church over an alleged missing of N3.5million offering. LEADERSHIP WEEKEND’s sources said that the offering was collected during Four Sunday services and ...
A Federal High Court in Abuja yesterday rejected an application by the Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Force (PRTF), Mr. Abdul-Rasheed Maina, asking the court to protect him against police harassment and put on hold the bench warrant issued against...
A Kaduna Senior Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday ordered three farmers to be remanded in prison custody for alleged murder.
The accused persons, Annas Kabiru, 27; Rabo Dogo, 21, and Sundee Usman, 21, of Zantar village, Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State are standing trial for allegedly killing one Gajere Jibrin Gwanma.
The police prosecutor, Insp. Simon Abbah, told the court that the accused persons were reported to the Kaura Police Station by one Danjuma Gajere of the Kaduna State High Court, Zaria, in September 2012.
He said Danjuma told the police that he got a message that the accused persons beat to death, his father, Gajere Jibrin Gwanma, following an allegation of sorcery levelled against him.
Abbah said after Gwamna's death, the accused persons went to his house and set it on fire, which also led to the death of one Tela Kanasame.
The prosecutor further said the offences were contrary to sections 97, 221 and 337 of the Penal code.
The accused were charged with criminal conspiracy, mischief by fire and culpable homicide.
Senior Magistrate Shittu Bello said his court had no jurisdiction to try the accused and that they were only in court for cognizance.
``My court cannot try this case until a legal advice from the State Ministry of Justice has been sent through the police to the court”.
He adjourned the matter till February 28 for further mention. (NAN)
Three persons, Amarachi Ojinkeya, Patience Igwe and Tochuchkwu Mathias were on Wednesday arraigned before a Tinubu Magistrates’ Court, Lagos for stealing N5.1 million belonging to their master. Ojinkeya, 18, Igwe, 29 and Mathias, 20, are fac...
Justice Mohammed Idris of a Federal High Court, Lagos, on Tuesday struck out an application for bail filed by four accused persons charged with pipeline vandalism.
The Plateau Government has dismissed the officer, who posed as a fake commissioner and drew salaries and entitlements for that office for ``quite some time’’. Mr Yakubu Jang, the Special Adviser to Plateau Governor on Special Duties, confir...
Three foreign doctors have been killed in Nigeria, one of them beheaded, officials have said.
Their nationality remains unclear, with differing reports claiming they were either South Korean or Chinese.
The deaths on Saturday night of the physicians in Potiskum, a town in Yobe state, comes less than a week after gunmen killed at least nine women administering polio vaccines in Kano, the major city of
The attackers reportedly targeted the doctors inside their home, an official at General Hospital in Potiskum, a government-run health facility.
The doctors had no security guards at their residence and typically travelled around the city via three-wheel taxis without a police escort, said the official who insisted on anonymity.
By the time soldiers arrived at the house, they found the doctors' wives cowering in a flower bed outside their home, the official said. At the property, they found the corpses of the three men, all bearing what appeared to be machete wounds.
Two of the men had their throats slit, while the third was decapitated.
The state's police commissioner, Sunusi Rufai, confirmed the attack took place but added that no one had claimed responsibility.
For most women from the coastal communities of the Niger Delta, the leisure of diving into the river and engaging in the rigorous exercise of swimming reduces with age. And at 69, you are expected to gently paddle your canoe and fish for the family&rsq...