MAN GOES BLIND AFTER PASTORS HIRED HOODLUMS TO TORTURE IN DEFIANCE OF COURT PROCESS

The case was today, 8^th Aril presented before the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of zone 2 Police command Lagos. At present in the meeting room were; both parties, victim of torture, accused persons of torture, the 6^th wife of late Pastor and witnesses. I was there as an observer as the DCP investigated into the matter, he took time to read through the case file and the entire document presented in the case file. 

My Observation/Findings:

That,

1.      the DCP had never heard or seen the case file before it was reported at FHQ

2.      Mr. Ademo provided concrete evidence including an agreement which was signed by the late Pastor, transfer of ownership and living witnesses that he paid a total of N3, 500,000 to the late Pastor Yemi, father of the complainant and that the land was sold to him.

3.      Mr. Ademo did not take possession of the land from late Pastor Yemi after he completed the payment even though payment was completed before the late Pasto died.

4.      The late pastor’s son said his father did not in any way, sell the land to anybody.

5.      Late Pastor’s 6^th wife signed some of the payment document as withes to the husband.

6.      The late Pastor’s 6^th wife claimed the late husband borrowed the money from Mr. Ademo not that he sold the land.

7.      The pastor’s son did not present any evidence that the late father did not sell the land to Mr. Ademo

8.      The matter had already been charged to court and the next court hearing is April 9^th, 2014

9.      There was an established case of torture/attempted murder on Mr. Samuel Adebayo (Victim) which emanated from the quest for land ownerships. Mr. Samuel (Victim) was an engineer who was hired by Mr, Ademo to repair a generator and was working in the premises when hoodlums/ touts came to attack his employer and when his employer saw them and escaped, they beat him up.

10.  Victim, Mr. Samuel Adebayo, have lost his right eyes as a result of grievous injuries which he sustained when group of hoodlums/touts beat him up with weapons in the premises where the land in located.

11.  The accused of torture/attempted murder did not deny before the DCP of such act.

DCP’s decision over the case:

1)      That since the matter is already in court; both parties should remain calm until when case is decided in court.

2)      Case of torture should be separated from the land case which is already in court and the case should be charge to court separately.

3)      Original Case file should be transferred to Alagbado police division where it was initially reported for further investigation.

4)      Instructed Alagbado police division to prepare a separate case of torture/attempted murder which will be charged to court as soon court decides who should own the land.

5)      Both parties should sign an agreement not to make more trouble among themselves until court decides the land case.

This is what I was able to capture because there was no opportunity to use pen on paper

Governor Orji suspends two Commissioners for collecting unauthorized taxes

Abia State Governor, Theodore Orji, yesterday suspended the Commissioner for Commerce, Mr. Chisom Nwamuo, and his Transport counterpart, Mr. Emesobum Chris, for allegedly collecting illegal taxes and other levies.
The decision follows reports by stakeholders that the Commissioners were imposing unauthorized taxes and charges on traders and other people in Aba, the commercial nerve centre of the state.
Chief of Staff to the Governor, Dr. Cosmos Ndukwe, confirmed the development to journalists.

Many aggrieved Aba market women had last week protested what they described as heavy imposition of taxes on them by some government officials.
Hundreds of them on Friday marched round one of the markets in Aba and some major streets.
They were however dispersed by security officers as they headed towards the studios of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) located in the Ogbor hill area of the city.
But they regrouped and headed towards the Aba South Local Government headquarters, near the main motor park where they were addressed by their leaders.

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N100 bribe: Court sentences policeman to death

A High Court sitting in Port Harcourt on Monday sentenced a police sergeant, Clement Indyel, to death for killing two persons while engaging in a fight with a bus driver over a N100 bribe.
Two other persons identified as Ali Bello and Auwalu Kwale, bagged life imprisonment each for their involvement in the crime.

Justice Biobele Georgewill, who delivered judgement on the matter, said Indyel and the two others conspired to murder Chinyeaka Kamalu and Ugochukwu Harcourt.

Georgewill, who recalled that the convicts were charged with felony, conspiracy and murder, said they (convicts) attacked the victims, who were passengers.

He added that the report of the autopsy conducted on the victims revealed that they (victims) sustained gunshot injuries that led to their death.

The trial judge maintained that the injuries sustained by the victims were as a result of the bullets from the AK-47 rifles used by the policemen.

According to Justice Georgewill, the incident that led to the sudden demise of Kamalu and Harcourt occurred on January 17, 2010 in Port Harcourt.

“The result of the autopsy conducted on the remains of the victims, which was tendered in court, showed that the wound sustained by them was bullet wound from AK47 rifles used by the officers.
“The only way the souls of the victims can rest in peace for their unjust murder by police officers who were meant to protect them is to allow the law to take its course,” he said.

Sister to the late Kamalu, Mrs. Chinyere Ideoha, expressed delight over the ruling of the court, even as she added that the judgement could not bring back her dead sister to life.

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Court registrar jailed for receiving bribe

An Enugh High Court has sentenced the Registrar of a Magistrate’s Court in Enugu State, Anikwu Ifesinachi, to three years jail without an option of fine, for demanding bribe.

According to a statement from the spokesperson of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other related Offences Commission, Mr. Folu Olamiti, Justice A. A. Nwobodo convicted him after finding him guilty of contravening section 10 (a) (ii) of the ICPC Act, 2000.

Ifesinachi was accused of demanding N80, 000.00 bribe from the relation of a suspect before he would process the warrant of release of the suspect who had been in custody for about two years.

The statement said, “After persistent demand, the relation approached ICPC and the Commission gave him marked money. As soon as the accused collected the money from the relation, he was arrested by the operatives of the ICPC.

“Consequently, the accused was charged on two counts for demanding and receiving bribe under the ICPC Act in the High Court of Enugu,” it added.

The ICPC in the charge stated that “Ifesinachi ‘m’ on or about June 2010, whilst being the clerk of the Magistrate Court, Awgu, received the bribe purportedly for Chief Magistrate J.S Ede of the same Magistrate’s Court, before the warrant of one Maduabuchi Oji could be processed.”

In the course of the trial, the prosecution called three witnesses and tendered some exhibits while the accused gave evidence without calling any witness.

In his defence, the registrar claimed to have collected the money on behalf of the complainants whom he did not call as a witness.

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Warri residents protest return of police roadblocks

WorldStage Newsonline-- Some Warri residents on Wednesday stormed the Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ), Press Centre in Warri to draw the attention of police hierarchy to the return of “illegal road blocks” to the metropolis.
 

They alleged unlawful arrest and detention while decrying the "unfriendly disposition" of policemen at "B" Division also known as Avenue Police Station in Warri.

The protesters alleged that police activities had made it difficult for them to exercise their right to freedom of movement particularly in the evening hours.

Spokesman of the  protesters, Oghenekevwe Onome  said, "We have come to you people as the watch dog of the society to help us reach out to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the Commissioner of Police, Delta State Command, Ikechukwu Aduba and the Delta State Government and let them know the embarrassment that has become of police particularly the B-Division Police in Warri.

"The other day, they went round the whole of Okumagba Avenue arresting indiscriminately people who were relaxing at beer palours, subjecting them to bail raging from 3,000 to 5,000 depending on your bargaining power. A boy who was returning from lesson whose photograph we have here was arrested and injured with the butt of police rifle. Another young boy who went to buy 'akara' (bean cake) was arrested and all of them bundled to the police station."

Another resident, Kome Eradejaye said, "Just recently, another young boy who was returning from work carrying a video camera was accosted and upon interrogation he told them that he hired the camera. Despite his explanations, they insisted that he must take them to the owner which he obliged. But when they got there, the police arrested the owner of the camera and took him to the station in spite of the fact that the receipt of the camera was produced."

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Fallacy of Division and Nigerian Corrupt Ministers, By Adeolu Ademoyo

Last week four Nigerian ministers were relieved of their services. Some of them had been pointedly accused of corruption.  They are Stella Oduah (Aviation), Godsday Orubebe (Niger Delta Affairs), Caleb Olubolade (Police Affairs) and Yerima Ngama (Finance).

Interestingly, from the relieve, it seems the “national quota” and  “ethics” of “federal” character commission are at work!  Thus the question is: will it ever be possible for a Nigerian president to take the morally right decision as each corrupt case arises without “balancing” it with some ethnic consideration? Time will tell.

Corruption is a universal poor ethics. It is not peculiar to Nigeria or Africa, nor is it genetic or ethnic. However two things are Nigerian about corruption. They are failure of the Nigerian state to act decisively and prosecute corruption and the deliberate ethnic muddling of corruption cases by common folks in Nigeria and     especially those in surprisingly “high” places.

The supposedly “well read” Nigerian would normally waive the ethnic flag when officials they think are from “our” ethnic group are accused of corruption!  That was the case with some of the recently sacked ministers and those ministers President Jonathan continues to protect and shield for reasons of his own personal economic interests and political survival.

Here I am talking about Ms. Diezani Alison-Madueke the   corrupt minister of petroleum who sits on the most reported corruption in Nigerian history in the so-called Nigerian oil industry. I am sure Stella Oduah must be chuckling cynically at Nigeria and her sack while the main source of corruption in the Nigerian presidency Diezani Alison-Madueke is jealously guarded by an equally corrupt president!

At the time President Jonathan was “sacking” some corrupt ministers without prosecuting them, here in the Diaspora something similar and morally instructive unfolded. The former Mayor of New Orleans in Louisiana State, Mr. Nagin was being convicted for corruption charges.

And far away in Europe, the 28-member country European Commission released a report, which indicted corrupt European countries. The Commission’s Home Affairs Commissioner, Cecelia Malmstrom, described the findings of the report on European corruption as breathtaking because under European graft and corruption   €120bn are lost annually to corrupt practices and shady deals. Also, in the report we know that 60 per cent of Europeans say that corruption has increased in their countries as opposed to 47 per cent three years ago.

These continental cases show that corruption does not have any ethnic coloration, which Nigerians deliberately give it to muddle the issue and defend the corrupt. Take Mr. Nagin’s case in America for example. Remember hurricane Katrina where lives   were  lost?  As the mayor during that sad period of hurricane Katrina, Mr. Nagin was the face of the call for help and succor that came to the survivors of the hurricane. It was the same sadness and grief which hurricane Katrina brought that Mr. Nagin allegedly turned into a source to milk the American public through abuse of his office.

The interesting thing is that Mayor Nagin is black like me. But there was not a single reference to his race or ethnicity in his prosecution and conviction. In his case there was no fallacy of  division  where it would have been awkwardly and dubiously   said that Mr. Nagin was being prosecuted because of his race or ethnicity.

That Mr. Nagin is corrupt  does not mean that we  peoples of African descent   are corrupt.  No one referenced his blackness, race or ethnic origin  in his prosecution and eventual conviction.

Legitimately, in Mr. Nagin’s conviction  it was  all about law and ethics.  Shame and jail are the prices  the corrupt individual  pays for his/her corruption. So Mr. Nagin goes to jail like any other corrupt persons black or white or whatever. But this is not the case with respect to my country, Nigeria. Abuja, New Orleans, two cities, different ethics.

In Nigeria, it is duly documented for all eyes to see that Ms. Stella Oduah was one of the major funding sources  of President Jonathan’s campaign in the last election.  This is a fact that  the most fervent defenders of President Jonathan cannot refute. The organization Neighbor 2 Neighbor owned by the sacked  Stella Oduah  and Godwin Orubebe was one of the illicit conduit pipes for the support for President Jonathan in the last election.

So it is silly that when the story of Mrs. Stella Oduah’s corruption   broke religion and ethnicity were deployed in her defense.  Like the case of Mr. Nagin, those who accused   Stella Oduah  took her on  as an individual who allegedly abused her office  to her own  personal benefit, the companies she has interest in  and to the benefit of  her  political sponsors in the Nigerian presidency and the companies like Coscharis  Motors-they are invested in.

But unfortunately like most Nigerian  politicians if not all of them, Stella Oduah and her handlers  muddled the issue.  Behind the scene, like  the typical Nigerian politician, they deployed ethnicity.  It was so bad and ridiculous that chiefs and ethnic organizations   were lined up  to show how she is innocent.

I  do hope that these chiefs, persons ,ethnic organizations  and Oduah handlers who openly said Stella Oduah was being prosecuted for ethnic reasons will have the good sense to rethink their bad faith and breadth-   given how intensely corrupt Stella Oduah  has proven to be.

But the problem goes beyond Stella Oduah.  Diversity is a good ethics in multinational societies, which our country, Nigeria is.  However, when officials/ministers/commissioners are appointed principally  as representatives of ethnic groups and not for their moral merit, then it is no longer about the goodness of the pragmatism of the  ethics of  diversity but  an un-ethical political appeasement. The dubious and immoral  ethnic then trumps otherwise good  pragmatic ethics.  This is why corrupt ministers and their companies appeal to the ethnic when  they are caught pants down.

Finally, here in America, companies which are  cited sites of corruption that are used by pubic officials to perpetuate corruption are made to  inherit the opprobrium of the same corrupt  public officials who used them to loot. But this not  the case in  Nigeria.  Companies like  Coscharis Motors who are cited sites of corruption go scot-free even when public officials that collaborated with them are sacked for corruption!

But as corrupt public officials fall, companies they have used to steal must go down with them. The EFCC must beam its searching lights on  companies that are cited sites of corruption like Coscharis Motors.

Like all immorality corruption is a teamwork, it is a network. To take out a few individuals while leaving the network  will only  re-grow corruption and strengthen it.

So, this is the time to ask Coscharis Motors and other companies, which are, cited sites of corruption to come clean and inform us about what they know in the looting and moral destruction of Nigeria.

Adeolu Ademoyo aaa54@cornell.edu is of Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

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Nigeria ravaged by $20bn oil robbery

It was 2am when a fireball pierced the inky night sky above a small community in the Niger delta. The explosion near Port Harcourt last June killed several people and released 6,000 barrels of crude oil. The cause: contractors hired by Royal Dutch Shell to stop pirates siphoning oil from a huge pipeline were themselves stealing fuel, and something went terribly wrong. The blast led to the shutdown… Shell, the largest foreign operator in the country, was responsible for more than 20,00 barrels of last year’s spills.

By John Donovan: Sunday 17 February 2014

The Sunday Times has today published an article by Danny Fortson under the headline: “Nigeria ravaged by $20bn oil robbery”
The article reveals information about a new website being launched next month by The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency as a result of an initiative by a group of interested parties, including the Nigerian Government and local communities. The website will publish searchable details about every oil spill in Nigeria. It is expected to shame big oil.
As could be anticipated, Shell’s name is mentioned many times in the half-page article about oil spills, intrigue, greed and robbery e.g.
Extracts
It was 2am when a fireball pierced the inky night sky above a small community in the Niger delta. The explosion near Port Harcourt last June killed several people and released 6,000 barrels of crude oil. The cause: contractors hired by Royal Dutch Shell to stop pirates siphoning oil from a huge pipeline were themselves stealing fuel, and something went terribly wrong. The blast led to the shutdown…
Shell, the largest foreign operator in the country, was responsible for more than 20,00 barrels of last year’s spills.
Extracts end
The Guardian newspaper published a remarkable article in November 1997 about Shell under the headline “Unloveable Shell, the Goddess oil Oil. It mentioned Shell’s unholy conduct in Nigeria, including financial support of the corrupt regime that murdered Ken Saro-Wiwa.

This is a link to the Guardian article together with a response letter received from then Shell Chairman, Mark Moody-Stuart, who cited in defense, Shell’s Statement of Principles covering business integrity, health, safety and the environment.  Moody-Stuart stated: “just having those principles is no longer enough. In the past … an oil company could say‘trust me” … Today, people say “tell me - listen to me - show me” …
Some 17 years later stakeholders and everyone else can make a judgment about whether Shell can be trusted. The list of Shell management misdeeds over many intervening years is extensive (if you don’t believe me check this webpage), but I will just mention as a couple of glaring examples, the reserves scandal announced to a shocked world in January 2004 and the unfulfilled repeated pledges to end gas flaring in Nigeria.
Since Shell manifestly cannot be trusted, the new website must be a good idea. 

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