The Concerned Youths, an Osun-based activist group, has commended the Osun State Police Command for the arrest of an alleged cultist and criminal kingpin, Rasheed Hammed, aka Rasheed Okoilu.
Okoilu, a welder by profession had been declared wanted by the Osun State Police Command some months earlier in connection with the killing of a graduate of the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, and a commercial motorcyclist.
He was arrested last weekend in Osogbo and on Wednesday, an Osun Chief Magistrate Court remanded him in Nigerian Correctional Centre, Ilesa.
The group also warned certain individuals it described as paid protesters to desist from using the youth movement in the State to threaten the governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke.
The group leader, Adebisi Emmanuel, speaking during a protest in Osogbo on Thursday, also called on the Nigeria Police to extend its dragnet to arrest the Chairman of the Osogbo branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Kazeem Oyewale, aka Asiri Eniba.
According to Adebisi, “We are here today to speak against paid protesters who stayed under our umbrella to threaten the newly elected governor.
“We are also calling on the IGP not to relent on his efforts to get all the criminals terrorising the State.
“The video that went viral indicted Asiri Eniba. Oko-Ilu was saying publicly that he kills faster than cancer, that he loves to kill, that he derives joy in killing people. And he was telling people that he works with Asiri Eniba.
“We want the arm of the law to be long enough to catch all those who are terrorising the State.
“We are telling them not to attach EndSARS with whatever they are doing because we are not with them.
They are State sympathizers. They should not include us in their political agenda.”
Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo, on Friday, sentenced an 82-year-old Village Head of Efen Ibom, Ika Local Government Area of the State, Chief Essien Matthew Odiong to death by hanging for murder.
The convict, who is married to 12 wives with 60 children, was standing trial on a four count charge of conspiracy, directing unlawful trial by ordeal, stealing of the motorcycle and murder of the owner, a member of his community, Udoma Akpan Udo Ubom.
In a judgment, the Court presided over by Justice Edem Akpan, found the accused guilty of murder of Udoma Akpan Udo Ubom by injecting some chemical substance on him, leading to his death on 26th April, 2017.
The late Ubom was accused by his brothers of being a wizard and was reported to the Village Head, who brought him before the Efen Clan Council, where the deceased was given an oath to swear that he was not a wizard.
The Court held that “having sensed the consequences of his criminal activity, the monarch escaped from the Village in 2017 and returned in 2019, when he was arrested by the Police.”
Justice Akpan also held that since “the accused had voluntarily admitted that he sat at Efen Clan Council with five other village heads and members of the Clan Council to try the deceased on the allegation of witchcraft, the law has relieved the prosecution of the burden to prove the offense of conspiracy.”
According to the court, “the admission of the process of trial and the decision of Efen Clan Council to administer oath on the deceased has logically brought to the conclusion that a plastic bath on the head of the late Udoma Akpan Udo Ubom and injecting some chemical substance through a syringe into his buttocks by the village head, caused the death of the deceased.”
Justice Akpan sentenced the Village Head to death by hanging for murder, seven years imprisonment with hard labour for directing unlawful trial by ordeal and three years imprisonment for conspiracy with others now at large.
Before he was sentenced, the convicted Village Head, popularly known as “Kill and Bury” pleaded for leniency, asking the court to show him mercy.
The Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has launched a security outfit in his state known as Community Volunteer Guard (CVG). Governor Ortom said that the state government will procure sophisticated weapons for the outfit to enable them to fight terrorists in the state.
Governor Ortom lamented the rising insecurity challenges in the country, and said that is the reason the Benue State Government revisited the Benue State Vigilante Law of 2000, which was enacted to collaborate with the conventional security forces to address security issues
He said that his administration had to amend the law to make way for the establishment of the Community Volunteer Guards. He said that based on the new law, the security outfit can carry legally approved weapons which the government has provided.
He said – “In addition, given the fact that the Federal Government has consistently failed to disarm the terrorists who have continued to maim and kill our people at will, the State Government is going to apply for a license to legally procure AK47, AK49 and other sophisticated weapons for the Benue State Volunteers Guards to enable them to tackle these terrorists effectively.”
Benue is one of the states that has suffered serious violent attacks which are believed to be carried out by herdsmen. Many have commended Governor Ortom for rising to the security challenges in the state by setting up the security outfit.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has suggested ways in which Nigeria can tackle the current security challenges in the country.
Osinbajo said Nigeria’s current security challenges and emerging threats require the country’s military and other relevant stakeholders to be several steps ahead of perpetrators while also stepping up local production of armaments.
The Vice President said this after receiving a presentation on “Defence Transformation and National Security: Strategic Options for Nigeria of the Future”, by the National Defence College Course 30 participants late Wednesday during a virtual interaction.
He said, “if you look at the challenges that we are facing and the nature of those challenges, it is evident that we need to be many steps ahead of non-state actors in particular who are perpetrators of this asymmetric warfare that we are experiencing.”
Osinbajo added that “it is clear that given current realities in our security situation, there is absolutely every need for us to fast-forward all our plans for the future so that we can be much more effective in dealing with the current threats and the threats that we will experience as we go into the future.
“One of the most critical areas is the question of local production of military hardware and I think it is low-hanging fruit when it comes to manufacturing some of the hardware that we will need. I think that there is a need, especially now to really look very closely at local production of our hardware, beginning with armament.
“We mentioned India, Brazil, and even the more developed economies of the world, during the first world war, the second world war, it was these challenges that led to the development of their military-industrial complexes. We have a challenge today, there are so many zones where there are conflicts. Our law enforcement is spread out everywhere.
“If we say the local companies should produce some of the mobile platforms like Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and Multi-Role Armoured Vehicle (MRAV), if we give them the contracts, they will produce, but if we choose to import rather than produce locally then we will never develop our military-industrial complex.”
Osinbajo also spoke about the need for transparency in the management of resources meant for the acquisition of hardware for the defence and security agencies.
“There needs to be more accountability because every time you hear, ‘we do not have enough equipment,’ but there must be accountability. I would like to see a framework for greater accountability within the Ministry of Defence that ensures that they are able to account for military expenditure,” he said.
Posted in FRAUD, News on August 4, 2022 by asotechm
The United States District Court for the Central District of California has rejected a plea put forward by arrested Instagram fraudster Ramon “Hushpuppi” Abbas seeking release from jail.
Court documents seen by us said Judge Otis D. Wright in Los Angeles issued the rejection based on letters written by Mr Abass to the judge.
“NOTICE OF DISCREPANCY AND ORDER: by Judge Otis D. Wright, II ORDERING MOTION COMPASSIONATE RELEASE submitted by Defendant Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, received on 7/21/22 is not to be filed but instead rejected. Denial based on: Local Rule 83-2.5 No letters to the judge,” the court document said.
Mr Abbas has been in custody since his arrest in Dubai and transfer to the United States in June 2020.
He is awaiting his sentencing. On June 24, the judge announced September 21 as the new sentencing date.
“At the request of counsel, the Sentencing is CONTINUED to 9/21/2022 at 1:30 PM before Judge Otis D. Wright II, as to Defendant Ramon Olorunwa Abbas,” the court’s document had said.
The internet fraudster was tried for swindling people across different continents to the tune of millions of dollars.
He pleaded guilty last year to “conspiracy to engage in money laundering,” an offence that attracts a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment, among other punishments including full restitution.
Mr Abass entered a plea bargain agreement with the U.S. government in July 2021, seeking a lighter sentence.
In June 2020, Mr Abbas was arrested in Dubai following an intensive police operation named ‘Fox Hunt 2’.
Intelligence agencies noted that his crimes bordered on money laundering, cyber fraud, hacking, criminal impersonating, scamming individuals, banking fraud and identity theft committed outside the United Arab Emirates.
Posted in News, Politics on August 4, 2022 by asotechm
The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has berated the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government for donating vehicles worth N1.14 billion to neighbouring Niger Republic.
Nigerian government, through the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, confirmed that President Buhari approved the purchase and donation of vehicles worth N1.14 billion to Niger Republic to address its security challenges
Ahmed confirmed this to reporters shortly after Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
According to her, it is to aid Niger in the acquisition of some operational vehicles.
She argued that even though Nigerians have the right to question the rationale for such donation, Buhari, who approved the purchase, also has the right to make his own assessment of situations and act accordingly.
Reacting to the development, the CNPP, in a statement signed by its Secretary-General, Willy Ezugwu on Thursday, called for President Buhari’s immediate impeachment.
The CNPP urged “the National Assembly to waste no time in impeaching the President for funding a foreign country under the guise of improvements in her security logistics but failed to tackle insecurity at home, seeing that the vehicles in question were not security patrol vans but executive SUV jeeps.”
“The six weeks ultimatum issued to Mr. President to tackle internal security should be cut short immediately as the Senate must now reconvene as a matter of urgency to commence the impeachment proceedings without further delay,” the CNPP demanded.
“Secondly, at the height of insecurity in the country, a contract to supply the 10 units of Toyota Land Cruisers was awarded while the Nigerian police lack operational vehicles and other necessary equipment to carry out internal security operations.
“Today, the military, which traditionally has no business with internal security, has been drafted to deal with ordinary unarmed protesters when we have police units that were trained to manage riotous crowds in a civil manner.
“Despite the harsh economic realities in Nigeria, the President is also funding the economic interests of the same foreign entity through the $1.96 billion 284km rail project connecting Kano in Nigeria to Maradi in Niger Republic.
“The CNPP, therefore, calls on all Nigerians to take note of the level of insensitivity and maladministration of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) federal government and do the needful in 2023 as the country cannot survive another eight years of an APC government from next year”, the statement added.
ASUU, on February 14, embarked on strike to press home its demands for a better welfare package, revamping of the nation’s education sector, among others, a situation that has forced many Nigerian students to be at home.
Worried by the lingering industrial dispute, President Buhari had, on July 19, instructed the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to proffer a solution to the challenge and report back to him in two weeks.
The State High Court in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, has sentenced Uduak Akpan to death for raping and murdering a female job seeker, Iniubong Umoren, in the state last year.
The judge, Bassey Nkanang, in his judgement on Thursday, said the convicted man will be put to death by hanging.
Mr Nkanang also found Mr Akpan guilty of rape and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The judge said the prosecution has proved beyond doubt the case of rape and murder against Mr Akpan.
He, however, discharged and acquitted the father and sister of Mr Akpan, who were the 2nd and the 3rd defendants in the case.
After the judge read out the judgment, the convicted rapist attempted to escape from the courtroom but was overpowered by security officials.
Mr Nkanang took over two hours to finish reading the judgement.
Ms Umoren went missing on 29 April 2021 after she was lured out of her home in Uyo with a fake job interview by Uduak Akpan.
The victim’s friend, Uduak Umoh, said she heard her scream for help when she established contact with her on the phone.
with a fake job interview by Uduak Akpan.
The victim’s friend, Uduak Umoh, said she heard her scream for help when she established contact with her on the phone.
“She sent me a 1sec audio record on WhatsApp and I had to call her back to know if she wanted to say something to me but immediately I called her, I heard her screaming,” Ms Umoh had tweeted during the search for the slain woman.
Several Nigerians deployed the Twitter hashtag #FingHinyUmoren to see how they could track the missing woman’s location or uncover the identity and location of the person she went to meet.
The police later exhumed Ms Umoren in a shallow grave on 30 April, 2021, a day after she was raped and killed at Mr Akpan’s family compound.
Her gruesome murder ignited international and nationwide outrage over increasing rape cases in Nigeria.
Ms Umoren, before her death, was a fresh Philosophy graduate of the University of Uyo. She was waiting for her deployment for the mandatory National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) Programme.
Ms Umoren did not live to see her mobilisation letter for the programme or even her final-year result – she graduated as one of the top students in her department.
The convict, Mr Akpan, first appeared in court on 26 July 2021 and pleaded guilty to murder, and not guilty to rape.
The court, however, entered a not-guilty plea for the murder of Ms Umoren.
The Attorney-General of Akwa Ibom State, Uko Udom, who led the prosecution team, told reporters, “For a capital offence, an accused person pleading guilty is neither here nor there. As far as the law is concerned, he is not guilty until we (prosecution) prove our case.”
“So if an accused person pleads guilty in a capital offence like this, the court normally would enter a plea of not guilty for him,” Mr Sam had said.
Mr Akpan later made a U-turn during his trial and denied raping and killing Ms Umoren.
He told the court that he had a “fever” the day he pleaded guilty and that it was the influence of his “IPO in the court” that made him plead guilty.
He also denied the confessional statements he made to the police and added that a similar statement he made to the State Security Services (SSS) was done under duress.
But Ama Okeke, a call data analyst with the SSS, who testified before the court, presented a video recording of Mr Akpan’s interview session which countered his claims. The court admitted the video as evidence.
Mr Okeke also told the court that from the agency’s call record analysis, Mr Akpan and Ms Umoren were at the same cell record and coordinate (location) in Nung Ikono Obio in Uruan Local Government Area.
He further told the court that SSS investigations led to the arrest of Mr Akpan’s sister, who is the 3rd accused person, Bassey-awan, in Calabar, Cross River State.
Besides his confessional statements to the police and the SSS, Mr Akpan, while he was paraded at the police headquarters in Uyo, told reporters how he lured and killed the victim.
In his testimony before the court to justify his son’s innocence, Frank Akpan, the father of the convict, told the court his son had a mental disorder and was an outpatient at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital.
Bassey-awan, in her testimonies, admitted her brother visited her but she said as of the time of the visit, her brother was accused of kidnapping Ms Umoren, from what she had learnt on Facebook.
She told the court she had asked the brother to go back to Uyo and clear his name.
Defence counsel’s final submission
Sampson Adulla, a lawyer from the Legal Aid Counsel, provided free legal services to Mr Akpan.
Mr Adulla, while adopting his final written address, prayed the court to rely on “weak facts” presented by the prosecution to discharge and acquit his client.
He asked the court to discountenance Mr Akpan’s confessional statement because “there was no witness to testify that his client committed the murder”.
On Mr Frank and Ms Bassey-awan, Mr Adulla had urged the court to discharge and acquit them because there was no evidence before the court that the duo knew that Mr Akpan was being accused of murder.
He had argued that at the time Mr Akpan visited her sister in Calabar, his alleged offence was kidnapping and not murder.
Prosecution’s submission
The prosecution counsel, Friday Itim, a deputy director of public prosecution in the Ministry of Justice, Akwa Ibom State, had reminded the judge how Mr Akpan pleaded guilty to the charge of murder, but not rape, on his first court appearance in July last year.
Mr Itim had also drawn the court’s attention to the fact that they (prosecution) had proven that there was communication between Mr Frank and her daughter (Bassey-awan) via text message on the day of the incident.
The court had admitted the phone and text message as evidence.
There is tension in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, following the arrest of a suspected Boko Haram leader.
Information gathered that the suspected terrorist was arrested Saturday night by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) in Ogun State.
Most residents of Abeokuta have now been thrown into a panic mood, as information about the arrest went viral within the State capital.
This is coming amidst rumour that terrorists are planning to attack some States in the South West
On Sunday, a reliable source informed our correspondent that the suspected Boko Haram leader was arrested at Ijaye area of the metropolis.
The suspected terrorist was said to have initially tried to resist arrest before he later bowed to the superior power of the DSS operatives.
It was gathered that the Boko Haram leader had left Katsina for Abeokuta, where he was employed as a security guard.
However, he had since been gathering intelligence for terrorist attacks.
Security sources hinted that the man was purposely in Abeokuta to set up terrorists’ cells for kidnapping and terror attacks.
He was said to have done the same in Abuja, Kaduna and Zamfara before he moved to Abeokuta.
“However, intelligence gathering gave him out and he was promptly apprehended before he succeeded in Abeokuta,” a source said, adding that there are still many of them being monitored.
It was learnt that the Boko Haram commander is still in the custody of the DSS.
Contacted, the spokesman of the DSS, Peter Afunanya, neither denied nor confirmed the arrest.
Replying to a message sent to him, he said, “No comment.”
Also, the Ogun police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the command was yet to be informed of the arrest.
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