Police boss denies allegations of election manipulation By Iniabasi Umo234next

Police Commissioner (CP) in Akwa Ibom State, Felix Uyanna has denied allegations that he was posted to the state by the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to manipulate elections.

Mr Uyanna who was until his deployment to the state, Commissioner of Police in Taraba State, refuted the allegation in a newspaper report, that his transfer came at a cost of N500 million. He spoke yesterday at an interactive session with political parties in Uyo, the state capital.

Inspector General has the right

“The IG has the discretion to do his posting. My mission is to secure the lives and property of the people of Akwa Ibom state, ensure that they sleep with their eyes closed, and to enforce laws I am readily charged with.” He said. Mr Uyanna stated that if that amount were paid to him, he would have preferred to retire having attained the peak of his professional career as any other rank beyond a commissioner of police was political.

He warned political parties against promoting violence during the forthcoming elections, urging that they should work towards the stability of the country. He mentioned that politicians were not expected to be accompanied by a retinue of personal assistants and policemen while casting their votes on the Election Day, and threatened to dismiss any policeman who would accompany politicians on the election day.

Mr Uyanna arrived the state Tuesday last week (the day PDP clashed with the ACN) to replace Sanni Magaji who spent barely three months in the state.

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security agencies reinstate commitment to peaceful polls

Barely six days to  the April general elections, the Lagos State
Police command and
other security agencies charged with the responsibility of  ensuring a
violence free elections, embarked
on a ‘show of force’ Sunday  , apparently to send  warning signal to
would- be  trouble makers, in the state.

The security personnel comprising policemen, Army, Navy, Airforce ,
NAFDAC operatives
and other paramilitary agents, were seen on motorbikes, patrol vans, Armour
Personnel Carriers(APC’s) in most areas of the state .

Violence prone areas like Mushin,
Idi-Araba, Agege, Ajegunle amongst others had larger concentration  of
the personnel.

 the Lagos State Police Public
Relations Officer, Samuel Jinadu said  the exercise was  aimed at
deterring criminals
from   criminal activities as the elections draws closer
' it was also to show the level of
preparedness by the security agents in combating those who will want
to  cause  trouble before, during, and after the election


The blaring of siring by the security personnel took residents of most areas
by surprise, as some of them initially mistook their presence for a distress
response of robbery operation.

Two die celebrating Fayemi's victory by Tayo Ikujuni 234next.com

Two men died at about last night at Aiyetoro-Ekiti in Ijero Local government Area of Ekiti state. The middle-aged men had been celebrating the Tribunal ruling that returned Dr. Kayode Fayemi as the Governor of the state.

A witness, Tola Ogunlolu, said the two men were riding on high speed when they fell off their motorcycle and died on the spot. Efforts by onlookers to revive them failed, and on reaching the general hospital they were confirmed dead.

A nurse at the hospital, who pleaded anonymity, told the News Agency of Nigeria that the corpses had been deposited at the hospital mortuary.

In a related incident, four persons who sustained various injuries during the celebration in Ado-Ekiti on Friday were treated at the University of Ado-Ekiti Teaching Hospital and discharged.

Hospital sources said the victims were discharged late in the night following the ongoing strike by doctors in the hospital.

Meanwhile, celebrations of Dr. Fayemi's victory have continued in major towns of the state, such as Ikole-Ekiti, Ikere-Ekiti, Ode-Ekiti, Omuo-Ekiti, Emure-Ekiti, Efon-Alaaye, Okemesi-Ekiti and Oye-Ekiti, among others.

At Isan-Ekiti, the hometown of Fayemi, the people hosted all night parties celebrating the emergence of their son as the new governor of the state. However, most residents of Ifaki-Ekiti, the home of Mr Segun Oni, who lost the hearing, stayed indoors upon hearing about the removal of their kinsman as governor.

kidnap and stealing are not easy -----By Patience ogbo

A -26 –year old man, Chibuzor Anene is in the police custody for
allegedly kidnapping an 8 years old boy.

 Police spokes person Samuel Jinadu said the suspect was arrested by
the police on March 16th following a tip off from members of the
public .
“The suspect and his gang kidnapped the boy after school as he was
going back home with his sisters, at Alaigbo area in  Ejigbo on 16th
of March.
The police were informed about the kidnap and they swung into action
and arrested the suspect while the other two members of his gang
escaped.”Mr. Jinadu said.
 Mr. Jinadu added that the suspected kidnappers had snatched a car
from a victim on March 14th which they used to kidnap the school boy.
“It will interest members of the public to know that this same suspect
with his gang had on the 14th of March snatched a Gulf Volkswagen car
from one Tunde Abiodun at Ejigbo which they used to kidnap the boy,
Mr. Abiodun had reported the theft of his car at the Ejigbo police
station.”
 Mr.Abiodun  in a statement to the police said his car was stolen
from him at gun point by a three man armed robbery gang.
“Two of them stopped me at Cele Express and said they wanted to
charter my car to Ikotun, I agreed because I was heading to Ikotun.
shortly around Ori-oke area in Ejigbo, I noticed that an okada man was
trailing my car, suddenly, the okada man blocked my car and the two
men inside the car asked me to stop, they pointed two guns at me and
that was how I got to know that they are armed robbers and the okada
man is also a member of their gang and I reported the case to the
Ejigbo police station”
 Mr. Anene confessed to the crime .He said he joined the gang because
other members of the gang threatened to kill him.
“I used to an ice cream seller and later I went to start riding okada.
One of my friends called Emmanuel came to me to join his gang. Emma is
a bad boy and everybody knows him that he is into bad things.
  Emma was the one who planned everything and he told us about the
boy. I don’t know how he got information about the boy. Before we
kidnapped the boy, we had earlier snatched a gulf car at Ejigbo; I was
the man riding the motorcycle that day. So after snatching the car, we
used the car to go and kidnap the boy two days later. The boy was
coming back from school so Emma grabbed him and put him inside the car
and we zoomed off, later I started developing cold feet toward the
crime   , I told Emma that I was no longer interested in the crime.
When the vehicle slowed down, I opened the door and jumped out so I
was running and police men pursued and arrested me. I feel bad about
my crime, but I have no choice because Emma said he will do me
something bad if I do not join the gang.”
 Mr. Jinadu said the suspect will be charged to court.
“The police recovered a locally made gun from the suspect. The suspect
will be charged to court as soon as we are through with our
investigations.
Meanwhile the police is on the trail of other members of the gang and
they will be arrested soon.”

Police boss denies banning camera phones at polling units

By Emmanuel Ogala, Ini Ekott, and Soji Bamidele NEXT Newspaper March 29, 2011 04:56AM

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The Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, yesterday dramatically reversed his directive that allegedly banned the use of camera phones at polling stations in the forthcoming elections.

Following widespread condemnation of the order, which was set to be made public yesterday, police sources claimed the Inspector General was misquoted.

The Police boss was reported in the media last week to have ordered his officers – during the police commissioners’ conference - not to allow voters use camera phones in the polling units during elections.

Yemi Ajayi, a spokesperson of the police, said in an interview on Monday, that his boss was “quoted out of context.”

Mr. Ajayi added that the police boss simply warned that voters should not announce election results as only the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has the constitutional authority to do so.

News of the camera phone ban had led to strong criticism on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook through the weekend and created concerns over the dedication of the Police Force to the conduct of free, fair, and transparent elections.

Once news of the directive started easing its way into the public, political parties and notable Nigerians immediately condemned the move.

Speaking to journalists in Lagos last week, Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, slammed the directive as “nonsense and illegal”.

“It is stupidity of the security agents to ban Nigerians from taking their cell phones and cameras to polling booths. If they do not go to polling booths, how would they monitor electoral misconducts? People should ignore it because it is contrary to the electoral act,” Mr. Soyinka said.

Use it

Although Attahiru Jega, the INEC chairman, met with Mr. Ringim on Monday morning, it was not clear if the ban was discussed.

However, in an interview, the electoral commission distanced itself from such a directive, saying voters are free to use their camera phones at polling stations on election days.

“The position of INEC is very clear. INEC has said anyone can bring their phone or camera to the polling unit. Anything to the contrary is not the position of INEC,” Kayode Idowu, the chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, said.

Mr. Idowu added that “INEC is trying to sort things out and is consulting with the security agencies.”

Real-time monitoring

Mobile camera phones and other specialised widgets are the contemporary tools of journalism which most observers, professionals, and journalists intend to use to monitor the elections and check rigging and fraudulent manipulations.

Kayode Ajulo, an FCT senatorial candidate for the Labour Party, said that such tools have been of immense help in determination of electoral fraud by the courts in past elections.

“The IG does not even have the right to ban its use,” Mr. Ajulo added.

Many of the non governmental organisations planning to monitor the elections with camera phones also said the comments attributed to the police chief were outrageous and that they will not succumb to it.

“We will not succumb to that,” Dafe Akpedeye, the first co-chair of an election monitoring group, Project 2011 Swift Count, said.

car thieves arrested by patience ogbo

The Lagos  state police command   advised resident to  patronize authorized car dealers.

 Samuel Jinadu the spokes person for the command said this following the arrest of two syndicates who specialize in snatching cars and selling stolen vehicles in the state.

 Officers of the, Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the command smashed the syndicates, operating in Lagos and Anambra states.

  The suspects are   Christian Chukwu and Tom Ogbangwor,  operate in Onitsha and Sikiru Kareem, Wasiu Bello, Tayo Akinyemi  are   based in Lagos .

 The syndicate operating in Anambra state allegedly  snatched a Toyota Hyundai Accent car, with Reg. No Delta. AJ 454 SLK  from Onitsha and drove  it to Lagos  where they contacted Mr. Kareem a member of another syndicate to assist them get a buyer  to for  the car.

 Mr. Jinadu said that officers got information about the syndicate’s activities and posed as buyers for the stolen car which later led to their arrest.

Mr. chukwu a father of two is allegedly   the brain behind the robbery said hunger led him into crime.

“I used to be an aluminum fabricator but the money I make from it is not enough. I am always hungry and anytime I am hungry I will  go and steal, I used to steal handsets but the money from it is not  enough, one day, a student attacked me with a gun and I later snatched the gun from him;

 while the gun was with me, I thought of what to do with it and that was how I went to meet Tom who was a labourer and I asked him to join my gang, me and tom, used to steal handsets together, but we decided to monitor people with cars and we said we should start stealing cars so that was how we went into car snatching.”Mr. Chukwu said

Mr. Ogbangwor narrated how they attack their victims.

“we look out for the person driving and if he looks timid, we will monitor him for some days, we ensure that we wait for them to get to a pot hole or a bump where they cannot drive fast so when the vehicle is slowing down, I will call Christian who is stationed nearby to come out and he will swoop on the driver, pointing gun at him and that is how we will end up stealing the car. I joined this syndicate because my labourer work was not fetching me anything and in my village, if you are not a business owner at 25 you are seen as a nobody” he said

 Mr. Jinadu a Deputy supertiendent of police (DSP) said the suspects were arrested at MR BIGGS restaurant, Oba Akran, Ikeja where they were waiting to sell the car buyers.

“The officers from SARS posed as buyers and arrested them before they could sell the car;  investigation is on and the suspects will be charged to court , we are on the trail of other members of the syndicates and they will be arrested soon”

Journalist honoured

A Trust Fund has been set up in honour of the late Nation newspaper judiciary reporter, Edo Sule Ugbagwu who was murdered by unknown assailants at his resident at Akonwonjo area of Lagos state April 24th last year. 

The trust fund was set up by the National Association of Judiciary Correspondents.  (NAJUC), Ikeja branch during the association’s first annual lecture.

 The theme of the event “2011 election security of journalists; an imperative tool for free and  fair election” was held  at De Renaissance  hotel at  Alausa ikeja   in honour of Mr. Ugbagwu.

Waheed Abdullah, the chairman of the Ikeja branch of NAJUC said the trust fund is meant to cater for those late Mr. Ugbagwu left behind and to appreciate his immense contribution to judiciary reporting in the country.

“It is wonderful to know that late Mr. Ugbagwu who has been looking up to God for a fruit of the womb now has a baby boy delivered by his wife after he was killed. The association opened the fund for his baby and we call on the public to contribute to the fund”Mr. Abdullah said

The issues of welfare and insurance packages for journalists   were at the front burner at the event as the discussants at the event took turn to highlight the dangers journalists face in the country labeling them as “endangered species”

 They added that the   immense contributions of journalists to nation building are not appreciated and duly compensated.

Veteran journalist and human right activist Richard Akinnola urged owners of media organizations to take the welfare of journalists seriously.

“It is very sad that the media organizations do not provide the necessary welfare package for the journalists working for them, there is no insurance and they do not make available the tools the journalists need to work with. Their job makes it inevitable as they are on the cross fire   and in the forthcoming election they will become targets . The critical thing is the welfare of these journalists; their insurance and welfare is very critical and should be taken seriously”Mr. Akinnola said.

Bamidele Aturu a Lagos based lawyer and human rights activist blamed the violence in the country on politicians and their do or die attitude to politics.

“the Nigerian state is a rental state and the political barons are the ones who sponsor their children, and family members in a bid for them to hold on to power, it is sad that no mainstream political party in Nigeria is progressive , the politicians are the killers and to halt  this trend, we must go back to  our values and bring back democracy to the people”Mr. Aturu said .

The younger brother of the late Mr. Edo urged journalists not to relent in their efforts to always publish the truth.

“I urged you not to be deterred as you go about your duties, always ensure that you publish the truth. We the family have committed Edo’s death to God, seeing that there is no justice in Nigeria”.