9 month after girl’s abduction, police say no money to fund rescue

Posted By: PATIENCE OGBOon: January 31, 2015In: Crime Watch1 Comment

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It has been nine months since suspected gun men kidnapped a 15- year -old school girl, Precious Okoro. But as days has run into weeks and months, hopes that Okoro will regain her freedom soon appears farfetched as efforts to track her abductors are hampered by paucity of funds, according to police.
Saturday Mirror exclusively learnt that policemen at the State Criminal Investigations Department at Panti Yaba have abandoned the investigations to rescue Okoro who was kidnapped on May 25th 2014 at the Songotedo area in Lagos State on her way to the Ikenne Communty College, Ikenne, Ogun State. It was learnt that gun men intercepted the bus conveying Precious to school and whisked her away to and after three months, the abductors contacted her father demanding for a ransom.
Though the policemen attached to the SCID Panti have arrested four persons in connection with the kidnap, it was gathered that the policemen move to rescue the girl is being stalled because the, identified as Mr Nwaigwe Okoro, is said to have ran out of cash to sponsor the police investigation. Police sources said the suspected kidnappers after abducting Precious, took her to a hideout in Niamey, Niger Republic, where she and other girls are being held hostages.
The police source added that the kidnappers demanded $100, 000 ransom and they have contacted the parents to provide the money, failure upon which the girl will be made a sex slave . Sources added that Precious became a target for kidnappers after her father, a bush meat seller at the Ajah area of Lagos went to his wife’s village to sponsor two burial ceremonies.
It was learnt that policemen are working on the theory that some relatives of the kidnapped girls allegedly masterminded the kidnap as they might have felt that her father is wealthy after they saw the manner he spent money during the burials. It was learnt that Precious told her mother that one Kelvin from her mother’s village is the brain behind her kidnap.
A police source said “The kidnappers allowed Precious to speak with her mother on the phone. Precious spoke a different dialect and told her mother that one Kelvin is behind her kidnap. She said the kidnappers also have other girls in their custody.
Precious’ mother later spoke with one of the kidnapers and she told them to send Kelvin’s mobile telephone number which the abductor did so that she can speak with him directly. Precious’s mother, however, discovered that the number the kidnapper sent is the same number that one of her cousins, Kelvin is using.
The police has been on the manhunt for Kelvin but there has not been any success because tracking his number involves spending money which the family don’t have and there is no financial help coming from anywhere.
Police sources who requested anonymity said, “This girl’s case has received a lot of attention from human rights groups who have visited the police to push for her rescue, but all efforts have been in vein because what is required to rescue the girl is money.
The father of the girl is a bushmeat seller but he went to the village in the Eastern part of the country on two occassions to sponsor burial ceremonies for his wife. “From police investigations, the relatives were praising him for spending a lot of money during the burials so they felt he has money and one of them masterminded the girl’s kidnap.
But from what they have learnt, the man is not as rich as they thought but they said he is lying and they are demanding for that huge ransom. The man is very broke and cannot sponsor the investigation.
“The police team are supposed to go to Niamey for investigation but there is no money and the father of the girl said he is very broke. All the NG0s coming here promised to raise fund for the investigation but they have not shown up, so money is hindering police work”.
The police source added that it is sad that Precious and other girls are still being held in custody of the Niger Republic based kidnapping gang and their continuous stay in the kidnapper’s den will endanger their lives. “From our investigation, Precious informed her mother when the kidnappers allowed her to speak on the phone that she is being held in captivity with other girls.
This is a case that the Federal, state and human rights groups should be interested in considering the similarity with the Chibok girls kidnap. Money to investigate is a major hindrance to the rescue efforts of these girls at the moment,” the source said. In his statement to the police, Mr. Okoro narrated how the kidnap ordeal started.
He said “August last year after three months my daughter was kidnapped, I received an international call from some persons who claimed they kidnapped my daughter and she is in Niger Republic. They demanded $100,000 ransom money but I told them I don’t have. They told me if I want my daughter back alive, I should cooperate with them.
They later reduced the money to $30,000 and they sent an Ecobank account number .They used 15 different international numbers to contact me but I told them I don’t have money.
“They also sent a Diamond Bank account number. The police used the bank to arrest some of them. I don’t have any money to give them. I don’t have money for the investigation and this is stalling the rescue of my daughter,” the father lamented.

Battered Lagos bus driver can’t eat, sleep –Wife

Fisayo Falodi

Gbemisola, the wife of Moshood Olaniyi, the man, who was battered on Wednesday by a soldier, Emmanuel B.J., says her husband’s health is deteriorating due to the extent of the injury he sustained.

She told our correspondent on Thursday on the telephone that her husband had not been able to eat any food or drink any liquid since the incident happened.

Gbemisola said Olaniyi had been vomiting the food he ate despite the treatment he received at a medical facility immediately the soldier released him.

PUNCH Metro had reported on Wednesday that Emmanuel battered Olaniyi at the Berger Motor Park in Lagos State for sneering at him.

The soldier had alleged that Olaniyi attempted to hit him while reversing his vehicle, and that when he asked why, the driver just sneered at him.

Emmanuel slapped Olaniyi, lashed him with horse whip and threatened to kill him.

He did not release the driver until much pleading by eyewitnesses and other motorists.

Olaniyi was thereafter taken to a hospital in the area for treatment.

But Gbemisola, who claimed that the treatment did not improve her husband’s condition, said Olaniyi could not sleep in the night because of injuries he sustained in the attack.

She said apart from groaning with pains, her husband had been unable to keep any food down his stomach.

She said, “My husband could neither eat nor sleep. The only thing he took today (Thursday) was tea, which he also vomited some minutes later.

“His health is fast deteriorating; the N15, 000 we paid at the hospital he was taken to for treatment has not achieved anything. He was given drips and some injections, but there has been no improvement. He is complaining of pains.

“We are contemplating on taking him to the hospital again for an X-ray, but we don’t have the money to pay for that. All the money we had at home was the N15, 000 we paid for treatment at the hospital on Wednesday.”

One of Olaniyi’s colleagues, who preferred to be address as Crown, said he and other friends were worried about the bus driver’s condition.

Crown said when he went to check on Olaniyi at his resident at about 2.30pm on Thursday, he met him in pains, being massaged by his wife and other sympathisers.

He said, “Olaniyi will need effective medical attention to regain his health. He was groaning with pains when I went to see him.”   Copyright PUNCH.

Police nab NURTW chief for alleged murder

Samson Folarin

The Anti-Robbery Squad of the State Department of Criminal Investigation, Lagos State Police Command, has arrested a murder suspect, Kunle Oshineye, aka Eyin Bouncing, for alleged involvement in the killing of two men in Akoka, Bariga.

Oshineye, an executive member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers in the Jibowu area, was said to have been arrested at a party last Friday.

A police source told PUNCH Metro that the suspect, who allegedly belonged to the Eiye Confraternity, was among those who killed Daniel and Abiye, who were slain on January 22, 2016.

The deceased were said to be members of the Aiye Confraternity, a rival group.

The death of Daniel and Abiye, had led to the killing of a 63-year-old businesswoman, Mrs. Adejoke Adefuye on Oshinfolarin Street, Bariga, a day later.

The source said, “After the arrest of the first set of eight suspects, we continued our investigations and combed the Fadeyi, Somolu and Bariga areas, where most of the suspects have their base. We got a tip-off on Oshineye as one of the henchmen, and he was arrested.

“He confessed to be an Eiye member and said it was a prerequisite to becoming a member of the NURTW in his area. He said you are either an Aiye or an Eiye member to be part of the NURTW. He confessed to be among the cult members that were involved in the killing of Daniel and Abiye and has been assisting with investigations.”

The suspect, however, told our correspondent that he was not a cultist and did not kill anyone, adding that he only lied against himself to avoid police harassment.

Oshineye, who admitted to being called Eyin Bouncing, said it was an alias he got because his mum sold eggs.

He said, “I am the Organising Officer of the NURTW, Jibowu branch. I dropped out of secondary school because I had to start fending for myself. I am married with two kids.

“People call me Eyin Bouncing because my mum sells eggs and that is all about the name. I am not a cult member and I didn’t kill anybody.

“I was at a friend’s party last Friday and had gone out to make a call when the police came to arrest me. I was taken to my house on Adekoga Street in Somolu for searching.

“I lied against myself because I didn’t want to be harassed. Please help me appeal to them to release me.”

However, a friend of the suspect, who was equally interrogated by the police, said he stopped associating with him after he tried to initiate him to cultism.

He said, “We were friends and I knew him to be a member of the NURTW. I was a tricycle driver and one day, he invited me for a party. At the party, they suddenly descended on me and started beating me. I suffered a lot of injuries and almost died, but I survived it. They said it was an initiation and that I had become a member of the confraternity.

“But after that experience that day, I fled. I am not a cult member and I have my job that I do.”

The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos, when contacted promised to call back, but she had yet to do so as of the time of filing this report.

19 dead in suicide attack on Cameroon market.

 

At least 19 people were killed in a double suicide bombing at a market in northeastern Cameroon on Friday, local officials said.
Several other people were injured in the attack on the market at Meme at around 0900 (0800 GMT) which was carried out by two female suicide bombers, said the officials, who did not wish to be named.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Cameroon’s northern border region with Nigeria is regularly attacked by Boko Haram fighters.
The Nigerian-based jihadist group began targeting Cameroonian territory in 2013, with more than 1,200 people killed in attacks since in the country’s Far North region, according to the government.

Friday’s bombings in Meme were the sixth suicide attack since the start of this year in the Far North, where Boko Haram have increasingly been using teenagers and women as bombers. Markets are frequently targeted.

Officials say multiple army operations since the end of November have considerably weakened the jihadists’ position, but Boko Haram has upped the rate of its suicide bombings in Cameroon as well as continuing with its attacks in northeast Nigeria.
An army offensive last week in Ngoshe, on the Nigerian side of the border with Cameroon, inflicted heavy losses on the jihadist group, with troops able to seize large quantities of arms and ammunition, according to the Cameroonian government.
The army assault was carried out as part of operations by the multi-national force formed to fight the rise of Boko Haram, which includes troops from Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin.
Boko Haram’s insurgency, seeking a hardline Islamic state in northern Nigeria, has killed at least 17,000 people and left more than 2.6 million others homeless since their six-year campaign began.
AFP

Jonathan’s abducted nephew found dead in Bayelsa creek

Simon Utebor, Yenagoa
Mr. Samuel Oki, a nephew of former President Goodluck Jonathan, was today found dead in a creek in Otuoke community, Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
The 35-year-old was reportedly kidnapped on Wednesday alongside the 72-year-old foster father of Jonathan, Chief Inengite Nitabai.
It was learnt that some fishermen from the former President’s community in Otuoke, discovered Oki’s decomposing body floating on Otuoke river while fishing, two days after the abduction.

Some  indigenes of the community said though many were not aware of Oki’s whereabouts during the abduction of Nitabai, the discovery of his body in the creek has, however, heightened their fears of Nitabai’s safety.
Some community members claimed that the sound of gunshot heard during the abduction of the septuagenarian might have been targeted at the deceased.
A community source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said “We are worried about the safety of our uncle, Chief Inengite Nitabai. The men that abducted them have killed Oki and we pray they don’t touch our uncle.”
The deceased, community sources said, was always seen in company with Nitabai.
The villagers, who were reportedly seen discussing the sad incident, alleged that the young man (Oki) tried to resist the kidnappers.
According to them, divers and local fishermen had recovered the body and anchored it by the riverside to prevent the body from being washed away.
This is the second time Nitabai has been kidnapped. He was first kidnapped On February 28, 2014 and later freed by security forces on March 10, 2014.

Pregnant woman dies aboard Arik Air flight

Olawunmi Ojo and Gbenga Adeniji
Barely 48 hours after a middle-aged female passenger was found dead in a toilet at the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, another female passenger, on Friday, died aboard an Arik Air flight from Port-Harcourt to Lagos.
The passenger, who was said to be pregnant, was accompanied on the 11am flight by her husband and cousin.
A statement by Arik Air’s PR and Communications Manager, Adebanji Ola, stated that the passenger was confirmed dead on arrival by medical personnel at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Domestic Terminal 1.

The cause of death, according to the statement, has yet to be ascertained.

When contacted to confirm the identity and whereabouts of the corpse, Ola declined to comment, saying that there was nothing more to say than to confirm that a female passenger was confirmed dead on arrival.
 The Lagos Airport Police Command also confirmed the incident.

Man kills mom 2 days after finishing 30-year murder sentence

Associated Press

17 February 2016

MAYS LANDING, N.J. (AP) — A man pleaded guilty on Wednesday to killing his mother two days after he completed a 30-year prison sentence for killing a neighbor.

Steven Pratt pleaded guilty to manslaughter for killing Gwendolyn Pratt, 64, at their Atlantic City home in October 2014. An autopsy found that she died from massive blunt-force head injuries.

Pratt was 15 when he shot and killed his next-door neighbor Michael Anderson in an apartment building in 1984. He was tried as an adult and was convicted of murder in 1986.

According to court records, Pratt and Anderson argued after Pratt and some of his friends refused to leave an apartment hallway where they were noisily hanging out. Pratt went back to Anderson's apartment with a lead pipe, but Anderson took the pipe away from Pratt and bloodied his face, the records show.

Pratt then returned with a borrowed handgun and shot Anderson in the face and shoulder, the court records show. Anderson, who Pratt said acted like a father to him, died days after the shooting.

Pratt told a judge through tears after killing his mother that he was guilty and didn't want a trial.

Pratt, 47, must serve 85 percent of a 25-year prison sentence before he'll be eligible for parole.