angry policemen

The University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital(UMTH) was temporarily thrown into a state of panic Thursday, as policemen who brought corpses of their colleagues killed in Bama to the morgue, went berserk; shooting a medical doctor and beating up some medical staff in the process. They were also alleged to have destroyed medical laboratory equipmenst in the hospital. A staff of the hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity narrated how the incident happened thus: “You know when there is no place to keep corpses, sometimes they are kept on the floor pending when a space is created for refrigerating, but when they came this morning, the mobile policemen went on the rampage and started shooting. They beat up a professor and othermedical staff and also shot a medical doctor before some miltary men in the hospital brought the situation under control.” According to him, the action of the policemenhas made some doctors in the hospital to resolve never to attend to policemen who arebrought in almost on a daily basis for treatment. “The doctors are saying that they deserve some respect from the uniform men because some of the security operatives, particularly the police, have this disrespecting attitude towards them. “Some of these doctors and professor they beat up would have been IGPs if they are in uniforms, but somebody who is far down theladder treats them as nobody,” he explained. Attempts to get the Chief Medical Director, Professor Tahir Othman, to speak on the incident did not yield results. Meanwhile, despite the Borno State Police Commissioner, Yuguda Abdullahi’s visit to UMTH about four hours after the incident, Resident Medical Doctors of the hospital have embarked on an indefinite strike following the shooting of their colleague by policemen. Chairman of Resident Doctors of the institution, Dr. Mohammed Yahaya said; “Our union has from today embarked on an indefinite strike following the attack on one of of our colleagues and others by policemen.”

angry policemen

The University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital(UMTH) was temporarily thrown into a state of panic Thursday, as policemen who brought corpses of their colleagues killed in Bama to the morgue, went berserk; shooting a medical doctor and beating up some medical staff in the process. They were also alleged to have destroyed medical laboratory equipmenst in the hospital. A staff of the hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity narrated how the incident happened thus: “You know when there is no place to keep corpses, sometimes they are kept on the floor pending when a space is created for refrigerating, but when they came this morning, the mobile policemen went on the rampage and started shooting. They beat up a professor and othermedical staff and also shot a medical doctor before some miltary men in the hospital brought the situation under control.” According to him, the action of the policemenhas made some doctors in the hospital to resolve never to attend to policemen who arebrought in almost on a daily basis for treatment. “The doctors are saying that they deserve some respect from the uniform men because some of the security operatives, particularly the police, have this disrespecting attitude towards them. “Some of these doctors and professor they beat up would have been IGPs if they are in uniforms, but somebody who is far down theladder treats them as nobody,” he explained. Attempts to get the Chief Medical Director, Professor Tahir Othman, to speak on the incident did not yield results. Meanwhile, despite the Borno State Police Commissioner, Yuguda Abdullahi’s visit to UMTH about four hours after the incident, Resident Medical Doctors of the hospital have embarked on an indefinite strike following the shooting of their colleague by policemen. Chairman of Resident Doctors of the institution, Dr. Mohammed Yahaya said; “Our union has from today embarked on an indefinite strike following the attack on one of of our colleagues and others by policemen.”

Lagos state goverment Banned tri-cycle

Lagos State government Friday banned the activities of Tri-cycle popularly called Keke Napep from the major roads in the state, saying, “it is meant to protect the lives and property of the residents of the state.” The state government however vowed to impound any disused and abandoned vehicles across the state, explaining “4,632 vehicles were currently abandoned on over 9,100 roads in theState.Commissioner for transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa disclosed this at the 2013 Ministerial Press Briefing heldin Alausa to mark the sixth anniversary of Governor Babatunde Fashola’s administration. Opeifa said that the state government had held several meetings with the unions on the development, adding “they have agreed to stay away from these roads.”Some of the roads tri-cycles operation was outlawed were: the entire Victoria Island, Government Residential Area, GRA Ikeja and Ikoyi. Also on Awolowo road and Awolowo way, Alausa and entire major roads in Surulere Local Government. Opeifa warned that tri-cycling isn’t a replacement for motorcycle popularly called Okada in the state, adding “it isn’t a sustainable means of transport for the state especially Lagos that is a megacity.” According to him, “I learnt that some Okada riders have began to sell their motorcycle to by tricycle but they can no longer operate on these major roads again.”The commissioner explained that section 3 of the 2012 Lagos road traffic law also outlawed the operation of the tri-cycle in the state. It will be recalled that Fashola signed the roadtraffic bill into law last year, aimed at improving safety on the Lagos roads.“After that law was gazetted, the state government allowed tri-cycle to operate on some of these roads because vehicles available in those roads weren’t enough to convey the passengers plying the road,” he said. Opeifa stated that today, the state has enough Bus Rapid Transport, BRT and LAGBUS buses, taxis and others are now available on these roads and the tricycle wouldn’t be needed.

PHOTOS: Gunmen Kill Four Prison Officials, Injures Three in Warri Today (warning: disturbing photos)

Palpable fear has gripped Delta State following the invasion of Warri this morning by gunmen who killed at least four officials of the Nigeria Prisons Service.

It was gathered that the bloody incident took place at about nine o’clock in the morning when the vehicles in which the prison warders were conveying some of the prison inmates to court was attacked at the Okere Roundabout in Warri.

Sources said that four of the prisons officials were killed on the spot when the gunmen suddenly opened fire on their vehicle.  Three other officials were said to be lying critically hurt in an undisclosed hospital in the area following gunshot wounds they received during their gun battle with the attackers.

The armed gang were said to have operated with two vehicles which they parked at the ever-busy roundabout unknown to the prison officials. But three of the prison inmates who fled with the attackers after the encounter had been re-arrested by the police and handed over to the Prisons Department in Warri.

We Hid Stolen Cars In Catholic Church –– Robbers Confess

Before their arrest, Chinedu Ndubisi, 23; Haruna Mohammed, 44; Slyvanus Happyday, 35; were members of a five-man gang, who terrorised rEpe, Ajah, Lekki Peninsula and Victoria Island areas of Lagos.

The armed robbers, after snatching cars from mostly female drivers, usually hid them in a catholic church. The gang leader, Ndubuisi, disclosed how they use church premises for their evil acts:

“We have an operational car, a Toyota Corolla. Although we all drive, Haruna drives us during operations because he is very good. 

“Whenever we see a choice automobile being driven by a woman, I instruct Haruna quickly hit her from behind. Often any female driver will leave her car key at the ignition whenever you hit her car. That is what we take advantage of. 

“Once a woman’s car is hit, she will walk towards the car of the person who hit her. Immediately John and Festus will drive off the victim’s car, we follow suit. Everything is done quickly so that the victim is taken by surprise."

Ndubuisi told Punch Metro that they had no need to operate with guns. “We drive to a Catholic church at Sangotedo where we park the stolen car without the knowledge of the parish priest. I am a Catholic and I know the church members are allowed to park their cars there for at least three days. That is enough time for us to get a buyer and dispose of the car without attracting attention,” he said.

Confirming the incident, Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Briade said, “Women drivers should be security-conscious; they should make good use of their side mirrors to know whether the driver that hit them from behind is alone or with other men in his car. This will enable her to know whether to stop or keep moving."

How Four Men Rape A Married Woman Inside Police Station

A middle-age woman alleged to have been serially raped by four men while in police custody in Abraka, Delta State, has petitioned the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 5, Benin, accusing the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, and his men of negligence and failure to protect her.

She disclosed that efforts made by her husband to effect her bail was rebuffed by the DPO and DCO, who apart from intimidating and abusing her husband, pushed him out of the police station...

The petition by counsel to the woman, Mr. Ejomasuvwe Efe, stated that following a fight between her and her neighbour, policemen from Abraka Police Station came to arrest her following a complaint from one Mama Afoke who she had altercation with.

The petition said: “Shortly after Mr. Isaiah left the Abraka Police Station, the Police IPO instructed the Police man at the counter to take his wife to the police cell and delivered her into a cell where there were already two men.

“As soon as the Police locked the gate to the cell, two young boys came into the cell where the woman and the other two mature men were kept, and immediately they started touching her indecently despite her protests that she was a married woman and mother of five children.

“The boys asked her to keep quiet and immediately grabbed her by her neck and gagged her with their hands while the others held her two hands and threw her violently on the floor and started to rape her.

“In the process, she started shouting but the policemen refused to come to her aid until she went into a coma. She only came around the following morning”.

She added that when she became conscious, she noticed that her husband was inside the cell opposite where she was held, adding that when she asked him what he was doing there, her husband replied that when he came that morning to effect her bail, the police pushed him into the cell for ever asking for her bail.

Mrs. Isaiah informed the AIG that when her husband confronted the DPO and DCO about his wife’s allegedly raped and kept in the same cell with men, the DCO ordered that he should be kept behind the counter.

She was later taken to the Abraka Government hospital where a doctor who treated her confirmed that she was raped, she alleged that the IPO begged her not to tell people about the doctor’s verdict.

“After our client was discharged from the hospital, one Mr. Kobina Enamuotor who is the father of one of the rapist, Akpevwe and one Mr. Okotie whose son was also involved in the rape, together with the woman IPO and two other police men went to the family of our client begging for settlement and they offered to pay damages of N120,000 to the family.

“Meanwhile, the DPO of Abraka Police Station seeing the seriousness of the offence and the negligence of himself and his men, refused to take any meaningful action and wanting to cover it up, before well wishers started protesting and sending text messages to the Commissioner of Police which led to the transfer of the case to Asaba”, the petitioner said.

She alleged that in Asaba the IPO who was detailed to handle the case started to intimidate her husband and him that if they did not hands off the case, some thing more dangerous will happen to them since the Assistant Commissioner of Police in Asaba was interested in the case and was ready to deal ruthlessly with them.

“Our clients are in a serious trauma and cry for justice with firm instruction to demand and we hereby demand that the AIG should use his good office and detail well spirited policemen from his office in Benin to carry out discrete investigation into this heinous crime at the Abraka police Station. Mama Afoke and the rapists involved brought to book.”

The Laundering of $182 billion Belonging to Nigeria

Nigeria has been financially hemorrhaged by some corrupt leaders, as a report from the United States-based Global Financial Integrity indicates. The agency recently said a total of $182 billion was stolen and laundered offshore between 2000 and 2009.

While average Nigerians struggle to feed, our leader stealing activities have made Nigeria to rank eighth out of 20 countries notorious for illicit financial outflows...

The plundering of our commonwealth by just a few goes against the grain of prevailing crippling poverty, unemployment and decrepit socio-economic infrastructure. Nigeria is placed 135th out of 176 in the Transparency International’s Global Corruption Perception index.

The GFI described Nigeria as “the leading source of illicit financial outflow from sub-Saharan Africa.” This is a huge paradox as the theft happened under a democracy. Since 1999, the country has been under civil rule. According to the GFI, it relied on analysis of data from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to reach its conclusion, stressing that developing countries lost a total of $903 billion in 2009. Even now, the trend is accelerating as graft is worn as a badge of honour.

What fostered this heist is not difficult to fathom. Ours is a government being run by narrow minds, and harder hearts. Mismanagement of oil wealth and illegal oil bunkering have strewn a cobweb of corruption, making slush funds easily available for pillaging. However, the seemingly industrial scale of the looting, despite the operations of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt and other Related Offences Commission, should arouse some curiosity. Is it that the anti-graft bodies were deficient, complicit or looked the other way while the looters had a field day? And what role did the banks play? These are genuine concerns.

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit and the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering were established to strengthen the performance of the EFCC. Under the act, through automation, banks alert the EFCC on transactions that fall within the “suspicious thresholds.” From periodic revelations of how public funds are looted by public officials, with banks as conduits, it is obvious that extant laws on money laundering are observed only in the breach. Annually, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation audit the books of these banks; yet the humongous illicit transactions that pass through their systems in violation of extant financial regulations are not made public. Nevertheless, the only oasis was the CBN’s hammer of 2009, which fell on some corrupt bank chief executives who were not only relieved of their jobs but were prosecuted.

Money Laundering Prohibition Act (2011) as amended prescribes limits of financial transactions in banks by individuals and bodies corporate, beyond which a bank must alert the EFCC or make transaction reports. The MLPA increased the threshold for reporting transactions by individuals from N1 million to N5 million and between N5 million and N10 million for corporate bodies. Abuse of this regulatory regime was evident in the pension funds looting spree uncovered by the Senate in a recent investigation.

The political leadership is not sincerely committed to the eradication of corruption. As the chairman of the ICPC, Ekpo Nta, once put it, “there is no political will to fight corruption in Nigeria.” Key public officials do not demonstrate exemplary conduct such as adopting a modest lifestyle, and avoiding corruption themselves. People found guilty of corruption are not punished because of their position or status in the society. The “big fish” are not only protected from being prosecuted for corruption, the unlucky few that are prosecuted get light sentences. Besides, spurious state pardons are remedial measures for the few that get convicted. It is this vacuous moral compass that led the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, in cahoots with corrupt politicians, to hound the pioneer chairman of the EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, out of office.

In the corporate sphere, the scourge is as corrosive and devastating as it is in the political arena. A disgraced former bank executive reportedly acquired 12 homes in the United States, 28 shops and seven residential houses in Dubai, and four houses in South Africa, all bought with laundered funds. Indeed, the rot in the banks is very deep. Since successful money laundering is largely a product of either connivance of, or negligence of, bankers, the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria Act 2007 has a redemptive role to play here. Striking out names of its members aiding and abetting money laundering from its register has become imperative. By so doing, such elements become professionally prostrate and are seen as lepers who should never be employed by other banks.

But, the situation is becoming hopeless. The former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, described the level of corruption in Nigeria as “unbelievable.” Fighting corruption requires a strong political leadership. The basic requirement of civilised democracy is that everyone plays by the rules and that the rules command public confidence. Brazen stealing of public funds will continue until laws aimed at fighting corruption are strictly and consistently applied.