The Ailoba Ahonkhai Blog Spot

Pankshin High Court in Plateau on Monday remanded a Community Health Personnel, Mr Philemon Burzal pupolarly known as Brazil, in prison the second time for allegedly raping his patient.

The Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, said on Monday that the evidence of corruption against the immediate past governor of the state, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, was overwhelming that he (Amaechi) admitted to them publicly.

A Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has sentenced three persons to death for the murder of four undergraduate students of the University of Port Harcourt on October 5, 2012. The court also discharged and acquitted four other persons, whose cases were not proved “beyond all reasonable doubt” by the prosecution.

The Senate had, last week, approved the transfer of the conduct of local government polls from the SIEC to the Independent National Electoral Commission. The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic has faulted the immediate past governor of the state, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, for objecting to the proposal to scrap states’ independent electoral commission as part of the ongoing constitution amendment by the National Assembly. The Senate had, last week, approved the transfer of the conduct of local government polls from the SIEC to the Independent National Electoral Commission. Oshiomhole had, in an interview, described the decision of the Senate as another step in the bid of the National Assembly to withhold devolution of powers to the states. He had questioned the business of the Federal Government in the conduct of council elections. “When our people are in a position to make changes, they tend to abandon them for other issues. In the US, they call lo...

The controversy caused by the death of a graduate, Kolawole Idowu, in a Lagos hospital has depeened as the result of the autopsy conducted on his remains says he died from pneumonia. A death certificate issued to the family, a copy of which was obtained by PUNCH Metro, dated July 26, said the 29-year-old was killed by the lung infection. The mother of the victim, Mrs. Mopelola Osiyemi, said the report had raised more questions than answers on how her son died. Kolawole had just finished his National Youth Service Corps when he took ill. He was said to have gone to the Ikeja Medical Centre, a private hospital in his neigbourhood, where he was treated for malaria and after a negative reaction, he was admitted for mental illness. After spending about two weeks at the hospital, he was transferred to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja. He was admitted to the psychiatric ward and later went into a coma. Our correspondent reported that h...

A pregnant pepper seller on Hassan Ogunlana Street, Ijaiye, Lagos State, has been traumatised after she was thrown into a police cell for reporting an assault on her. The woman, Iyabo Taiwo, had lodged a complaint at the Meiran Police Station against a resident, identified simply as Simon, aka Best, who allegedly pushed her into a drainage channel. It was learnt that the case was, however, turned against her because Simon was a relative of a senior officer at the station. Our correspondent was told that Simon had bought some red peppers from the woman last Monday and was supposed to collect N50 change. It was gathered that Taiye went to visit her ailing husband at a hospital the following day and did not open shop. The woman said hardly had she arrived at the shop on Wednesday with fresh stock when Simon came to collect the change. She stated that she told him to come back for the change, but he suddenly resorted to force and started taking her goods. ...

Northern governors have urged their colleagues in the South-East to rein in the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, and other groups threatening Nigeria’s corporate existence. The Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Kashim Shettima, who is also the Governor of Borno State, said this after a meeting with the leadership of the Coalition of Arewa Youth Groups in Abuja, late on Sunday. He explained that he initiated the meeting as the Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum to find a peaceful solution to the threats facing the Nigerian nation. The governor described the challenges facing the nation as largely political, which he noted, required political solutions. Shettima said, “…I wish to call on the leadership of our brethren in the South-East to equally seize the gauntlet to rein in the excesses of Nnamdi Kanu and co.” The governor also cautioned against criminalising or harassing members of the coalition of northern youth gro...

Kayode Bello, the student expelled from the Nigerian Law School, Abuja, for drawing attention to the poor welfare conditions in the school, has accused the institution’s authorities of shamelessly lying to justify his illegal expulsion on 11 July. His accusation was contained in a rejoinder to a statement by the Nigerian Law School, which alleged that he has a rich record of misbehavior. In the statement issued on Wednesday by Mr. Chinedu Ukekwe, the institution’s Head of Information and Protocol, the Nigerian Law School alleged that Mr. Bello was rusticated from the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan, in the 2008/2009 for unruly conduct.  The statement added that the expelled student applied for admission to the Nigerian Law School in July 2012, but his application form and Dean’s Reference revealed that he was rusticated from the University of Ibadan in the 2008/2009 academic session for disrupting the peace of the university.  “The Dean’s confid...

The Special Assistant to the President on Prosecutions, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, on Saturday, said the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), may report the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu; and Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Ekpo Nta, to the Presidency. He revealed that the heads of the agencies could be sanctioned for insurbodination for withholding the case files of more than 35 ex-governors and senators from the AGF. The case files requested by the AGF in separate letters to both agencies were for ex-governors, including Bukola Saraki (Kwara, now Senate President); Ali Modu Sheriff (Borno);  Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom); Orji Uzor Kalu (Abia); Chimaroke Nnamani (Enugu); Saminu Turaki (Jigawa); Sule Lamido (Jigawa); Joshua Dariye (Plateau); Ahmed Yerima (Zamfara); Gabriel Suswam (Benue); James Ibori (Delta); Martin Elech...

Two Nigerian senators, Shehu Sani and Suleiman Hunkuyi, were on Sunday attacked by suspected thugs during a press briefing in Kaduna. Mr. Sani, the senator representing Kaduna Central, confirmed the development to this newspaper this afternoon. He alleged the attackers were sponsored by Kaduna State Government. PREMIUM TIMES could not ascertain that claim. Mr. Sani said he and Mr. Hunkuyi, Kaduna North, had organized the press conference over alleged “manipulation of the party (APC in the state)” by Governor Nasir El-Rufai with whom he has been having a running political battle. The lawmaker said journalists were also attacked and that one of them was in a hospital.

No fewer than 42 men allegedly involved in homosexual acts have been arrested by the police. It was learnt that the suspects were rounded up at a hotel at Weigh Bridge in Owode Onirin area of Lagos State on Saturday. It learnt that the hotel, Vincent Hotel, where they were caught in the act had been sealed off. A resident of the area, who gave his name only as Tunji, said policemen from the Owode Onirin Division swooped on the suspects around 3.30 pm. He said, “There have been reports that the hotel harbours homosexuals. They were there this afternoon when policemen struck. About 40 of them were caught in the act.” The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Olarinde Famous-Cole, confirmed the arrest. He added that the suspects had been handed over to the state task force for prosecution. He said, “It is true. About 42 suspected homosexuals were arrested and the hotel has been condoned off  while investigation continues. They are in custo...

The Nigerian military appear to have been thrown off balance with the recent upsurge in Boko Haram attacks, as fourteen persons were killed in a suicide attack on an accommodation housing newly returned internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Dikwa town in Borno State. The recent attacks, including the brutal killing of about 48 soldiers and University of Maidugiri staff members through an ambush laid by the Boko Haram insurgents, run contrary to the claim by the military authorities that Boko Haram has been ‘technically defeated.’ Head of the rapid response team of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency (BOSEMA), Bello Dambatta said a female suicide on Friday night after detonating an explosive device on her body caused the death of 14 persons and injuries to 24 others. He said the suicide bomber penetrated a building housing returnees in Dikwa, east of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, and detonated the explosive leading to the massive casualties. ...

The ongoing trial of Joseph Nwobike, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) before Justice Raliat Adebiyi of the Ikeja Division of the Lagos State High Court continued on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, with the prosecution further confronting him with text messages he sent to a court official in order to influence some of his cases before the court . Mr. Nwobike is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on eleven-count charge of perverting justice and offering gratification to public officials. At the resumed hearing, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, tendered a Compact Disc marked exhibit P21 containing text messages from Nwobike’s mobile phone to a court official. In the CD, which was played on a projector mounted in the court room, Mr. Oyedepo told the court how Mr. Nwobike had sent text messages, at various times, to one Helen Ogunleye, a registrar with the Federal High Court, Lagos. Mr. Oyedepo told the court that Mr. Nwobike admitt...

After several claims that it had killed the leader of the extremist Boko Haram sect, Abubakar Shekau, or that he may have died, the Nigerian military recently ordered its men to capture him within 40 days. A statement by the spokesperson for the Nigerian Army, Sani Usman, said the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, a lieutenant general, gave the order to the Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Ibrahim Attahiru. Mr. Buratai directed Mr. Attahiru, a major general, to employ every weapon available in his arsenal “to smoke out Shekau wherever he is hiding in Nigeria”. “The general public is pleased requested to also assist and volunteer information that would lead to the accomplishment of this task,” the army spokesperson said in the statement. Mr. Shekau, who hails from Yobe State, took over the leadership of the dreaded group after its founder, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed in 2009. The military has repeatedly claimed credit for killing him. At times,...

mob on Thursday attacked and killed a policeman over the death of a woman and two children on Owerri Road, Onitsha, Anambra. Eyewitnesses said that the incident occurred at 3.30p.m. when the policeman attempted to forcibly stop an articulated vehicle loaded with sand along the road. According to the eyewitnesses, the driver lost control causing the fatal accident. “A tipper driver who was carrying sharp sand tried to meander his way past the policemen at the checkpoint but in the attempt to escape ran into the woman and children. “I wouldn’t know exactly why the tipper driver was stopped but immediately the accident happened, the policemen around the area made effort to leave the scene but were attacked by the mob,” a witness said. The witness said that the victims were standing by the roadside to board a vehicle to their destination when they met their untimely death. Another witness said that the mob spontaneously chased the policemen and beat up two of them, while the oth...

The Arewa Youth Assembly, AYA, a northern group, has called on Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to order the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB. The group said Mr. Kanu has been violating his bail conditions and this could affect the peaceful coexistence of Nigeria. Mr. Kanu who is standing trial over treasonable offences was granted bail by a Federal High Court in Abuja on April 28 under stringent bail conditions. In a statement signed on Friday by its speaker, Mohammed Salihu and clerk, Desmond Minakaro, the group gave Mr. Osinbajo 10 days to order the arrest of the IPOB leader. The group threatened to shut down federal government activities in the Federal Capital Territory if the acting president fails to meet its demands. “The leadership of Arewa Youth Assembly has observed with keen interest the high level of lawlessness in the country and the silence of government on issues that are capable of disintegrating the country. “The level of...

  The Vice Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri, Abubakar Njodi, on Friday lashed out at the military over claims it made that it had rescued oil workers that were recently ambushed and captured by Boko Haram fighters. The crew of geologists and their aides were from the university and were subcontracted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. Mr. Njodi had earlier said the institution had been engaged in providing consultancy services to the NNPC in the Lake Chad region. A livid vice chancellor, whose brother was among those killed, faulted claims made last Wednesday by the spokesperson of the Nigeria Army, Sani Usman, who had told the media that soldiers had rescued the kidnapped officials. Speaking during a condolence visit paid on him by officials of the federal ministry of petroleum, the vice chancellor said he still could not understand why the Nigeria Army chose to mislead the world with the spurious claims. “The military said it has rescued all...

The Board of Directors of Standard Chartered Plc yesterday announced the appointment of Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as an independent Non-Executive Director with effect from November 1, 2017. A statement from the bank said Okonjo-Iweala would also join the Board’s Brand, Values and Conduct Committee of the bank. With the appointment, Okonjo-Iweala will receive a fee of GBP100,000 per annum for her services as an independent Non-Executive Director, with an additional fee of GBP30,000 per annum as a member of the brand, values and conduct committee of the international bank, in accordance with the Rules Governing the Listing of Securities on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. The independent non-executive Directors do not participate in any of the Group’s incentive arrangements. Aged 63, Okonjo-Iweala has 30 years of economic development and financial expertise. She is an internationally renowned economist and a prominent African leader, ...