₦airaland Forum

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I. THE BRIDE-PRICE LAW

The Bride-price Law of Eastern Nigeria 1956 also set the Marriageable Age at 16 years of age. It also fixed the amount of money to be paid as bride-price. The people did not like this Law and ignored it because they like to bargain for the bride-price as if for a commodity or chattel.



II. PROHIBITION OF CHILDHOOD MARRIAGE LAW



Prohibition of Childhood Marriage Law prohibits Childhood Marriage in Nigeria. Because this Law is totally ignored by both the parents and the men who want to betroth young girls, Childhood Marriage is still condoned, not only in Igbo land but in the whole of Nigeria, in this day and age. But to make a very bad case worse, Nigerian Family Law regards any girl who is said to be “married”, no matter her age, as an adult. This is regardless of the fact that the age for adult suffrage or the right to vote in Nigeria is 18 years. See 136. The Legal Status of Women In Nigeria by Bisi Olateru-Olagbegi and Biola Akiyode-Afolabi (Bisi Olateru-Olagbegi, WILDAF Nigeria National Co-ordinator, & Biola

Akiyode Afolabi, Executive Director WARDC.



Most of the young girls betrothed this way become pregnant at the very onset of their puberty, and are left to carry the pregnancies. Above all, they are left to bear the babies without proper medical attention and without Caesarean Section.

On account of child marriage, many of such girls and their babies die from fistulas and other complications. This is a measure of the callousness with which the men who are said to have married them and the society treat these young girls. That the Igbo allow the practice of Childhood Marriage to go on when the girls are not physically and biologically developed for procreation is a crime committed against Igbo women and against humanity. Here The Aka Ikenga Ndi Igbo and the Oha Na Eze Ndi Igbo should show their relevance in Igbo land, Igbo culture and Igbo civilization by seeing to it that these Laws are obeyed.





III. LAW PROHIBITING OSU AND ORU CASTE SYSTEM AND THEIR STIGMA

The Osu and Oru caste system is found mostly in the Southeastern and South-central Nigeria called Igboland or Igbo society. This affects women very much in that it is a descent-based discrimination which seriously affects the choice of partners for marriage. It is similar to that faced by the Dalit of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the Burakumin of Japan, minorities in the US, Apartheid in South Africa (before 1994) and the color-caste system in Guyana. There are many versions of oral history (and little information) on the origins of the Osu and Oru caste system in Igboland. The paucity of information in this area is, in part, due to the fact that some people erroneously believe that one cannot change the attitude of the society toward the Osu and Oru system, and on another part, because the issue is not politically palatable. In other words, nobody wants to be associated with it for fear of being ostracized by their community (Isaiah Ilo 1992; Obi 1994; Dike 2003).



The Osu is a person sacrificed or dedicated to the gods in the Igbo community to appease the gods. Thus, an Osu and Oru is a sacrificial lamb (except that they are not slaughtered; they are kept for service to the deity). (Anoka 1991; Dike 1999, August 8-12, 2002, & 2002), a child, slave or property of a god or a deity (Obi 1994). However, in Chinua Achebe’s popular Things Fall Apart, the plights of an Osu and Oru (an outcast) in Igboland are vividly and pitifully portrayed. He notes that an Osu and Oru is: a person dedicated to a god, a thing set apart - a taboo forever, and his children after him. He could neither marry nor be married by the freeborn. He was in fact an outcast, living in a special area of the village, close to the Great Shrine(1959, p.156).



The Osu and Oru Caste System affects the man as well as the woman equally in the society. This is the major reason why Ndi Igbo make extensive inquiries about the young man or young woman and their families, initially, before ever any negotiations for marriage is undertaken. If any links to the Osu and Oru Caste is found, even remotely, the idea of marriage is called off completely. But if the man and woman concerned would decide to go ahead with it, they would be doing so completely at their own risk. The risks in such cases is ostracism by the non-Osu and non-Oru families and kindred. Even though a free-born, he and she and their descendants, would become Osu and Oru wholly and entirely by that marriage. Some of such people either do not marry, or they marry people of the same caste.

Some young men are known to have committed suicide on account of the stigma, which status can be acquired by Birth, Marriage and Inheritance. The act of discrimination violates people’s human rights by dehumanizing them through the practices of discrimination and segregation. Certain parts of Igbo land, such as those of the Mid-West, do not have the Osu and Oru caste system.



The Law passed in 1956 by the Eastern Nigeria Government has been neglected and disregarded. The Law Enforcement Agencies operators are themselves afraid of becoming tinted with the caste system and therefore, steer clear of it. It becomes a question of: Who will bell the cat? This means that the people affected and the society in general are not being protected by the rule of law. The challenge of finding ways and means for eradicating the Osu and Oru caste system and their stigma is another one that is starring the Aka Ikenga Ndi Igbo and the Oha Na Eze Ndi Igbo starkly in the face.





IV. LAW PROHIBITING FEMALE GENITAL CIRCUMCISION



This Law which was passed by the Federal Government in 2002 prohibits Female Genital Circumcision. There is no earthly reason why the girl-child should be circumcised in Igbo land or anywhere. The practice is carried on only for the reason of the self-aggrandizement of men; for the sadistic reasons of curbing the sexual appetites of women; and from keeping them from imagined promiscuousness. I wonder how the excessive sexual appetites of men, Igbo men inclusive, and their promiscuousness are curbed? Do women become promiscuous or prostitute by themselves or with themselves? Is it not obvious, as Ndi Igbo say, that wherever a Masquerade is talking that there is a human being (a man) there?


This only goes to say that wherever there is a promiscuous or prostitute woman, that there are men there also! Igbo men should, therefore, stop piling all their faults on the girl-child and women and oppressing them for those reasons. Female Genital Circumcision or Female Genital Cutting or Mutilation, as it is described sometimes, comes in about four different forms. To say the least, female circumcision in whichever form is wicked; sadistic; unsympathetic; non-empathetic; non-compassionate; oppressive, suppressive and a crime against womanhood and humanity, which should be stopped with immediate effect. This should be done, if for no other reasons, for the fact that it is deadly in the child-bearing life of such women; and also in obedience to the Federal Law prohibiting and abrogating the practice in Nigeria. Period!



V. PUNITIVE WIDOWHOOD PRACTICES



This is another wide-spread practice in Igbo land, which should be stopped with immediate alacrity, to borrow a leaf from Zebrudaya, Okoroigwe Nwogbo, alias 4:30. Why should a woman be made to suffer so much and some die as a result of such punishments, because she lost her husband by death? This is a time when she deserves much sympathy and empathy and co-operation. But men are not made to suffer like that when their wives die. Why should it be assumed that the woman killed her husband, while the same assumption is not extended to men when their wives die? Why should it be assumed that a woman would want to kill the man she married, and with whom she has children and is building a family and home, and the same suspicion is never extended to men when their wives die?



Some of such acts of punishments and atrocities committed on widows include:

making the woman drink some of the water used in bathing the body of her dead husband;

sit on the bare floor or, at best, on a straw-mat or mattress;

sit in a position where she would be looking at the body of her husband laid in state, overnight, until it is taken away for burial;

not to sleep on a bed throughout the mourning period of six months to one year;

shave off her hair, wear rags, eat, drink and bathe in secrecy;

eat and drink and bather only from old and broken vessels;

not to eat from food items provided for her husband’s funeral ceremonies;

to accept a substitute husband, if still of child-bearing age, and not to become pregnant otherwise, during the period of mourning;

not to look out to see what is going on for the funeral ceremonies of her husband;

not to talk aloud or travel beyond a certain distance during the mourning period;

to know that her own monies and properties belong to her husband;

to hands-off all monies, moveable and immovable properties of hers and her husband’s; The woman, if she unfortunately does not have a child, is sent away as soon as her husband breathes last. Some of such women are not even allowed to participate in the funeral of their husbands.

If the woman has only girl-children and does not have a male child, she could be allowed to stay in the worst type of shelter, and at the pain of losing all the family possessions;

she would also be starving with her daughters; there is also the danger of

having her daughters married away very young, with or without her or their consent.


SILENCE BY MEN: A CONSPIRACY AND CONNIVANCE



These discriminatory practices are not applied to men at all. In fact men have it very easy. They have a field-day. Some men have actually confessed of spotting their subsequent wives from among the girls who came to sympathize with them on their bereavement of their wives. The men also have a choice as to what to do to mourn their wives, if any. They are even comforted for losing their wives and are pampered by the same Umuokpu ma obu Umuada who punish the widows. I know that the retort to this statement would be that it is the Umuokpu ma obu Umuada who perpetrate those atrocities on their fellow women. But that is not altogether true, because men are behind the Umuokpu ma obu Umuada who carry on the practices, even if by remote control. After all, the Umuokpu ma obu Umuada are the kindred-sisters of the men – dead and living. Therefore, the kindred brothers use their kindred sisters as willing tools to carry out their nefarious acts of violence on their wives and widows.



Besides, the silence of men in these circumstances means connivance. After all, it is men who are being mourned. If the living men do not like what was happening to the wives of their dead relations and friends, they should have protested and spoken out, loud and clear. Ndi Igwe, Ndi Igwe-na-Ndi Ichie, and the Town Unions should abrogate these practices and call the Umuokpu ma obu Umuada to order at attention. These local and cultural legislative bodies should do this. They can do it. To say that they cannot is, again, a ruse, a deception and the passing of the buck! Ndi Igbo have a saying that: Nwam akalia-m bu aghugho, that is to say that: the expression that my child is beyond my control is a trick or a connivance! I am not looking forward only to the State Governments of Igbo land to enact the laws prohibiting Punitive Widowhood Practices, but I lay the onus for the practices on the men, and the responsibility to persuade Ndi Igbo to obey the existing laws and to have new and progressive ones enacted, on Aka Ikenga Ndi Igbo na Oha Na Eze Ndi Igbo to abrogate these and other such obnoxious practices in Igbo land, and really make it happen and work. Some States, like Enugu State, have already enacted the progressive law, and they are, hereby, congratulated. Let the other States of Igbo land follow suit and place themselves squarely on the path of the emancipation of women.





VI. DISINHERITANCE OF WIVES AND DAUGHTERS IN IGBO CULTURE



The Disinheritance of the Girl-child And Women In Igbo Culture is, in effect, the disinheritance of Daughters and Wives, who are the very people that should be considered first. The case against the Omenana of disinheriting daughters and wives, more so widows in Igbo Culture, cannot be more succinctly put than by Justice Niki Tobi, in his lead judgment in the Anambra State Appellate Court, on 10th April 1997. This was when he showed a change of heart and leadership, by taking the bull by the horns. He came up with a pioneer and landmark decision, in the Mojekwu vs Mojekwu Case, in the Nnewi Oli-Ekpe Appeal Case, appealed from the lower Court. In the judgment, which was clearly in favor of the girl-child and women, he wrote:



“All human beings – male and female - are born freely, without any inhibition on grounds of sex; and that is constitutional. Any form of societal discrimination on ground of sex, apart from being unconstitutional, is antithetic to a civil society built on the tenets of democracy, which we have freely chosen as a people. We need not travel all the way to Beijing to know that some of our customs, including the Nnewi “Oli-Ekpe” custom, relied upon by the appellant, are not consistent with our civilized world in which we all live today, including the appellant. In my humble view, it is the monopoly of God to determine the sex of a baby and not the parents. Although the scientific world disagrees with the divine truth, I believe that God, the Creator of human beings, is also the final authority of who should be male or female. Accordingly, for a customary law to discriminate against a particular sex is to say the least an affront to the Almighty God Himself. Let nobody do such a thing. On my part, I have no difficulty in holding that “Oli-Ekpe” custom of Nnewi is repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience”.

The judgment has been acclaimed everywhere as a landmark decision. Some other such judgments followed. See Law And Practice Relating to Women’s Inheritance Rights In Nigeria: An Overview by Joy Ezeilo, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu Campus.



APPLICATION OF THE REPUGNANCY TEST CLAUSE



The British colonials saw the oppressive ways of the Customary and Traditional Practices, and instituted the Repugnancy Test Clause, as part of the Nigerian Legal System in 1900. It provides for the overriding of any Customary and Traditional Law and Practice in the Courts if it is in conflict with natural justice and equity. Also Customary and Traditional Law should be overridden if they were in conflict with the written and official law, and the rights of women and children. Unfortunately, the Test Clause was left by the Law Courts and Law Enforcement Agencies to lie dormant for one whole century until Justice Niki Tobi’s landmark Decision in 1997, and just before it was re-introduced in the 1999 Constitution. The Repugnancy Test Clause, of course, applies only to cases appealed from the lower Courts to the higher Courts.



COURT DECISIONS: THE ONLY ANSWER



Women should learn to take the matters that concern them to the Courts, and refuse any kind of pressure to withdraw the matter from the Court for adjudication at home. This is because any kind of adjudication out of Court would be according to Omenana, by the Elders and the Umuokpu ma obu Umuada. Women should seek for bloodless and discrimination-free revolution in decisions in matters concerning them. The spirit of the new bloodless revolutionary initiatives for women emancipation always should be for women to take matters concerning them to the Courts of Justice everywhere in Igbo land and in Nigeria. Many more of such favourable decisions by Justice Niki Tobi have followed and, in all of the cases, the judges denounced such disinheritance practices as repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience.



[/b]

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkw.cw8pJUYMAGQtXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEybzNwMHBqBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDNgRjb2xvA3NrMQR2dGlkA0gxODdfOTQ-/SIG=14csugn2q/EXP=1238111516/**http%3a//writersblock.biafranigeriaworld.com/oyibo-e-odinamadu/2005apr06-aka-ikenga-ohanaeze-2004-asaba-retreat-part5.html[b][b][/b]

I. THE BRIDE-PRICE LAW

The Bride-price Law of Eastern Nigeria 1956 also set the Marriageable Age at 16 years of age. It also fixed the amount of money to be paid as bride-price.   The people did not like this Law and ignored it because they like to bargain for the bride-price as if for a commodity or chattel.



II. PROHIBITION OF CHILDHOOD MARRIAGE LAW



Prohibition of Childhood Marriage Law prohibits Childhood Marriage in Nigeria. Because this Law is totally ignored by both the parents and the men who want to betroth young girls, Childhood Marriage is still condoned, not only in Igbo land but in the whole of Nigeria, in this day and age. But to make a very bad case worse, Nigerian Family Law regards any girl who is said to be “married”, no matter her age, as an adult. This is regardless of the fact that the age for adult suffrage or the right to vote in Nigeria is 18 years. See 136. The Legal Status of Women In Nigeria by Bisi Olateru-Olagbegi and Biola Akiyode-Afolabi (Bisi Olateru-Olagbegi, WILDAF Nigeria National Co-ordinator, & Biola

Akiyode Afolabi, Executive Director WARDC.



Most of the young girls betrothed this way become pregnant at the very onset of their puberty, and are left to carry the pregnancies. Above all, they are left to bear the babies without proper medical attention and without Caesarean Section.

On account of child marriage, many of such girls and their babies die from fistulas and other complications. This is a measure of the callousness with which the men who are said to have married them and the society treat these young girls. That the Igbo allow the practice of Childhood Marriage to go on when the girls are not physically and biologically developed for procreation is a crime committed against Igbo women and against humanity. Here The Aka Ikenga Ndi Igbo and the Oha Na Eze Ndi Igbo should show their relevance in Igbo land, Igbo culture and Igbo civilization by seeing to it that these Laws are obeyed.





III. LAW PROHIBITING OSU AND ORU CASTE SYSTEM AND THEIR STIGMA

The Osu and Oru caste system is found mostly in the Southeastern and South-central Nigeria called Igboland or Igbo society. This affects women very much in that it is a descent-based discrimination which seriously affects the choice of partners for marriage. It is similar to that faced by the Dalit of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, the Burakumin of Japan, minorities in the US, Apartheid in South Africa (before 1994) and the color-caste system in Guyana. There are many versions of oral history (and little information) on the origins of the Osu and Oru caste system in Igboland. The paucity of information in this area is, in part, due to the fact that some people erroneously believe that one cannot change the attitude of the society toward the Osu and Oru system, and on another part, because the issue is not politically palatable. In other words, nobody wants to be associated with it for fear of being ostracized by their community (Isaiah Ilo 1992; Obi 1994; Dike 2003).



The Osu is a person sacrificed or dedicated to the gods in the Igbo community to appease the gods. Thus, an Osu and Oru is a sacrificial lamb (except that they are not slaughtered; they are kept for service to the deity). (Anoka 1991; Dike 1999, August 8-12, 2002, & 2002), a child, slave or property of a god or a deity (Obi 1994). However, in Chinua Achebe’s popular Things Fall Apart, the plights of an Osu and Oru (an outcast) in Igboland are vividly and pitifully portrayed. He notes that an Osu and Oru is: a person dedicated to a god, a thing set apart - a taboo forever, and his children after him. He could neither marry nor be married by the freeborn. He was in fact an outcast, living in a special area of the village, close to the Great Shrine(1959, p.156).



The Osu and Oru Caste System affects the man as well as the woman equally in the society. This is the major reason why Ndi Igbo make extensive inquiries about the young man or young woman and their families, initially, before ever any negotiations for marriage is undertaken. If any links to the Osu and Oru Caste is found, even remotely, the idea of marriage is called off completely. But if the man and woman concerned would decide to go ahead with it, they would be doing so completely at their own risk. The risks in such cases is ostracism by the non-Osu and non-Oru families and kindred. Even though a free-born, he and she and their descendants, would become Osu and Oru wholly and entirely by that marriage. Some of such people either do not marry, or they marry people of the same caste.

Some young men are known to have committed suicide on account of the stigma, which status can be acquired by Birth, Marriage and Inheritance. The act of discrimination violates people’s human rights by dehumanizing them through the practices of discrimination and segregation. Certain parts of Igbo land, such as those of the Mid-West, do not have the Osu and Oru caste system. 



The Law passed in 1956 by the Eastern Nigeria Government has been neglected and disregarded. The Law Enforcement Agencies operators are themselves afraid of becoming tinted with the caste system and therefore, steer clear of it. It becomes a question of: Who will bell the cat? This means that the people affected and the society in general are not being protected by the rule of law. The challenge of finding ways and means for eradicating the Osu and Oru caste system and their stigma is another one that is starring the Aka Ikenga Ndi Igbo and the Oha Na Eze Ndi Igbo starkly in the face.





IV. LAW PROHIBITING FEMALE GENITAL CIRCUMCISION



This Law which was passed by the Federal Government in 2002 prohibits Female Genital Circumcision. There is no earthly reason why the girl-child should be circumcised in Igbo land or anywhere. The practice is carried on only for the reason of the self-aggrandizement of men; for the sadistic reasons of curbing the sexual appetites of women; and from keeping them from imagined promiscuousness. I wonder how the excessive sexual appetites of men, Igbo men inclusive, and their promiscuousness are curbed? Do women become promiscuous or prostitute by themselves or with themselves? Is it not obvious, as Ndi Igbo say, that wherever a Masquerade is talking that there is a human being (a man) there?

 
This only goes to say that wherever there is a promiscuous or prostitute woman, that there are men there also! Igbo men should, therefore, stop piling all their faults on the girl-child and women and oppressing them for those reasons. Female Genital Circumcision or Female Genital Cutting or Mutilation, as it is described sometimes, comes in about four different forms. To say the least, female circumcision in whichever form is wicked; sadistic; unsympathetic; non-empathetic; non-compassionate;  oppressive, suppressive and a crime against womanhood and humanity, which should be stopped with immediate effect. This should be done, if for no other reasons, for the fact that it is deadly in the child-bearing life of such women; and also in obedience to the Federal Law prohibiting and abrogating the practice in Nigeria. Period!   



V. PUNITIVE WIDOWHOOD PRACTICES



This is another wide-spread practice in Igbo land, which should be stopped with immediate alacrity, to borrow a leaf from Zebrudaya, Okoroigwe Nwogbo, alias 4:30. Why should a woman be made to suffer so much and some die as a result of such punishments, because she lost her husband by death? This is a time when she deserves much sympathy and empathy and co-operation. But men are not made to suffer like that when their wives die. Why should it be assumed that the woman killed her husband, while the same assumption is not extended to men when their wives die? Why should it be assumed that a woman would want to kill the man she married, and with whom she has children and is building a family and home, and the same suspicion is never extended to men when their wives die?



Some of such acts of punishments and atrocities committed on widows include:

making the woman drink some of the water used in bathing the body of her dead husband;

sit on the bare floor or, at best, on a straw-mat or mattress;

sit in a position where she would be looking at the body of her husband laid in state, overnight, until it is taken away for burial;

not to sleep on a bed throughout the mourning period of six months to one year;

shave off her hair, wear rags, eat, drink and bathe in secrecy;

eat and drink and bather only from old and broken vessels;

not to eat from food items provided for her husband’s funeral ceremonies;   

to accept a substitute husband, if still of child-bearing age, and not to become pregnant otherwise, during the period of mourning;

not to look out to see what is going on for the funeral ceremonies of her husband;

not to talk aloud or travel beyond a certain distance during the mourning period;

to know that her own monies and properties belong to her husband;

to hands-off all monies, moveable and immovable properties of hers and her husband’s;  The woman, if she unfortunately does not have a child, is sent away as soon as her husband breathes last. Some of such women are not even allowed to participate in the funeral of their husbands.   

If the woman has only girl-children and does not have a male child, she could be allowed to stay in the worst type of shelter, and at the pain of losing all the family possessions;

she would also be starving with her daughters; there is also the danger of

having her daughters married away very young, with or without her or their consent.

 
SILENCE BY MEN: A CONSPIRACY AND CONNIVANCE



These discriminatory practices are not applied to men at all. In fact men have it very easy. They have a field-day. Some men have actually confessed of spotting their subsequent wives from among the girls who came to sympathize with them on their bereavement of their wives. The men also have a choice as to what to do to mourn their wives, if any. They are even comforted for losing their wives and are pampered by the same Umuokpu ma obu Umuada who punish the widows. I know that the retort to this statement would be that it is the Umuokpu ma obu Umuada who perpetrate those atrocities on their fellow women. But that is not altogether true, because men are behind the Umuokpu ma obu Umuada who carry on the practices, even if by remote control. After all, the Umuokpu ma obu  Umuada are the kindred-sisters of the men – dead and living. Therefore, the kindred brothers use their kindred sisters as willing tools to carry out their nefarious acts of violence on their wives and widows.



Besides, the silence of men in these circumstances means connivance. After all, it is men who are being mourned. If the living men do not like what was happening to the wives of their dead relations and friends, they should have protested and spoken out, loud and clear. Ndi Igwe, Ndi Igwe-na-Ndi Ichie, and the Town Unions should abrogate these practices and call the Umuokpu ma obu Umuada to order at attention. These local and cultural legislative bodies should do this. They can do it. To say that they cannot is, again, a ruse, a deception and the passing of the buck! Ndi Igbo have a saying that: Nwam akalia-m bu aghugho, that is to say that: the expression that my child is beyond my control is a trick or a connivance! I am not looking forward only to the State Governments of Igbo land to enact the laws prohibiting Punitive Widowhood Practices, but I lay the onus for the practices on the men, and the responsibility to persuade Ndi Igbo to obey the existing laws and to have new and progressive ones enacted, on Aka Ikenga Ndi Igbo na Oha Na Eze Ndi Igbo to abrogate these and other such obnoxious practices in Igbo land, and really make it happen and work. Some States, like Enugu State, have already enacted the progressive law, and they are, hereby, congratulated. Let the other States of Igbo land follow suit and place themselves squarely on the path of the emancipation of women.             





VI. DISINHERITANCE OF WIVES AND DAUGHTERS IN IGBO CULTURE



The Disinheritance of the Girl-child And Women In Igbo Culture is, in effect, the disinheritance of Daughters and Wives, who are the very people that should be considered first. The case against the Omenana of disinheriting daughters and wives, more so widows in Igbo Culture, cannot be more succinctly put than by Justice Niki Tobi, in his lead judgment in the Anambra State Appellate Court, on 10th April 1997. This was when he showed a change of heart and leadership, by taking the bull by the horns. He came up with a pioneer and landmark decision, in the Mojekwu vs Mojekwu Case, in the Nnewi Oli-Ekpe Appeal Case, appealed from the lower Court. In the judgment, which was clearly in favor of the girl-child and women, he wrote:



“All human beings – male and female - are born freely, without any inhibition on grounds of sex; and that is constitutional.  Any form of societal discrimination on ground of sex, apart from being unconstitutional, is antithetic to a civil society built on the tenets of democracy, which we have freely chosen as a people. We need not travel all the way to Beijing to know that some of our customs, including the Nnewi “Oli-Ekpe” custom,  relied upon by the appellant,  are not consistent with our civilized world in which we all live today, including the appellant.  In my humble view, it is the monopoly of God to determine the sex of a baby and not the parents.  Although the scientific world disagrees with the divine truth, I believe that God, the Creator of human beings, is also the final authority of who should be male or female.  Accordingly, for a customary law to discriminate against a particular sex is to say the least an affront to the Almighty God Himself.  Let nobody do such a thing.  On my part, I have no difficulty in holding that “Oli-Ekpe” custom of Nnewi is repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience”.

The judgment has been acclaimed everywhere as a landmark decision. Some other such judgments followed. See Law And Practice Relating to Women’s Inheritance Rights In Nigeria: An Overview by Joy Ezeilo, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu Campus.



APPLICATION OF THE REPUGNANCY TEST CLAUSE



The British colonials saw the oppressive ways of the Customary and Traditional Practices, and instituted the Repugnancy Test Clause, as part of the Nigerian Legal System in 1900. It provides for the overriding of any Customary and Traditional Law and Practice in the Courts if it is in conflict with natural justice and equity. Also Customary and Traditional Law should be overridden if they were in conflict with the written and official law, and the rights of women and children. Unfortunately, the Test Clause was left by the Law Courts and Law Enforcement Agencies to lie dormant for one whole century until Justice Niki Tobi’s landmark Decision in 1997, and just before it was re-introduced in the 1999 Constitution. The Repugnancy Test Clause, of course, applies only to cases appealed from the lower Courts to the higher Courts.



COURT DECISIONS: THE ONLY ANSWER



Women should learn to take the matters that concern them to the Courts, and refuse any kind of pressure to withdraw the matter from the Court for adjudication at home. This is because any kind of adjudication out of Court would be according to Omenana, by the Elders and the Umuokpu ma obu Umuada. Women should seek for bloodless and discrimination-free revolution in decisions in matters concerning them. The spirit of the new bloodless revolutionary initiatives for women emancipation always should be for women to take matters concerning them to the Courts of Justice everywhere in Igbo land and in Nigeria. Many more of such favourable decisions by Justice Niki Tobi have followed and, in all of the cases, the judges denounced such disinheritance practices as repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience.



[/b]

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Four policemen assault driver over N20 bribe
By Tunde Odesola, Osogbo
Published: Thursday, 26 Mar 2009
A commercial bus driver, Aliu Omosa, was nearly beaten to death by four policemen at Sekona area of Osun State, on Wednesday, after he dropped a N20 bribe on the road and refused to stop for routine check.

Irked by the action of the driver, the police team led by an Assistant Superintendent of Police, Mr. Onajide Samuel, gave the Toyota Hiace bus, which Omosa was driving, a chase in their Prado SUV with number plate NPF 2896 B.

After pursuing Omosa for about two kilometres, the police SUV overtook the bus and forced it to stop near Sekona before pouncing on driver who was beaten black and blue.

Omosa, who said he did not know that he was stopped at the checkpoint by the police, said he became aware that he was being chased when he looked into his mirror and saw the police SUV pursuing him.

The driver, whose bus bore number plate Osun XC 877 SGB, begged the policemen to forgive him but his entreaties fell on deaf ears.

Omosa, who was going to Osogbo from Ibadan, bled profusely from his mouth, nose and ears.

Police Public Relations Office, Osun Command, Mr Olabode Akinola, said the command was oblivious of the alleged act, adding that he would find out the position of things on Thursday.

An Osogbo-based lawyer, Mr Alfred Adegoke, faulted the policemen, saying the driver should have been charged to court instead of resorting to assault.

Robbers kill Soldier, two Mopol in Enugu
Written by TONY EDIKE
Wednesday, 25 March 2009



ENUGU—DARE-DEVIL robber, who recently launched a fierce attack on security operatives in Enugu State apparently for daring to stop their nefarious [b]activities, struck again in the early hours of Monday, killing two mobile policemen and a soldier in what the police described as an ambush.
The incident which occurred at the Trans-Ekulu area of the coal city, has rattled security agents in the state, though the State Police Command has beefed up security in different parts of the state to tracking down the men of the underworld.

Vanguard gathered that the gunmen had laid ambush for the Joint Police-Army Patrol team on the bridge linking GRA and Trans-Ekulu at about 3 am but the team which was on patrol at the time ran into them unaware of the danger ahead.

The gunmen opened fire on the Hilux patrol jeep, killing three of the occupants including two mobile policemen and a soldier. Two other policemen were said to have sustained serious gunshot wounds while their vehicle was set ablaze.

Another patrol vehicle attached to Trans-Ekulu Police Division which raced to the scene on hearing the sound of sporadic shootings, was also riddled with bullets but the policemen escaped unhurt, just as the gunmen fled the area after the attack that lasted about 30 minutes.

“Between 3 am and 3.30 am yesterday the residents of Trans-Ekulu were woken up by the sporadic shots from the bridge linking Trans-Ekulu with GRA, and the entire residents were thrown into confusion. It was like a war situation and no one could really understand what was happening but sirens from police patrol vehicles were blaring endlessly. We only realized in the morning that it was an armed clash between the police and armed robbers,” a resident told Vanguard yesterday[/b].

Both the burnt patrol jeep and the one riddled with bullets were sighted close to the bridge, but were quickly removed by policemen.

NAFDAC warns Abia traders
Written by ANAYO OKOLI
Thursday, 26 March 2009



Umuahia—Deputy Director of National Agency for Food and Drugs, Administration and Control (NAFDAC), in Abia state, Mr. Kehinde Mamudu, has warned that the agency would not hesitate to apply strict punitive actions against any market that obstructs its officials from carrying out their duties.
Mamudu gave the warning at an interactive session with the executive members of Eziukwu Road Market Union, in Aba, as part of the agency’s ongoing sensitisation/enlightenment campaign.

Mamudu noted that some markets in other parts of the country, including Ariaria and Onitsha drug markets, had been closed down in the past due to the resistance by the traders against enforcement exercise by the agency.

He urged the market union leaders to assist the agency in the fight against the sale of fake and adulterated products in the country, geared toward the protection of the health of the nation.

Mamudu also frowned at the attitude of some task force members who, he said, were demanding gratifications from the agency before they could collaborate with it, especially during market inspections and enforcement exercises.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-232075.0.html

igbo people.

The Bakassi Boys are a group of youth known for their anti-crime vigilantism, and are usually armed with machetes, guns, and charms. They operate in the Igbo area of Nigeria, and are sometimes accused of illegal activities and human rights abuses, yet enjoy popular support in the areas where they operate.


By Dan Isaacs
BBC correspondent in Onitsha, south-eastern Nigeria 



Human rights campaigners have called on the Nigerian Government to disband state-sponsored vigilantes operating in eastern Nigeria.

In a report published on Monday, the US-based Human Rights Watch says that the vigilantes, known as the Bakassi Boys, have carried out scores of extra-judicial killings as well as hundreds of cases of torture and arbitrary detention.



It is good because they catch the criminals, then kill them and burn them

Local trader 
The report also warns that these groups are being used as a tool for politically-motivated violence in the run up to national elections.

Although the Bakassi Boys operate in three states across south-eastern Nigeria, it is their activities in Anambra State that has caused most concern.

There, they have been adopted by the state government as a crime fighting force - funded and officially sanctioned under a law passed by the state parliament two years ago.

They work independently from the police force in the state, and do not as a rule hand suspects over to them, a fact confirmed by the Abdul Bello, the Anambra state police commissioner.

"To the extent that they do not submit themselves to the control of Nigerian police force, they are not working with us," said Mr Bello.

And as for what they do with those they apprehend, Mr Bello said: "You had better ask them, because I don't know what they do. And that is where we part ways."

But there is no doubt that the activities of the Bakassi Boys, despite their methods, are popular among many of the traders in the sprawling town of Onitsha, home to one of the largest markets in West Africa, with an appalling reputation for armed crime.

 

In a world where the police had effectively abandoned law enforcement, the arrival of the vigilantes was very welcome.

"All that the police do is take bribes," one market woman tells me.

"When you tell them a crime has happened, they just run away."

These traders are people living day to day with theft and violent crime.

"Before the Bakassi Boys came, there were many problems with thieves and armed robbers. Now it is much better," says one shopkeeper.

But few have any doubts about the vigilante's tactics, and another man tells me: "It is good because they catch the criminals, then kill them and burn them".

Climate of fear

At the entrance to the headquarters of Bakassi Boys in Onitsha, two cars bear the vigilante logo on their bonnets: a skull and cross bones crudely painted in red.

By the door a young man in dark glasses sits on a bench studying his reflection in a highly polished machete.


The Bakassi Boys have a fearful reputation


Gun cartridge cases litter the ground.

Up a narrow staircase and into a darkened office, the local Bakassi commander, simply known as Okpompi tells me how his men work closely with the local police, how they hand over all criminals they catch, and how they possess no weapons.

Once these formalities have been dealt with, we discuss the guns I can see hidden behind the sofa, the man I saw tied up and being beaten when I had arrived unannounced the previous day and, most revealingly, the methods they use to extract confessions from the suspects they catch.



'Supernatural powers'

The Bakassi Boys have a reputation for possessing powerful magic powers.

The objects I see around the room all bear witness to the use of fetishes and juju in their daily work.


Bakassi Boys say they work within the law


There are also crucifixes on the walls.

"Our powers come from God", Okpompi tells me.

"We are all Christians working with the power of the Almighty."

Hanging from the door is a carving of a shrunken human head, on the desk are a range of small wooden coffins containing devices to determine the guilt or innocence of suspects - but they are sacred and must not be opened in my presence.

"We don't kill anybody. If anybody tells you the Bakassi Boys kills anybody, it's not true," says Okpompi, "but we do make people confess to their crimes."

The most infamous of their techniques involves a machete, imbued with powerful magic charms.

It is held against the bare chest of a suspect.

If it turns red, the person is guilty.

But only the Bakassi Boys can see the change of colour, and it is for them alone to decide guilt or innocence.

Claims of torture

Their claims that those found guilty are then handed over to the police are not only denied by the police themselves, but also challenged by those who have witnessed the Bakassi Boys activities first hand.



People are afraid to talk, they fear for reprisals

Chief Chike Udenze, businessman 
Human Rights Watch researchers have documented testimonies to scores of killings as well as hundreds of accounts of torture and detention.

"They usually use their knives to kill people", businessman, Chief Chike Udenze tells me.

"They then use tyres over their necks, fill them with fuel and shoot into the tyres to set them alight. That is their usual method".

Chief Udenze is not a neutral observer to the activities of the vigilantes.

He is a prominent local politician who accuses the ruling establishment in Anambra state of using the Bakassi Boys to silence opponents such as himself.

"People are afraid to talk, they fear for reprisals," he says.

"But the use of the Bakassi Boys against political opponents could seriously jeopardise the conduct of the upcoming elections."

Crackdown on crime

Not surprisingly this is a view strongly rejected by the government of Anambra state, particularly as the Bakassi Boys are authorised and financed by them.


The authorities turn a blind eye to the Bakassi Boys' excesses


The staunchest supporter of their activities is the governor himself, Chinwoke Mbadinuju who tells me that crime in the state had reached such an appalling level that something had to be done.

"These vigilante boys are there to ensure that the armed robbers that menaced us for all these years were stopped. This had been achieved".

As for the reports of extra-judicial punishments carried out by the Bakassi Boys, the governors answer is measured.

"Definitely it's an exaggeration. There are occupational hazards but these things are an exception to the rule."
[b][/b]

. Some Igbo women need to stop being glorified prostitutes.Those of us who have northern Nigerian links (Emeka is also a Nigerlite) know what goes on between some Igbo women and oga Alhaji or rich Nigerian men. Some Igbo women are so cheap these days that my former illiterate northern driver once told me that he could sleep with any Igbo woman for ten naira (1 cent). .http://nigeriaworld.com/articles/2007/jul/021.html

M. News (Lagos)
ANOL
February 5, 1999
Posted to the web February 5, 1999

By Gabriel Orok, Nkiru Nwokediuko, John Odiboh
Lagos

Crowds still gathered this morning at Toyota bus stop, Oshodi Isolo expressway, the former kitchen of the Lagos cannibal, Clifford Orji. The cannibal was arrested Wednesday by the police after the cries of Awawu, a gaunt and shackled woman from Agege gave him away.

Clifford and his accomplice, Tahiru have been singing to the police in Lagos on why they had been killing fellow human beings for dinner. People always suspected that Clifford Orji was queerly different.

He used to sell razor blades at the bustling Oshodi market several years ago. Then he shifted his abode to a self-created grotto under the highway bridge in Isolo, where he advertised himself as a "native doctor Chinneyelu".

Occasionally, he violently pursued stray-walkers to his "sanctuary" during day time. In the dead of the night he usually blanketed the air around him with the meat-like odour from his special barbecue.

People merely suspected that this barbecue- loving recluse was not normal; that he was possibly mad. But no one was prepared for the horrendous discovery of last Wednesday: that Orji was also a cannibal - a man eater! The discovery sent shock waves throughout the sprawling metropolis of seven million people, drawing hundreds of people to the under-the-bridge abode of Orji, where he also kept a well-kitted kitchen to prepare cooked and roasted human flesh! How long the afro-haired man from Enugu State has been feeding on human flesh in Lagos is unknown.

How many people he has slaughtered for dinner is also unknown, as Orji has not revealed much during police interrogations and even the parade before klieglights and journalists in Lagos Thursday. A shrill cry of a famished and emaciated lady, waiting to be slaughtered, was what gave up Orji Wednesday.

The noise attracted passersby who not only discovered the woman but also stumbled on a phalanx of human parts in Orji's make-shift home. Human bones, skulls, legs, hands, freshly cooked soup with human meat, were discovered.

The uproar triggered by this shock discovery was said to have attracted men of the Operation Sweep. Surrounded, Orji attempted to escape.

But the police quickly arrested him and took him to the Makinde Police Station in Oshodi, nearby. The lady being dressed for slaughtering, and who Orji had turned into a sex-slave for several days, was freed and taken to the hospital in Ikeja.

The arrest of another person, said to be Orji's accomplice in the human-flesh eating business introduced a new dimension to the tragedy. Police have since found that Orji and his friend were not just human eaters, they were also human spare-parts sellers, as money, cheques were said to have been recovered at the make-shift home at the popular Toyota Bus Stop on the Oshodi-Isolo Expressway.

Were Orji and his accomplice mad? Some people interviewed at the scene of the tragedy believed they are sane. Some did not.

"What evidence do you have to claim that he's mad," said Chuks Igbokwe who spoke with the National Concord. "As far as I am concerned, he might be one of these Otokoto ritual murderers who trade in human parts. If he is mad, why should he kill and eat his victims?" People who frequently passed by Orji's make-shift home of horror recounted incidents when they were chased by the iron-rod wielding Orji; incidents when his potential victims escaped by the whiskers; incidents when the smell of his human barbecue pervaded the environment.

"Any time wey I pass here, I go see the man eating meat . . . I no know say na person im de chop," Okechukwu, a motor spare parts dealer told The Guardian Wednesday.

The controversy about Orji's mental state will linger for some time. Up till this morning, Lagosians continued to troop to Orji's former home as news of Orji's cannibalism spread.

On Thursday, Orji and his accomplice were paraded to newsmen by the Lagos State Police Commissioner, Sunday Aghedo. The journalists who crowded the premises of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS of the Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja, covered their noses with handkerchief while interviewing Orji who claimed to be a native of Enugu State.

Besides Orji was a middle-aged man, unidentified by the police, and who was bleeding on his nose and mouth. Mr. Sunday Aghedo, the state commissioner of police, described the two men as human eaters.

On display beside them were roasted parts of human beings - heads, leg, hand and the abdomen. One severed head wore a permed hair of a lady identified as "Eno", a trader from Akwa Ibom.

Aghedo continued: "These are the men who were arrested yesterday by members of the Operation Sweep. They were arrested with human parts in their enclave at the local airport area and taken to Makinde Police Station. They are now answering questions on homicide at the State Crime Intelligence Department (SCID)". When it was his turn to speak, Orji confessed to the media men: "We are human meat eaters. We have killed over three people, especially young girls who hawk wares. We always lured them to our enclave under the pretext that we wanted to purchase their wares. Once they are in our net, we pounced on them and killed them for eatable meat. My colleagues is the human hunter while I am the butcher. We usually go for girls with permed hair."

"Why, have you taken to human eating; is it because you cannot afford animal meat?, "a journalist asked Orji. Orji replied: "We have been eating human meat for the past seven years before coming to Lagos. It is our culture to eat human meat".

"If you are a free man today will you still be eating human meat?" Orji was asked again.

"Yes, to me there is no difference between human and goat meat," Orji replied. The lack of remorse by the cannibals is making the police doubt the mental state of the men.

"They may be victims of psychic and spiritual problems. Before prosecution, we have to send them to psychiatric home for medical examination. Who knows, they maybe mentally sick".

M[b][/b]r. Aghedo said. Cannibalism is a taboo in Lagos, but in some parts of Nigeria, especially, in the south east states of Cross River and Calabar, human meat eating is not strange.

There were reports of food vendors selling human meat as animal meat to unsuspecting hungry travellers.

Inside the Cannibal's Kitchen

1. Rusty frying pans

2. Bucket

3. Bowl containing human bones

4. Grill on another metal bowl

5. Firewood

6. Human parts: roasted limbs, palms, wrists, ankles, feet, thigh, skulls.

7. Rice, yam, gari, pepper, and oil

8. Soup pot with human meat.

9. A gaunt lady waiting to be slaughtered

10. Cutlasses, knives.

11. Cellular phone

12. Money estimated to be N500,000

this old lady is back.



Re: Re-visiting The Clifford Orji Story , A Decade Later.
« #192 on: March 14, 2009, 02:24 AM »

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SEVERAL more human corpses and body parts were recovered from the horror shrines in Okija, Anambra State weekend by the special police homicide squad, which said that the shrines were part of an elaborate fraud racket.

A police assault team on mop-up operation, raided a total of 11 shrines in the Okija area in Ihiala local government last Friday, and recovered corpses, body parts and artefacts. Police chief, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu however, declined to disclose the actual number of bodies recovered in the follow-up raids.

Friday’s raids were under taken by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squads (SARS) of the Anambra State police command, reinforced by crack detectives pesonally dispatched to the crime scene by police Inspector General, Mr. Tafa Balogun. The detectives are to take over police investigation into the shrines in which 50 fresh corpses and 20 human skulls were recovered on Wednesday.

Also recovered in Friday’s raids were a live monkey, two vehicles, Volvo Salon car and a lorry – while two brothers, Okonjo and Bartholomew Ndukwu, earlier identified as robbery suspects, narrowly escaped arrest.

According to state Police Commissioner, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, the suspects so far arrested are fraudsters.

Apparently, police are working on the theory that the shrines are at the centre of an elaborate fraud and protection racket.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN); "They (suspects) are petty fraudsters who put fear into peoples’ minds".

Mr. Ogbaudu called for calm urging the people not to entertain any fear of super-natural reprisal insisting that those who fled should return to their homes.

He reported that feedback from residents of the area indicated general relief at the exposure of the shrines which were identified with bondage.

Police are also on the trail of the Ndukwu brothers and several other suspects linked to the shrines, believed to number 14 in the Okija area.Human Rights body, Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) had earlier alleged that the shrines were used for fraud and sponsored by political figures.

"From reports received so far, some of the villagers in Okija are happy with the operations, because it has relieved them from an age-long bondage" said Mr. Ogbaudu.

A victim of one of the shrines, Chief Christopher Ekwenibe has commended the command for doing a good job.

Ekwenibe, who visited Ogbaudu at the command’s headquarters Awka, said he was summoned to appear before one of the shrines about four years ago.

"I refused to honour the invitation, because I did not believe in it. I am happy this has ended, because activities of the shrine had become ridiculous to our people," he said.

A former chairman of Nnewi-South local government council in Anambra State, Mr. Romanus Okoli also enthused over the raids.

Okoli said the police should be commended for making the discovery, because activities at the forest (shrines) had been thriving for a long time and threatening the people.

"That forest needs to be delivered, because the people have been in bondage and coerced to go and worship the deities, Okoli, a pastor added.

Meanwhile, the Delta State police command said it arrested a 38-year-old man, Chukwuemeka Okonkwo, for a alleged human trafficking and forced labour.

The state commissioner of police, Mr. Charles Akaya, said in a statement that Okonkwo and his accomplice, Christopher Okwuesoeze, was the driver of a Mercedes Benz mini bus with registration number XC 654 UWN, which conveyed the children.

According to the statement, Okonkwo also claimed that the children were on holiday.

The police in on Wednesday uncovered 20 human skulls and 50 decomposing corpses, in two shrines in Okija.

Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, Anambra State Commissioner of Police acting on a tip off, had dispatched some 80 members of the special anti-robbery squad headed by Mr. Gabriel Haruna, to the shrine located in Ogwugwu Okija in Ihiala council area of the state. The development culminated in the discovery of the human skulls and corpses, allegedly sacrificed to appease the numerous deities in Okija as claimed by the son of the chief priest, Mr. Osita Ndukwu of Umuhu Okija.
By weekend, there were indications that many more suspects involved in the dastardly act would be apprehended.

But Mr. Chukwumezie Obed Igwe, who reported the fetish activities by the shrine operatives the discovery is a plus for the people of the area and advent believed liberty for his people; who had been subjected to the devilish pastime over the years.

"I am happy because I have been able to expose this barbaric practice and set our people and children unborn free," he declared triumphantly.
Source: Daily Champion.

:-x

How police, soldiers burnt Abala community witness (1)

It was more like a commando operation, a repeat of the Odi massacre when soldiers stormed and set the place on fire. But this time around, it happened in Abala autonomous community, Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State. However, police and the community are trading words over who takes responsibility for this crime against humanity. Whereas the community is blaming the police and soldiers, the police, on the other hand, insist they had nothing to do with carnage. In this interview with Correspondent, Ben Duru, an eyewitness who doesn't want his picture printed, Nnenna Udo, traced the root of the crisis to the time the police and soldiers stormed the community. Excerpts:



Could you tell us what happened in your community recently?


[b]Last Wednesday about 4 O'clock in the evening, we were in the village, Abala autonomous community, Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia State, I travelled home. Actually, I travelled home on Tuesday evening and in the morning I saw the villagers running to every direction in confusion. I asked them what was happening, but no one stopped to answer me, they kept running in different direction. I now discovered that policemen and soldiers were gathered everywhere, burning houses. So, everyone in the village fled to different directions.



What actually did you see?


I saw the policemen and soldiers setting houses on fire. Before that day the policemen and soldiers were trailing a gang of armed robbers, passing through the area to a nearby community. If you know Abala community very well, it is like a roundabout with one road leading to Akwa Ibom State and the other leading to Ukwa Local Government, that is, Azumiri, Akirika and the one leading to Abala. So, they were trailing these armed robbers. Before the police came we saw many vehicles passing through the village and within a short time we also saw police vehicle following the vehicles used by the armed robbery suspects. About four in the evening we started hearing gunshots everywhere and people started running in confusion. People thought there was an invasion of the village nearby, because it was so serious that even where we were staying people were already fleeing. The following day police and soldiers came and started burning houses. [/b]
About how many houses were burnt on that day?


[b]The houses the police and soldiers burnt were more than 50, especially in my own area. In my compound, we had three buildings burnt; my father owns two and my uncle one. These buildings, including the kitchen the police and soldiers burnt all. The thing is too much to understand. You see people who stored oil in drums in their houses; everything went up in flames. The house of an Assistant Commissioner of Police from the area was also burnt; another storey building belonging to a popular businessman based in Aba was completely razed to the ground. This man deals in building materials and had some of his materials in the house; everything was totally burnt. Houses that belong to important men in the village were also completely burnt, and the worse thing was that most of these people were not around when this thing happened. Nobody knew what the police and soldiers were going to do, we suddenly saw them and immediately they entered the village they started to setting the buildings ablaze. Properties worth billions of naira were lost because majority of the people, especially the important people in our community were not around when the burning started. [/b]
Did anybody in the village get to know why the police and soldiers embarked on this action?


[b]We don't know, and the police and soldiers did not tell us anything. In fact, immediately they entered the village they started shooting in different directions to scare everybody away. As the people were running for dear life, the police and soldiers began to set the buildings on fire, nobody had the courage to stop and ask why they were doing what they were doing, because we believed that with the way they entered the village anybody who tried to question them would be killed instantly. They destroyed everything, from household property to cash crops, goats, fowls everything around especially those belonging to those who rear their goats and chickens inside their compounds. But all we know is that the police were trailing criminals the previous day, but both the criminals and the police did not stop in our village. If you want to see the police, I can lead you there, so you can understand what I am talking about. Where the police and the armed robbery suspects engaged in shooting is very far from our village. We knew there was a shoot-out because we saw the vehicles of the armed robbery suspects when they were passing, but we did not then except when we immediately saw the police vehicles also trailing them, with up to five patrol vans and it was after sometime that we started hearing gunshots and the whole village began to flee in confusion. The following day we heard that police vehicles were burnt and the criminals made away with some money.



To be continued tomorrow


http://nigeriaworld.com/cgi-bin/axs/ax.pl?http://odili.net/news/source/2009/feb/23/702.html
[/b] 

Kidnappers abduct Dep CBN Gov’s mother in Imo
Written by Tony Edike
Monday, 23 February 2009


ENUGU—THE aged mother of the Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Ernest Ebi was kidnapped Saturday night by unknown persons from heraged mother of the Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Ernest Ebiof Imo State.
Madam Ebi said to be over 70 years, was kidnapped by a six-man gang, who stormed her home at about 7 pm Saturday in two unmarked private cars, a Toyota Cressida and a Mazda.

Sources close to the family said the woman was being driven into her compound when the assailants who were trailing the vehicle from a distance forced their way into the premises and forced her into their vehicle, leaving her driver behind.

According to a source, although the kidnappers were armed with sophisticated weapons, they did not release any shot as they met no resistance.

“They dragged the woman into one of their cars and drove away unchallenged. Before taking her away, they made sure that she was with her GSM handset apparently to ensure easy communication with members of her family,” the source said.

It was learnt that when some members of her family and sympathisers called the phone few minutes later, the kidnappers answered and requested that the call be repeated later as they were too busy to take the call at the time.

[b]The source said that when the kidnappers were reached on the same line yesterday, they demanded a huge sum of money as ransom, but the amount could not be immediately confirmed, even though it was learnt that the family was willing to negotiate the release of the woman without much delay.

“We are really worried by this ugly development because one can’t understand why these hoodlums should continue to terrorize innocent people in this area without any intervention by the law enforcement agencies. The woman is aged and you can imagine the trauma she would pass through as a result of this evil act. We just hope that they will not harm her,” the source added.[/b]http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/29422/45/

Abia Gov Named in Illegal N5bn Transfer
From Funso Muraina in Abuja, 02.25.2009


[b]Abia State Governor Theodore Orji was yesterday in Abuja named as the principal facilitator in the N5 billion of the state fund allegedly transferred into the account of Sloks Nigeria Limited belonging to his predecessor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, who said the transfer was done without his knowledge.
Kalu, a two-time governor of the state, said the alleged money transfer was done without his knowledge because he had directed that his name be de-listed as a director of the company since 1999 when he became governor.
Orji who was then the Chief of Staff to Kalu was alleged to have ordered the Director of Finance in the Umuahia Government House, Mr. Udeh Jones Udeogu, to effect the fund transfer to the private firm.
Making the revelations at a Federal High Court in Abuja to justify the trial of Kalu for money laundering, the Economic and Financial Crimes commission (EFCC) alleged that the N5 billion was transferred in 36 installments from the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Government House bank account at Umuahia to Sloks Inland Bank account at Apapa, Lagos.
Abia Government House Cashier, M. A Udo, allegedly acted as a clearing agent in converting the UBA cheques to drafts and paying them into Inland Bank account of Sloks.[/b]Lead counsel to EFCC Rotimi Jacobs presented to Justice Adamu Bello the graphic details of how the fund was allegedly transferred directly from the state account to the private firm of the former governor.
The statement of the Fund Transfer Officer (FTO) of UBA in Umuahia, Ohiri Christy, explaining the details of the transfer was also presented in the proof of evidence supplied to the court in a bid to establish a prima facie case against the former governor.
Kalu along with two others, Udeh Jones Udeogu and Sloks Ltd, standing trial for alleged money laundering involving N5 billion had approached the judge to dismiss the criminal charge against them because the EFCC allegedly failed to establish a prima facie case against them.
In a preliminary objection against his trial, the former Abia governor claimed that the alleged fund transfer was done without his knowledge and that the charge against him was illegal having been done in breach of an order of Umuahia High Court that no court action should be instituted against him on the issue.
The motion argued by his lead counsel, Chief Awa Kalu (SAN), claimed that the charge was brought in bad faith by EFCC and should be dismissed for lacking in merit.
He submitted that the Federal High Court in Abuja lacks jurisdiction to entertain the suit because the alleged fund belongs to the state and any dispute arising from it could only be looked into by Abia courts.
The counsel argued that the the state House of Assembly, the only body that has power to investigate the state finances, had at no time indicted the former governor while he was also not accused of any wrongdoing in the financial regulations of the state.
Besides, the counsel said the Money Laundering Act 2004 under which the former governor was charged to court had been repealed by Money Laundering Act 2007 and as such was a non existing law.
He, therefore, asked the court to nullify the charge and strike out the trial of his client.
Opposing the application however, EFCC asked the judge to turn down the request on the ground that Kalu had full knowledge of the fund transfer and gave directive to its spending by the company.
Jacobs informed Justice Bello that there was no abuse of judicial process as both the Umuahia High Court and Federal High Court have concurrent jurisdiction while their orders could not stop each other from functioning.
EFCC submitted that contrary to Kalu’s claims, he was a director of Sloks Nigeria Ltd till 2004 when the fund was transferred and as such could be held accountable.
The commission admitted that the Money Laundering Act 2004 had been repealed by the 2007 Act but insisted that the offence committed while the 2004 Act was in place could be tried under the repealed Act.
He described Kalu’s motion as frivolous, baseless and lacking merit and urged the court to hold that the former governor has a criminal case to answer.
Justice Bello will, however, give ruling on April 7 on whether or not to sustain the criminal charge against the former governor.

http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=136624

Imo community razed over leadership tussle
Written by Chidi Nkwopara
Wednesday, 25 February 2009

Owerri—Properties worth millions of Naira have been razed in Akabor community, Oguta local government area of Imo State, following the bitter struggle for the traditional stool of the community.
As at the last count, no fewer than 17 residential houses have been set ablaze, while scores of people have taken refuge in the neighbouring communities, or in Owerri, the state capital.

[b]Feelers from the community revealed that the current bloody skirmish was triggered off by what a source claimed was “the mysterious murder of one Mr. Joseph Amakonze, a youth, whose loyalty to one of the factions, was not in doubt”.

It was further gathered that the dead youth’s colleagues claimed that his murder was the handiwork of their opponents and immediately started a reprisal attack.

A source who pleaded anonymity for fear of being attacked, said that “the rampaging youths, who wanted to avenge the death of their colleague, were armed with all manner of dangerous weapons and started burning, damaging and looting the properties of some people opposed to their choice royal father”.

He appealed that something urgent be done to avert further loss of lives and properties in the community.

It would be recalled that the tussle for the traditional stool started about two years ago, after the death of the royal father of the community, Eze Emetuma.

When Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Linus Nwaiwu, was contacted on the incident, he confirmed the story, but added that a detachment of policemen have been drafted to the area to maintain peace.

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