₦airaland Forum

NDLEA nabs 14 suspected drug traffickers
… Confiscates 77.307 kg of narcotics
By CHRIS ANUCHA
Thursday, February 26, 2009 
•Ogbuji Emmanuel
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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[b]The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested 14 persons suspected to be drug traffickers.
The suspects were nabbed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, NMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.

Cannabis weighing 59.547kg, were recovered from two of them, while 1.827 kg of heroin was recovered from one of them.
Others had cocaine weighing, 15.933, in their possession. The estimated street value of the drug impounded from the suspects is put at N60 million.

The NDLEA Airport Commander, Mr. Victor Cole-Showers, gave the names of the suspects as, Emmanuel Ogbuji, 45, Mezue Obinna, 30, Eluma Ifeanyi, 30, and Okoro Onwuka, 35.
Others are: Onum Michael, 36, Anaeto Ugochukwu, 39, Obiora Celestine, 46, and David Monteiro, 35.

Eight of them were alleged to have ingested the hard drugs and were on their way to various destinations in Europe. Michael’s case is said to be critical and may be the next drug suspect to be operated on this year, to evacuate cocaine from his stomach. The suspect, a native of Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia State, had already confessed to have ingested 78 wraps of hard drugs, which was meant to be delivered in Hamburg for a fee of 3,000 euros.

The dream was not only dashed, his life is also in danger. As at the time of filing this report, he had excreted 77 wraps, while one is still stuck in his stomach. In his confessional statement, Michael said: “I suffered a big loss in business and somebody wanted to help me start all over again. That was how I found myself in this problem”.

A few weeks ago, another suspected drug trafficker, Anthony Hyginus, 39, was saved from premature death when doctors removed a ‘stubborn’ wrap of cocaine that got stuck in his stomach through surgical operation.

Chidi, a factory worker in Spain, was arrested during the screening of KLM passengers to Amsterdam. He allegedly ingested 71 wraps, weighing 1.434 kg, for a fee of 2,000 euros. The suspect said: “They said I would have been paid 3,000 euros if I had swallowed 100 wraps but I could not, because it is not easy”. The native of Orlu, Imo State, had been living in Spain for the past 10 years.
Obinna, an automobile parts dealer, living in Togo, was arrested while on his way to Hamburg. He allegedly ingested 70 wraps of substance, suspected to be cocaine, weighing 1.452 kg, for a fee of 3, 500 euros. Listen to his excuse: ‘‘I wanted to help my younger ones and my mother.’’ The suspect is from Dunukaofia Local government Area of Anambra State.

Ifeanyi is said to be living in Spain but has a shop, where he sells musical instruments at Ikotun area of Lagos. He was nabbed on his way to Madrid, Spain. Eluma allegedly ingested 73 wraps of substance suspected to be cocaine, weighing 1.515 kg. The suspect, from Oru West Local Government Area of Imo State, claimed it was circumstances that pushed him into drug trafficking. He said: “I was not going to be paid any money. The drug is mine, I bought it to sell in Europe.” The NDLEA spokesman, Mr. Mitchell Ofoyeju, told Daily Sun that the suspects would appear in court soon.[/b]Meanwhile, the Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, has again expressed deep concern about the rate of hard drug ingestion by traffickers, describing it as suicidal. “Cocaine induced surgical operations rather than sicknesses, are sad and regrettable. Ingestion of narcotic drugs is suicidal. I strongly believe that premature death, economic sabotage and image smearing, caused by illicit drug trafficking, are critical areas of justification, for our call for stiffer penalty for drug culprits, as enshrined in the Agency’s Act,” Giade declared.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/crimewatch/2009/feb/26/crimewatch-26-02-2009-002.htm

EFCC investigates Chime's in-law over N14m fraud

By Adelani Adepegba

[b]The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is presently investigating Ngozi Mgbeke, the sister-in-law to Enugu State Governor, Sullivan Chime, over alleged forgery, impersonation and receiving N10m under false pretences.



Ngozi is the elder sister to Chime's new wife, Clara, who got married to the governor in October 2008 at Amuda Isuochi, Abia State.

Her investigation was prompted by a petition to the commission by the family of late Anayo Mgbeke (Ngozi's husband), who had a thriving haulage business in Enugu before he died in a motor accident in April 2007.

In the petition signed by the solicitor to the family, Okey Obikeze, the complainant (Mgbeke family) said since Anayo died, there had been a dispute between Ngozi and other members of the family concerning the money and other property generated from the said business

It was alleged that while efforts were being made to resolve the dispute, Ngozi, acting against a subsisting court order, conspired with some lawyers and falsely used the name of her mother-in-law, Chinyere Mgbeke, to fraudulently obtain a letter of administration from the court with which they withdrew N10m from a family account with a commercial bank in Enugu.

She was said to have also used the name of her mother-in-law without her consent to obtain over N4m owed the family by a construction company under the false pretence that she was the sole beneficiary and owner of the said money. The Public Relations Officer of the EFCC in Enugu, Blessing Ekeleme, said she did not know the level of investigation into the case, noting that her office did not handle petitions, but only gets brief of arrest after detectives might have concluded their work. [/b]

An investigator with the agency however confirmed that the matter was being investigated and that arrests would soon be made.

The Mgbeke Family in a separate letter to the Nigerian Bar Association and the Attorney-General of the Federation, complained about the "professional misconduct and conduct unbecoming of legal practitioners."

"We are greatly alarmed by the time; the way and manner the said letters of administration were obtained. It is our view that it is highly unprofessional for (lawyer's name withheld) to write and state that Chinyere Mgbeke (one of our clients being the mother of late Christian Anayo Mgbeke) consulted him/her when he/she was not actually consulted by Chinyere Mgbeke," part of their petition said.

http://nigeriaworld.com/cgi-bin/axs/ax.pl?http://odili.net/news/source/2009/mar/8/415.html

•He should tell us his source of income –AC
From Chuks Okocha in Abuja, 03.07.2009

Saturday, March 7, 2009

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday rose in defence of its National Chairman, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor over allegations that he acquired a property worth over N400 million in the high brow Asokoro District in Abuja and that he solicited for bribes from some elected government officials.


But the opposition Action Congress party has challenged the PDP chieftain to tell Nigerians his source of income in the last five years that enabled him purchase the property.

Reports in the media have been agog over the corrupt tendencies of the PDP chairman in the last one year.

In a statement issued and signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Prof. Ahmed Alkali, the party in a tacit admittance that Ogbulafor was in fact the owner of the mansion located at 45 Mohammed Nasir Road in Asokoro, Abuja said, “To question the ability of the chairman to own property anywhere, given his family background and successes in private business is callous and uncharitable.”

On allegations that Ogbulafor had solicited for bribes from elected politicians, the party said, “the allegations against the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Prince Vincent Eze Ogbulafor are petty, frivolous and in bad taste.

“To also allege that he solicits for personal favours from elected party members is out of the question.

“Prince Ogbulafor is an avowed believer and firm practitioner of President Yar’Adua’s dogged war on corruption and will never engage in acts that will undermine or retard this noble endeavour.”

The statement said that the allegations are targeted at Ogbulafor and are “aimed at tarnishing his hard won years of building a decent and reputable career both in and outside politics.”

PDP blamed the attack on those “whose stock in trade is intimidation, harassment and blackmail with a view to attracting unmerited attention and perhaps material benefits.”

The party said in the statement that it “is constrained to come out openly and forcefully to condemn this breed of rumours and indecent politics of opportunism”, stating further, “silence here, we believe, is no longer golden and indeed could be interpreted as acquiescence to the callous sundry allegations being peddled around by merchants of anarchy.”

The party stated that it is well aware that since last year, following the inauguration of the National Executive Committee and following the “pledge and commitment of the National Chairman, Prince Vincent Eze Ogbulafor to reform, re-organize and reposition the party and return it to the people in line with the vision of the founding fathers of the party, there have been conscious and deliberate efforts to weaken this resolve.”

In this regard, PDP said that it is determined and resolutely committed to going ahead with all its programmes and plans of action for the special convention and shall not be deterred nor shall it succumb to the selfish ambitions of a few who are bent on subverting the unity and cohesion of the party.

“The PDP and its governments at all levels shall not be distracted by the mischievous antics of a lawless and arrogant few”, it said.

The party promised to get to the root of those behind the misleading allegations against Ogbulafor.

In reaction, the National Publicity Secretary of the opposition Action Congress (AC) Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has asked Ogbulafor to tell Nigerians his source of income in the last five which enabled him to purchase the mansion.

Mohammed queried: “What has he been doing
http://nigeriaworld.com/cgi-bin/axs/ax.pl?http://odili.net/news/source/2009/mar/7/204.html

only igbo people.from cannibals to drug dealers to  bakassi boys, from blood rituals  to osu caste to biafragroups,from selling babies to sex trade from rapists to kidnappings.i have diffrent news mix with all crime.only kidnapping you came off with in rivers state.

Many Nigerian doctors now engage in illegal sale of babies, taking advantage of helplessness of pregnant girls and the desperation of childless couples.

By Ademola Adegbamigbe,

All[b] passengers had settled on their luxury bus seats, expecting to embark on the tortuous nine-hour Enugu-Lagos trip. That Monday, 9 June, 2008, Mrs. Bene Aguocha was one of those who wanted to take off to Lagos from the Holy Ghost Park, Enugu.

As usual, every one on the bus was craning his or her neck, preening at the vast range of wares on display by hawkers, who were pressing their noses and faces on the bodywork and windows of the bus. Items on sale were ukwa, ugba, abacha, tapioca, achala, pear, kolanuts, akutu, walnuts, groundnuts, garden eggs and banana, most of which are food and fruits indigenous to the south-east. These wares make travellers salivate and look forward to such trips, especially after leaving home for a long time.
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Beyond these, there were also the antics of medicine hawkers displaying local herbs, ranging from cough concoctions, lotions for treatment of scabies, to aphrodisiacs. Street urchins, dancing vigorously to ear-splitting music, provided entertainment. Despite the raucous atmosphere of the park, anxiety of how the journey would end always settles on all travellers like a brooding hen. These are the bad roads that could break the spine or damage vehicles, and the menace of bandits who could snuff life out of travellers with no more effort than killing a moth. That day, Mrs. Aguocha’s apprehension at that Enugu park was more complicated. Beyond the bad road, the possibility of the vehicle developing a fault on the way without a refund of her transport fare and being attacked by robbers, the woman was afraid of what would happen if the bundle she was carrying, a day-old-baby, was detected. To banish fear from her mind, she made a sign of the cross, even as she listlessly shook her leg and sang a false lullaby. However, her prayer was not answered by the Almighty who prefers justice. An eagle-eyed female official of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, accosted and questioned Aguocha why she was travelling with a day-old baby. The official asked her to prove ownership of the baby. She started stammering, even as her shaky palms became wet with sweat. Aguocha found it difficult looking at her accuser straight in the face. Earlier, as revealed by the Enugu State Commandant of the NSCDC, Mr. Desmond Agu, his men got wind of a lady who was about to make a trip to Lagos with a day-old baby that was not hers. When caught, the woman confessed that she bought the baby from one Dr. Kenneth Akunne, also known as Dr. Chukwu Uzoma, for N340,000. Akunne allegedly operates a maternity home at 3-6, Anyaegbunam Street, Uwani, Enugu. Consequently, security men swooped on Akunne’s hospital and stumbled on 22 pregnant girls whose ages ranged between 15 and 18 years. Sources close to the magazine disclosed that Dr. Akunne had a private clinic at Inyi Street, Ashara Layout area of the city, which was once closed down for a similar offence. That year, his certificate of practice was said to have been withdrawn by the Nigerian Medical Association(NMA). In recent times, cases of sale of babies have been increasing alarmingly. On the part of the buyers, they were driven by the desperation of childlessness, ritual for money, foreign welfare opportunities, and (cheap) child labour. For those who sell their own babies, a pattern has, in recent times, developed. They were driven to this madness by the excruciating economic climate, culture, rejection by their sugar daddies and the fear of what the future holds. The matter became so serious that the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons, NAPTIP, raised an alarm on the increasing cases of Nigerian medical personnel, parents and illegal children homes selling babies. Mrs. Carol Ndaguba, Executive Secretary, linked this to the rate of poverty in the country. She urged all states to sign the Child Rights Act to protect children. She revealed that her agency had received reports on the sales of babies going on, especially in the South East, and added that she had put her men on full alert. That Nigerians sell babies, in the words of analysts, shows that these are desperate times. At moments of great upheavals like famine, war, draught, earthquake, the reasoning faculty of many people would take a flight such that they indulge in terrible practices for survival. According to Joel Alebiosu, an Ibadan-based sociologist, that is why certain individuals indulge in self-castration, cannibalism and selling of their own children. He quoted what happened in imperial China, where the eunuchs, who were close to the rulers, had access to free food, shelter, clothing and power, even as their ‘complete’ compatriots wallowed in povety. Apart from many Chinese submitting themselves for castration, there were thousands of others who indulged in self-castration.“If you doubt that economic reason or the need for survival can drive people to cannibalistic level,” Omolo told TheNEWS, “I refer you to what the Cable News Network founder, Ted Turner, said recently that there would be catastrophe if global warming is not addressed by world leaders. In the words of Turner: ‘Not doing it will be catastrophic. We’ll be 8 degrees hotter in 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals.’” Omolo told this magazine, therefore, that the same desperation that drove people to castrate themselves and cannibals to eat human flesh is the same expediency that could “make a woman sell the bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh and for a doctor to be a facilitator”. True. Investigations revealed that sale of babies is booming among medical doctors and nurses with their large number of customers. TheNEWS reliably gathered that a baby girl now goes for N250,000, N300,000 or N400,000, depending on how a buyer could bargain or how well the doctor could exploit the desperation of the prospective buyer. Dr. Akunne, who had turned his Hippocratic oath upside down, claimed that he was running a non-governmental organisation. But Agu, Enugu State Commandant of the NSCDC, said the medical doctor should tell that to the marines. Even residents of Anyaegbunam Street said Akunne’s maternity home had been notorious for child trafficking for the past three years. This medium gathered that there were two young lady canvassers who lured girls, mostly students and house maids, to the home on commission basis. Two bouncers were also on the payroll of the doctor to deter girls that may wish to abscond. TheNEWS further gathered that the 20 pregnant girls found in Akunne’s hospital confessed that he used to have unprotected sex with them.[/b]There was, however, a curious twist to the drama when cops from Uwani Police Station arrived to intimidate officers of the NSCDC, asking why they did not consult them–the police–before taking action. This raised a question whether the police were not on the payroll of the baby sellers, an allegation denied by the police authorities in the state, which intervened in the conflict. Also on 6 June 2008, an 80-year-old grandmother, Mrs. Grace Erondu, was paraded in Abuja for allegedly conspiring with some other persons to engage in child trafficking, the handmaiden of baby sales. Among the 13 girls, aged between 19 and 26, found in her custody in Umuahia, 11 of them were at various stages of pregnancy. Two of them were delivered of babies, but did not know their babies’ whereabouts.

Miss Mary Ibe, a victim who hails from Afikpo Local Government area of Ebonyi State, lamented: “The person who directed me there said there were doctors and nurses there to take care of us. I went there one Sunday in April. When I got there, I was told that three people delivered all boys and the children were taken away.” On 29 May 2008, Jabuken Hospital, located at Umode in Osisionia council area in Aba, Abia State, was raided by the police. Although the proprietress, Mrs. Ijeoma Ibekwe, had voted with her feet, the cops arrested two men and nine girls and six of them, between 15 and 20 years of age, were in different stages of pregnancy. The pregnant girls included Chinonye Isaiah,19, from Ovim–Isikwuato Local Government Area in Abia State; Chinelo Okoro,15, from Umualuwakum Mbano, Imo State; Nkechi Njoku, 20, from Asa-Nnesu LGA, Abia; Odiwomma Okafor,17, from Obowo, Imo State; Ndidi Monday,15, from Uruan-Iyan, Cross River State; and Blessing Achurumba,15, from Ala-Oji, Abia.  Others were Goodnews Jombo, 26, from Obingwa LGA, Abia State; Ogochukwu Onwumere, 23, from Umuorie-Aku, Ikwano LGA, Abia; and Amarachi Njoku, 17, a native of Agbor in Delta State. The men were Joshua Ibekwe, 28, Umuajameze Umuopara and Levi Ibekwe, 31.

Investigations revealed that the hospital was not only unregistered, but an antenatal home where unmarried girls and victims of unwanted pregnancy were camped.  Through contacts, Ijeoma allegedly recruited the girls into her hideout from rural areas and among salesgirls and house-helps in big towns across the country. Other recruitment grounds include post-primary and tertiary institutions, where female students are afraid of the great taboo in most Igbo cultures on unwanted pregnancy. Affluent Ijeoma, fondly called mummy by her clients, was reported to call the shots in the camp. She partially undertakes the inmates’ upkeep. At her expense, she provides them with orthodox and traditional modes of antenatal care. Thus, their relationship gets chummier.  To consummate her ploy, she plays midwife during labour and delivers them of babies free of charge.

Ijeoma, a hard-nosed businesswoman, would, thereafter move to recoup her antenatal and postnatal bills by selling babies in her care. She allegedly did this by negotiating with ritualists, child traffickers and adopters through sale at huge prices. A source told TheNEWS that she would give part of the money to the girls to make them keep quiet. But nemesis caught up with Ijeoma recently. Levi Ibekwe, a deportee and one of the male suspects in the custody of the Abia State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Umuahia, disclosed to the magazine that Ijeoma was his wife. Levi revealed that trouble ensued when his cousin, Miss Ahuruchi Peace Iroegbu, reported to the police that her own mother and his wife conspired to sell her baby. Asked if he was aware of the ‘business’ between his wife and Ahuruchi’s mother, Levi said: ”I don’t know anything about the business. But anything the police can do to recover the baby is my concern.” Close sources, however, alleged that he had a record of criminality. They revealed that his wife was using him as a child trafficking mule. Meanwhile, the police are still looking for Ijeoma and Ahuruchi’s mother. In Aba town and its environs, most unsuccessful doctors, midwives and homoeopaths have thrown medical ethics to the wind and indulge in gross misuse of their registered medical outfits. Prior to police discovery, some of the babies belonging to the girls had been sold. Also, Lillian Achomba, 42, was arrested at Umukpeyi Nvosi, in Isiala, Ngwa South LGA of Abia State. She was arraigned before an Umuahia magistrate’s court in March for running a unisex camp, with 43 young girls and 11 robust boys for premarital procreation for commercial interest. When the camp was raided on a tip-off, about 31 girls were already heavily pregnant. Yearly, Lillian acquires about 40 babies for sale, which yields copius amounts of cash.

On 4 December 2007, some policemen from Aba Central Police Station arrested Dr. Orikara Hyacinth, 42, at 3 Brass Street, off Owerri/Aba Road. They also arrested Mrs. Ayodele Okeke, 38, at 10 Woji Street, Port-Harcourt in Rivers State. Mrs. Okeke runs an unregistered maternity home without even a signpost. It was alleged that Orikara was trafficking in new-born babies as well as recommending pregnant girls to Ayodele.  When the police swooped on the maternity home, a one-day-old baby was discovered with one Madam Jennieve Orjie, a 39-year-old indigene of Calabar, Cross River State. Under police interrogation, she claimed maternal ownership of the baby, believed to have been abandoned by a girl on a safe run. However, to unravel the riddle, a DNA test was carried out at the Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba, which proved that the claimant had no blood relationship with the baby. Jennieve was prosecuted alongside Ayodele and Orikara. So strong is the interest in this trade that is has become attractive to the most unlikely people. In May, an Aba-based pastor was handcuffed for keeping and offering antenatal care to 15 pregnant girls in a hideout adjacent to his ‘divine’ house of God. He explained that he engaged the pregnant girls to work for him on his private farm. On investigation, it was uncovered that the pastor had no farm. Sources revealed that the pastor was exploiting contacts of branches of his church across the globe to perpetuate this illicit trade.

Discreet checks conducted by this medium revealed some factors promoting human trafficking in the state.  Across the Igbo ethnic nation, it was gathered that most victims of unwanted pregnancy are faced with rejection by their parents. Lack of parental love and care also count. An average contemporary girl is materialistic, thus, most girls become prey in the hands of randy men in both rural and urban areas.  When impregnated, the philanderers turn their back on them. Nemesis also caught up with one Dr. James Babatunde Adeyemi in August 2007 in Calabar. As reported by TheNEWS last year, his Mambo Clinic, located at 12 Atamuro Street, Calabar, was invaded by the police, upon information that the doctor indulged in illegal abortion, baby sale and sundry vices. Adeyemi was arrested for allegedly selling one David Joseph Edem, the son of a 17-year-old girl, Miss Sarah Joseph Edem, to a woman based in Sapele, Delta State. The buyer, identified as Helen, curiously absconded from police custody.  

Distraught Sarah told TheNEWS in Ikot Ansa, a suburb of Calabar, that sometime in 2006, she was pregnant and after confronting her boyfriends, none of them was willing to accept responsibility for the pregnancy and to avoid the trouble of her mother and elder sisters, she concealed it for about four months. The pregnancy was discovered by her elder, whom she said was furious. As an apprentice with Rainbow Garment, a fashion designing firm, the pregnancy was going to put paid to her acquisition of the trade, since she had dropped out of school. Her elder sister, Imaobong, concerned that the N10,000 paid for her to learn the trade would be wasted, decided to pay another N10,000 to have the pregnancy terminated. ”When Imaobong discovered that I was pregnant, she was furious with me. She, however, calmed down and decided that I should have the pregnancy ternminated. Somebody directed us to Dr. Adeyemi, who demanded for N10,000, which we paid. But the doctor said the pregnancy had escaped to my back so he could not trace it. He advised that I should keep attending prenatal care for him to study the pregnancy to know what to do,” she said. She kept visiting the hospital to have the pregnancy removed, but the doctor only kept asking her to repeat her visits until the pregnancy became too advanced and thus risky to abort. She then accepted her fate as her mother too was against the idea of an abortion from the start. With the idea of an abortion shelved, the doctor opted to be ‘monitoring” the progress of the pregnancy, so that he would know when she would put to bed. “I did not attend antenatal in his clinic, but occasionally, he would send for me to ask how I was doing. Because I did not have money to go to hospital, my sister took me to a midwife at RCC Road where I delivered on the 29th of April 2007,” Sarah said. A few days after delivery, Adeyemi called Imaobong to “find out about my patient”. He was informed that the girl had delivered and was in the house. On Friday, 5 May 2007, Adeyemi visited their home in the company of a nurse with the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, UCTH. “The nurse gave Imaobong N200 to buy me drugs when my sister went out. Adeyemi took me to a corner of the house and told me to come to see him on Sunday in his hospital. That I should not allow anyone to know that I was going to see him,” said Sarah.

She said Adeyemi repeated the visit to further instruct her to ensure she showed up in the hospital. As agreed that Sunday, she went to see Adeyemi. “After my sister had left for church with Emem, our last born, and my mother was off to her farm in Odukpani, I went to Mambo to see Adeyemi,” she explained. Her stay in hospital took her far into the night. Her absence agitated the minds of her siblings. Later that evening, Imaobong received a call from someone claiming to be the step-sister to the boy who impregnated Sarah. The caller, Imaobong said, told her that Sarah was with her in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, and that she was the step-sister to the boy who impregnated Sarah and would now take care of David. “I was mad. Who is that boy that throughout Sarah’s pregnancy never showed up. It is now that he knows Sarah should be taken to his step-sister. I warned the woman to return Sarah immediately or I would raise an alarm,” she told TheNEWS last year. The caller, Imaobong said, hung up and when she called back, she refused to answer the phone. Meanwhile, Sarah said, when she got to the hospital, Adeyemi gave her some drugs to take which made her feel dizzy. “After taking the drugs, he drove me in his car to White House Street where Mary Okon lives and collected the baby in the car and handed  him over to the nurse. I was feeling too weak and confused and could not do or say anything,” she narrated. Back to the hospital, Adeyemi, she said, gave her the key to his office to go in there and wait. “After I waited for a long time in his office, he did not come. I decided to come out when my head cleared a little. When he came back, he was very angry and ordered me to go inside the office and he locked me up,” Sarah said tearfully. The girl was locked up in the office until the following day. According to her, the doctor wrote a letter, a copy of  which she was given. That copy was later dispatched  to her sisters in Ikot Ansa. The letter pleaded for forgiveness from her mother and sisters for handing over “David to his father’s step-sister to take care of since we cannot take care of him alone”.

Imaobong got the letter and became furious. She went with her mother to Mambo Clinic where they met Adeyemi and two ladies. Her mother, she disclosed, started screaming. Sarah said the doctor pleaded with her mother to stop screaming and that David had been taken to the motherless babies home and he would soon go and bring him. He claimed that the women in charge of the home went for a burial and would be back two days later. “When my mother heard this, she fainted,” Imaobong told TheNEWS. Imaobong, who said she missed that year’s Universities Matriculation Examination because of the matter, said they went back two days later but Adeyemi was nowhere to be found. They then reported the matter to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, which advised them to go to the police. At the police station, they were directed to the anti-human trafficking unit.

Meanwhile, a nurse at Calabar’s General Hospital had observed the suspicious movement of two women and called the attention of a doctor to them. The women claimed they wanted to “spend the night in the hospital”. This allegedly raised the suspicion of the doctor, as one of them had a new-born baby wrapped around her waist like a woman who had just put to bed. When the doctor examined them, it was discovered that none of them had just put to bed. They were subsequently accosted and handed over to the police at the Akim Police station. There they were said to have made some useful statements to the effect that they bought the baby from a medical doctor and were at the hospital to “procure” another baby to take to their husbands since they had been without children after 30 years of marriage. They were able, however, to bolt after the confessional statement, but without the baby as he was with the doctor.  

When Adeyemi was invited by the police, he said Sarah came crawling to him to assist in taking care of the baby since she was not able to care for the baby alone. When asked to get the baby from his wife’s friend, he could not. He was subsequently taken into custody by the police. He was held for over five days before he was released him on bail. When contacted in his hospital, Adeyemi said he had no time to talk to the “press because the matter, as you have said, is an allegation. The matter is with the police and if you want to know what happened get my statement from the police. Now please leave my office as I have patients to attend to.” The Chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association, Dr Ikpeme Ikpeme said that a panel would be set up to investigate the case against Dr Adeyemi. Several months after, nothing has been heard of the investigation and Dr Adeyemi is still in practice. When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer for the Cross River Command, ASP Thomas Okpene said: “The man was asked to be released on bail by AIG Zone Six. When the Commissioner asked for the file because of the shoddy way the case was handled, it was reported that the AIG had given instruction that he should be taken on bail.”

Residents of the state are worried that if Adeyemi is allowed to continue to practice without any sanction, he would inflict more damage. Other cases abound. In May 2005, the Nigerian Newsday, a weekly newspaper owned by the Nasarawa State government, reported how a medical doctor in a private medical clinic in Kaduna delivered pregnant ladies of babies that he sold to sterile couples. He sold each baby for N20,000. On 19 October 2003, one of a set of twin baby boys was allegedly stolen during a Caesarean operation in which the mother, late Mrs. Chinwendu Ukwuoma, died of alleged negligence and recklessness at Jeno Hospital, Trans Ekulu, Enugu. Two medical doctors – J.E.N. Okonkwo and Christian Ogbuokiri – are being accused of negligence, recklessness and collusion in the theft of the baby boy. The case is before the Medical and Dental Practitioners Council for disciplinary action.Part of the charges read: “Dr. J.E.N Okonkwo, as the proprietor and the medical practitioner in charge of the said JENO HOSPITAL, failed to issue any standing order or guidelines for the management of handling of emergency situations such as the admission and management of Mrs. Chinwendu Ukwuoma in your absence, and consequently led to the mismanagement of the said Mrs. Chinwendu Ukwuoma in your said hospital. “That you, Dr. Christian Ogbuokiri proceeded to carry out Caesarian section on the said patient without ordering necessary laboratory investigations and also ensuring that duly cross-matched blood or any blood at all was available in the theatre for the use of the patient in case of need in the course of surgery, “And that by the said fact you have conducted yourself infamously in a professional respect contrary to Rule 10 of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Medical and Dental Practitioners in Nigeria (1995 edition) and … CAP 221 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990.”But the father, Okechukwu Ukwuoma, with the assistance of NAPTIP, on 9 November 2007, four years after, recovered the child from one Mrs. Yashi in Trans Ekulu, Enugu metropolis. She was detained by NAPTIP and later released. Mr. Ukwuoma was, however, anxious about her possible escape. In a petition to NAPTIP, Enugu Zonal Office, counsel to Ukwuoma, M.O. Udeh Esq argued: “It is not even safe to grant her bail because she may jump bail. The safest way out of the situation is to arraign the woman before a court, and it will be left with the court to decide the issue of her bail, in view of the fact that she has not supplied any reliable clue to explain how she came in possession of the stolen child.”

However, in a chat with the magazine, the Zonal Director of NAPTIP South-East, Enugu, Mrs. Ijeoma Okoronkwo said that the Agency is empowered to arrest and release on bail suspects in the course of investigation. She however explained that NAPTIP would not be compromised on the matter. “The aim is to unravel the true parent. We are very much interested in how the boy was removed from his parents.” According to her, investigation is on in collaboration with the state Ministry for Women Affairs, Police and other security agencies involved.  If found guilty, Mrs. Yashi would face imprisonment for 14 years without the option of fine for contravening Rule IX (e) of the Offences and Punishment Act 2003 establishing NAPTIP which frowns at depriving any parent of possession of any person under the age of 18 years. The case of JENO Hospital revealed how medical personnel, through abuse of their responsibilities, engage in child trafficking.

There are many reasons that Nigerians now engage in selling and buying of children. One of these is the poor economy. Many parents are so poor that, to make ends meet they sell their own children. Consequently, the children end up as child labourers in cities like London, Birmingham and Manchester, according to The Telegraph of London. In January 2005, David Harrison, an undercover reporter with The Telegraph, came to Nigeria and was offered several children for sale by their Nigerian parents. That is, two boys, aged three and five, for £5,000 or £2,500 for one; and a 10-month-old baby for £2,000. Teenage girls, including pregnant ones were, according to the newspaper, willing to sell their babies for less than £1,000. “One international trafficker, tracked down in Lagos,” as Telegraphy reported, “claimed to be buying up to 500 children a year.”

Apart from using the children for domestic work up to 18 hours a day, cleaning, cooking and looking after other young children, the foreign newspaper reported further that they are subjected to physical and sexual abuse. That month, as Telegraphy reported, campaigners urged the government to take urgent action to end this 21st century slavery. “These children are being abused under our noses in our own country,” Chris Beddoe, the director of End Child Prostitution and Trafficking, a British-based coalition of international charities, told the newspaper. “It is totally unacceptable. We need urgent action to identify these children as they enter the UK, find those who are being abused and offer proper protection to those who escape or are freed from their abusers.”  Vernon Coaker, the Home Office Minister responsible for the prevention of trafficking, described child traffickers as “evil” and said anybody who could buy and sell babies was “sick”. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, a British non- governmental organisation, revealed that 330 children, including 14 aged under 12, many of them from Africa, had been trafficked to Britain over the past 12 months.

The Telegraph revealed the modus operandi. That is, the traffickers use a network of corrupt officials and co-traffickers to obtain passports and visas, often giving the children new names. Many of the young victims are flown directly from Lagos in Nigeria to London airports. Others are taken, via other West African states such as Ghana and Benin, to “transit” cities, including Paris. A growing number of the African slave children arrive in Britain unaccompanied, as asylum seekers, or with “private foster parents”. The newspaper quoted Debbie Ariyo, the executive director of the London-based charity, Africans United Against Child Abuse: “This trade is a disgrace. These children are not going to loving homes. They are being cynically used by adults as slave labour and to defraud the state and then when they get older and have served their purpose and no longer attract benefits, they are thrown out on to the streets with no papers even to prove who they are. These are damaged, traumatise children and we have to end this misery.” Campaigners said that many of the slave children – psychologically and often physically damaged at 18 – were thrown out of the houses of their “owners”.

According to the United Nations Human Development survey, 70 per cent of Nigerians live below the International Poverty Line of one US dollar per day and it is the child that is the most affected by this economic downturn. Infant mortality is pegged at 77 deaths out of every 1000 live births, while maternal mortality is 704 deaths out of every 100,000 live births. Only about 10 per cent of the population have access to essential drugs, while more than five million adults are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS.  Another motivation for Nigerians who buy babies is to have access to British welfare facilities. The most recent of such cases was in April this year when Nigerian-born Peace Sandberg, 40, paid £150 for a three-month-old boy in this country. With a forged birth certificate with which she obtained a visa for the baby from the British High Commission, she flew into London.

Hours after arriving at the Heathrow airport, Sandberg claimed she returned to Nigeria in December 2006 to give birth and wanted to own her own flat. But Sandberg, a support worker for Kensington Housing Trust, was recognised by Lizette Reddy, a housing officer at Ealing council’s homeless persons unit. Sandberg’s plan, therefore, fell flat. Also, Mrs Ijeoma Okoronkwo of South-East zone of NAPTIP told this magazine that about 20 offenders have been successfully prosecuted across the country and are currently serving various jail terms. She said that NAPTIP is doing well, stressing that the awareness on child trafficking is being taken to all nooks and crannies of the country and people are becoming very conscious of the crime. Out of the 20 convictions in the land, two were from the South-East zone; one person each from Anambra and Ebonyi states. There are seven cases in court, she revealed, lamenting that criminally minded people are taking advantage of childless couples to engage in the nefarious trade. Mrs Okoronkwo argued that people are reluctant to go to motherless babies homes for child adoption probably because of cultural or legal implications, and pointed out the need for re-orientation of the populace on formal adoption. According to her, Nigeria is a source state, transit and destination place for child and human trafficking.

Child Rights Act, 2003, section 30 states: “No person shall buy, sell, hire, dispose of or otherwise deal in a child. A child shall not be used for the purpose of begging for alms, guiding beggars, prostitution, pornography, domestic or sexual labour or for any unlawful or immoral purpose, or as a slave, or practices similar to slavery such as trafficking of the child, debt bondage, serfdom, forced or compulsory labour, hawking or for any purpose that deprives the child of the opportunity to be in school. A person who contravenes this section shall be liable to 10 years imprisonment.” Observes believe, however, that the federal government could take a cue from the Delta State government which, in April, presented the Child Rights Bill to the state legislature. In the words of Governor Uduaghan, the bill was to “protect our children from any harmful and unacceptable practices that will compromise their future…” Will the Umar Yar’Adua administration do something about this? Nigerians are expecting.

–Reported by Emma Una, George Okpara and Jude Orji.

Cultists storm Abia varsity, assault DVC   
Written by Uduma Kalu     
Saturday, 14 March 2009 

The Abia State University, which was last January engulfed in a communal riot, leading to death of three young students was this week attacked by suspected cultists.
Reports from the Universiry told Saturday Vanguard that  the cultists stormed a Prima Causa  welcome party of the Faculty of Law held last Friday.According to eye witness reports, the cultists stormed the party, blocking the entrance against the university’s Deputy Vice Chancellor Academics who was to represent the Vice Chancellor. A pregnant final year student named Stephanie was also seen crying having been rough handled by the group.

The cultists were said to have gone ahead to cart away the food, drinks and awards for the visitors. Some of the fresh students expressed their anger in various ways. But the final year students declined to mention names of their classmates who were involved. 

Some of them were seen discussing the event however shied away from answering questions, saying their association president, one Okezie, should tell the world what happened, not they.Visitors to the event also witnessed the show of shame.  The Aba North Chairman was said to have tried to placate the hoodlums whose identity were named by the sources.

Genesis of the problem is suspected to be the fall out of a fellow cultist said to have lost out in an election of the Law association, LAWSAW held last year. http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/30962/43/

only igbo people.from cannibals to drug dealers to  bakassi boys, from blood rituals  to osu caste to biafragroups,from selling babies to sex trade from rapists to kidnappings.i have diffrent news mix with all crime.only kidnapping you came off with in rivers state.




Heroin Concealed In Pampers
March 13, 2009 .
By Simon Ateba


Officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have arrested a 37-year-old man, Mr. Okechukwu Anthony Ikechukwu, with 2.9 kilogrammes of heroin concealed in baby pampers and empty Ghana-Must-Go bags.


According to Alhaji Idris Bello, Assistant Commander in charge of operations, NDLEA Airport Command, the mode of concealment is unique, as this is the first time this year, that pampers and baby wears have been used to traffic drug.

Ikechukwu, an indigene of Enugu state, was heading for China when he was picked up by NDLEA operatives at the departure lounge of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos, on Wednesday night.

Upon his arrest, Ikechukwu claimed he was innocent and simply given the bag by Emeka Uwaezuoke, 41, an indigene of Imo state. The bag, he explained, was to be delivered to an unidentified man in China.

He said he did not know the content of the bag but was only helping a friend in need. But yesterday, when both men were paraded by the agency, Emeka denied that claim.

Also arrested was Chief Odugwukwe Azubuke, an indigene of Anambra state, who had been arrested by the NDLEA in 2007 and granted bail by a Lagos court. Azubuke had recruited a traveller to bring in the 3 kilogrammes of heroin from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, aboard Ethiopian Airlines.

The NDLEA said “in an attempt to outwit the operators, chief had recruited Hammed Sodeeq, who hails from Kogi state. In order for Sodeeq to get entrance into the arrival hall to pick up the drug brought in by an unknown traveller concealed in a duty-free polythene bag, chief had procured an international passport for Sodeeq, for him to gain access into the hall. Sodeeq then lied that he had returned from a trip a few days before and his bag had failed to arrive.”

Other suspects arrested recently include Afolabi Olushola, 39, picked up on 28 February, with some wraps of cocaine concealed in his stomach. He was heading for Spain aboard a KLM flight.Onum Michael Nkpa was arrested on 6 February, with 1.649 kg of cocaine. He was heading for Holland. Another suspect was arrested at the airport car park with 1.085 kg of heroin stuffed in the hollows of the metal handles and tyre racks

Bello Idris disclosed that the NDLEA Airport Command has so far arrested 25 suspects; 24 males and one female.

C'ttee moves to tackle fake drug in Onitsha market    
Written by VANGUARD    
Friday, 13 March 2009  

Onitsha—The Caretaker Committee on Onitsha Drugs Market  in Anambra State, has said it has put a machinery in place to tackle fake, adulterated and counterfeit  drugs in the market. The Committee said it was also monitoring the activities of dealers with questionable characters in the market.

The Chairman and the Secretary of  the committee, Mr. Donatus Ugwudike and Chidiebere Nwagu respectively, said this while briefing newsmen in Onitsha.

They said that some measures which they had taken since 2008 had compelled some fake drug sellers to flee the market.

Ugwudike and Nwagu disclosed that many of those  involved in fake drugs were detected, apprehended and handed over to NAFDAC for interrogations and possible sanctions.

The duo said anytime a suspected fake dealer was detected and handed over to NAFDAC, the committee usually sealed off the suspect’s shop.

Such a shop, they said, would not be re-opened until when NAFDAC was through with investigations and direct the committee to either re-open it or seal it off permanently.

They, however, noted that the issue of expired drugs could not be completely stamped out in the country.“Any product which can be consumed before its expiry date must surely expire but our committee usually goes round the market to fish out expired products for destruction,’’ they said.

They said their committee had organised series of lectures and enlightenment campaigns for traders on the need for them to voluntarily hand over all expired goods for destruction.

They congratulated the new NAFDAC Director-General, Dr Paul Orhii, on his appointment and assured him of their co-operation to enable him succeed in his assignment.

They contended that Orhii’s utterances had proved his readiness to work like his predecessor, Prof. Dora Akunyili.



http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/30926/45/

:-x

AFTER a short stay in the United States, a Nigerian youth has emerged as one of the country's most wanted men, sharing the same poster with America's enemy number one, Osama bin Laden, on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's website.

President George W. Bush, who is battling with his country's economic crisis that has sent shock waves around the world, has ordered security agents to track down the 29-year old Nigerian, Tobechi Enyinna Onwuhara “at all cost”.

Bush gave the order following a discovery that Onwuhara, within three years, had stolen over $44 million, (about N5.28billion), from American citizens and financial institutions, including a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeal, who was recently appointed by the president.

The judge was once a Chief of Staff to the late American Senator, Strom Thurmond, who defected from the Democratic party to the Republican and made history then as the longest-serving and oldest senator in US history. By the time he was 100 years, he had served 48 years as a lawmaker.
To underscore the importance of the fugitive and the threat he is posing to the American economy, the FBI placed his picture under that of bin Laden, on the agency's identification orders posted on the internet.

According to the FBI, Onwuhara and some of his Nigerian partners have used online internet databases to steal victims' identities to the tune of $44 million.

FBI sources said that Onwuhara soiled into his victims' personal information through a database, in a bid to access their Home Equity Line of Credit accounts. Once inside, he would wire the money to accounts mainly located overseas, but some inside the US.

The suspect has been accused of causing tens of millions of dollars in losses to banks and home-owners.

Onwuhara was described by the agents as ‘a very smart and crafty fraudster’, who had painstakingly perfected the scam, after lots of research, followed by several tests.

Also described as 'The Consummate Con-man' with a seemingly-bottomless bag of tricks, Onwuhara was found to have been spending his money on wine, women and songs.

Among his traits and habits noted by the FBI are: gambling at the casino, flashing money, driving luxury cars and hanging out at strip clubs.
Investigators believe that Onwuhara first entered the US in 1999 or 2000 on a student visa.

A statement signed by FBI Director, Robert S. Mueller, reads in part: “Tobechi Enyinna Onwuhara, a convicted felon is wanted for his alleged involvement in an elaborate scheme that defrauded the financial industry out of tens of millions of dollars.

“Onwuhara is a key member of a group of Nigerians, which allegedly has been conducting fraudulent banking activities from Florida and Texas, since 2005. It is alleged that the group has been using on-line Internet databases to steal victims' identities. Once acquired, they allegedly use the victims' information to gain access to the victims' Home Equity Line of Credit accounts and wire transfer the money to accounts mainly located overseas, some in the United States.
“Some of Onwuhara's alleged coconspirators have been arrested, inside and outside of the UnitedStates. However, Onwuhara remains at large. Onwuhara was charged federally with conspiracyto commit bank fraud, and a federal warrant was issued for his arrest by the United States District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, on August 1, 2008.”The statement carries a caution, boldly printed in red ink: 'Should be considered an escape risk.'

The FBI pleaded that those who have information concerning the case should contact the local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.

Investigators said Onwuhara had once moved from Seattle in Washington, where he lived for a short time, then Houston in Texas. Later, he was found to have set up homes in Miami and Dallas.
The Miami home costs $600,000, and the Dallas base was described as a playground, where he lived the life of a multi-millionaire playboy and businessman, renting a condo for $4,000 a month.

Although agents describe Onwuhara as a quiet guy, they say he craved the spotlight and let his money do his talking for him.

Dennis Michael Wagner, who works with the ‘American Most Wanted’, reveals that Onwuhara loves "making it rain". He usually throws fistfuls of cash up in the air, at one of his favourite spots, a local strip club. They say he could easily drop $50,000.

According to Wagner, Onwuhara's desires didn't stop with cash and women. Investigators say he loves luxury cars. He has a Maserati, a Bentley, a Rolls-Royce Phantom and he had been working as a car salesman to indulge his passion.

Once in his possession, agents say Onwuhara would ship the cars to Nigeria to be sold.

According to them, he was so confident in his skills and scams that he never believed they could be traced directly back to him.

The only paper trail Onwuhara left behind led directly back to close associates. Discreet investigations later unravelled his alleged scams in precise detail.
With the money he generated from his illegal activities, they say Onwuhara started his own hip-hop label, called S.W.A.T. Up Entertainment. He even signed two artists to the label.

It was gathered that Onwuhara owned a recording studio at one point.

Investigators have now spread their dragnet across Dallas, Miami, Atlanta, New Jersey and Canada, looking for the suspect with the security label: W054871136. They gave his height as 5' 10”; his weight is put at 185 pounds and he uses aliases including “T”, “Tobe”, “Xavier” and “Enyinna”.

Onwuhara's poster says he has access to fake driver's licences and passports and millions of dollars in overseas accounts.

Onwuhara's kinsmen in Nigeria spell the name as Onwughara, meaning “Death left this”; and the other name Tobechi means “Keep praising God,” while Enyinna means “Darling of the Father.”[b][/b]

Wicked mum: Slaughters own seven-month-old baby
From MATTHIAS NWOGU, Umuahia
Thursday, March 12, 2009


The serene village of Nchara Oloko, Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State was thrown into confusion recently as a woman slit the throat of her seven-month-old son and dumped him in the house of her lover in protest.

The 32-year-old[b] mother, Mrs Amarachi Ajagba has five other children possibly from a previous marriage before giving birth to the one she slaughtered, claiming that she did so to protest her abandonment by her lover to solely take care of the baby.
It was gathered that the lover, Mr Ibeabuchi Ememandu, a commercial motorcyclist had a fling with her, which resulted in pregnancy. He consequently accepted responsibility, but did not cater for the baby.

Amarachi who took care of the baby for seven months allegedly got fed up on the fateful day and felt she could no longer bear the burden alone. She therefore took the fatal decision, slaughtered the baby, took him in her wrapper and dumped the corpse in his lover’s house. Mr Soji Alabi, Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Abia State Command where the incident was first reported said the woman confessed that she carried out the heartless act in the residence of a pastor in one of the pentecostal churches in the area, using his kitchen knife.
His words, “A confessional statement made by the woman indicated that Mr Ememandu refused to take care of her and the baby hence her action.

However, Mr Ememandu denied abandoning the baby and the woman, saying he “never failed to take care of her during and after the birth of the child” and wondered why she should take such an extreme action of terminating the life of the baby who was already seven months old.

Another riddle in the episode is that there were no bloodstains on the boy and the wrapper with which she brought the corpse to the lover’s house, raising suspicion on the whereabouts of the innocent child’s blood.
The lover, who reported the incident to the NSCDC said it was his sister who alerted him to the corpse dumped in his house.

Meanwhile, the NSCDC has transferred the matter on the Abia State Police Command Umuahia for further investigation, even as the Commandant of the Corps, Dauda D. Mungadi frowned at the growing lack of respect for human life in the state.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2009/mar/12/national-12-03-2009-06.htm
[/b]

The murder in London of a Nigerian boy, simply named Adam by the British Police, might have brought to international focus and attention one of the most dreadful and horrifying practices in Nigeria - ritual killing.
In September 2001, the mutilated body of "Boy Adam" was found by the British Police floating in the River Thames, near Tower Bridge in London. A top police source suspected that Adam might have been a victim of a style of ritual killing practiced in west and southern Africa. And forensic examination revealed that Adam lived in southwestern Nigeria.

So, early this year, British detectives arrived in Nigeria in search of Adam's killers. Both the former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, and Nigerian soccer player Nwankwo Kanu, made passionate appeals for clues and information leading to the arrest of Adam's killers.

In July, Police arrested a 37-year-old Nigerian, Sam Onogigovie (in Dublin), and twenty-one other Nigerians in Britain in connection with the murder of Adam. Generally, ritual killing is a common practice in Nigeria. Every year, hundreds of Nigerians lose their lives to ritual murderers, also known as headhunters.

These head hunters go in search of human parts-head, breast, tongue, sexual organs-at the behest of witchdoctors, juju priests, and traditional medicine men who require them for some sacrifices or for the preparation of assorted magical potions.

Recently, there have been several reported cases of individuals who were kidnapped, killed, or had their bodies mutilated by ritualists in Nigeria. The most notorious of them is the one associated with one Chief Vincent Duru, popularly known as Otokoto.

It happened this way: In 1996, the police in the southern Nigerian city of Owerri arrested a man, Innocent Ekeanyanwu, with the head of a young boy, Ikechukwu Okonkwo. In the course of the investigation, the police discovered the buried torso of Ikechukwu on the premises of Otokoto Hotel, owned by Chief Duru, and uncovered a syndicate that specialized in ritual killing and the sale and procurement of human parts. The horrifying discoveries sparked off violent protests in the city of Owerri which led to the burning and looting of properties belonging to suspected killers. Otokoto and his ritualist syndicate were arrested and put on trial, and in February 2003, they were sentenced to death by hanging.

Apart from the Otokoto incident, there have been other instances of ritual murder and mutilation in other parts of the country. For instance, in Calabar, two men plucked out the eyes of a young lady, Adlyne Eze, for money-making ritual. And in Ifo, Ogun state, a businessman inflicted the same harm on his younger sister. In Ibadan, the police in December arrested a taxi driver, Abbas, who used his fourteen-month-old baby for rituals. Abbas killed his child in order to secure a human head, which was one of the materials listed for him by a local witchdoctor for a money-making ritual.

And in another act of ritual horror in Onitsha, Anambra State, two young men, Tobechukwu Okorie and Peter Obasi, seized a boy, Monday Emenike, and cut off his sexual organ with the intention of delivering it to a man, who allegedly offered to pay 1.5 million naira ($11,000) for it. In Kaduna, Danladi Damina was arrested after he exhumed the corpse of a 9-year-old boy, plucked out his eyes and cut off his lips, intending to use them for charms. Recently a woman was caught in a bush in Warri, Delta State, decapitating a four-year-old boy for ritual purposes. And while writing this piece, I read in The Guardian (Nigeria) a report of the murder of an 18-year-old girl, identified as Chioma, by suspected ritualists in Mbaise, Imo State.

[b][/b]

any news from rives state?

The police at the Area ‘F’ Command have arrested a dispatch rider identified as Elendu Stanley Ikechukwu, for allegedly raping his brother’s eight-year-old daughter.

Elendu, a staff of Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), whose office is located at 45, Opebi Road, Ikeja, was alleged to have raped the victim (names withheld), in his office.
P.M.NEWS gathered that the suspect, who is married, brought the victim from their village and were all living in GRA, Ikeja, before relocating to an undisclosed place.

It was learnt that Elendu, in order to have free sex with the little girl, told his wife that he would change the girl’s school to one very close to his work place so that he could bring her home after closing hours, while the wife was said to have consented to the idea.

On the morning he brought the girl to his office to change her school, it was learnt, he discovered that the only staff in the office had left for breakfast and reportedly took the girl to the accounts office, removed her pant and had sex with her.

He was, however, unlucky as another member of staff came in and caught him on top of the girl. The staff member immediately invited the police from Area ‘F’, who arrested him and took him to the station. When P.M.NEWS visited the NIOB office, both president and secretary were said to be out of the office, but a staff confirmed the incident, saying that the suspect was later brought to the office by the police, where the girl’s pant was picked up and taken to the station.

When P.M.NEWS visited the station, the DPO was also not around to confirm the story, but a police source confirmed the incident, but was not sure when he will be charged to court.


http://news.onlinenigeria.com/templates/?a=461&z=12

[b][/b]

Thriving sex trade, overflowing refuse dumps distort new face of Imo
By Chux Ohai

As a visitor to Owerri, the capital of Imo State, steps out of the Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, a large billboard warmly greets him, ‘Welcome to Owerri, Capital City’ and then reminds him that the city he is about to enter is, as a popular slogan of the state government suggests, ‘clean and green’.

Just as touted, the visitor soon discovers that the streets of Owerri appear modestly clean and that the stench that once gave the city the appearance of a huge refuse dump has finally been gotten rid of. It is clean, without the sparkling quality, but lacks evidence of a steely determination by the municipal authority to transform it into a lush green zone in the manner of Abuja and Lagos.

Indeed, Saturday Punch discovered a semblance of order in the manner in which the inhabitants conducted their affairs and the roads appeared at a glance to be well-kempt, wide, and less-ridden with potholes, even craters of such depth as could be found in more densely populated cities like Lagos.

At a junction where road users patiently waited for the next signal from the traffic lights to continue their journey, the New Face of Imo Agenda assumed a more visible perspective, as a couple of workmen laboured in the sun to clear some debris from the site of a recently demolished building.

Once described as the entertainment capital of the South-East, on the surface, Owerri cut the picture of a city in transition. Earlier in 2007, the current governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim, had embarked on a 14-point agenda, the thrust of which was to reposition the state economically, socially and culturally, in such a way that it would attract external investors and tourists. It was gathered that in order to make this a reality, the governor had initiated the much publicised Clean and Green Campaign and set up the Imo State Environmental Transformation Commission (ENTRANCO), which was given the responsibility of saving Owerri from further declining into and wearing the face of a shanty town. ENTRANCO’s major task was to transform the capital city to a model and modern city.

When our correspondent spoke to Willy Amadi, ENTRANCO’s boss, about the Clean and Green project in Owerri, he said, “Our objective is to create an environment that will promote tourism and in turn, create employment. Most importantly, we want to create a model modern state and a capital city that will be the best in West Africa. We are thinking of moulding Owerri and all the other local governments around it into one mega city that countries would emulate. That is why we are spending more time in transforming the people’s mindset to make them do the right thing.”

Amadi added that the staff and management of ENTRANCO had toiled night and day to ensure that Governor Ohakim’s transformational agenda remained visible and attainable. “We have put in so much to get to where we are today, but we have only achieved 15 per cent of the initial target. We have laid the foundation and the people of Imo have accepted the initiative because they have seen its usefulness and benefits. In spite of this, we still have a lot to do,” he said.

But moving further inland, our correspondent stumbled on sights that seemed to contradict the state government’s claims of running one of the cleanest and tidiest state capitals in the world. At a spot on Ama J.K Road, one of the major roads in Owerri, a large and overflowing refuse bin stood like a sore thumb, in total contrast to the shinning surroundings. Nearby, a heap of rubbish had been abandoned in the middle of the ever-busy Douglas Road. As if to complement the ugly sight, the gutters on both sides of this road were solidly blocked by used pure water sachets and such like debris.

Right in the heart of Ama Wire, one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the Owerri metropolis, there was a huge refuse dump nestling among rows of dusty and rustic-looking houses. At a glance, it looked as if the neighbourhood, clearly neglected, had for a while evaded the good intentions of Ohakim’s Clean and Green Initiative. At the same time, it seemed that ENTRANCO’s cleaners and sanitary officers would spare the neighbourhod their modernizing visits for a long time. Ama Wire in its wretched and unkempt state was clearly not a reflection of the ingenuity of the government’s Face of Imo agenda.

Perhaps one of the most dominant features of Owerri life was the huge presence of commercial motorcycle operators, or Okada riders, on the roads. Okada riders constitute a significant percentage of the workforce in Imo State. In Owerri, they were found everywhere, in their hundreds, racing from one point in the city to another, sometimes at alarming speed. One did not need to be told that these commercial motorcycles were the most popular means of transport in Owerri. Yet the state government was said to have decided to kick Okada riders out of town in March, 2009.

In response to this, Charles Ngobiri, an Okada operator, told Saturday Punch, “The governor said we should leave before the end of March. But where are we going? How does he expect us to earn a living after March? To tell you the truth, I don’t like what this governor is doing to us. They say he is making Owerri clean. Is it cleanliness that I will eat?”

But in an interview with our correspondent, Governor Ikedi Ohakim denied ever handing Okada riders a quit order. “I have never given an order to Okada riders to quit. There is nothing like that. What we have said is that between now and March, we will restrict them outside Owerri metropolis, which is different from Owerri urban area. What this means is that Okada riders can still work within the city,” he said.

Revealing his intention to introduce an alternative with which he planned to absorb the Okada riders, he said, “We have to find a way to discourage these boys from committing suicide. Riding Okada is like committing suicide.”

Apart from the rumoured ban on commercial motorcycles in Owerri, Ohakim’s demolition squads appear to have incurred the displeasure of some residents of the city. Madam Anthonia Okoro, a resident, called them ‘extortion’ squads. She complained to Saturday Punch that she lost a substantial sum of money to one of the teams when it came to demolish her shop at Mbaise Road. Such complaints were common in Owerri. But the government recently denied that members of the task force set up to supervise the demolition exercise had extorted money from affected shop owners or traders.

Determined to survive against all odds, Madam Okoro had moved to a small, but bubbly place known as ‘Control’, where she was able to sell her wares every night, away from the prying eyes of law enforcement agents.

Meanwhile, most victims of the government’s Clean and Green Initiative have found themselves facing abject poverty after the bulldozers had destroyed their means of livelihood. “One of my neighbours has left Owerri for his village because there is nothing to do here any more,” a trader named Maxwell said. He admitted that he dreaded a new life in his native village and added that he was not in a hurry to relocate to his village yet, because life was a lot tougher there.

At night, Owerri presented a different picture from what one had encountered in day time. The city’s characteristic calm gradually dissolved into a bubbly atmosphere that was reinforced by the presence of several night spots struggling to relive the city’s past image of a fecund haven for revelers. Tens of Okada riders, undeterred by the existence of numerous police checkpoints at strategic points in the city, were busy ferrying night crawlers from one night spot to the other. This correspondent found that prostitutes constituted the majority of passengers transported on the motorcycles.

Indeed, prostitutes, most of them in their late teens, swarmed the hotels and night clubs in Owerri almost every night. Some of them confessed that they had to hustle to make ends meet. “There is so much poverty here. As for me, I don’t like to burden my parents with demands for money. I have needs and I don’t like to disturb them for money. That is why I go out to hustle,” said Nkiruka, who declined for obvious reasons to mention her surname. Nkiru said she was a student of Imo State University. Her companion, Stephanie, admitted that she had to travel all the way from Uturu in neighbouring Abia State to ‘try her luck’ at the Imo Concorde Hotel where clients were certain to part with generous sums of money for a night of sex. Apart from Concorde Hotel, other regular haunts for the likes of Nkiru and Stephanie include Links Hotel and Disney Hotel, as well as Control, a popular resort for drivers of trailer-trucks in transit located along the Onitsha-Owerri Road.

Another resident of Owerri, Mr.Sampson Eze, who said he worked with a commercial bank in the city, described the booming sex trade as an unpleasant development that derived from the get-rich-quick attitude of the people. “Can you imagine that most of these prostitutes are young girls who should be busy reading their books? I think we are having a serious problem in our hands,” he said.

Generally, the thriving sex trade has been attributed to the erosion of positive moral values among the Igbo. At the 2009 Ahiajoku Lecture, the collapse of moral values was identified as one of the issues that needed to be addressed in the quest for the cultural rebirth of the Igbo. Alongside the rampaging bulldozers of the demolition teams, the scarcity of potable water in the metropolis and frequent blackouts, it is an issue the current governor must address in his bid to recreate the image of the capital city.

http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200901312581834



[b][/b]

On December 30th. 2008, Nigerian citizen Chijioke Stephen Obioha was convicted for drug trafficking in Singapore. Drug trafficking carries a mandatory death penalty in Singapore and so, Judge Woo Bih Li duly sentenced him to death by hanging. Chijioke was arrested in April 2007, some four months after another Nigerian, Tochi Amara Iwuchukwu was hanged alongside  yet another Nigerian, Nelson Okele Malachy in the same Singapore, both for drug trafficking.

There are other sad similarities.

Nelson Okele Malachy was arrested with a fake South African passport and was subsequently often referred to as stateless. However, by merely looking at his name as well as the facts of the case, he was clearly Nigerian. Chijioke has been described in several media as Ghanaian. However, also by merely looking at his name as well as the facts of the case, he is clearly Nigerian. For example, his oral evidence during trial stated  that he graduated from the University of Benin with a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Chemistry in 2003, completed his National Youth Service in 2004, worked for his elder brother (whom he named as Tochukwu Colinus Obioha) in Tochuckwu's electronics store at Alaba International market in Lagos, Nigeria until 2005 when he left for Singapore to seek a professional football career. Tochi, who was hanged in January 2007 had also allegedly gone to Singapore to seek a football career. During the Tochi/Malachy case, the South African Government naturally went to great lengths to affirm that Malachy was not a citizen of their Country, pointing out that he had a forged South African passport. It is obvious that such a situation will not  endear South Africa to Nigeria and Nigerian citizens. The image of South Africa was smeared by a Nigerian. No South African will like this. It is no surprise that Nigerians living in South Africa as well as visiting Nigerian citizens and officials are often treated shabbily in South Africa.
The Government of Ghana  will probably walk the same path concerning Chijioke who has been sentenced still fairly recently; a sentence which may yet take several months to carry out. During that time there will be a lot of negative publicity directed to Ghana. No doubt Ghana will then be forced to come out and  deny  his being a citizen of their Country, while their regard for Nigerian integrity which is already low will sink even lower.

The case  of Tochi had garnered worldwide publicity at the time due to his youth (when he was arrested in 2004, his age as stated on his passport was about 19 years), his apparent talent for football (he had represented Nigeria in some youth tournaments and had also played professionally in Senegal) and some controversy about whether he actually knew that the package he was carrying contained heroin or not. Olusegun Obasanjo, then president of Nigeria, had in fact sent a letter to the President of Singapore pleading for clemency on his behalf on the eve of his execution. It is doubtful that Chijioke will get such sympathy. For one, the excuse of not knowing the contents of a package which eventually turns out to be narcotics has already gone stale and will barely get a yawn from the appeal court judges in Singapore. Secondly, the teary story of the aspiring professional football star who does not make it and subsequently gets in trouble in foreign Countries has also worn thin. Thirdly, his stated age was 29 when he was arrested; no longer a boy, but a full grown man. Finally, there appears to be very  little doubt about his guilt as he was caught trafficking a large quantity of marijuana red handed.

Therefore, it seems more meaningful to use this situation to learn some lessons for future situations. Not that we have not learnt these same lessons before, but in Nigeria we seem to have a disease of repeating the same sad errors (must be deliberately) over and over again. So here goes.

While we should not excuse Nigerians (or anyone else for that matter) for committing crimes in whether at home or in foreign lands, we need to also examine the driving factors that lead to these things. It is becoming much too simplistic especially in view of clearly deliberate mismanagement of resources in Nigeria, to merely condemn the affected individuals without examining systemic factors.

In the case of Tochi, his evidence was that he had been playing football as a career since his early teens but got injured while playing in Senegal. After coming home to recuperate in Nigeria, he set out to continue his football career but opted this time to try his luck in Dubai. Through some unclear circumstances, he could not get a visa to Dubai but managed to get to Pakistan. He claimed he was told there was a direct train from Pakistan to Dubai. This information was false, there is no such train. Unable to get to Dubai both for lack of funds as well as lack of a visa, he got stuck in Pakistan. It was no doubt this desperate situation that eventually led him to the gallows through a series of unfortunate circumstances as well as some big mistakes on his own part of course. If Nigeria had a well organized National Football League, it is likely that Tochi may have opted to ply his trade at home instead of going on a clearly precarious trip abroad. While our Government officials are buying multi-million Naira mansions nationwide and worldwide through ill gotten gains or indulging in meaningless ego-trips, the untold other side of the story is that some of our people are being placed in tough predicaments, which when coupled with some bad luck and personal mistakes, are leading to dire consequences for them, including even ignominous deaths in strange lands.

As for Chijioke, he was arrested at age 29 after being in Singapore for about eighteen months. This implies according to his evidence that he came to try out for a football club in Singapore at about age 27. That is clearly rather late in age for a person of whom there is no evidence that he had a previous football career. It is also unclear that he had any real football talent. It is hardly a surprise that he was not selected to play for the club. It is certainly feasible that he may have anticipated this but just wanted to get out of Nigeria. Thus he found himself  in a strange land, with an expired visa as at January 2007. These factors must have played a substantial role in his being involved and eventually arrested for drug trafficking in April 2007. Yes, Chijioke did wrong, but again we need to ask why a University graduate of Industrial Chemistry (he claimed he graduated with a second class upper degree from University of Benin) would be reduced to such depths in the first place. While he bears a major share of the blame, we must also put a solid chunk of this blame squarely on a Government and a system that puts down its people and gives them very little chance to grow and develop with any dignity. When basic infrastructure such as Power supply cannot be done right despite millions of dollars spent, when housing, water and good roads are luxuries, when jobs are simply not available for the people even after they have made strenuous efforts to educate themselves under harsh conditions, it is inevitable that some bizarre situations and predicaments such as that of Chijioke will arise.

I seize this opportunity to point out to President Umaru Musa Yaradua that his sleeping on duty is not some minor infraction but in fact an act of treason, first degree murder as well as systematic genocide. There is such a thing as criminal negligence.
Governors, Ministers, and other public and not so public officials who use positions of trust to loot or otherwise mismanage the commonwealth while creating a roadblock to the smooth flow of life are also guilty of treason, premeditated  murder and genocide.

If or when the hangman pulls the lever to send Chijioke Stephen Obioha to an early death sometime later this year, you all have some of his blood on your hands. You know yourselves and while God Almighty may take His time, His judgement is inevitable.



[b][/b]

‘When the Bakassi Boys Came: Eastern Nigeria Confronts
Vigilantism’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 20, 2
(2002), 1-22.
Abstract
Against a background of failure by the Nigeria Police to protect citizens from
violent robberies, the Governor of Anambra State has adopted a radical solution.
He invited a private vigilante group, the Bakassi Boys, to form the basis of a state
vigilante service. Within a space of one year, armed robbery had been reduced
to a minimum. But, as the paper shows, the venture was not unproblematic.
First, it brought to the fore a power struggle between the federal and state levels
of government and between the Nigeria Police and those in the local community
concerned with security. More seriously, for all its local popularity, the group’s
use of counter-violence and their scant regard for the law or human rights has
serious implications for democracy. Locating such state vigilante services within
sociological theory is not straightforward, but a number of approaches to
explaining the phenomenon are considered in the light of the account. The paper
concludes that although it is increasingly being used as a model of internal
security across Nigeria, its lack of accountability and attitude to the rule of law
disqualify it from being a valid alternative policing strategy within a democracy.[b][/b]

IF my life were to depend on telling exactly who the Bakassi Boys are, I will be dead. I do not know who they are and I am not sure that I want to know. But I do know that there is something about them that the police do not like, which is, usurping their functions. No responsible police force will welcome a situation where their relevance is being questioned because of the activities of an ubiquitous body crossing their paths and sometimes moving along parallel lines.

I[b] am a living witness to the fact that for three years before the year 2000, in my part of Imo State, life was made unbearable by the callous activities of armed bandits. They suddenly seemed to have so multiplied that anybody found outside his front door after dusk was risking his or her life. Stories of robberies, torture and car snatching filled the air. Everybody had an experience to share in these orgies. Then something intolerable happened warranting the community setting up local vigilance units. They were assigned the responsibility to stem the rise in crime, identify the criminals and involve the police at Owerri, Urualla and in Okigwe. Before the members knew it, their anonymity was compromised and they were marked for elimination. The activities of gangs of robbers confined royal fathers to their palaces following threats of their being killed for identifying with their subjects in the search for a peaceful community.

It did not take a lot of investigation to learn that the culprits were local boys and that the police collaboration was part of their strength. All information placed at the disposal of the police about suspected dare devil home based hoodlums were passed on to the men of the underworld. At this stage a voice suggested the engagement of the services of the Bakassi Boys whose successes in other communities had become remarkable. How they were reached was another dimension to their anonymity and security effectiveness. They went to work immediately with a dose of discreteness that allowed them to know their employers and be briefed in detail on who the suspects could be. Until they were perfectly ready, nothing happened. Faith and patience were running out as anxiety heightened.

Then suddenly things began to happen. Well known hoodlums who were friends of the police gradually took notice and either fled or stayed at their peril. In a short time, locking and bolting gates and doors in my village became only a matter of habit; nobody needed to. Home was becoming haven again and evening parties and outside engagements returned to the community. It was such a great relief. Asked thereafter to choose between the Bakassi Boys and the police, the village folks preferred the former. Information is perhaps the greatest help the police force needs to combat crime. The same applied to the Bakassi Boys. But whereas police informants were betrayed through the flippancy, irresponsibility and criminal intent of the bad eggs in the force, Bakassi Boys did not have that problem or gloat about their successes. They respected informants but still investigated every case reported.

I once had cause to report a burglary in my house to the police a couple of years ago. To date the investigators are making me to believe that they would have made an arrest had I induced them sufficiently. Even the paper on which I wrote my complaint was paid for by me. I paid for the investigators' trips to Kwara and Enugu States in the course of their investigations. Unwarranted visits were paid to my house in the pretense of bringing me up to date on my complaint. Each visit meant beer and kola in an envelope. I have since given up on them.

The Inspector General of Police will be lacking in candour if he denies awareness of these malpractice. Of course, he does not deny them any more. He blames them on his bad eggs. A situation where bad eggs out number the good ones suggests a characteristic that earns collective guilt. Ill equipped yes; ill clad yes; ill paid yes and ill trained yes. But there is no guarantee that given all they need the police bully mentality and aggressive orientation will change. The situation on the ground is that only criminals and potential criminals seek the friendship of the Nigerian police, not honest decent men and women. The inferiority complex every policeman wears is their greatest undoing. We will be relieved to hear that the contemplated ban of Bakassi Boys is shelved. That is not to say that the "Boys" should usurp police duties in a triumphant manner. The police should device a way of working with them. It is also up to the police to decide that the "Boys" can conversely use useful facilities of the force for the common good. To achieve maximum result, goodwill and mutual trust must be enthroned. And above all, the Bakassi Boys must see themselves as an ad hoc outfit on a special assignment and be ready to fold up when and if the police are fully prepared to assume their full responsibilities. Finally they must always act responsibly and show more common sense than zeal. [/b]

The Truth About The Bakassi Boys

By

Obi Akwani

akwani@citenet.net



In recent months there has been an increasing number of negative reports, initiated by Human Rights Watch, concerning a small vigilante organization, the Bakassi Boys, operating in eastern Nigeria.

In or about April 2002, the international human rights monitoring organization posted a news release on various Nigerian Internet newsgroups decrying and equating the activities of the Bakassi Boys with well-known political vigilante group, OPC of western Nigeria. The BBC followed with a story based on this news release on its website. The news was picked up by other, mostly relatively small, outlets. Since then periodic reports damning the Bakassi appear quoting Human Rights Watch.

The Bakassi Boys first came to media and public attention more than four years ago following its formation. However, this is the first time that such pointedly negative news about the group is coming from a non-Nigerian source.

When they first came into being, commentary about the Bakassi in the Nigerian media was mostly positive and they received broad public approval. The little international attention they received came from among the Nigerian diaspora, where as usual they had their supporters and detractors. Among the latter is this author who made the common mistake of equating the Bakassi Boys to other decidedly political extrajudicial outfits like the western (Yoruba) Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) or the northern (Hausa-Fulani) Arewa Peoples Congress (APC).

What alarmed me at the time was that the Bakassi Boys was being brought under the patronage of the state governors. I had assumed it was a politically motivated outfit like vigilantes in other parts of the country. My opposition to the extension of governors' patronage was in principle, given that vigilante groups, as a rule, operated without the guidance of established laws. And often they work in defiance of such laws, especially when their inspiration is political.

In September 2001, I had the opportunity to visit Nigeria and learned firsthand the real situation there. The Bakassi, as it happens, continues to enjoy wide public support. I saw at least two different movies, there are more than a dozen such movies, depicting them as heroes. Calendars and almanacs telling the saga of Bakassi exploits hang in offices and homes of many Easterners. To this day, many Eastern Nigerians remain traumatized by the events and state of society that led to the emergence of the vigilante group. One young mother of three told how, at the worst time, she feared to go out on the street even in daylight. People stayed indoors and bared their doors and windows. Such was the fearful state of things in the East before the Bakassi came to clean up the crime and stem the lawlessness, to the relief and gratitude of all. Even policemen were happy the Bakassi came into the scene and the two groups worked out an amicable arrangement for operation.

Before [b]the Bakassi Boys, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was lawlessness and high crime in Eastern Nigeria. This was mainly due to the existence of a small number of influential men who sponsored the criminals. One of the most notorious of these men was a rasputinic character, Eddy Okeke, pastor and founder of a local 'Christian' cult. Okeke claimed the ability to heal many ills, make acolytes rich and give them power over things temporal and spiritual. He was also reputed to be a friend and adviser to most of the men in power at the federal level. Okeke and his followers were known for high living. They publicly beat up those that opposed them. This included government officials and policemen. Taking them to court was a pointless affair. They were invariably set free by fearful judges. Serious opponents often wound up dead or seriously maimed. His charms were supposed to protect users from even bullets. Ambitious men of all sorts -- criminals, politicians, careerists in government and private practice -- sought out Eddy and his charms. Even the military men who were state governors in the east at the time did not dare cross Eddy or they would find themselves out of power.

As a result of all this crime grew and lawlessness prevailed. Eddy's men marauded, stealing and extorting from people. Not even small children or young adults were safe. People were disappearing, kidnapped, killed and used in ritual rites to make practitioners even more powerful and invincible. The most invincible, of course, was Eddy Okeke himself.

Among the working class, the most vulnerable were the traders and merchants, people whose fortunes were tied up in their trading goods. These goods had become the target of armed robbers. The police, of course, were unable to help. And so the traders decided to help themselves and the Bakassi Boys was born.

Psychologically, fear of Okeke and his occult powers was very real and at the beginning the Bakassi Boys suffered setbacks against their opponents. To counteract that they had to present themselves as having more power than their opponents. Gradually, they began to succeed. That success was sealed after the capture and public execution of the 'invincible' Okeke. After that communities in the east began to request the vigilante's help in dealing with any number of criminal menace.

The Bakassi are well aware of the inherent dangers of their situation and have therefore set themselves strict guidelines for personal conduct and action. For instance, they believe that no member of the group can be involved in criminal activity. They do not accept bribes and will deal mercilessly with any of their own who falls foul of these guidelines.

Yes, they are ruthless with criminals. They have been known to cut off limbs and burn people (Eddy himself was said to have been disemboweled before being killed). That is the method of the Bakassi Boys. But the group is not political. They have no agenda beyond ensuring peace and order in civil society. It is not their method to run rampage harassing motorists as some writers have tried to show. That goes against the very reason for their existence. When they travel, they do so in a convoy of vehicles, and any acts of exuberance they display will without doubt be with or on their own property.

It is true that in some states in eastern Nigeria, namely Abia and Anambra states, the group has received support from the government. This is a mark of their popularity and perceived usefulness. Government oversight has had the added benefit of further taming the Bakassi organization.

The current spate of negative press against them comes at a time when Nigerians are getting ready for a new round of elections. It appears, therefore, that the bad press is politically motivated, and there is ample evidence to bear this out.

In other parts of the country, avowedly political vigilante groups have been silenced, at least for the moment. But because of its apolitical nature, the Bakassi Boys was spared the same kind of treatment -- banning orders etc., -- meted out to the OPC, for instance, by the police. Since the bad press began, however, there have been reports of clashes with, and raids by, the police of Bakassi offices in Abia and Anambra states. These police actions seem aimed at emasculating the Bakassi Boys before the 2003 elections.

An August 11 report posted on Niajanet claims that 'President Obasanjo has expressed fears the group could be transformed into private armies during next years governors' elections, ' Hence the need to bring them down before they can be so used.

It needs repeating that what led to the rise of the Bakassi Boys in the first place was corruption of society through influence peddling. The powers that be in the 1980s and '90s were keen to extend their control to every level of society. But they did not go about it merely through legally constituted means. They had resorted to thuggery, and in doing so, sowed the seeds of chaos and lawlessness. It took the rise of the unorthodox Bakassi Boys to rid the East of that menace. Pity that these heroes during a society's moment of need are now being demonized. All the more so because the campaign to destroy the Bakassi Boys is instigated and propagated by a single minded international NGO careless of the social crucible that brought about the group's existence and mindless of what this means to the people whose lives are affected.


[/b][b][/b]

bakassi boys.

lol,see how osis dey cry.this one they pain nam.

idiot rivers state is not bayelsa.Abia state is where they eat human being.

expect more number from Europe, and Asia .


Anambra police rescue 11 kidnapped victims

ODOGWU EMEKA ODOGWU, Awka



DESPITE the death sentence threat for kidnappers in Anambra State, the business still thrives in the state as the police weekend, rescued 11 kidnapped victims including a couple.


The victims rescued included four women and seven men, including a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Tochukwu Omambala from Nri , Anaocha council area of Anambra State.


The victims Daily Champion gathered, were rescued in the early hours of Saturday, from Isiagu river valley following a tip-off from the villagers.


The police also recovered from the hideout, two motorcycles and a Mitsubishi L-300 mini bus with registration XC653EZA, as well as machetes, hammers and other dangerous weapons.


Unfortunately the kidnappers numbering over five, escaped through the Isiagu River during the raid.


Divisional Crime Officer (CDCO), Awka Division, Mr. Umege Uzor Chris, who confirmed the incident to Daily Champion, said his men ambushed the kidnappers following useful information from some neighbouring villagers.


He said four notorious armed robbery suspects who attacked his men last week on checkpoint at Eke-Nibo-Mbaukwu road junction were also arrested even as he vowed to bring crime rate in the area to zero level. Daily Champion recalls that members of the Anambra House of Assembly had passed into law a bill spelling out capital punishment for any convicted kidnapper in the state.

http://nigeriaworld.com/cgi-bin/axs/ax.pl?http://odili.net/news/source/2009/mar/24/801.html

[b][/b]

From Chris Oji, Enugu

All is not well in the agrarian community of Owo in Nkanu Local Government Area of Enugu State. The hitherto peaceful and bubbling community is now under the siege of an orchestrated mafia within the community that has continued to unleash te


For close to two years, the gang, who operate like armed robbers, have attacked innocent citizens and threatened the lives of many young and old indigenes of the community.

The terror gang, whose motive is not known, is said to strike at will, maiming and kidnapping. They sometimes kill and rob their victims. The reign of terror has reduced the town into a ghost haven. The people now live in perpetual fear and anxiety as nobody is sure of the next target.

For this reason, the community is taking its case to Governor Sullivan Chime and the State Police Command to come to their rescue as the situation is getting out of hand. The elders, leaders of thought, the town union executives and Ndioha of the community converged recently at the Town Square to map out strategies against the siege. A 21-member committee was mandated to convey their plight to the governor and the commissioner of police.

The meeting was provoked by the recent attack on some of the community members. The victims of such attacks are Igwe Nwaogbachi, Steve Uzu, Christopher Ani Nwanamene, Odo Nwaogbuebo and Christian Igwe. Also attacked were Mrs. Helen Ogbu, Patrick Ede and Fredrick Ede.

The elders toldNewsextra that many prominent indigenes have fled the town, following threats by the group. Among them are the Special Assistant to Chime on Public Enlightenment and Mass Mobilisation, Mr. Paul Nnajiofor, Chief Agbowo Ede, Vincent Nnajieze and Chikezie Aga.

Worried by the ugly development, the community leaders have petitioned the governor and the commissioner of police. They wondered why some people with selfish interest, could hold the entire community to ransom, supporting killings and kidnappings in the otherwise peaceful town.

In their petition to the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Mohammed Zarewa, the community told him that "this group of suspected bandits and criminals have, at various times, armed themselves with guns, machetes, broken bottles and other dangerous weapons, snatching mobile phones, money, motorcycles and other valuables. They have also caused serious tension, moments of insecurity and created fear among the law-abiding and innocent indigenes of Owo town."

The community listed 11 members who they suspected to be behind the atrocities. They, therefore, urged the police boss "to use his good offices to save our lives and those of others before we are killed, by launching massive raids, arrests and prosecuting the above listed group of ‘bad boys’ in Owo town for peace to reign."

The Police confirmed receiving the petition. According to the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, a number of arrests have been effected regarding the Owo community. More arrests are likely to be made as the investigation goes on, he assured.The Special Assistant to Chime on Public Enlightenment, Mr. Nnajiofor, who described the situation as most disturbing, called on the people of Owo town to eschew violence and embrace peace, noting that without peace, there would be no meaningful development and progress in any community.

He also called on those engaged in carrying arms, kidnappings and killings of law-abiding citizens to drop their arms and embrace peace and dialogue.

http://www.thenationonlineng.com/dynamicpage.asp?id=80384

no proof. your mother   is forced to sleep with horses  and donkeys, which is worse?.

Rising Number Of Igbo In Overseas Prisons Worry Leaders
From Lawrence Njoku Enugu

The number of Igbo serving various prison terms outside the country, those already executed and the ones facing death sentences for various offences were said to have formed the nucleus of discussions on Friday, in Enugu, as political leaders of the South East Zone met.

The Guardian gathered from a source at the closed door meeting, which was attended by the five Governors in the Zone, serving members of the National Assembly led by Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, as well as other leaders of thought deliberated on the situations of the affected Igbo with a view to assisting them.

It was gathered that about 2400 Igbo are serving various jail terms outside the country. Of the figure, 3 was said to have been executed in Indonesia while 18 is facing death sentence in the same country. About 1500 is also said to be serving various prison terms in South Africa. Although, details about how the leaders intends to assist the affected persons was not made public, but it was, however agreed that poverty and unemployment ravaging the South East Zone have contributed to the rising number of inmates, stressing that ,there was need to make the economic situation of the zone more attractive.

Ekweremadu, who briefed reporters at the end of the meeting, said all the South East Governors and members of the National Assembly from the Zone have resolved to work together irrespective of party affiliations for the general interest of the zone. Add that several issues affecting the zone, including the ecological problems and the state of infrastructures were discussed.

While describing the meeting as a very good development for discussing matters affecting the zone, he said, it has also for the first time brought political office holders, irrespective of the political party, together for peace. Adding that the meeting will henceforth be held on quarterly basis.

Another source however, disclosed that the meeting also discussed a common position on state creation for the zone.
Source: Guardian, 30th November 2008

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