₦airaland Forum

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A Warri-based businessman, Mr. Larry Otu, has called for investigation and justice into the brutality allegedly meted out on him by men of the Nigerian Air Force at the Osubi Airstrip, Warri, where security was beefed up over Dame Patience Jonathan’s visit to Delta State, yesterday.


Narrating his ordeal to Vanguard, Otu, Chief Executive Officer of LYM Consult, said he was at the airstrip to receive his technical partners from Canada when men from the Warri Air Force Unit stationed at the facility attacked him.

He said: “It happened at about 9am, when our foreign partners arrived the airport and I was there to clear them at the Immigration desk. I drove to the gates to face interrogation from the Air Force men.

“One asked if I knew the President’s wife was coming today. I said yes, but that I have come to pick my foreign partners. He asked what I do for a living; I said I own the company being visited by our technical partners and he said
‘as small as you are?’

“He said okay, find me something. I said I cannot give you anything. So he ordered me to reverse my car and leave. He said I cannot drive in.
“I reversed my car, drove back to the main road and was trekking down to go in when a team of the force men, numbering about eight, pounced on me.”

Otu said his attackers dragged him from there to a point behind their caravan office at the airport and continued the beating, kicking, punching and hitting with their guns, adding it took the intervention of his manager who approached one of the officers before the assault was halted.
He said: “It turned out that my manager knew one of the Air Force officers at the airport. He ran in to tell him that it was his company’s chairman that was being manhandling.

“That was when the officer came and ordered them to stop and let me go. But before I was left with a battered, bloodied face, N200,000 was taken from my pocket by one of them.”

The victim called on relevant authorities to ensure justice by bringing the culprits to book.

He said: “I know the man who started it all and I know the one that took N200,000 from my pocket. We cannot continue to live in this kind of country. Justice must be done.”

When contacted, Commanding Officer at the 61 NAF Detachment of the Nigerian Air Force, Warri, Air Commodore, A. D. Dudusola, whose men assaulted the victim, said: “I was not present when it happened, but they said he was rude.

“Why must it be only him? That is the question that comes to mind. Others came to the airport, identified themselves properly and were allowed in.

“Nobody was touched, so he must have been rude.
“My brother, it is better to face other challenges than to face the worry that somebody came to the airport and blast himself, because it is not always written in somebody’s face. That is the truth.
“We can apologize to him later, but we had to do our job first so that somebody will not create problem for us.”

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/02/air-force-men-brutalize-bizman-as-dame-jonathan-visits-delta/#sthash.lK9Bgqfr.dpuf


pix: Mr. Larry Otu

A woman, who is believed to be mentally unstable, has dumped a new-born baby by the roadside in the Abule Egba area of Lagos.

The woman, who was said to be dark in complexion, was always reportedly roaming the area which is near a filling station.

It was gathered that the baby was wrapped in a black sack, neatly clothed and covered with a plaster on the mouth.

Our correspondent learnt that the baby was dumped in the area on Wednesday, January 28.

Speaking with PUNCH Metro, a trader, Mrs. Atanda Kuforiji, said they were taken aback by the sight of the abandoned baby.

She added that a resident of the area drew the attention of other residents to the presence of the baby dumped by the roadside.

She explained that everybody went to the scene to see why the resident was shouting, only to be confronted by the sight of the new baby.

She said, “The baby was wrapped in a sack and placed by the roadside. I saw a crowd gather and decided to have a look; the child was still alive.

“People took pictures of the baby.

“His mouth was covered with a plaster to prevent him crying out. Everybody was saying what came into their heads, but nobody offered to help the baby.”

It was learnt that many of the dwellers in the area were too scared to pick the baby from where he was dumped.

But they said they suspected that the baby belonged to the mentally-unstable woman.

A driver, Mr. Lasisi Gafar, said since the incident, nobody had seen the woman in the area.

He said, “There used to be a female lunatic around the street who was pregnant, but since the child had been dumped I have not seen any trace of her.

“We suspect that she was the one that dumped the baby here, but nobody could find her to question her.”

He added that neither he nor most people in the area knew when and how the baby was dumped by the roadside.

It was gathered that the baby later died after struggling to live for over six hours.

A trader, who identified herself simply as Iya Monsura, said, “The child was alive as of 11am, but when government officials came around 5pm, he was dead. They took the dead body away.”

It was learnt that no efforts was made to report the case of dumped baby to the police. Some of the residents said such attempt could put them in trouble as the police might treat them as suspects.

http://www.punchng.com/metro-plus/woman-dumps-day-old-baby-by-roadside/

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The naira, on Friday, depreciated against the dollar as it traded at N208 from the N191.50 it sold for on Monday, January 19.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the new rate had made the naira to lose N16.50 within five days.

The CBN’s website, however, put the naira against the dollar at N167.50, while the pound sold for N253.20 and the euro stood at N193.89.

The development has resulted into speculation in the market and caused ripple effects on other currencies.

NAN correspondent who visited some bureau de change and black market operators in Lagos said that they could not give rates to the pound sterling and the euro.

Dealers who preferred anonymity said that there was scarcity of dollars in circulation.

They said that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had stopped selling forex to the bureaux de change since last year.

The dealers added that the recent review of trading positions for the forex trading to 72 hours also contributed to speculation in the system.

The effect, they added, was that the naira could depreciate further by next week.

NAN recalled that the CBN in November 2014 devalued the naira.