₦airaland Forum

garfield1:
‘Supreme Court judgment on Imo State governorship election petition unassailable’
By Onyedika Agbedo
18 January 2020 | 4:14 am

Chief Emeka Ngige (SAN)

Chairman, Nigeria’s Council of Legal Education, Chief Emeka Ngige (SAN), in this interview speaks on last Tuesday’s verdict of the Supreme Court that voided the election of Chief Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as governor of Imo State and declared Senator Hope Uzodinma of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who had come fourth in the result declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the winner. Describing the judgment as unassailable, right and sound, Ngige says those faulting the judgment do not have the facts of the case. He, however, calls for far-reaching electoral reforms that will make the outcome of elections in the country acceptable to all and sundry.

The judgment of the Supreme Court on Imo State governorship election has been generating mixed reactions from various quarters. What is your take on the matter as a senior lawyer in the country?
My take, which I had canvassed in a television programme on the very day the judgment was delivered, is that based on the facts on ground, the judgment is unassailable. The judgment is right; it is sound in the circumstances. And I gave my reasons that if results were excluded by the tribunal and the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court finds that the exclusion of those results were wrongly done and they now included it, thereby re-computing the collated result, the outcome will naturally be what it is now; that after re-computing, the candidate who has scored majority of one quarter votes in two thirds of the local government areas will be declared winner. And the Supreme Court after re-computing found that the person who had earlier come fourth has now become number one and the person who was earlier number one is now number two and the person who earlier became number two is no longer a candidate so all the votes are deleted.

The person who came third did not ask to be declared winner; he only wanted a re-run but the re-run cannot be given when there is a clear winner and the Supreme Court is not a father Christmas; they cannot give him what he did not ask for. So, the person that became number one and met the spread was therefore lawfully declared as the winner of the election.

Sentiments have been raised about how the result came about. It is not my business to discuss how the result came about. The only issue is: Did the Supreme Court properly admit the result? If they properly admitted the result, then you cannot question the decision.

If you remember, when election takes place, result sheets are made into up to 10 duplicates so that all the party agents will get their copy, the police will get their own copy and even the DSS. At times, some observers are given. So, if the candidate who claims to have won the election subpoenas the police to come and tender their own copy that tallies with his own, he has discharged the onus on him and the probative value will be given to those results. And this is not the first time this is happening.

If you can recall, in the case involving Peter Obi and Chris Ngige, it was a question of also each candidate producing results and calling witnesses who had duplicate copies to come and corroborate his own. In the end, the tribunal engaged in re-computation based on the result available. After re-computing, they held that Peter Obi had the highest majority votes cast in two third of the 21 local governments of Anambra State and he was therefore declared winner over Ngige, who was the person INEC had earlier declared. So, it is the same thing.

People are also saying that there is no APC member in the Imo State House of Assembly and referring to Action Alliance (AA) and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and others. All those people are offshoots of the APC. And in any event, when Peter Obi was declared winner in Anambra, he met a House of Assembly that was dominated entirely by PDP. He had no single member in the House. So, all these things have their precedent before. So, there is nothing new in what the Supreme Court has done in my own view.

But why some legal luminaries are questioning the judgment, saying it needed to be further digged into… ?
(Cuts in) Anybody asking further questions after the Supreme Court had made the pronouncement is engaging in academic discussion, which is good for a symposium or retreat. As far as the Supreme Court is concerned, the decision is final. How can you further dig into how number four became number one when, like you said, I have explained that it was as a result of the exclusion of some results that made number four to come to that position. And with the inclusion of those results, he has now become number one. It’s simple.

Couldn’t the Supreme Court have ordered for a re-run of the governorship election since the exclusion of those results suffices for substantial non-compliance to the Electoral Act and Constitution?
Well, it’s a kind of discretion for them to exercise. One is, if there is somebody who has met the spread and has majority votes, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria enjoins you, without going to the contrary, to declare that person winner irrespective of the number of cancelled votes.

I am aware that there is a provision in INEC manual that says that where the number of votes in the polling stations cancelled will make a difference between the winner and runner-up, it should order for a supplementary election in the cancelled area. But that provision of the manual must be read subject to the provision of the Constitution. The manual cannot dictate to the Constitution; it is the Constitution that will dictate to the manual. But that provision in the manual applies to National Assembly elections because in the Constitution, there is no provision as to the manner of winning elections, to be declared winner, for offices other than the president and governors. So, for legislative houses, you refer to the Electoral Act and Election Manual by INEC for declaration of a winner. So, that is what has happened.

How would you react to derogatory statements made against the judiciary by some politicians since the judgment was delivered?
It is because most of them are ignorant of the facts of the case or ignorant of the legal principles that informed the decision. It is also because we are still a developing nation. Do you know election was held in England few weeks ago and the Labour Party lost abysmally to the Conservatives; the Conservatives also lost in some areas. But there is no single election petition; not one! So, we are still evolving.

President Buhari has given an indication that he wants to leave a legacy of free and fair election with the election that will be conducted next time around. So, we look up to that promise because that will be the beginning of our journey towards electoral reforms that will be like that of United Kingdom or the U.S.

So, the politicians are reacting out of ignorance and out of frustration; and because they don’t know the facts of the case.
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://m.guardian.ng/politics/supreme-court-judgment-on-imo-state-governorship-election-petition-unassailable/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjas7Ohxo3nnAhX

mynd44
Oam4j
Wirinet
Ejimatic
Vicdom
Kyase
Kahal
Obuksbayelsa
Oghenaogie
Helinues
Seetto
Topcruise
Majamatic
Racoon
Gamelnasser
Meleszenawi
Xanderboy85
Nosryk
Chukel
Guzel
Amaniro
Azimo
Topmaike
Afamed
Yarimo
Gandollar
Jubrilelsudan
Murphyibiam
Zombieterror

I agree with the totality of what he said .The
SC reserves the right to declare winner based on what you sought for.The judgement is sacrosanct and binding in all its entirety.

Enemyofpeace:
yes o. No retreat, no surrender

. We are all Amotekuns in the south west...

theenchanter:
Emboldened by the huge support from the people of the South West region in particular and across the states of the country in general, the South West governors have moved fast to give legal backing to the regional security outfit, codenamed Operation Amotekun which they launched on January 9 this year.

This is just as the Nigeria military has vowed that it will not allow any individual or group to jeopardize the sovereignty and stability of Nigeria’s territorial integrity. The military told relevant stakeholders to join hands with the armed forces and intelligence agencies to ensure that Nigeria is secured and not to look for other methods likely to negate the national policy and Community Policing approved by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

Meanwhile, Saturday Vanguard learnt authoritatively that the laws to back up Amotekun are before South West States Houses of Assembly while the lawmakers are already fast tracking the legalisation.

The source also told Saturday Vanguard that irrespective of the position of the Federal government, the Western Nigeria Security Network was already in operation and the South West governors would do everything within their powers to provide adequate security for the people of the zone.

It will be recalled that after the launch of the security out in Ibadan, Oyo state capital, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami declared it illegal arguing that the outfit was not backed by any known law in the land and that he was not consulted before the outfit was launched.

“Indeed Amotekun is not some unthoughtful fancy of the governors trying to create a nebulous counterforce to the existing security structure as some uninformed would put it. It is largely to enhance and strengthen the subsisting law enforcement agencies as it is already well established in most parts of the North.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/01/south-west-moves-to-legalise-amotekun/

. Amotekun has come to stay in the south west

Ecstasy154:
https://thenationonlineng.net/breaking-kanu-to-storm-parents-burial-february-14/

. You are welcome into the hands of the DSS and the Nigerian armed forces.No amount of IPOB can stop his arrest.

NGpatriot:
https://punchng.com/group-gives-tinubu-24-hours-to-reveal-position-on-amotekun/

. Every Yoruba man is AMOTEKUN. We all have night guards at home and in our community.

igwesylv:
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/01/amotekun-we-have-sworn-to-work-with-yoruba-leaders-nnamdi-kanu-backs-south-west-govs/amp/

. Amotekun should comprise only Yorubas. The South East can form another security outfit too if they find it necessary. The leaders of all these security outfits can have a general meeting and rub minds together.There should be no mixture of the group members.

Ctorch:
https://punchng.com/apcll-win-more-igbo-states-before-2023-ohanaeze/?fbclid=IwAR1vUNOZvDUwR_LvZ0LAP62Hvro7pcZ-pBQSPiJgUJIvjjntfQLXmhnTOPc

The fear of 2023.....It is the turn of the Igbos to rule in2023 but their calculations were wrong in 2019 elections.

[quote author=knowhowk post=85833923]A medical doctor has warned that taking alcohol with Flagyl could lead to death. He added that taking the alcohol even hours or a few days after taking Flagyl could have devastating side effects.

@DrOlufunmilayo tweeted: “I just read of a man who was accused of murder of his 31year old female partner. On doing autopsy: It was found she had very high levels of alcohol and Flagyl in her system which caused her heart to have an irregular beat that killed her. Lesson: NEVER TAKE ALCOHOL WITH FLAGYL.”

He added: “Doctors generally ALWAYS say you must stay away from alcohol while taking any medications. But Flagyl- wether as tablets or as cream- is known to be quite notorious when used together with alcohol, or within 3 days of drinking alcohol. It can cause very dangerous side effects.

“The interesting thing is people generally don’t even know when they do these things. Sometimes you take the Flagyl in the afternoon/evening and later at night go to party at a club and take alcohol- forgetting totally you took Flagyl earlier in the day. THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS.

“As a matter of fact, the standard medical advice is even that you should stay away FOR 3 DAYS after finishing the Flagyl before you even go near alcohol at all. It can damage your liver, ruin your heart, cause you serious stomach upset, give you irregular heartbeat and kill you.”

https://mobile.twitter.com/DrOlufunmilayo/status/1217459737874309125?[/quote]. High level of alcohol....too much alcohol ...This our problem in Nigeria.Usually there is drug interaction with alcohol if taken together .That is why if you want to take alcohol with a drug a little quantity is needed not four bottles or three bottles. Additionally people 's reactions to drugs differs from one another. As for Flaggy it is taken when a person has stomach upset which is caused by Hepatis A.With Flagy and body immunity the virus contracted from infected food and fruit will be flushed out of the system.If Flagy which is like antibiotics is taken with HIGH LEVEL or TOO MUCH alcohol there could be some side effects.So if there is a need to take alcohol a little quantity will suffice.

Humphrizy:
https://www.channelstv.com/2020/01/14/supreme-court-judgement-the-destiny-of-imo-state-has-been-taken-away-says-pdp/

. The table turned suddenly..The governor became an ordinary citizen suddenly.

9jayes:
Will Emeka Ihedioha be able to sleep yesterday?

He wept profusely yesterday.A report stated last night.

viyon02:
Buhari is joking Amotekun is here to stay

. Amotekun ...The rebirth and Renaissance of OPC.Gani Adams is not happy at all with this development for Amotekun looks more organised and modern than OPC.The police cannot check kidnapping and herdsmen crisis.The Amotekun will complement their efforts.

here are pictures of Nigerian twins conjoined together but separated in a Lagos hospital.It is a report monitored on TVC news. The medical team deserves commendation for this feat

AuntLaVIV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tZ141h8_kQ

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B7Efxnln5JC/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Which work does E money do?

Biodun556:
There is particular ethnic group in Nigeria called Shuwa Arabi so Arabic is part of our indigenous languages.

https://googleweblight.com/i?u=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baggara&hl=en-NG

. .]Arabic is not an official language...Additionally Hausa Igbo and Yoruba are three Nigerian languages with majority speakers.That is why they are called major languages.

Biodun556:
There is particular ethnic group in Nigeria called Shuwa Arabi so Arabic is part of our indigenous languages.

https://googleweblight.com/i?u=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baggara&hl=en-NG

]Arabic is not an official language...Additionally Hausa Igbo and Yoruba are three Nigerian languages with majority speakers.That is why they are called major languages.

]Arabic is not an official language...Additionally Hausa Igbo and Yoruba are three Nigerian languages with majority speakers.That is why they are called major languages.

Biodun556:
There is particular ethnic group in Nigeria called Shuwa Arabi so Arabic is part of our indigenous languages.

https://googleweblight.com/i?u=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baggara&hl=en-NG

Arabic is not an official language...Additionally Hausa Igbo and Yoruba are three Nigerian languages with majority speakers.That is why they are called major languages.

Biodun556:
There is particular ethnic group in Nigeria called Shuwa Arabi so Arabic is part of our indigenous languages.

https://googleweblight.com/i?u=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baggara&hl=en-NG

. Arabic is an indigenous language in Nigeria.Nigeria has more than 400 local languages but only one is our official language .That is English.which cuts across every tribe.Nigerians only consider Hausa Igbo and Yoruba as languages with majority speakers

Enn214:
https://tribuneonlineng.com/50000-people-applied-for-1000-teaching-jobs-in-lagos-―-official

. Teaching is a delicate job that requires only experts.Employ only those who can teach their subjects well.Give them tests on their subjects. If this is also politicised. Lagos state will pay for it .

Biodun556:
Reno Omokri gives historical account of how Arabic is printed on Nigerian currency.



https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1022029912Is 8365649&id=1152008079

. Is Arabic our official Language now? As in #50 all our notes should have inscriptions of the Nigerian major languages. No alternative.

garfield1:
A lot of people here call him sharia or islamic judge forgetting that the supreme court makes provision for one or more of their judges to be versed in sharia law and the constitution allows judges from sharia courts to rise up to the supreme court and become cjn.all the attacks on him are mostly misplaced except maybe his last statement about inculcating sharia into our constitution.

Mynd44
Kahal
Africonji
Oghenaogie
Otuekong
Ojiofor
Amaniro
Fergieboy
Ishilove
Abduljaffae
Bazamfare
Ceowaltz
Alhassanyusuf
Ejimatic
Zoedew
Fratermathy
Awol
Awoo

. The Constitution allows a state to use a religious law like sharia if it is lis accepted..No wonder when Zamfara started it when Bola Ige was the AG.The late AG did not complain at all.The constitution allows Supreme court judges to be versed in Sharia so as to assist on cases that bother on applicàtion of Sharia law.The CJ only expressed what is in the Constitution. He knows that our constitution does not make Sharia A constitution for the country neither can Nigeria be an Islamic natiion

garfield1:
Yesterday, Nigeria’s Supreme Court dismissed appeals filed by opposition candidates in four different states challenging the declaration of incumbents as governors. In their dismissal of the cases, the justices of that court affirmed that the incumbents were duly elected by the people. The four states were Abia, Delta, Taraba and Niger. By the judgement, Okezie Ikpeazu, Ifeanyi Okowa, Darius Ishaku and Abubakar Bello have all been affirmed as duly elected governors of those states.
Of particular interest to me is Abia, where I am from. I was part of that election and I know how Ikpeazu, his godfathers and their paid mercenaries within INEC and Nigeria’s security agencies vitiated the process.
In the case of Abia, the Supreme Court ruled that Okezie Ikpeazu was duly elected as governor. The court decided that the person challenging Ikpeazu’s declaration, Alex Otti, failed to prove his case by relying on a report of Card Reader accreditation. Justice Paul Galinje who read the judgment which, following the strange 2015 tradition of that court, was unanimous, argued that Otti should have relied only on the voters’ register in proving his case. He held that the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) governorship candidate in that election should have related the voters register to the specific areas where the elections were affected. If Otti did this, from what the Supreme Court judges are implying, he would have won his appeal.
Well, nobody could have done what the court is proposing. No human being can do it. It’s that simple.
And I have to agree that what Justice Galinje suggested was verbatim what was written in Nigeria’s electoral act. But that law is laughable and was clearly designed to make ridicule of the sacred process of voting. The law the Supreme Court is solely relying on is the law that insists that over-voting can only be proven at the level of the polling unit, and by comparing the election result in that polling unit to the number of registered voters in the same unit.
This law means that a person seeking to be governor in, say, Abia - a state which has about 2700 polling units - will have to tender result sheets from the whole 2700 units and tender also 2700 booklets of voters’ register, each for each polling unit, before the court, for him to have a chance of proving over-voting in the entirety of the state. Note that this is a total of 5,400 documents!
Note also that, as a litigant before the election trial court, you have only a maximum of 14 days to tender these documents. It is what the Electoral Act provided. In fact, the judges of the trial court, in their wisdom, can choose to give you less number of days and tell you it would be enough. I saw it happen in 2015.
Further, you are not going to gather these 5,400 documents and dump them before the court. You will present them one after the other, in each case first seeking the leave of the court and the consent of the defence lawyers (who will take their time to scrutinize each of them), for the documents to be accepted and admitted. All of this in only two weeks! 5400 documents!
But that’s not all that is wrong with the law. After tendering the documents, you will compare INEC’s written results – captured in the result sheets - with the figures in the voters’ register. It is only when the results are more than the figures in the voters’ register that you can establish over-voting.
Well, the problem with that is that the voters’ register is not a live document. The current voters’ register was compiled years ago, and some names on it are fake. In Ekiti, names like Mike Tyson have once been found in the voters’ register.
Because we are coming from a culture where politicians simply wrote fake figures as election results, voters’ registers were over-bloated by same politicians to accommodate the bogus figures they would be writing in future elections.
So long as what you wrote as election result is equal to, or less than, the figures in the voters’ register, you are fine within the electoral law.
INEC's voters' register is still over-bloated. It still has many fake names and fake voters.
Yet, according to the Electoral Act, it does not matter that some people who registered in that polling unit may have relocated before the election day, or too sick to come out to vote, or even dead, we still must rely on the voters’ register to prove over-voting.
Alex Otti’s argument, both in 2015 and in 2019, is that we cannot determine over-voting by relying on voters’ register alone. Over-voting can easily be determined by comparing the number of people who came out to vote on election day, as against the number of people who actually voted. To do this, just print out the Card Reader report of all the people who were accredited and compare it to the result INEC wrote and tendered in its official result sheet; if the results exceed the number of people who were accredited, then there was over-voting.
Anyone with half a brain knows that this is a sound argument. It is also the only fair way of ascertaining the true number of people who voted. The problem, however, is that you cannot wake up a man pretending to be asleep. Collectively, the (wo)men in Nigeria’s Supreme Court are pretending to be asleep in the country’s electoral jurisprudence. No one can wake them up.
They are not new to elections in Nigeria. They saw how, for the first time, an opposition party was able to defeat a sitting president in 2015. They know that the victory was only made possible by the advent of Card Readers. Yet they have consistently thrown Card Reader reports into the dustbin.
Card Readers were introduced by INEC under the credible leadership of Professor Attahiru Jega, to curtail the penchant of politicians and their INEC collaborators for inflating votes. The central idea behind its introduction was the reduction of human interference in the electoral process. INEC felt the voter’s card, which was the only instrument that permitted anyone to vote, needed an overhaul of its architecture. For this reason, the permanent voter’s card (PVC) was changed from a laminated paper to a plastic card with embedded chips that contained the bearer’s bio data. The chips can only be read by a machine, not humans. So, naturally, the evolution of the voter’s card made the use of card readers compulsory.
Again, anyone with half a brain would understand this.
An observant Supreme Court would have realized that the evolution of the voter’s card has also overtaken the Electoral Act. The country’s electoral laws should have been immediately amended and signed to reflect the changed times.
And, in a thinking Supreme Court, if this did not happen, you would have seen independence of thoughts amongst the justices. You would have seen one or two or three of them demonstrating their conviction that the court, being the highest in the land, could make a case law (a permissible judicial tradition that makes declarations on certain situations to permanently institute them as laws of the land) admitting the Card Reader as a veritable means of voter accreditation and a strong evidence against over-voting.
But that did not happen in 2015 when Nigeria first witnessed the wonder of the Card Reader. Of course, I would have been surprised if it happened in 2019. A sleeping, retrogressive Supreme Court will never reverse itself. In unanimity, it once again endorsed an election in Abia where people simply sat in their living rooms and wrote figures.
It is convenient for these judges in the country’s highest court to cite the constitution and electoral act as their excuse for affirming injustice, playing the ostrich and feigning ignorance of their powers to make case laws. But the impact of their judgments will keep reverberating across the lengths and breadths of this country in future elections. The argument is simple: it is difficult to prove over-voting with the outdated processes outlined by the Electoral Act, so the most important action to take in an election is to get declared winner by INEC. Every candidate will deploy everything within their control to achieve this aim.The end result, as we have been seeing since post-2015, is heightened electoral violence; such as the scale witnessed in the recent elections held in Kogi and Bayelsa. They are testimonies to the damage the Supreme Court's tacit endorsement of electoral brigandage that is the rejection of Card Reader has done to the polity. And, even in the coming Edo State election, we are sure to see things that will make us remember, once again, that when it was time for supposed learned justices to rise and save their country’s democracy, they feigned slumber.

Mynd44
Awol
Passingshot
Nairalandtopusser
Oghenaogie
Ejimatic
Duwdu
Pythonamaka
Udechi1
Pachukwudi

. The intricacies we have now in electoral judicial dispensation are caused by the PDP. The party influenced the revision of the electoral laws and acts in order to protect their governance especiallay when they taught APC was claiming states they won at the tribunal.The new electoral acts and laws made it difficult for many opposition candidates to win in court because they could not satisfy new conditions.It is worrisome that if 50 people die during an election the results are still valid as long as they do not die in a polling booth.....We are paying for what the PDP planted in the Constitution for its interest

Azmanaty:
Their Oga knows about this. They have a target they must remit to their heads. I was in a police station last December and I know what I am talking about.

somebody told me in my dream that their ogas share the money with them and if you come back to the station without enough money your squad will be replaced..,On the federal and state roads you will see them collecting 20 or 50 from motorists At times they keep their money with another officer not in a mufti for sharing later.The officer will sit close to them on the road.Additionally they arrange changes as you need them 150 200 450 etc changes for motorists that give them the high denominations.......I am still looking for the man that told me all these in my dreams.

The late ivesigative journalist Kola Olawuyi once reported about a man who lived between Ikire and Ikoyi-IIle.His name was Baba Torie meaning a man who sold heads of men.He was accused of making money rituals with human body parts.It is shocking that such men still live within this axis.Ikire and Ikoyi Ile should set up a virile Vigilante Group and OPC to fish these bad elements residing with them before Ikire and Ikoyi Ile are given names that they don't deserve...The earlier good people of this axis do this the better.

Ladies! Do you know the hearts of the men you are dating? What do your boyfriends or fiances do for a living?How are they making money? What do you observe in their homes and ways of lives generally ?who are their friends? If you can't answer these questions well, I smell danger for you please wake up from your slumber! God will protect you.

She thought she had found. a true lover but she had been living with ritualist since. May all these criminals and their generations not know peace till eternity. The blood of this innocent lady you shed will call for justice and bring woes to them and their generations.

Inside Ikoyi-Ile, where Favour was murdered
by Mustapha Temidayo —
The ritual killing of a final year student of the Lagos State University (LASU) last December in Ikoyi-Ile, Isokan Local Government Area of Osun State, has ruptured the innocence of the community and its indigenes and no one seems happy about it, writes ADESOJI ADENIYI
IKOYI-ILE, a pristine community in Isokan Local Government Area of Osun State has lost its innocence.
What is more, the town is in the news for the wrong reasons.
It is the community where Favour Daley-Oladele, a final year Theatre Arts student of the Lagos University was murdered and her body parts used for money-making ritual.
Her boyfriend Owolabi Adeeko and his mother, engaged ‘Pastor’ Segun Philips to end Favour’s life in such a gruesome manner.
It is unbelievable that such an act could be perpetrated in a settlement where Christianity has a deep root. The community hosts a prayer ground for Christians.
The Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) founded by the late Apostle Ayo Babalola – a highly revered evangelist – has one of its prayer mountains in Ikoyi-Ile.
Since the community featured in bad light as a result of the gruesome killing of Favour, life appeared not to have been the same for it, at least for now. Also, influx of pilgrims to the mountain for prayers may be affected by the sad news.
The bushy path to the Cherubim and Seraphim Church (Chapel of Solution), in the community, where Favour was murdered last December, was deserted. Only a few houses could be seen close to the entrance of the wooden church in the thick forest, about three kilometers from the centre of the community.
The 42-year-old Phillips, who claimed to be pastor, and his accomplice, Adeeko, a 23-year-old, admitted killing Favour in their desperate bid to get rich.
Owolabi tricked the late Favour to Ikoyi-Ile with the promise that he wanted her to meet his parents to approve their relationship.
But unknown to Favour, she was on her last journey on earth as she was led to the church where her head was smashed with a pestel by Owolabi and butchered by the pastor, who later removed her vital parts for money ritual.
The ambience of the town was gloomy as many houses appeared deserted when The Nation visited the area last Monday.
Nobody was willing to discuss the incident with anyone, not to talk of strangers. For a very long time, the incident and the infamy it brought to them, as it were, will haunt their memory.
Only four people: their traditional ruler, the Olukoyi of Ikoyi-Ile, Oba Yisau Bamitale Otunla; Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) chairman in Isokan South Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Pastor Idowu Folorunso, the LCDA chairman, Hon. Wasiu Oyelami and a resident, who preferred annonymity, could spoke on the incident.
According to Oba Otunla, Phillips was not an indigene of the town. This, he said, going by his findings. “Phillips is not indigene of Ikoyi-Ile,” he said. And has been operating his church for over two years in the community before the incident.
The Oba, who expressed sadness over the incident, said it could have been averted if traditional rulers were empowered by the constitution to play certain roles, including that of enforcing security in their domains.
“If we were empowered to secure our territory, this might not have happened. If it can be mandated by law or an act that anyone, who wants to reside in an area must first appear at the palace of a traditional ruler for screening, including the landlord, that will curb happenings such as this.
If we adopt such a strategy, monarchs will know those living in their domains. With that, it will be difficult for anyone to perpetrate evil as such could be known easily by royal fathers and people working with them.
“But with the current system of government that put all powers in the hands of government, people can do anything they like.
As it is now, anyone can acquire anything, especially land without the knowledge of the traditional rulers. That will surely affect our security.
An example is what we witnessed with this pastor. Government owns everything now but when it comes to security at local level, we traditional rulers know our domains better.
If only we could be given that power to know who is buying or renting any accommodation, especially when the person that wants to rent or buy property is a stranger, occurrence such as this will be reduced,” he said.
Oba Otunla said he and the local government chairman have met to look for immediate solutions to security in the area. According to him, they are planning to design a measure to know all non-natives living in the town, ask them about their work and occupations and where they hail from.
He, however, indicted the forest guards for not securing the forests in the state well. To him, if they had been up and doing, they would have discovered the church, where Favour was killed before now. He said local vigilante had been engaged to secure the town lately
The resident, who spoke with The Nation, said no attention was given to the church .
According to him, most of the church members are women, whom he said carried a four-liter bottle of water whenever they passed by.
He said: “I have been living here for over seven years, but I noticed the presence of the church only about a year ago. I never bothered about their service since everyone has right of worship.
Few people go in and come out and since they have not created any situation to suspect them until they killed the girl, I never showed any concern about their activities. But sadly now we have learnt the importance of monitoring people around us.”
To the CAN chairman, much more is being expected from the council authorities in the area. He said immediately the issue was reported in the media, the Ikoyi Action Council and the Department of the State Security called him to give them information about the church, but unfortunately he said he had nothing to say since Phillips’ church was not registered with CAN.
He also lamented that many unregistered churches such as Phillips’ own are usually responsible for many atrocities in the society since they are not accountable to anybody.
He explained that he sought the assistance of the Olukoyi in the past to support the CAN in the area to ensure that “all churches in Ikoyi join us”.
The cleric, who described the incident as disgraceful, said the local government has not helped matters as “it gives undue recognition to these churches”. “They always claim they want their votes and therefore, could not compel them to join us.
The local government even went as far as giving out gifts to many of them to woo them and this has significantly reduced our power to control or check their excesses.”
However, Hon Oyelami denied giving undue recognition to any church over others, saying what happened really embarrased the Ikoyi community.
He said the incident has made him to reach out to the police to assure them of his move to profile all religious organisations in the council area in order to monitor their activities.
Oyelami, who said he had never been to the forest where the church was located, said he was ready to work with all stakeholders in the area to ensure that such incident does not repeat itself.

How we killed final year female LASU student, suspects give gory details
...Police exhume body


Suspected killers of Miss Favour Daley-Oladele on Saturday narrated the gory details of how the final year Sociology student of Lagos State University (LASU) was gruesomely murdered for money rituals at Ikoyi-Ile in Osun.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the three principal suspects gave the gory details after Osun homicide police detectives exhumed the victim’s dismembered body from a dry shallow well at Ikoyi-Ile.
NAN reports that Babatunde Kokumo, Osun Commissioner of Police, led detectives from the Homicide Section of the command during the exhumation operation.
When the remains was exhumed, the head, the two breasts, neck and part of the two legs were no longer there.
NAN recalls that the deceased was allegedly killed by a prophet, Segun Philip, 42, and her boyfriend, Adeeko Owolabi, 22, in Ikoyi-Ile, Osun, on Dec. 8, for money rituals.
Owolabi’s mother, Ruth was also said to have played a role in the dastardly act.
Owolabi, also a graduate of LASU, told newsmen during operation that he conspired with the prophet to murder her girlfriend for money rituals.
According to him, he lured the deceased to Ikoyi-Ile and lodged her in an hotel before killing her.
“After I lodged her in a guest house, I took her to a house which I claimed to be my uncle’s house, knowing fully well that the place was a ritualists den.
”I smashed a pestle on her head and she collapsed.
“The prophet thereafter used a knife and cutlass to dismember her body which was divided into three parts breasts, head and legs with other vital parts.
“We buried the remaining part of her body beside Prophet Philip’s Church called ‘Solution Salvation Chapel’, while some vital parts was given to my mother to eat for spiritual cleansing,” he said.
Also speaking with newsmen, Segun Philip, who claimed to be a prophet in Solution Salvation Chapel, said the deceased was murdered to make money rituals for Owolabi.
“I am not a prophet but a herbalist who engages in spiritual cleansing for whosoever come to my place.
“I used the Solution Salvation Chapel as a cover up not to allow people know the true picture of who I am and what I do.
“Owolabi came to my place for money rituals and I told him that we need a complete human being for the rituals.
“And on December 8, he brought his girlfriend to my church and we killed her and as well dismembered her body part for money rituals.
Owolabi’s mother, Ruth, who also spoke with newsmen said she was not aware that the concoction given to her to eat and the cream was made of human part.
The police commissioner said detectives carried out thorough investigation to ascertain the actual place the deceased was buried, adding that the police would ensure that justice prevailed in the matter.
The CP urged Nigerians to be vigilant and always report any suspicious and unlawful act to the nearest police station for quick

Automotive1:
https://autojosh.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/iconic-volkswagen-beetle.jpg

https://autojosh.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/iconic-volkswagen-beetle-1.jpg


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKuYXNLGlOc

Volkswagen is paying tribute to the iconic Beetle Hatchback, also known as Ijapa, with an emotional animated short film titled : “The Last Mile”.

https://autojosh.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/iconic-volkswagen-beetle-6.jpg

The clips shows the story of a boy whose major life events—from childhood to elderly age—are shaped and influenced by the presence of a Volkswagen Beetle.

The short uses a rendition of the Beatles’ “Let it Be” performed by the Pro Musica Youth Chorus. The 1:30 mins clips ends with nod to Volkswagen’s electrified future.

https://autojosh.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/iconic-volkswagen-beetle-2.jpg

https://autojosh.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/iconic-volkswagen-beetle-4.jpg

This video comes a year after Volkswagen officially announced the end of its production. The last Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the assembly line at a plant in Mexico in July, 2019.

Saad Chehab, senior vice president, VW brand marketing, said :

“The Beetle is easily one of the most recognizable cars in the history of automobiles,”

https://autojosh.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/iconic-volkswagen-beetle-5.jpg

https://autojosh.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/iconic-volkswagen-beetle-7.jpg

“Honoring it properly required a medium with just as much versatility and universal appeal as the car itself.”

“We are proud of our past but our eye is on the future – hence our choice of New Year’s Eve to hint at our upcoming long-range EV and the 2020 Atlas Cross Sport.”

https://autojosh.com/after-70-years-volkswagen-says-goodbye-to-iconic-beetle-ijapa-with-this-emotional-video/

. My father said in the 70's if you studied any course in Education at the Nigerian university you would be given a Volgswageen Ijapa car as a motivation.....What a good time in the Nigerian history!

hisexcellency34:
https://www.independent.ng/aregbesola-oyetola-in-marathon-meeting-with-akande/

the rift is between Oranmiyan Group and Ikeri Oluwa Group .The leaders are at peace but tbiughtless followers are fighting

DavidEsq:
That tells u that false religion exists. Therefore true religion also exists. Matthew 24:45 identifies true religion.

What are the characteristics of true religion?;

Gratefulll:
Adelani Adepegba, Abuja

A customer care officer of a first generation bank, which was attacked by armed robbers last Saturday, Larry Ehizo, has stated that he began planning how to carry out the operation in October 2019.

Ehizo, who recanted his earlier claim that a barman, Ernest Ewim, blackmailed him into carrying out the attempted heist, said he started nursing the idea having monitored the security system and the processes in the bank.

The customer care officer said, “Everything Ewim said is true; he didn’t threaten me. I willingly collected his number and I called him and he said I should give him a few days.

“When I called him, I simply told him how they would go in, where they would see the riot policeman guarding the bank and how to disconnect the CCTV. On Friday night during our meeting, we had issues with getting a driver.”

When asked the motive for the crime, Ehizo simply stated, “I was just greedy; I thought it was something simple that I could just pull off. I had taken time to study everything; I started thinking about it since October.

“Maybe, because I work inside, I felt I could take the money. So, I gradually mapped out where the CCTV is, where the police officer stays, his movement, how people are stationed over the weekend and how the ATM functions over the weekend. I took time to map it out for over a month.”

The Federal Capital Territory Police Command had arrested the sixth member of the gang, Ewim, at his hideout on Wednesday.

Wearing dreadlocks and dressed in a light blue denim jacket and matching blue jeans, the suspect sustained injuries in his legs.

Blood oozed out of his right ear as he spoke to PUNCH Metro in Abuja on Thursday.

The police had earlier gunned down a member of the gang, identified as Patrick, and arrested four others during the failed operation.

The FCT Commissioner of Police, Bala Ciroma, had on Tuesday paraded four gang members including Ehizo, 30, as well as Timothy Joe, 21; Princewill Obinna, 24; and Elijah David, 19.

Ewim, who doubles as a barman and disc jockey at the Ever Ready Hotel, Mpape, explained that he organised the gang that carried out the foiled heist at Ehizo’s request.

Narrating how he became involved in the attempted robbery, the 29-year-old said he met Ehizo at the customer care desk of the bank when he was having issues with his account.

He explained that after addressing his complaints, the bank official took his phone number and called him two days later, promising to give him a job.

Ewim stated, “After two days, I received a call from Ehizo, who identified himself and said he had a job for me. Two days later, he called back and said he would like to see me.

“He said he wanted to attack the bank branches in Mpape and Mararaba. I said I was not a robber. He asked if I could provide boys for him, so I told Obinna, a photographer, about it because I learnt that he was very stubborn and could fight.”


https://punchng.com/i-started-planning-abuja-bank-robbery-in-october-banker/

. If truly all religions teach morals and fear of God cases like this must have reduced.Rather their emphasis is on riches and wealth as if they are the. only sources of happiness..