₦airaland Forum

-student leader detained in U.S
By WALTER UKAEGBU
Sunday, March 15, 2009


A [b]former student leader at The Polytechnic, Ibadan, and a staunch follower of the late Chief Bola Ige, Mr Tijani Adekunle Najeem, is being detained at New Jersey in the United States due to residential permit mix-up.
Najeem had fled to United States following alleged threats to his life and that of some others for their support for the late Ige, Alhaja Kudirat Abiola and other notable activists during the government of late General Sani Abacha.

He has been living there for over 12 years but is now facing repatriation threat.
A relation of the detained former activist, Mr Kehinde Fasasi, however, told Sunday Sun that the fear of the family is that sending him back home to Nigeria at this time would be dangerous because the people in government then who threatened his life still have their cronies at the helm of affair.

“I have known Najeem Tijani since 1991 when I was in Nigeria and I knew about his problems with people in government who were trying to get rid of him and some other student activists because of their role in fighting for students welfare as well as freedom of the people of Nigeria at large,” he stated[/b]


http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2009/mar/15/national-15-03-2009-06.htm

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Hoodlums kidnap Soludo’s kinsman
By EMMANUEL OBE
Published: Sunday, 15 Mar 2009

The spate of kidnapping increased in Anambra State on Saturday with the abduction of a retired deputy director in the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Mr. Patrick Obidike.

He was allegedly kidnapped by four armed men at his country home, Isuofia, in Aguata Local Government area.

Isuofia is the hometown of the Central Bank Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo. But it could not be confirmed if the victim had any other relationship with him.

The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Mohammed Abbas, who confirmed the story to Sunday Punch, said he had deployed his men to comb the bushes around Isuofia and neighbouring communities so as to fish the kidnappers and their victim.

The kidnap came just a few days after the traditional ruler of Nawfia, Igwe Chijioke Nwankwo, led a team to rescue his sister, Mrs. Ifeyinwa Oli, and her three- year-old daughter, Somtochukwu, from kidnappers in the town.

The police search in the bushes around the community was predicated on the belief that the kidnappers might not be very far away from the town, having used a bush track near Obidike‘s home.

Abbas said the report of the incident was prompt and the police believed that the kidnappers might not have gone far, and could be in the bush around the place.

”I received the report about 11am. They used an untarred road. They were four armed boys in a Toyota Camry.

”Police are right now combing the bushes because of recent the kidnappers no longer take their victims to the urban areas where people could see them. They take them to the bushes,” Abbas said.

Our source said all the roads leading in and out of the town had been cordoned off by the police who were frantically searching for the kidnappers and their victim.

No news has yet been received from the kidnappers on the motive of their action.

Kidnap for ransom has become a common business in in the state where criminals reap millions of naira from the rich whose relations are victims of their act.

In the Nawfia kidnap, Igwe Nwankwo said two of the kidnappers were arrested and handed over to the police.

The woman and her daughter were kidnapped last Monday night near their home in Enugwu-Ukwu, a neighbouring town to Nawfia and taken to a hideout from where a ransom of N15m was demanded.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200903159102829

Area boys sack contractors from site, receive N5,000 daily for ‘permit’
By Akin Oyedele
Published: Sunday, 15 Mar 2009
[b]Social miscreants, popularly known as area boys, have been identified as a major hindrance to the renewed efforts of the Oyo State government to beautify Ibadan, the state capital. Since the ministry of environment and water resources began the beatification of major roundabouts and prime locations in the city, area boys are said to have been harassing the contractors from whom they collect N5,000 daily as ”permit.”

The Managing Consultant, Mojat Consult Limited, Mr. Remi Adeniji, who is collaborating with the ministry on the project, said this in an interview with newsmen, in Ibadan, on Friday.

He said that the new partnership between the state, multinationals and financial institutions operating within the state was being threatened by the activities of the social miscreants.

Adeniji noted that the state was determined to give Ibadan a facelift to make it one of the cleanest cities.

”The major problem we have are the area boys who will not allow contractors to work except they collect N5,000 daily. We have brought this to the attention of the government to assist in tackling this political problem.[/b]”It took us three months to seal an agreement with the Nigerian Breweries before they agreed to build 20 bus shelters across the city. As soon as they settled down to build the first one in Secretariat area boys swoop on them.”

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200903159195864

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