Fhemmmy:

Pls dont say this while people are listening, we are no more in the club age, time has changed to when there is what is called equal right.

and he calls himself luvinhubby
imagine?

*Hauwa*:

for better or for worst in abusive marriage right, good raddiance to bad rubbish.
i only wish the police system is working in nigeria like oversea where she could just dial 911 and the guy will be in serious trouble for his behavior.

keep the pregnancy if that's the only thing to come out of the love you once shared with him. do not abort and do not apologize. he should be the first to apologize before you do.

that is eh
after spending a few nights with his fellow men in jail including those that'll rape him in there, his life will never be the same.

If my woman told me say i dey smell, i shd go baff, no wahala now, i will tell the woman that they only place i wanna bath na inside her *****.
Jokes apart, The man went too far, but then, the poster said " [b]she said some horrible things, she shouldnt have said to the man" so what are those things.[/b]Most men in jail are nice men, but turn of events makes them into what they cant even explain.
Please, i am not supporting the man at all, but we all needs to respect one another.

who cares what she told him after she had been abused
even if she told him his "abunna" was thinner than an HB pencil,he deserved it
If she used a wooden pestle and whacked him on the head,no courts in any civilized nation would convict her,she was defending herself from an attacker while pregnant too.

Tinkin_guy:

@ Osisi,

Thats not a very good way of resolving issues, While I dont condole a Man raising his hands agaist the wife, I also doesn't condole a woman ranting or raising her mouth as the case maybe.

if the parents of the lady call her back to their house, and possibly request for their in-law to come and collect their bride prize, then what next??, she will hook up with another man and wait for similar case to happen so she can run back to her parents?

Character with maturity is what builds a home, , if you are not ready to use wise words when conversing, then consider not getting involve  into any relationship whatsover.

running away from your marriage over any issue will not grantee that the next man or woman will not bring similar issue to board.

Everyone married or wishing to married should learn the act of ttoleranceand apply wisdom when needed to make their home a lasting and eexemplaryone.

She should work out her home with Gods grace, no matter how bad it seems.

@ Poster, unless you re not really seeking for advice to bbetteryour home, a gentle aanswerquitens a rough and angry mind.

We are talking about a pregnant woman who was slapped for making a simple request and is not feeding properly while pregnant.
why are her rants after the slap more important than the action the abusive,barabaric action that preceeded it?
Is this how Nigerian men think?
I've been a strong defender of the Nigerian males on this site but I'm almost ashamed to read the things coming out of your mouths.
I am married and has been married for more than a decade so I speak as a married woman who has seen friends punched and battered by husbands.
If this man doesn't realise that he was wrong,that girl should have absolutely nothing to do with him
It only gets worse

sholasys:

Action brings Reaction. It is very bad that your Husband slaped you. I totally detest it. I am happly married and i hv never and will never hit my wife no mater what the situation. There are some cases that your huby most first apologies to you but in this case i think you realy need to applogies to him for tongue lashing him and then let him apologies tooo to you. A good woman will follow this advice and other gd once. Sm pple are jst bad advicer with primitive point of view

I'm almost certain you beat your wife with the head of your belt on a daily basis and she comes crawling back to your baboony self with the nonsense coming out of your mouth.
he slapped her
why should she apologise?
the things she said were said after the slap,didn't you read that part?

Fhemmmy:

Na wa for you oh, the woman never said, the slap was hot oh, she said she was slap, now you are adding "hot" to qualify am.
Jokes apart, no woman deserves such treatment, however, the woman needs to learn how to talk to the man as well, and not even only to talk to the man, but how to even talk to the kids, respect is a 2 way street, let's all walk it.

every slap is a hot one
was he petting her face?
she has done no wrong if all she did was ask him to  go take a bath.
even if she said,Femi you're smelling,go baff abeg he would have gone jejely to clean up his stinking self or just ignored her
That's what a normal male would do.
Every other thing she said  or did after the slap,he deserved it and more

I

can't believe folk are telling Delly to apologise.
What does she have to apologise for? She's the one that got slapped!
Regardless, there's no acceptable reason why a man would hit his wife, just so wrong!
A man that hits a woman is nothing short of a bully, a coward.

As for the silent treatment, that's typical of a childish man that's feeling sorry for himself.[/b]Delly, just take things easy, let your man apologise to you!

Sienna my dear,I am flabberghasted
I didn't even read your post before making mine.
She deserves the apology.
I feel so sorry for this woman because she has no job.
[b]This is why no woman should be a housewife, never, ever ,ever
Imagine a man slapping his wife and fellow females are telling her to apologise to him
apologise for what?
receiving a slap?

As far as i am concerned, under no circumstance in this world, should a man lay a finger on his wife. That is not acceptable. I dont care whether he is or was going through a tough patch or whether he lost his job - he should never, NEVER slap you, his wife, regardless of what you do. Once a man slaps or lays a finger on his wife and there are no repercussions, HE WILL CONTINUE TO DO IT. Prepare yourself for more beatings - if you dont stand your ground now.

I would advice you to STOP apologizing to him (since you have already done so) and do what you can to maintain and take care of yourself an honest way. Start praying about it (if you are a prayerful person) and ignore him. If there is a little food in the house, feed him. Clean the house, make the beds etc etc - continue doing your wifely duties for as long as you can. If money finish for house and there is no food, THEN THERE IS NO FOOD UNTIL HE GIVES YOU MONEY!

Haba! To be a woman does not mean that you should be a slave or that you should be foolish. If na oyibo land here, that man for dey cell by now - and will still be forced by law, to take care of you and the baby!

I am a man and can never even verbally insult my wife, talkless of beating her. If i have a sister that any man touches, God help me, i fit kill that guy o. I dont care if they are married or not.  

Epiphany, may you blessed beyond measure and may your daughters end up with men like you who understand that physical abuse is unacceptable

janedoe:

@ topic, don't know much about marriage but this much I can say,cardinal rule of being in an abusive relationship-Leave on your own 2 feet or you might leave in a body bag.

exactly!
no woman under what guise sould accept any sort of pushing or shoving around let alone hot slaps on her face
Only a father has a right to spank a kid and that's to a certain age
The kind of thing I'm reading here scares me.
looks like our men are beasts

Only sholey and a handfull of others have made any sense here.
There are some of the responders that deserve slaps themselves

My Husband Has Not Been Talking To Me For Three Days Now Please Help Me

Hello Nairalanders, im in serious stress and i need your advice, my husband slapped me twice when i was lying on bed because i asked him why he is sleeping without taking his bath, i got so angry and insulted him,  he  has not been talking to me for three days now.I over reacted and said some unpleasant things to him cos i never expected him to ever slap me as he use to say when  we were dating that he can never lay his finger on a woman, what annoys me most is that  im pregnant and i don't expect him to slap me in this condition. Now he will not give me food money, he will not talk to me he sleeps and turns his back on me, i feel like telling him im sorry but something tells me not to, he has a very stiff heart, i think of terminating the pregnancy and quiting the marriage, he has a tough heart and im afraid i may not be able to live the rest of my life with him, he is not willing to apologise for slapping me please Nairalanders help me handle this matter

.

@ the poster,you have done absolutely nothing wrong to apologise to this man.
Forget all the people telling you to apologise when all you did was speak after receiving 3 hot slaps for nothing.
a lot of women would have hit him with a blunt object.

Do not apologise unless he apologises first
Most of the idiots asking you to apologise are either unmarried or have been beating people or have gladly accepted beatings.
Do not encourage bad behaviour.
If you apologise,you have accepted that you brought on the slaps to yourself and provoked him also thereby deserving of the beating.
You do not deserve it.

Do you have parents?

If he refuses to give you money for food,move in with your parents until the baby is born
You desrve to be in a safe environment with your baby.

If you are Igbo and your parents are like mine that won't tolerate abuse from inlaws,they'll demand that he comes back with his people and wine after the baby is born to ask and beg you to return promising never to lay a finger on you.

My dear did you hear me?
You can only apologise for your utterances after he realises he was wrong.
email me on babyosisi@hotmail.com if you want to talk more

are we sure she wasn't impregnated in the desert
poor woman.
may her soul and those of the twins rest in peace

night gown

DeReloaded:

so osisi has seen oyb and I havent. O ga o

Is his beard like Santa Claus?

I went back to that old thread and his picture is still there
full bia bia like Wole Soyinka only black

alansam007:

Whoo!metal home?that is a bad language you know?You are a kids, This is not for you, I really needs a reply from an elder follow who know the way out, Thank you sir

I am an elder fellow
and my response is that you're sounding psychotic
are you seeing things?

Yes go ahead and divorce her and go and get a mature prostitute.
a woman who had professional training in the field of sex.
ewu

wow
perfect match
Yoruba man/Igbo woman

iReport:

No wonder. I was wondering and asking myself which yoruba woman in her right senses will agree to marry OYB. Thanks for the clarification.

Please!
Oyb is a good catch o.
I wish I saved his picture from 2 years ago.
Very handsome young man even with his Muslim bia bia
smart,good job with company car sef
and he also has that small agberoish streak that makes a man sexy
I like classy men with a little Osuofia agbero somewhere in them.

iReport:

I am not training anybody. By the time I pour excess dry Cameroon pepper thrice inside his food and pants, he'll learn to sit up and do his job. Even Joseph baby sat Jesus in his capentary workshop, why won't modern day men do it?

This girl, God help you.
This is what you plan on doing to Osita?
I cancel that wedding

My poor mother was at the bank to buy some dollars
no dollars
she went looking for black market money changers
God protect my mother o

if you don't have a male child 8

2 or 4
I hate odd numbers

one kid is not good.
They are usually selfish and self centered
they need a sibling to play and fight with and learn how to share

Sick.

*comfort:

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[b]Niger Delta Region

Whilst I have never given voice to the happenings in the Niger Delta region in Nigeria, the most recent developments would give anyone a great deal of concern.

It has transpired that a group of lawless brigands with no semblance of humanity or a conscience have grabbed a 3-year old mixed race girl from the comfort of being driven to school in Port Harcourt and threatened to kill her. This is pure evil.
I cannot understand what these people are trying to achieve, it is a given that British citizens have been advised to leave the Delta area because of seriously deteriorating security situation which has had the federal government without clue, initiative or inspiration, they have been caught flat-footed every time as Niger Delta criminals pretending to be activists have created a state within a state fomenting unrest.

These events are hardly local, they raise hackles internationally as global oil markets wobble and Nigeria makes the news again for all reasons but commendable ones.

Mike Hill, her father, is essentially a local who is both an oil worker and he runs a bar frequented by expatriates in Port Harcourt, her mother Oluchi is literally inconsolable, the kidnappers have asked the father to take her place.

Big man wades in

As usual, we are told that resources are being mobilised to search for the girl and rescue her from her captors, but is shows an utter embarrassment of duties and responsibilities if the Inspector General of Police has to fly out to Port Harcourt to coordinate the search.

Now, rescuing this child of utmost importance and the best resources we can get which should be devolved around the country must be applied to this task.

If I am now hearing that there is no District Superintendent, State Police Commissioner, Regional Commissioner or Assistant Inspector General of Police (IG) to coordinate this but the big cheese himself, we do have a sorry state of law enforcement in Nigeria - though an opportunity for the IG to ingratiate himself with foreigners and have the media spotlight.

Beyond this, one is worried about the fact that the girl might be taken into some nightmarish enclave in an unfamiliar setting whilst these rotten criminals exact their demands for a ransom or some other ameliorating deal - it is important that they do not bungle this rescue operation.

Get the girl then finish the men

The most important task is to get the girl back to her family safe and sound, after that, those men should be hunted down and exterminated like vermin - there is no cause in this world that can warrant the kidnapping on a child to gain some bargaining advantage.

These men do not deserve to walk the face of this earth one extra second, it is utterly contemptible and evil that anyone and even a Nigerian can think up such a scheme.

Maybe, it is necessary to have the Oga police in there coordinating things, but the job would only have been done with the speedy rescue of the girl and the apprehending of all the culprits to see justice and have the full wrath of the law visited upon them.

For now, despite all the real and palpable suffering in the Niger Delta regions, their cause is completely lost if any group of criminals can do this in their name, they must repudiate this activity and turn up these criminals with the utmost alacrity.

:ohttp://akin.blog-city.com/childinnigerdelta.htm

How can we still enjoy romance and sex in the Niger Delta when we are no longer at ease?

The worst victims of the Niger Delta crisis are not the men, but the girls and women, because since Whitey no safe for PH again, Ogbongidi don dey starve oh!
The expatriates have fled in fear of kidnappings.

To worsen the situation, many girls and women have be attacked, robbed and raped by both the militants and military officers on rampage in the Niger Delta.

Many of the babes are flinging their arms and legs apart without caution in their desperation to survive and balance their accounts. I saw some young Nigerian babes at the Novotel and Protea Hotels and they must still be in their teens. Young, pretty and sexy (YPS),

The randy oil workers are having their pick of babes and they are not even afraid of HIV/AIDS.
[b]The babes are becoming commercial sex workers and even a JSS Two school boy was caught in the arms of Ogbongidi babes in Monkey village.[/b]One of them saw me one rainy day and took shelter under my umbrella. As we were walking along, she confessed to me that she was from Warri where she lived a normal life and had a three bedroom flat, but came to look for Whitey at the Nigeria LNG on Bonny Island.
Every Friday, there is Happy Hour at the West Bar when the Ogbongidi come as guests of the randy white expatriates and some Nigerian workers.
Many campus girls have also joined them to sow their wild oats and some have sworn that they must marry Nigeria LNG workers by hook or by crook. And the housegirls are not left out.
In fact, one housegirl we saw as one of the dirtiest got pregnant for one Nigeria LNG worker.
Many of the workers here go after anything with boobs and buttocks.
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-152339.0.html#msg2524383

comfort next time you point fingers at Igbos,you'll remember this thread.
see you tomorow

even the governor was a crook

Seven London bank account have been traced to the Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieseigha, who is currently under arrest for money laundering in Britian, just as more shocking revelations have continued to emerge on reasons for his arrest. Governor Alamieseigha who appeared in court on Friday was said to have collapsed in court.
Sunday Tribune also gathered from top Presidency sources that the arrest of Governor Alamieseigha, in whose London house an unlicensed gun was found, might have enjoyed the tacit support of the Federal Government who had entered into an alliance with the British government on the need to arrest any public officer who is suspected to have engaged in money laundering.

Two Russians abducted in Nigeria’s restive Niger Delta in December have been rescued after escaping from their captors, the Nigerian military has said. The Russians “escaped from an unidentified militant camp” and had been wandering in the creeks for five days before a military patrol team rescued them, military spokesman Sagir Musa said yesterday.

Identified by the military as Sergey Zermotalov and Korstantin Aksemon, the pair worked for an aluminium smelting firm in Ikot Abasi town in southern Akwa Ibom state.

Over the last few months, militant attacks mainly concentrated on the Niger Delta’s Rivers and Bayelsa states have gradually spread to other nearby states such as Akwa Ibom, closer :oto the southern border with Cameroon.

For the past three years, armed groups in the oil-rich Niger Delta have staged a wave of attacks and kidnappings against oil industry and government targets in southern Nigeria.

The militants, the most prominent group being the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), have demanded a greater share for impoverished locals in the region’s oil wealth.

Nigeria: Niger Delta Crisis - Shell Shuts in 180,000bpd
18 February 2009

Lagos — The unabated crisis in the oil-rich Niger Delta has continued to take its toll on Shell Petroleum Development and Production Company (SPDC) and Nigeria's oil revenue, as the company has been forced to shut in production of 180,000 barrels per day ("bpd) of oil following renewed attacks on its facilities.

Suspected[b] loyalists of Kitikata, a militant leader linked with the recent killing of soldiers in the Niger Delta region, yesterday invaded the SPDC's Nembe Creek flowstation in Bayelsa State.[/b]
The Nembe invasion, which took place in the early hours of yesterday, occurred barely one month after heavily armed militants stormed the crude oil loading platform in Bonny, Rivers State and shot at several vessels, which were carrying out legitimate businesses in the area. SPDC spokesman, Precious Okolobo, has, however, denied any attack on the company's Nembe facility, saying activities were ongoing.

But Shell's Chief Executive, Jeroen van der Veer, confirmed at a London conference that the lost production was due to the heightened insecurity in the region.

Prior to the attacks on its facilities, owing to the escalation of violence in the region in 2006, Shell was producing about one million barrels of crude oil per day.

The attacks had reduced the company's production to about 400,000 barrels per day.

The recent shut in means a further reduction in the company's production, a development which translates to revenue losses for the country.

Nigeria, the eighth largest crude exporter earns over 90 per cent of its foreign income from crude exports. The country had benchmarked its oil at $45 a barrel in the 2009 Budget and the new price of the crude, which stood below $36 per barrel yesterday is less than $9 above the budget target.

The upsurge in violence in the Niger Delta region has already reduced the country's production to about 2.2 million barrels from 2.5 million barrels per day.

THISDAY had last Friday reported that oil producing companies operating in the region had suspended further redeployment of expatriate staff in the area pending when normalcy would return.

An official of Shell was last week quoted as affirming that the company had commenced preparations to evacuate its staff from the Niger Delta after a militant group issued a warning to quit the region or risk more attacks.

The spokesman had, however, stated that the company had no plans to leave Nigeria but that at the same time was not prepared to gamble with the safety and well-being of its workers and contractors.

A militant group led by Ateke Tom had accused Shell and other oil operators including Agip, the local subsidiary of Italian oil company Eni, and the Nigeria Liquefied National Gas Company of helping the Nigerian military to carry out attacks on the group's camps in Rivers State.

The dreaded Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which threatened swooping attacks on oil companies in the region has issued a three-day ultimatum to Nigeria Agip Oil Company, (NAOC) and its sister company, Saipem, to vacate their operational bases in the region or face the wrath of the militia group.

The invasion of the multi-billion dollar Nembe Creek flowstation was said to have been repelled by soldiers on guard duties aboard the facility.

It was, however, not clear whether there were casualties during the incident, but THISDAY gathered that the gun battle with the attackers lasted several hours before the men escaped in their boats.

The armed groups were said to have left a letter chronicling a number of demands from the Shell management, prompting security agents to believe that the attackers might be local boys from the Nembe area.

The militants, in the said letter, had accused Shell of "being insensitive to the plight of the people of the area by refusing to implement agreements reached with them in various Memorandum of Understanding signed with the people".

Part of their demands were that their militia group should be recognised by the SPDC management as a major interest group and must be placed on a stipend of N3 million monthly.

The Media Assistant to the Bayelsa State Chairman of the Niger Delta Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee, Alphine Ogoh, however, said yesterday's incident was not an attack but that the militia group had gone to the platform to drop letter for SPDC.

Following the incident, the Joint military Task Force (JTF) has deployed more men to the facility to prevent another attack even as MEND has distanced itself from the operation.

MEND had earlier indicated its intention to resume hostilities along the creeks of the Niger Delta by ordering two Italian oil companies to move out of the region in three days.

Nigeria: Delta Crisis Curbs Shell Oil Output

In an ultimatum sent through an e-mail message, the group warned the two companies to take its fore warning seriously or be ready for the consequences of any attack.

MEND, which some months ago suspended attacks on oil installations in the region, had alleged that the Federal Gover-nment, in collaboration with the Italian Government was planning to wipe out the freedom fighters in the region.

By Chika Amanze-Nwachuku in Lagos, Segun James in Yenagoa and Gboyega Akinsanmi with agency report

February 22 2009 at 10:06AM


By Segun Owen

Yenegoa - Gunmen ambushed a busload of football fans travelling to a match in southern Nigeria on Saturday and killed at least six in an apparent revenge attack, police and local officials said .

The supporters were travelling from Yenegoa in Bayelsa state to neighbouring Delta state. Local officials said the execution-style killing appeared to be in retaliation for a nightclub shooting in Yenegoa on Friday.

"The fans coming to Delta were ambushed and shot. Eight were killed and seven were injured and are in hospital," Delta state police spokesperson Charles Muka said.

A senior Bayelsa state government official who visited the scene said he had seen six bodies being taken to the mortuary in the nearby town of Ughelli. Another local official put the death toll among the "Ocean Boys" football supporters at 13.







Bayelsa and Delta are two of the main states in Nigeria's restive Niger Delta, where criminal gangs and militant groups regularly ambush vehicles and carry out kidnappings for ransom.

The government official said the killings appeared to be part of a feud between rival "cults", a word often used in Nigeria to refer to university campus gangs originally sponsored by politicians to commit abuses at election time.

Detailed statistics are not available, but hundreds of people are believed to have been killed in clashes between such gangs since the early 1990s at the more than 100 federal and regional universities and polytechnics in Nigeria.

The lawlessness in a region which is home to Africa's biggest oil and gas industry has forced many foreign companies to remove expatriate staff and scale back their operations. - Reuters

Yenagoa — GUNMEN, suspected to be working for some oil thieves at the weekend engaged the troops of the Joint Task Force (JTF) on the Niger-Delta in a shoot-out at the National Agip Oil Company (NAOC) Terminal in Bayelsa State .

In a related incident in Delta State, gunmen also trailed one of the crew members of the MT Adamawa, a Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Warri vessel used by the JTF in towing some barges seized from oil thieves to his residence in Warri with a view to eliminating him.


Also, the two traditional chiefs that were picked up by the task force in connection with the attack on Utorogun Gas Plant, Ughelli by militants have been cleared of complicity in the attack and subsequently released.

It was learnt that before the siege on the vessel, the crew members who worked with the JTF to bring the impounded barges to Warri were threatened on their return voyage from Forcados by hooded gunmen.

Four of the crew members also issued death threats on the phone, as the seamen now live in fear of attack.

The gunmen in the Bayelsa incident stormed the Agip facility in two speed boats and immediately started firing at the soldiers who returned fire at about 6.30 pm on Saturday, leaving some of them injured.

Coordinator of the Joint Media Campaign Centre of the Task Force (JMCC), Colonel Abubakar Rabe, who confirmed the shoot-out, said the troops were deployed to guard the Twon-Brass Terminal of the company.

He said the JTF troops professionally foiled the incursion with no casualty on it side and damage to the terminal, adding that the gunmen fled when they saw that "our men had superior firepower."According to him, the assault is connected with the recent arrest of 24 barges by the JTF.

He, however, maintained that the unprovoked attack would not make the security outfit to tone down its war against criminals.

In Delta state, Vanguard learnt that the captain of the vessel bolted away from an exit door before the invading gunmen who met his wife and children could reach him.

The killers dropped a message for the fleeing captain that he was a problem to the illegal business of their masters and that they would surely get him, and told his wife to tell him to stop working with the JTF.

Meanwhile, luck ran out of three suspected oil bunkers at Oghara in Delta State when they were picked up by the JTF with 70 drums of AGO, loaded in a wooden (Cotonou) boat.

Also, JTF troops at Odidi arrested a wooden boat carrying substances suspected to be crude oil at Egwa 1, Delta State.

Reiterating the order of the Commander of the JTF, Effurun Headquarters, Brigadier-General Rimtip to the men of the task force to be vigilant at all times, Col Abubakar said
"When there is no crime in the society, like that of Niger Delta, the citizens would be free to carry out their legitimate economic activities and investors would be at liberty to invest for the overall development of our great nation.

That is the beauty of peace."On the chiefs arrested over the attack on Utorogu Gas Plant, Ughelli, Abubakar said the duo, Chiefs David Ikolo, 79 and Ugen Oghenechoviren, 53, Abubakar, were set free after investigations exonerated them of any involvement in the crime.

According to him, the chiefs' release confirms the JTF's adherence to due process and the rule of law in its operations.

Nigeria: Bayelsa Converts NRC, SDP Secretariats to Satellite Prisons
Samuel Oyadongha
25 February 2009

Worried by the inherent[b] danger involved in the movement of convicts from Bayelsa to neighbouring Rivers State, Bayelsa State government has announced the conversion of the party secretariats of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) into satellite prisons in the state to solve the transfer of convicts to custody.[/b]
<
The three secretariat buildings[b] located in Ogbia, Brass and Sagbama council areas of the state were converted into prisons[/b] to complement the on-going Federal Prisons project in the Okaka suburb of Yenagoa the Bayelsa State capital.

Speaking yesterday during the ceremony to mark the 2008/2009 legal year in Yenagoa, the state Chief Judge, Justice Kate Abiri, said though the satellite prisons were under renovation, the increased commercial activities in the state capital have shot up the number of civil and criminal cases being handled in the courts and need to have safe place of custody for convicts.

Highlighting the achievement of the judiciary which include the renovation of courts, increase in revenue generated from court fees, fines and levies, enhanced welfare packages for workers and increased funding of human and infrastructural facilities, Justice Kate Abiri said the issue of rising cases in the courts in the state has also energized the judiciary to do more in the area of dispensation of justice.

The judiciary she said started the year with a total case of 1,929 pending cases and another 1,484 filed within the same year while the various courts disposed off over 1,227 cases in the year under review.

A total of 2,228 cases are pending before the courts for adjudication she added.

Justice Abiri pointed out that the magnanimity of the state governor at releasing capital fund of the Judiciary contributed in a big way to the success recorded in the area welfare for workers, adding, "with the release of funds in the last quarter, the judiciary commenced much needed renovation in all our station's courts."

On the issue of the approval handed by the National Judicial Council for the appointment of the President of the Customary Court of Appeal and three judges, Justice Abiri explained that those appointed would be announced if cleared by the State House of Assembly and swearing-in done in the first quarter of the year.




them don run out of prisons sef

It all started like a burning straw sometime in 2003 when some politicians in Rivers and Bayelsa States were reported to have embarked on the massive recruitment and arming of criminally minded youths, some of whom had allegedly escaped from prison after conviction for murder and related crimes.

The politicians[b] found them handy for intimidating political opponents and election-rigging[/b]. Some of the employable ones among these youths were later absorbed as aides by the politicians after the elections, but the unskilled ones were let loose to fend for themselves.


It is this initial flame, among other factors - especially the genuine struggle by militants for resource control in the oil-producing communities - that has escalated today into political criminality, the raging gang wars in Rivers State and the callous business of hostage taking in the Niger Delta and several other parts of the country.

As is the case with many other growing monsters, the situation now threatens to consume the entire nation, including individuals and authorities whose actions and omissions helped to create and nurture it in the first place.

Alarmed by the gravity of the situation, some state governments have called for the adoption of the death penalty for convicted kidnappers in order to stem the tide of the menace. As of press time, the Rivers State House of Assembly had approved life imprisonment for the offence, while passing the executive bill introduced by Governor Rotimi Amaechi administration. The executive bill preferred capital punishment for those found guilty. Also, the Enugu State House of Assembly has passed into law a bill sanctioning the death penalty for kidnapping. The Akwa Ibom government is processing a similar legislation.

While stiffening the punitive sanctions in the Criminal Code for the worsening menace of kidnapping is a necessary response of the state governments to meet the present challenge, it appears that some of deeper issues involved are still being overlooked. For example, it is unfortunate that the Federal Government, through its law enforcement agencies, has chosen to play politics with the matter of the complicity of some individual sponsors of these gangs, who happen to be political bigwigs.

We urge the authorities to note that the fire of escalating insecurity in Rivers State is a bad omen for the country; that Nigeria risks a descent into anarchy if criminal gangs and their sponsors in other parts of the country become emboldened by the undeserved sacred cow status that gang financiers in Rivers and Bayelsa States now seem to enjoy. Anambra and Oyo States are instances of such outposts of lawlessness and chaos, where political godfathers have precipitated all manner of crises leading to deaths and arson with impunity.

Another deeper spring of the foul waters of criminal hostage-taking is the provocative lifestyle of many political office holders and their hangers-on in the Niger Delta, who plunder the treasury with impunity and flaunt their illegal wealth before the pauperized ordinary citizens of the region. Many desperate youths have been lured into crimes in an attempt to imitate such lifestyles of idle, criminal opulence, which the authorities of the land cannot punish.

It is well known that the present monstrous forms of abduction, especially in the Niger Delta states, where infants, housewives, and the aged, among others, have been kidnapped for cash ransoms, began with the abduction of foreigners by armed groups. The groups claimed that the foreigners were agents of the unjust exploitation of their communities' natural resources by multinationals working for an insensitive Federal Government. But when the abductions extended to Nigerian dignitaries and then even to ordinary citizens who appeared to have any lucrative ransom value, the phenomenon was exposed for what it is: a callous crime to extort money from the abductors' victims. It has brought such misery to countless homes, including death at the hands of heartless kidnappers, that the latest legislative measures are being rushed to the rescue. At least in Enugu State to date, the death sentence is one of such deterrent measures.

The appropriateness of capital punishment remains a controversial subject across the world, and the question may be asked if the Nigerian legislative houses are justified to prescribe the death penalty for convicted kidnappers. It has been argued that though it is an integral right of a sovereign State, like Nigeria, to punish those who violate her laws, that right should not extend to the imposition of cruel, degrading or inhuman punishments. The inherent sanctity of human life and the apparent moral illogicality of punishing the taking of life by also taking life in revenge, have been urged also by some reformists upon States that sanction capital punishment.

There is no doubt, be that as it may, that the present mood of the public is one of justified outrage and consternation at the spectre of criminal abductions now haunting the land. The people clearly desire greater protection under their laws against the heartless hostage-takers, and the new anti-abduction bills are a response to that demand.

The Rivers legislature's preference for life imprisonment, and Enugu State's choice of the death penalty for the same offence, reflect the ongoing global debate on the merits of capital punishment. We urge the nation to reflect soberly and act decisively on the appropriate measures to control this hideous crime.