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Nigeria: Ministry Designs Software for Science Education



Daily Trust (Abuja)

24 September 2007
Posted to the web 24 September 2007

Umma Umar Muhammad


The Minister of Science and Technology, Mrs. Grace Ekpiwhre has said that the ministry has designed an Information Communication Technology (ICT) programme that packages science curricula in software for school children.

Mrs. Grace Ekpiwhre disclosed this when she received the Governor of Edo State, Senator Oserheimen A. Osunbor who paid her a courtesy call in her office.


A statement from the Chief Information Officer of the ministry, Abdulganiyu Aminu quoted the minister as saying that young school children are well-placed to grasp the nitty-gritty of computer technology faster than adults, emphasised the need to popularise Information Communication Technology among the young ones at a early stage.

In view of this, she said the Federal Government, through the ministry is also planning to expand the scope of its computer for all Nigerian programme by subsidizing the cost of computer towards making it affordable to all Nigerians.

She advised the Edo state government to set up an effective institutional framework for an effective relationship with her ministry.


Earlier, the government of Edo State, Senator Oserheimen Osunbor had appealed to the minister to support the state's pilot scheme for the setting up of computer laboratories in designated secondary schools in the state. The objective of the scheme, he said, is to raise the awareness level of the next generation of leaders through the acquisition of requisite information technology.

Senator Osunbor also solicited for the assistance of the ministry in procuring laboratory equipment from Science Equipment Development Institute in Minna for secondary schools and tertiary institutions in the state.

Finally, the governor also hoped his state could benefit from the services of Nigerian Space Development Agency (NASDA) in the provision of data on forest depletion, erosion control and general land use.

Reunion in Auchi Art School
By Chuka Nnabuife

NOTWITHSTANDING that modern education system has watered down the content art studies, what happened in Auchi, Edo State, penultimate Thursday, through last Friday proves that somehow, the conventional art school may still be alive.


Through the annual Auchi Artists Convention and Workshops series which ended its third edition last weekend, the authorities of School of Art and Design, Auchi Polytechnic has established that though art prowess cannot be taught effectively in the very generalist contemporary academic system it is possible to achieve something similar. As the cr?me de la cr?me of Nigerian art circle, custodians of traditional culture went to the institution to interact with its students, alumni and teachers hope increased that some art schools can still smartly evolve a way of nurturing their students along a path of quintessential studio-oriented art schools. Auchi used the event to show that institutions can retain their sanctity of their artistic traditions through the establishment of such regular reunions where past and present students meet and reinvigorate themselves with the ideologies of the parent school.

Originally, art schools are establishments where visionary studio masters and some of their outstanding colleagues, convene young artists to expose them to their preferred genres and chosen methods of practice. Often art works executed by products of such institutions are easily recognisable by their unique traits which are usually traceable to the founding masters of such schools. But from the second quarter of 20th century when avant-garde modernists punctured the idea the conventional art school began a journey to extinction, and gradually in became old-fashioned. With the growth of in number of art colleges the old model of art schools gave way to academic institutions that teach art within the model of academic researches that fit into the curriculum prescription of faculties in universities, colleges and similar institutions. One big casualty of this model of art teaching was the loss of unique traits in art school. As art teachers assumed the positions of studio masters the mode of orientation in the art institutions tilted towards producing artists that are groomed in general knowledge and theories of the profession. The graduates know a bit of every art style but are not highly dextrous in any particular studio skill.

In Nigeria the over three decade old art institution of Auchi Polytechnic, best know in culture circles as Auchi Art School was one of the faculties that worked with the general academic pattern of orientation. But over time the school acquired a popular social identity through the kind of works their early products exhibit in galleries. Given the impressionist use of colour and ambitious manipulation of metals in sculpture among other nuances such expressions as 'Auchi colourists' became general knowledge in Nigerain art circles notwithstanding that other approaches of art are equally being taught in Auchi. Soon, even students of the school began to publicly identify themselves proudly, with such legacies. And the good impressions made by the teeming Art graduates of the polytechnic gave Auchi strong attention.

In 2004 authorities of the institution evolved an idea of an annual reunion of its graduates. The initiative originally intended to be a novelty has turned out an annuity that brings the old and new breed of the art school together.

The 3rd Auchi Artists Convention and Workshop offered the school an opportunity to take count of their edge in the art sector. As the Acting Rector of the polytechnic, Sir Loius R. Akagbosu noted, it was a time for deserved chest beating.

"First, this occasion opens another opportunity for our school of art and design to further consolidate its name as an art institution. The Auchi school, as my lecturers now call it, portrays to the world a unique, proactive and contemporancous presentation of our life, our beliefs and ethos in such a manner that is distinct and easily traceable to Auchi. Thus, the Auchi school now represents a movement within the art community that is significant and distinct.

"Second, the theme of this conference which is Entrepeneurship in Art is relevant to the contemporary development in our country. Emphasis is now on education for self employment, not education for government job. The quality of training, the rich and vast curriculum and the facilities available for training artists in the Polytechnic are such hat students graduating from this institution should necessarily always be the best and capable of initiating and managing their own businesses.

"From one exhibition to another, students and staff of this Polytechnic have consistently proved that they are the best. Just last year, Patkairos consults in collaboration with the Lagos State Art Council organised the Nigeria Undergraduates Exhibition of Art (NUXART). Twenty seven universities, polytechnics and colleges of education participated in the exhibition which featured over 200 works.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to report that at the end of the exhibition, our students came first; came second and came fourth. This shows that works of distinction will create a market to which art collectors will flock and in the process open opportunities for self employment and the employment of others.

"The economic situation in the country today encourages self employment. Our curriculum is rich enough that artists trained in this school can become entrepreneurs even owning galleries in future. The graduates of clothing and fashion; of graphics; of textiles, painting, ceramics can set up cottage factories with the support of micro-credit facilities that many banks are now willing to give. I believe that given their training and the reputation of their training institution, their products will be accepted in the market."

The presence of a delegation of high chiefs delegated to the occasion by seldom public, Oba of Benin as well as notable artists and critics from around the country including septuagenarian, Dr. Bruce Onobrakpeya who spent four days and painter Olu Ajayi, one of the early stars of the Auchi colourists era (mid 1980s -early 1990s), further underscored the high ranking of the institution. Noting how proud their history has been Dean of the School of Art and Design, Helen N. Uhunmwangho beamed more light on this year's theme and equally rubbed in that the idea behind event is a reunion as well as an opportunity let people who are closely attached the school know their current problems.

"Enterepreneurship in Art is in line with our vision of empowering participants to become artists entrepreneurs. , Since the inception of the school of Art and Design Auchi polytechnic in 1975 as a department in the school of business studies, we have experienced steady growth while other schools of Art are experiencing a decline in students enrolment, we have continued to strive to have the number we need. Today we have become a school with our departments with potentials for further growth as we have in the offing plans to start a Printing Department, Theatre Arts Department and a lot more with the intentions of introducing new courses like Fashion Accessories, Costuming and Cosmetology, Although we have produced some of the greatest artists in Nigeria who are making waves all over the world, we have been faced with numerous incapacitating problems such as obsolete machines/equipment, non-availability of alternative power source, resulting in our not having electricity to power even the obsolete equipment most part of the semester. This makes it impossible for the full semester work to be covered. Sponsorship which is received from foreign bodies do not get to us due to our rural setting, even the Nigerian art oriented government parastatals with the exception of the National Gallery of Art do not consider us in the tide of artistic activities. We have a lot of intelligent academics in our midst who can do the nations proud in so many ways if given the opportunity.

We have been trying to purchase the Onobrak Printing machine which cost only N400,000.00 for the past two years to no avail. Up till now we do not have a computer lab, yet we have a graphic department where the students are supposed to be authorities in computer aided designs. We are glad that ETF has just given us a lot of equipment for the young fashion/clothing technology department which have no studio space to lodge them. It is not my wish to bore you with our problems, but we will be pleased to receive some solace from every quarter in the name of equipment and infrastructures."

The 10-day forum went with workshops on painting (facilitated by Chika Idu), leather works (by Obi Leather), Printmaking (by Bode Olaniran for Bruce Onobrakpeya Studios), as well as photography and stone carving. Works produced at the workshop exercise were exhibited in the school's new gallery. There were equally conferences where scholars presented papers as well as mid session lectures in which Onobrakpeya, Ajayi and Chuka Nnabuife presented papers on The Artists as an Entrepreneur; Living as a Studio Artist in Nigeria; and Art Merchandising: The Artist, The Art and The Nigerian Visual Art Market respectively.

In his keynote address, Onobrakpeya noted how the event and its theme capture the main issues facing Nigerian artists. For an artist to succeed as an entrepreneur, he noted he has to go beyond mere art school training.

"Entrepreneurship in art is about creativity. Creativity, not in the artistic sense, but in the problem solving sense. How many artists have the ability to come up with as may alternatives as possible within a given time in the face of a problem, or give life and form to what has already been pronounced dead?

"The artist's role for today therefore, is to embark on a lifelong self development program for himself."

Ms Uhunmwangho said that was actually the essence of the yearly exercise, "To expose the artist to the challenges outside the four walls of the art school, is the main objective."

The schedule also covered an excursion to the Ikao land in Owan East local council, Edo State where the delegation from Auchi joined the community in their yearly manhood festival and received orientation on the native cultures and traditional rites of the land.

yawn.

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Nigeria: Baby Born With Sealed Anus in Bauchi


Weekly Trust (Abuja)

24 September 2007
Posted to the web 24 September 2007

Muazu Hardawa
Bauchi

A couple in Bauchi State had been thrown into confusion following the discovery by medical doctors that their two-month-old baby girl, Maryam, was born without anus. The girl showed no sign of deformity until the doctors' shocking discovery.

The incident occurred around the old cemetery in Jahun area of Bauchi State. The baby's mother Malama Aishatu Yau told Weekly Trust how it all happened, and how the parents are battling to see that their baby live a normal life like other human beings.


Aishatu said no one realised Maryam's pathetic condition until 12 days after her birth. Maryam, according to her mother, did not pass out any excreta and was crying endlessly and for all those 12 days.

The parents sought medical attention at a clinic in Bauchi. After diagnosis, they were informed by the doctors that their baby had not been able to empty her bowl because her anus was sealed right from birth.

From the clinic in Bauchi, Aishatu said, they were referred to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Gombe. At the FMC, the doctors told them that their daughter needed an emergency surgery to create a hole at the side of her stomach through which she can temporarily relieve herself.

To get a permanent solution, however, the parents were told that N350, 000 was required on her to open her anus so that she can lead a normal life.

But Aishatu told Weekly Trust that the family has spent all the money they had on the temporary surgery. "The only assistance we received was N20, 000 from Gombe and now we are penniless," she said.

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Aishatu's husband was a former staff of NITEL who was laid off without his benefits paid to him and can barely provide for the family.

The surgeon who performed the temporary Dr. Auwal is a consultant who occasionally visits the FMC Gombe for complicated surgeries such as Maryam's. The time he has given to the family has since elapsed and they have not been able to generate the money.

The family is now in desperate need of financial assistance from the Bauchi State government especially and the general public to enable their daughter lead a normal life.

Nigeria: Police Kill Six Armed Robbers, Nab Nine in Anambra


Daily Trust (Abuja)

25 September 2007
Posted to the web 25 September 2007

Beatrice Onuchukwu
Awka

The Anambra state commissioner of police, Mr. Oliver Osuchukwu, at the weekend disclosed to newsmen that six armed robbers were killed at various locations while nine were arrested and paraded at the command's headquarters same day.

The items recovered from them which were displayed included one bullet proof jacket, four automatic riffles, two shot guns, three double barrel guns, 269 live ammunition, eight vehicles including cars and buses, house breaking instruments including one Monday hammer, one axe and three crow bars.


He said those arrested were Chigozie Uyamdu, Anthony Nweke, Charles Ehetuga - all from Nzugbe town; Obinna Igwe and Chukamlete Ibeanusi. Others were Jideofor Ezeobi, Isiato Nwankwo and Ogenna Akpagu - all from Isiagu village, Nise in Awka South LGA.

It would be recalled that on 15th September 2007, Inland Police Station headed by Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Ntomchukwu C. N. had and encounter with two notorious robbers operating along Awka with motorcycles. The gunmen were engaged in a gun battle. During the exchange of fire one died while one escaped on the motorcycle.

He also disclosed the arrest of two suspected rapists in the case of defilement which police said resulted in the death of an eleven year-old girl in Awkuzu Oyi local government area of Anambra state. Although he did not give details of the incident, he added that the matter was reported on 16 September 2007, and he paraded the suspects before the press.

Command Headquarters, Amawbia, the State Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr. Osuchukwu, described the actions of the suspects, Dominic Mbam , 45, and Sunday Mbam, 40, as vicious.

Master Chiemerie Ananti, a seven-year-old witness, said the suspects invited him and the deceased to take sweets but they refused, informing them they were going on an errand for their father, Evangelist Michael Ananti. Chiemerie said the suspects began to chase them and caught up with the deceased and dragged her into a nearby bush while he wailed, calling on them to release his sister. He said when they continued to drag her along, he ran home to alert his parents.

Evang. Ananti in his statement said that when he received the news, he called out neighbours who organized a search in the said bush where they picked up the corpse.

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The ikwerres don,t want to be igbos,na by fox.Rivers is a state, PH is just a capital, it belong to any one who is From Rivers State.you guys will claim anything but 419,drug dealers,ritualist fake drugs, Smugling cars and cocaine.

igbo girls the abortion queen.

lol.

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About 400 fake University graduates have been discovered on the list of participants for the next batch of National Youth Service Corps programme scheduled to commence on October 15.
The Minister of Youth Development, Senator Akinlabi Olasunkami who disclosed this during a visit to the NYSC headquarters at Maitama in Abuja yesterday, said the 400 fake entries emanated from University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu State and the Polytechnic, Ugbokolo, Benue state.
“Reports reaching my office indicate that Benue Polytechnic Ugbokolo and University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus have mobilised a total of 400 fake intending corp members that have been discovered from the list sent to NYSC,” he said. An interministerial com-mittee earlier set up by the Federal Government to audit the list of corp members in 2006 came up with a startling revelation that over 4,000 fake graduands were mobilised for the service year.
The Minister who warned staff of the youth scheme against conniving with fraudulent persons to bring in unqualified candidates to participate in the programme, said government would henceforth cause for publication names of institutions that submits fake graduates for NYSC scheme.
Olasunkami disclosed that government has last Wednesday released an additional sum of N7bn demanded by NYSC for the mobilization of corp members bringing the total for the service year to N22bn.
He said the authorities of the NYSC has been directed to computerize its activities adding that by "next year the whole NYSC operations would have been fully computerized and this would help put a check on incidence of fake corp members".
He also the inter ministerial committee on mobilization corp members has been given a further mandate to carry out auditing of submissions from all the Universities and Polytechnics that produce graduates for the NYSC programme.
Commenting on some the challenges of the youth scheme as highlighted by the NYSC Director-General Brigadier-General Yusufu Bomaoi, the Minister said the building headquarter has been delayed for 8 years due to poor supervision and funding but would now be completed by the end of November.
According to Olasunkami, the initial cost of the building project was N597m as at 1999 when it was awarded but due to cost variations it has now hit N1.4bn.

she is like that.

@Oyb v1.01 ,you are right on the money.

Any Olumba followers here   

I never understood nor could comprehend the Olumba Church in Nigeria ,  it appears they are massive in the UK ~ http://www.ooo.org.uk/testimonies/whoisOOO.htm

ODOGWU EMEKA ODOGWU Awka


A Pastor with God’s Decision Bible Church Ubahu Ekwem Ihiala, Anambra State, Pastor Victor Ikediaso who abducted four under-aged girl members of his Church and raped them is now cooling off in the police net for impregnating them after the sexual spree.

Disclosing this during a press briefing in his office yesterday in Awka, the State Police Commissioner, Mr Oliver Osuchukwu, also said that an eleven year old girl, Anurika Ananti from Awkuzu in Oyi local government area of the state was raped to death last weekend in her parents’ farm by two farmers from Izzi in Ebonyi state.

The commissioner said the pastor took delight in luring under-aged girls between the ages of 10 and 15 to sex in the name of evangelism but was unlucky when four of his victims were tested pregnant and all pointed to him as being responsible, warning parents to be mindful of their female children movements at all time to avoid being victims of rape.

Furthermore, the police in the state has recovered assorted brands of vehicles stolen by armed robbers in the state during various armed robbery operations including two jeeps, Mercedes Benz 190, KIA DV, Toyota car, One view Foton bus, Pathfinder and Hiace Bus snatched from a transport company, C.N Okoli recently, among others, with the State Police Commissioner, Mr Oliver Osuchukwu calling on all those whose vehicles were stolen to come to the command’s headquarters in Awka with proof of ownership for collection of their vehicles.

According to the commissioner, two suspects have been arrested in connection with the death of the rape victim. The suspects Dominic Mbam, 45, and Sunday Mbam, 40. But they have denied being the ones that perpetrated the act, admitting however that they worked around the scene at the time of the incident .

Younger brother to the deceased (names withheld) confirmed before the police and the suspects that they (the suspects) were the actual perpetrators of the rape that led to the death of his sister.

Commissioner of Police, Mr. Osuchukwu, also said that the mop up operation for "ember months" recently launched in the state by his command gave room for the quick results it is recording and warned criminals to run away from Anambra state or face the wrath of the law enforcement agencies and noted that, "we are going to be ruthless with the bandits in the state, I tell you, this is not a joke".

Narrating the incident to newsmen, the father of the deceased, Evangelist Mike Ananti of the Jesus the Way, Truth and Life Ministry, Awkuzu, said that the incident happened Sunday morning around 7am when he sent his deceased daughter with the five year-old brother to his farm near Igbariam junction along Onitsha-Enugu Expressway to pluck green leaves for cooking.

According to Evangelist Ananti, "around few minutes to eight, that morning, the younger Chiemerie ran home crying that he saw two farmers holding his sister and the she was crying . He said before the men held his sister they had enticed her to come and take money but when she refused, they pursued her and caught her".

"So, when they started cutting the green leaves, the farmers came to them and got hold of the girl, hooked her neck and forced their way into the girl and the girl eventually died.

"After what the boy told us, myself and their mother ran to the place, one ran into the bush but we saw this younger one (Sunday, one of the suspects) standing by, beside the green bag and hoe with their slippers and clothes on the ground and before then, they had hidden the corpse of my daughter in the bush in her own pool of blood", he narrated.

The Evangelist said he later mobilized people that helped him to form a search party after reporting to the police only for them to trace the footsteps there to find where his daughter was raped to death.

On the pastor that impregnated four girls, Commissioner of Police,Mr Osuchukwu,said "the pastor cannot run away from this trouble, he will come and tell you how he used the name of church to abduct four girls and got them impregnated. He must be brought to book in less than no time".

The Commissioner of Police, Mr Osuchukwu during the press briefing yesterday equally paraded nine (9) armed robbery suspects who have been terrorizing various towns and communities in the state even as three of the robbers lost their lives in Onitsha on Thursday and Friday respectively. The police also recovered ammunition and arms of various sizes used by the robbers in the various operations

He warned criminals to get out of the state or be prepared to face the consequences. "Anybody who hopes to dare us will never live to enjoy this year’s Christmas and this is a warning to all hoodlums, bandits and hooligans that Anambra state is no longer safe for them and this is why operation mop-up is in existence", Osuchukwu warned.

KIDNAP DRAMA
Female suspect accuses lawmaker of betrayal
• Says kidnap story is contrived to deny her her due
By MURPHY GANAGANA, Abuja
Saturday, September 22, 2007

Nkechi Enemuoh
Photo: Sun News Publishing
Mores Stories on This Section


A middle-aged woman accused of plotting the kidnap of a legislator in Anambra state says she is being persecuted for legitimately demanding her monetary reward for ensuring that her former political ally emerged winner, at all cost, in the last general elections.

Miss Nkechi Enemuoh and her lover, Onyeka Okoro, are presently in police custody for alleged criminal conspiracy, demanding with menace, and attempted kidnapping of a member of the Anambra state House of Assembly, Hon. Dimobi Joseph.

Ironically, Nkechi had served as campaign manager to Dimobi until the end of the April polls.
But the events that unfolded a few weeks after Dimobi clinched the ticket to represent his constituency, indicated that while all had seemed well between the political associates, it was indeed, a marriage of convenience, bound to hit the rocks in no distant time, having been contracted with financial reward as the major plank.

“The man, Dimobi, a PDP member representing Aniocha 11 constituency while I was his campaign co-ordinator. Prior to the election, we had an unwritten agreement that if I helped him to win the elections, he would give me the sum of N500,000”, Nkechi alleged while being quizzed at the police force headquarters in Abuja.

Exhibiting a measure of boldness and confidence, the lady said that she was amazed that rather than, fulfilling his own part of the bargain after actualizing his dream of becoming a lawmaker through her assistance, Dimobi has turned round to become her nemesis, using the police to inflict anguish,pain and sorrow on her.

She further claimed that her case was just one out of several others in which her erstwhile political associate reneged on his promises after the elections, a situation that pitched him against one kpotokpo, whom, she alleged, actually plotted to kidnap either the lawmaker or his parents to settle scores. “I laboured for him to win, and he did. In fact,during the election, there was a time some of his supporters had problem with the driver of a vehicle they had chattered.

He called me to release my vehicle to them and I did so. There were several other things I did to make him win. After the election, I went to him and demanded for my money,but he said I should wait till after they were sworn into office. After the swearing in, I went thim again, and he said he had no money”, Nkechi stated.

Narrating how she was picked up by the police, she revealed that the plot was hatched by another of Dimobi’s supporter whom she simply identified as Okpotokpo, but denied being involved even when she was contacted to be part of it.
Hear her: “There is this man they call Okpotokpo.He said Hon. Dimobi was owing him #5million.
Then, he told me that if Hon. doesn’t give him his money, he will kidnap him but said that I shouldn’t tell anybody andthat if I do, he will kill me. I said he couldn’t kidnap the Honorable member. because he goes around with security. He said that he will kidnap his family instead. Then, the Okpotokpo man said he was coming to meet me; that I should be at particular road junction, so that we can discuss. I was at that road junction on the day we were to meet alongside with my fiancée, when the police came and arrested us”.

However, acting Inspector General of police, Mike Okiro, dismissed Nkechi’s claims as a cock and bull tale, saying that the police acted based on a complaint by Hon. Dimobi to the effect that he received several threats on telephone from the suspects who demanded for the sum of #5million from him, or they would kidnap and kill his parents.

Okiro further said police investigations revealed that Nkechi and her lover, Onyeka Okoro, conspired with others, now at large, to kidnap Dimobi for a ransom of #5million, out of which she would have got a share of #600,000.

Two men rape 11-year-old girl to death in Anambra
By John Ameh, Awka
Published: Saturday, 22 Sep 2007
An 11-year-old primary school girl has been allegedly raped to death in Anambra State by two farmers.

The suspects, Dominic Mba, 45, and Sunday Mba, 40, are brothers. The incident coincided with another bizarre tale involving two pastors, who allegedly impregnated three secondary school girls while performing “spiritual healing” on them.

The little girl was said to have been sent to a farm at Akwuzu in Oyi Local Government Area of the state in the company of her younger brother when the incident occurred. Police investigations revealed that her father, Ananti, an evangelist, had reportedly sent her to fetch green leaves from the farm when the suspects attacked her.

The suspects, who were on their farm when the two children walked by, allegedly attempted to lure the deceased with money, but she refused and took to her heels. They, however, chased and overpowered her before she was forcibly taken into a nearby bush and raped till she gave up the ghost.

Her sibling, Chiemelie, who watched the men commit the act in horror, escaped from the scene and rushed home to inform his father about what he had just seen. Narrating how his daughter was defiled and killed at the headquarters of the Anambra State Police Command on Friday in Awka, Ananti said his boy came home with the slippers of the deceased.

He said, “My son tried to explain by describing with his hands what exactly happened; but when I could not get what he was saying clearly, I went with his mother, Anayo, to the scene of the incident. When we got there, my boy showed me one of the rapists, who claimed not to know what happened. We called the police and in the process of searching the bush, the body of my little girl was found; they raped her to death. The footprints of the men were traced to the point in the bush where they committed the act.”

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Oliver Osuchukwu, who paraded the suspects on Friday, however, said they feigned ignorance of the crime when they were arrested. When journalists sought their reactions, the Mbas claimed that they were on their farm when some people came and accused them of rape.

“We know nothing about this matter; we don’t know what they are talking about”, the older one said. But when the little boy was asked about what happened, he did not only give a vivid picture of how the rape was committed, but also identified the younger suspect as the one who attempted to lure his sister with money.

In the second incident, the principal suspect, Pastor Victor Ikediaso of God’s Decision Bible Church, Umuobanihe Ubahu-Ekwem, Ihiala Local Government Area, allegedly “abducted” the three girls and impregnated them. The victims were aged 16, 19 and 20.

Speaking on the matter, Osuchukwu explained that the suspects were performing what he called “spiritual healing” on the girls, but got them pregnant altogether. According to the police commissioner, a medical report had already confirmed that the girls were pregnant, but Ikediaso was said to have accepted responsibility for only one.

He allegedly told the police that his colleague, whose name could not be ascertained on Friday, was responsible for the other girls’ pregnancies. His colleague is already in police net but Ikediaso, who was arrested in Imo State, is still being expected in Awka.

Osuchukwu said, “This case is still under investigation and I can assure you that in less than one week, the suspects will be arraigne.

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