₦airaland Forum

A 28-year-old woman Stella Gilbert is in police custody for allegedly stabbing her neighbour to death over a bench.

The incident happened in the suspect’s room at Ajegunle area of Lagos State on June 22.

The altercation over who should sit on the bench degenerated into a fight with Stella allegedly stabbing the deceased – identified as Stella Godwin, 27, a mother of three, in the chest. This led to the latter’s death in the suspect’s room.

It was gathered that Gilbert had initially poured hot water on the deceased before grabbing a kitchen knife and stabbing her to death.

The husband of the deceased, Mr. Godwin said his wife and the suspect were friends but that over time, the friendship became sour due to envy.

“Stella is our neighbor and she used to be a good friend to my wife as they bear the same name. However, for some time my family has been having issues with Stella due to envy and jealousy. The animosity degenerated into a fight on Saturday, June 22nd over a bench. A friend came to visit me and I went to get a bench outside the house to give him to sit.

“This bench belonged to our former neighbour but when he was relocating, he left it behind. Stella started abusing me to leave the bench. I warned Stella to stop insulting me; my wife came out and she too warned Stella to stop insulting me. They started quarrelling and fighting. I ran to the Ajegunle Police Station to get police because Stella poured hot water on my wife. Sadly, when I came back, I saw my wife’s lifeless body in Stella’s room. Stella had stabbed my wife in the chest with a kitchen knife; she also stabbed her all over her body . I was shocked and started weeping.”

The suspect however said she did not intend to kill anybody.

“This is the work of the devil. I did not intend to kill her. Yes, it is true we have been quarrelling but I am shocked that she died from my hands. Mr. Godwin, his wife and his visitor overwhelmed me. Three of them came into my room and they beat me mercilessly. I had to defend myself as the beating was severe and in the process, I took a kitchen knife and waved it to scare her; they were in my room fighting me. I stabbed her in the chest and she fell and died. I did not know how she got the other wound but I did not want to kill her. You can see my body; I have bruises all over because they invaded my room and beat me. I was only defending myself. I am sad that she is dead.”

A police source said the case was transferred to the Homicide Section, State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Panti, Yaba on June 27 for thorough investigation.

“We recovered three kitchen knives in the suspect’s room. The deceased had multiple stab wounds on her body. The corpse was in the suspect’s room because that was where the fight took place and she was killed there. We have deposited the corpse in the mortuary for autopsy,” the source said.

sexkillz: [color=#000030]You should trust your partner, not your best friend. . . No matter what a best friend does or says to your partner, if he or she is not swayed, nothing happens. The fault always comes from the partner. The final choice rests on them.

So, do you trust your partner? If no, why on earth are you still with someone you cannot bring yourself to trust? Don't you think something is wrong with you, if you fall in this category?[/color]

The cash-less policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has received its fair share of kudos and knocks, with its initial adoption in Lagos State. As the regulator rolls out the policy in more states today, respondents express mixed reactions to the Lagos case and how the policy will fare in subsequent statess.

The CBN introduced the policy with the aim of curbing some of the negative consequences associated with the high usage of physical cash in the economy. According to a CBN survey, cash-related transactions accounted for 99 percent of customer activity in Nigerian banks before the launch of the cashless policy. In addition, the CBN discovered that cash transactions above N150,000 was largest in terms of value and second smallest in terms of volume.
Lagos State, the commercial capital of Nigeria, was used as the pilot phase of the introduction of the cash-less policy on January 1, 2012. “Cash-less Lagos” introduced a daily limit for cash withdrawals over the counter for third party cheques of N150,000 and saw the rapid deployment of more ATMs and POS machines across the metropolis. While the jury is still out on the effectiveness of the policy in the 18 months it has been in operation in Lagos, the CBN has moved into second phase with the adoption of the policy in Abuja, Abia, Anambra, Kano, Ogun and Rivers states, effective July 1, 2013.

The new policy also stipulates that Cash In Transit (CIT) and cash pick up services will no longer be provided by banks but by only licensed CIT companies. The maximum daily cumulative cash withdrawals and deposit transactions for both Individual and Corporate accounts would be N500,000 and N3,000,000 respectively; there would be a charge for cash withdrawals and deposits exceeding this limit ranging from 2%-5% on withdrawals and deposits.

Exemptions have been granted on lodgments and withdrawals for accounts operated by Embassies, Diplomatic Missions, Multilateral Agencies, Aid Donor Agencies, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (revenue collections only), Microfinance Banks (MFBs) and Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMIs)...

The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), on Sunday, appealed to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to extend the nationwide deadline for SIM card registration which ended on June 30.

In a statement made available to Nigerian Telegraph, Gbenga Adebayo, the Chairman of ALTON, said that although the operators acknowledged the fact that the exercise had been ongoing for quite a while, subscribers had only just embraced the exercise properly in the last few weeks.
“We appreciate the effort of the commission on this process and the attendant public awareness campaign over the past few weeks. We believe that the exercise will be more successful if an extension of time is considered,’’ he said, asking for a 3-month extension.

Adebayo said that there was need to extend the deadline because of the general logistic problems that confronted subscribers, registration agents and ALTON members in meeting the June 30, 2013 deadline.

The SIM card registration exercise, which kicked off in March 2011, was originally scheduled to end in September of the same year, however, the deadline has been extended repeatedly by the NCC.

Tony Ojobo, the Public Affairs Director of NCC, recently said that the commission would bar all unregistered SIM cards from the networks of the telecoms service providers.

Security guards have become common fixtures in corporate Nigeria. They work at banks, pharmacies, schools, and nearly every other kind of corporate establishment in the country.

Isaac Fajaiye is a 28-year old part-time student who works as a guard at a fast food restaurant in Jibowu, Lagos. He says he supervises the traffic of customers, and monitors the restaurant’s facilities to be able to forestall security threats. He says he earns N26,000 monthly but that the amount is incommensurate with the amount of risks his job involves.

“I just manage this job because I have to pay for my education,’ he said. “N26,000 is not enough to cover for the type of risk I face daily. There was a time when armed robbers came here, and they hit me with a gun when I told them I did not know where the money was.”

Many security guards face similar risks ― but they earn even less.

Bassey Udor is one of them. He’s a guard at a hotel in Festac, Lagos, and earns only N10,000 a month. ”Normally my job is to open the gate for cars to come in and go out, but I want to leave this work soon: the pay is too small and the risk is too much because robbers usually target big hotels like our own,” he said.

Considering that they are likely to get attacked while at work, some security guards think their employers should provide them with arms so they can protect themselves and discharge their duties more effectively.

Seun Oyeleye, who is one of the guards at a Lagos bank, belongs to this group. “We don’t have weapons to defend ourselves if the need arises, so if a small boy comes here with a gun and asks me to open the door, I’ll do so or else he may shoot me,” he said.

Most security guards are usually not employed by the company where they really do their work but by a separate security firm. This firm makes a deal with a given company, called the client, and then it hires people to work as guards at this client’s establishment according to the terms of the deal. In this case, the security firm is the real employer of the guards and is responsible for their remuneration and welfare.

Some of such security guards claim that their employer pays them an unfair amount of the money the client pays for their services or that their employer does not provide them satisfactory welfare conditions.

“Here we have no medical, retirement or insurance benefits,” said a guard who did not want his name published. “You’re not allowed to go on leave and nothing is given to you when your appointment is terminated.”

Samuel Yenki gave up after years on the job. “I worked for a security firm for over ten years and left when I learned the client was paying N18,000 for my services, whereas my employer was paying me only N6,000 of it,” he said.

Experts in the industry have decried the trend, saying that such treatment open avenues for security guards to betray the trust reposed on them.

Tony Ofoyetan, the director-general of International Institute of Professional Security, said professional security firms should not pay their guard less than 65 percent of what the client is offering. ”Besides that, a lot of these guards asking for fanciful welfare benefits do not even have the befitting educational or professional qualification,” he said.

Ray Ekwueme, a chief superintendent at the National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), said that the agency is trying its best to enforce better conditions for guards employed with security firms.

“There are rules governing private guarding,” he said. “For example, the employers must provide medical benefits for their guards. So we have seized licenses and closed down some non-compliant security firms in the past. On the issue of what percentage of the client’s actual payment the security outfits should pay their guards, a decision has not been reached because clients don’t pay the same amount. If we say 65 percent, how will the outfits settle guards whose clients are paying N20,000 or less? But then we maintain that every guard must get a minimum wage of N10,000 no matter what his client is paying.”

Former Super Eagles midfielder, Thompson Oliha, is dead. He died in the early hours of Sunday.

Born in October, 1968 in Benin City, the Edo state capital, Oliha played for clubs in Africa and Europe. He played for Bendel Insurance (1985-1987), Iwuanyanwu Nationale (1988-1991), Africa Sports (1992-1993), Maccabi Ironi Ashdod F.C. (1993-1994) and Antalyaspor (1994-1995). Oliha retired at the age of 27, as a result of a knee injury.

Oliha made a total of 31 appearances for the Super Eagles, scoring two goals. He made his international debut in 1990, in a friendly against Senegal and made his last appearance at the 1994 FIFA World Cup, as a late substitute against Italy.

Until is death, Oliha was one of the coaches at the Kwara State Football Academy in Ilorin.

One of the wishes of Oliha before his death was for the federal government to fulfil the promise of a house General Sani Abacha promised the Super Eagles for winning the Tunisia 1994 Nations Cup. Sadly, he did not see that come true in his life time.

Oliha is the third member of the 1994 African Cup of Nations winning team to pass away, following Uche Okafor who died in the US and Rashidi Yekini who died last year.

legalwealth: 15 years or 50 years?

A Nigerian man, Chuhudu Obi, has been murdered in South Africa.

According to the South African police, the deceased was shot dead after a high-speed car chase through Bloemfontein on Wednesday.

The 43-year-old victim crashed into the gate of a house in Oranjesig and one of the men who had been chasing him got out of their car, walked over to Obi, who was trapped in his car, and shot him seven times.

According to the Free State Police, they found Obi dead when the arrived at the scene, after they were called by the home owner.

The Nigerian had been shot five times in the stomach, once in the neck and once in the left shoulder.

The Police also said that anyone with information on the murder should contact the Park Road police station.

As part of its effort to guarantee an effective and sustainable power supply throughout the country, the Federal government has confirmed its plans to sell 10 gas-fired power plants.

Power Minister, Chinedu Nebo, who disclosed this at an investor relations event held in New York, US, to attract international investors, said that the move was the last stage of the international investment drive for the divestment of government stakes in the generation assets of the NDPHC.
“Privatization of all public generation and distribution companies is one of the pillars of the efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) to reform the power sector,” Nebo said.

Also speaking on the FG’s plan, Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) managing director and CEO, James Abiodun Olutu said, “Eighty per cent of shares in the ten power plants are to be sold to investors providing an opportunity for growth as demand far outstrips current supply.”

The ten power plants to be sold are located in Abia State (450MW), Edo State (451MW), Cross River State (562MW), Imo State (338MW), Bayelsa State (225MW), Kogi State (434MW), Delta State (451MW), Ogun State (676MW), Rivers State (225MW) and Ondo State (451MW).

In order to sell power plants, the Federal government has changed a number of policies and announced incentives such as tax holiday and exemptions, pioneer status, reparation of profits, research and development, as well as low value added tax.

The federal government on, on Thursday, gave Dana Airline six months to pay the claims of the families of the victims of the June 3, 2012 plane crash or face sanctions.

Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, gave the ultimatum at the 2013 Ministerial Platform in Abuja.

She said the airline had paid up to 60 per cent of the claims to the victims’ families but experienced a delay due to double claims that needed to be clarified.
“Dana has actually done very well in terms of compensating accident victims,” she said. “The challenge Dana has is that of multiple claims; the multiple claims made it difficult to ascertain who should collect. And until they are able to do that, they will not pay multiple claims and we will continue verifying and re-verifying to ascertain who should be the next of kin to claim the money but I know Dana has done up to 60 per cent.

However, Dana is given to December to pay all; if they fail to pay completely, we would have to sanction them. They are aware of that so I am sure they are accelerating the process.”

The aviation minister said the sector had put up some strategies to ensure that air accidents became things of the past in Nigeria.

She said the government was rendering additional assistance to families of victims of aircraft accident, adding that the approval of the Victim Family Insurance Package (VFAP) had been secured from the Nigerian Insurance Commission (NAICOM).

She said discussions were in progress between NCAA and Zenith Bank on the implementation of the VFAP, while family assistance centre would be established to take care of emergencies.

Two male students of the Akoka-based University of Lagos (Unilag), simply identified as Mayowa and Ademuyiwa, are on the Police’s wanted list for alleged internet pornography.

The students, both in 400 Level Architecture, are on the run following their alleged connivance with a 22-year-old man, Babajide Bashorun in promoting rape and internet pornography, a police source said.

The policemen from the Adeniji Adele police station Lagos State Police Command arrested Babajide, a dog breeder for allegedly raping an unnamed undergraduate female student of the Lagos State University (LASU), recording said incident and posting images from the recording on the internet.

The police said they arrested Babajide following a report by the lady’s family that they saw her nude pictures on the internet.

However, when questioned, Babajide said he gave the photo of the sex scene to Mayowa and Ademuyiwa, who then posted it on the internet.

“She is my girlfriend. She told me to buy iPad for her. I was able to raise about N70,000. She came to my house to collect the money on that day but we had an argument and I used mop to hit her on her back. I now took her pictures. I sent the pictures to my friend, but I didn’t tell him to post the pictures on internet. I didn’t know they would do that. ”

The police source added that detectives are on the trail of the fleeing students and that they will be arrested soon.

Nigerian striker, Peter Osaze Odemwingie, may still be wearing the colours of West Bromwich Albion when the next English Premier League season kicks off.

The player, who in the last few months had a fallout with the English side, still has a year to run on his contract.

Despite interests from Crystal Palace, Swansea and Hull City to secure his services, there is no indication that these clubs are willing to pay a huge sum for his transfer. Unless one of these clubs meets the £3m asking price, Osaze will stay put at West Brom.

Chairman Jeremy Peace said, “We have a player who is under contract until the end of the upcoming season. Unless something comes in to change our way of thinking, he will be back in pre-season and we will deal with that. Unless we get an offer we’re happy with we won’t sell him.”

Osaze famously travelled to Queens Park Rangers in January in an attempt to force a move to Loftus Road and has since then been a hate figure at West Brom. He was also dropped from the Super Eagles team that won this year’s AFCON 2013, over alleged unruly conduct.

Justice Peter Kekemeke, of an Abuja High Court, has ordered the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, to arrest the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Lamorde, for disobeying a valid court order.

Justice Kekemeke directed that Lamorde and an operative of the anti-graft agency, Friday Ebelo, be apprehended and kept in prison custody within the next two weeks, except they apologise to a lawyer whose fundamental human rights were allegedly violated by the commission.

Reacting, spokesperson of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, who acknowledged that a copy of the order was served on the agency, said there are plans to get it vacated.

The court had, on March 8 and December 5, 2012, ordered Lamorde to release the call-to-bar certificate of one Innocent Onwu; apologise to him through a national newspaper; as well as pay him N50, 000 as compensation.

Onwu had on October 31, 2011, initiated a fundamental rights enforcement proceeding after he was allegedly detained by the EFCC between June 27 and July 1, 2011 without order of court.

His alleged detention was sequel to a petition by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) accusing him of complicity in fraud pertaining to a case he was investigating for a client.

Dissatisfied with the way he was allegedly manhandled by the commission, Onwu demanded N300 million as compensation for the unlawful search of his house and office and the trauma he suffered in the hands of the EFCC.

The lawyer, claimed his ailing mother was admitted at the Garki General Hospital on the day he was arrested by the EFCC, said that despite his pleas, the EFCC refused to release him to attend to his mother, resulting to her death three days later.

The court had on June 4 and June 24 this year, dismissed two applications filed by the EFCC counsel, James Onu, wherein he sought to void the contempt proceeding.

Emeka Ike, a Nollywood actor, is being accused of issuing a bounced cheque to winners of a local football competition he organised at the Sandfill field at Ogudu Ori-oke area of Lagos on the December 24, 2012.

The former Actors Guild of Nigeria president had said the aim of hosting the tournament football tournament tagged ‘Emeka Ike Desert Cup’ was to help young talented footballers discover their talent and thereby reduce crime rate in Nigeria, however, the winners lament that he is yet to keep his promises.

A total of sixteen schools picked around Lagos State participated in the tournament after paying N3000 registration fee each. Out of the sixteen schools, Emeka promised to reward the best three teams. With the winner going away with N500,000, the second with N100,000 and the third place winner with N75,000.

He had also claimed that Tottenham and Togolese striker, Emmanuel Adebayo, had agreed to assist some talents to be identified at the football tournament, and that some major clubs in Europe were sending scouts to the tournament.

He had also included that Kanu Nwankwo and the Minister of Sport, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi will be their special guests of honour but at the event, Daddy Showkey was the only celebrity present.

Golden Star team were the overall winner, with Lakeside team and All Stars team from Oworonshoki coming second and third place.

Lakeside and All Stars team collected their cash prize in January while the cheque issued to the overall winner, Golden Stars, has consistently bounced.

Nigerian Telegraph visited the winning team and the coach, Afolabi Thomas, confirmed that Emeka Ike has refused to keep to his promise.

Thomas, who has been the team’s coach for some years, said that Emeka has refused to pay the money he promised and that all efforts to reach him via phone or sms had not been successful.

The sponsor of the team, Mr. Okeke, expressed belief that Emeka used the “fake” sponsorship for his own publicity and to get the sports Ambassador for the newly launched Federal Government ‘RYTHYM and PLAY’ project, as he (Emeka) does  not know anything concerning football or sports.

“We had to contact our lawyer when Emeka kept on giving us different dates(2nd, 14th, 26th of May and 11th june) to pay us our money,” he said.

Afolabi Thomas added that the actor has been threatening them to make them withdraw their publication in the media.

“We did not go to the press to tarnish Emeka’s image but we just wanted the world to hear what happens to grassroot football team,” Afolabi noted.

A Poverty Assessment by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2007 when Lamido took office, concluded that 90.9% of Jigawa people lived within the margins of poverty-the highest in the country at the time. That record barely improved by 2008.

The 2013 report by the World Bank returned the same verdict five years on, rating Jigawa’s poverty level at 77.5 percent, compared to the lowest, 22.9 percent for Lagos state. It was the second time the north-west state would receive the damning ranking under Lamido. The first was in 2008.

Within the same period, government papers say, the state’s debt grew from $12.58 million in December 2006 to $33.67 million by December 2012, and despite receiving hundreds of billions of naira of federal allocations and international grants, the unemployment rate oscillated from a low of 5.9% in 2008 to 26.7% a year later; and 14.3% by 2010-the latest figures from the statistics office.

Health too

The health sector paints a gloomier picture. After managing to also lift funding from a paltry to N4.2 billion in 2008, the figures soon plummeted to N2.83 billion in 2009, an average that remained through 2010.

Returns from the measly investment showed so much the government admitted in its report- Jigawa State Strategic Health Sector Plan – covering 2008 to 2011, that the state’s mortality rate and disease burden was “unacceptably high”.

A rare self-assessment for the governor, who, at the time was completing his first four year term, said that the under-five mortality rate of the state was 98 per 1000 children, and an estimated 2,000 women were dying in every 100,000 live births. The figures again were amongst the nation’s highest.

“Leading causes of ill health and death among children are mostly communicable diseases, vaccine-preventable diseases, diarrhoea and malnutrition. Malaria is reported to be associated with 70% of illness among pregnant women,” the report said.

While the results have mostly been flopping, the state insists its priorities are right and it was breaking the ranks from the past even though key sectors like health and agriculture continue to receive comparatively low funding.

Education relatively better

But if one sector provides a minimal validation for that claim, it would be education.

Lamido met a state with an overall adult literacy rate was at 39.5%- much below the national average of 65.7%; primary education gross enrolment of 40.1% was among the lowest in the country and significantly below the national average of almost 93%; and secondary education gross enrolment at 23.7% (national average is 74.5%).

Under the governor, funding to the sector has grown from 6% in 2006 to 10% in 2007; 22% in 2008 and 25% in 2009. In 2010, the government set aside 28% for education. Much of the supervision was undertaken by current minister of education, Ruqayyatu Rufai, at the time, the state’s education commissioner.

Facebook has reported a bug that has led to the exposure of users’ information.

The bug, which attacked the company’s ‘Download Your Information’ tool, left about 6 million users’ contact information (email addresses or phone numbers) inadvertently exposed to other users who either had some contact information about that person or some connection to them. Describing what caused the bug, Facebook said: “When people upload their contact lists or address books to Facebook, we try to match that data with the contact information of other people on Facebook in order to generate friend recommendations.

“Because of the bug, some of the information used to make friend recommendations and reduce the number of invitations we send was inadvertently stored in association with people’s contact information as part of their account on Facebook.”

According to the company, if a person went to download an archive of their Facebook account through our Download Your Information (DYI) tool, they may have been provided with additional email addresses or telephone numbers for their contacts or people with whom they have some connection.

This contact information was provided by other people on Facebook and was not necessarily accurate, but was inadvertently included with the contacts of the person using the DYI tool.

Facebook said it has fixed the problem and is in the process of notifying affected users via email.

John Obi Mikel has dismissed as untrue, claims by a Turkish newspaper, Sabah, that he has agreed to join Galatasaray.

The paper had, on Thursday, reported that the
Chelsea midfielder had agreed to move to the
Turkish club following an advice given by
former teammate, Didier Drogba.

Quoting the 26-year-old, the paper said all that remained was for the Blues and Gala to reach an agreement. It added that Mikel, who is part of the Super Eagles squad to the 2013
Confederation Cup holding in Brazil, foresaw no problem with the deal.

Minutes after the story was published, veteran
sports analyst, Colin Udoh, took a hit at the
purported Mikel quotes on twitter.
He said: “Re those Mikel quotes. As far as I
know, he’s done just one interview in Brazil, at
training in Salvador. Did not say that then
#CFC.

”And I doubt he has done any phone
interviews either. But I’ve sms’d the link to the
quotes to him. Should get a response maybe
postgame #CFC.”

Mikel, in an SMS response, laughed off the
quotes. He said: “Hahaha, no, I did not say
that.”

The Nigeria Police command in Kebbi State has arrested three men for molesting a pregnant housewife for the ‘sins’ of her husband, who they claimed played an offensive Islamic sermon.

The suspects: Yusuf Ahmed, Muazu Mohammed and Bawa Ibrahim, were arrested in Ula town in Ngaski Local Government Area of the state.

The Deputy Commisioner of police, Garba Saleh, said that the victim was raped because
her husband, Muhammad Dantilo, refused to stop playing the sermon of Malam Maiguduma, which they considered offensive.

He said the victim was molested over an offence ostensibly committed by her husband,
stressing that she identified the rapists, who also said they wanted to teach her husband a
lesson.

The accused persons, who had earlier threatened Dantilo, took the opportunity of his
departure on a fishing expedition to abduct and rape his wife.

The deputy commissioner said the accused also dispossessed their victim of N 150,000
cash.

He said the victim personally identified all the suspects, adding that Ibrahim, who threatened Dantillo, was also arrested and would be prosecuted soon.

The accused persons have been charged before a Magistrate Court for theft, criminal
intimidation, rape and criminal trespass.