₦airaland Forum

Reps pass a bill that prescribes stiffer penalties for the crime through to third reading.

Kidnapping of persons and abduction of any kind for ransom is to attract a life jail term under a new law put forward by the House of Representatives.

The law prescribes life imprisonment for kidnapping, while attempts at the act, as well as abetting the crime, will receive a maximum term of 10 years.

Yoruba movie actor, Babatunde Omidina, aka Baba Suwe, is planning to file a N1 billion suit against the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) over his recent arrest and detention.

The actor’s lawyer says the suit will be filed before Monday following his detention.

The suspects claim parents of the children gave their consent that they be taken to Taraba to work in farms.

Officials of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Adamawa State have arrested a suspected human trafficker, Yusuf Abubakar and his wife with 24 children during a joint patrol.

Parading the suspects and the children shortly before they were handed over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and Other Related Matters (NAPTIP) on Tuesday in Yola, the Adamawa Comptroller of Immigration, Yunusa Lerama, said the suspects were intercepted in Numan town on their way to Taraba from Kano.

A verification committee discovers that two alleged projects of N28 billion existed only on paper.

The Gusau Cargo Airport and the Gotawa Independent Power Plant in Zamfara State only exist on paper, a verification committee has revealed.

Senator Saidu Dansadau, the Chairman of debt verification committee set up by the state government, made the declaration in Gusau on Tuesday, while presenting the report of the committee to Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara.

According to NAPTIP, sixty per cent of the prostitutes in Turin and Antwerp are known to be Nigerian women and girls.

The telecoms giant moves to placate subscribers following the three-day service glitch that disrupted RIM’s operations.
Article | October 17, 2011 - 5:00pm | By Richard Essien

Telecoms giant, Airtel, on Monday, stated that it would offer its BlackBerry customers a service waiver following last week’s global outage attributed to the service provider, Research in Motion (RIM).
RIM has now restored data services to its BlackBerry devices; following a three-day outage caused by a hardware error which halted messaging and Web browsing across many parts of the world. The disruptions began in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India early in the week and later spread to North America.
Rajan Swaroop, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Airtel Nigeria, said the company would compensate subscribers on their network, but failed to give specifics. “We remain concerned about the inconvenience this has caused to all our BlackBerry users earlier this week and we would like to compensate both our pre paid and post paid customers for the inconvenience as best we can,” he said.

Source.

[url=http://dailytimes.com.ng/article/efcc-does-not-submit-audited-reports-%E2%80%93-auditor-general]The EFCC however says its enabling act does not stipulate the submission of any such reports[/url].

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been listed as one of the 41 agencies and departments of government that have failed to submit any audited report to the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation since inception.

The Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. Samuel Orkura, disclosed this at the weekend during a meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts.

Nigeria’s envoy to the European country warns that things are getting tougher for illegal immigrants.

The Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr. Dalhatu Tafida, has said that Britain is no longer a safe haven for Nigerians who travel abroad in search of greener pasture.

Tafida made this known at the Nigerian Carnival award dinner in London on Saturday night. According to him, about 500 Nigerians are locked up in the United Kingdom prisons for offences relating to immigration issues as well as other criminal activities. He said the number of prisoners today was far less than what he inherited when he assumed office three years ago.

Since their engagement, the vigilantes have helped secure the arrest of some criminals in the area.

The Chairman of the Oto-Awori Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State, Mr Bolaji Roberts, on Saturday, said the LCDAhas engaged the services of more than100vigilantes to boost security in the area.

Heexplained that the vigilantes, whowere engaged to complement the efforts of the police in securing the area,because they understood the various communities therein, hadhelped reduce the crime rate in the area since they were engaged about a month ago.

Alhaji Bintube was shot in the head on Sunday evening.

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has said that he regrets the comments he made on legalising prostitution in Nigeria.

He expressed his regrets on Thursday, when the management and students of Baze University, Abuja visited him at the National Assembly Complex.

If the rumours circulating on the Internet are any thing to go by, Nollywood favourite, Mercy Johnson, is with child.

The buxom actress is alleged to have made the announcement during the Nollywood star-studded launch of Chika Ike's boutique, Multimillionaire, in Abuja, this week.

I Inherited 480 Abandoned Projects - Zamfara Governor

Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara has said that his administration inherited 480 uncompleted projects worth N42 billion from his predecessor.

Yari said this in Gusau on Wednesday, and explained that the situation had slowed down the development of the state.

He said the project verification committee set up by his administration on assumption of duty had reported that N15.2 billon had been paid by the immediate past administration for projects whose levels of completion left much to be desired.

The governor, however, said that the government had taken a critical look at the projects, with a view to completing those that had direct relevance to the needs of the people.

Yari said further, that the government had already reviewed the Sokoto bye-pass from the initial cost of N1.2 billion awarded by the past administration, to N830 million.

He said that the administration had also completed the rehabilitation and expansion of Gusau Waterworks in their bid to improve water supply to Gusau and its environs.

http://dailytimes.com.ng/article/i-inherited-480-abandoned-projects-zamfara-governor

Nigeria's Football Federation (NFF) has said that a decision on the future of Super Eagles' coach, Samson Siasia will be taken next week.

Before the meeting of the technical committee, a source close to the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) said that the federation has given their recommendation to the committee which includes among others the pros and cons of either retaining or sacking the embattled super eagles’ chief coach.

After a meeting that lasted for more than four hours, the technical committee which was divided on the matter said they have questioned the coach made their recommendations to the NFF executive committee for its consideration next week.

According to the Chairman of the federation's technical committee, Christopher Green, he said, “we have taken a very good decision though not a harsh one but will leave it for the executive committee to act on it by next week when they meet.”

Irate Nigerian fans had on Saturday protested after the country’s Nations Cup qualifying match that ended 2-2 at the Abuja National Stadium, ending the dreams of the country participating in the tournament next year as they called for Siasia’s sack.

The NFF's technical committee has deferred the decision on Samson Siasia until next week.

Despite the state government’s threats, the illegal occupants continue to stay in government reserved areas.

Illegal occupants of the Government Reservation Area (GRA) at Abere, near the governor’s office in Osogbo, Osun State, have continued to defy government’s quit order.

The area, which is an extension of the governor’s office, measures up to 20 hectares of land.

Some illegal residential and business structures mounted by unauthorised developers are scattered all over the place while some have converted some portions into farmlands.

[url=http://dailytimes.com.ng/article/%E2%80%98one-chance%E2%80%99-drivers-prowl]Robbers disguised as commercial bus drivers have resurfaced in Lagos with the 'ember' months[/url].

An Ikeja-based trader, Deji Morufu, on Tuesday, spoke of the activities of ‘one-chance’ drivers on the Ikeja-Ojuelegba axis of the Lagos metropolis.

‘One-chance’, as they are called in Lagos, are commercial buses used by robbers where a few of them disguise as passengers. Unsuspecting commuters who get on such buses are mugged.

Wife of the Lagos State governor reacts to the bill in the Senate seeking to legalise the profession.

Commercial sex trade is already a globally condemned practice; therefore, it will be demeaning for Nigeria to seek to legalise it now, said Abimbola Fashola, the wife of the Lagos State governor.

Fashola was reacting to a proposed bill seeking to legalise commercial sex in Nigeria, while briefing journalists about the forthcoming 11th National Women Conference, the annual conference of the Committee of Wives of Lagos State Officials (COWLSO).

Former RIM employee says RIM has been ignoring problems with its servers that could prove its downfall.

Millions of BlackBerry smartphone users have been cut off by a major fault at RIM, the company that makes the devices. It is not just a Glo problem.

Franca Ozekwe was arrested by anti-narcotics agents at the MMIA with 1.500kg of drugs.

The Nigerian champions lose yet another match, the third in a row since losing to Heartland in the Federations Cup final.

The former Gombe State governor, now a serving senator, allegedly ignored invitations from the anti-graft agency.

The anti-graft agency claims to be ignorant of the former governor's whereabouts and is therefore publicly declaring him wanted in the media.

The agency, in a statement on Friday, explained that they decided to publicly declare Goje wanted "after an endless search for him and his failure to submit himself for interrogation over the alleged fraud even when he was in receipt of a letter of invitation giving him up to 12noon today – Friday 7 October 2010 - to come out of his hiding".

http://dailytimes.com.ng/article/police-blame-dead-man-robbery-borno

The Borno State Police Commissioner, Simeon Midenda, has blamed a man that was shot dead during a robbery on Thursday of being responsible for the theft.

Gunmen, on Thursday, carted away about N20 million meant for the payment of the September salaries of workers of Kaga Local Council in Borno State after killing the cashier on the Maiduguri- Benesheik Road.

The the robbers, numbering about five, shot the cashier, Wakil Ali, who was said to have died instantly.

“A cashless society is anti people and ungodly,” said Smart Adeyemi (PDP Kogi State), adding that a cashless economy is against biblical principles and is also an aberration of traditional methods.

http://dailytimes.com.ng/article/senators-reject-cashless-economy

Apparently the total amount they are being questioned for is 101 billion nairas!

not only Gbenga Daniel http://dailytimes.com.ng/article/former-governors-arrested

Imo State threatens to retaliate by evicting indigenes of its neighbouring state on its payroll.

The Imo State Government has urged Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State to reconsider his decision to sack non-indigenes from the state’s civil service.

Orji announced, three weeks ago, that all non-indigene civil servants in Abia State should go back to their own states in order to enable him pay the new national minimum wage. . .

Alhaja Rabiatu Oyenuga,Wife of ex Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) Marshal, was arraigned before an Ebute-Metta Chief Magistrate court in Lagos, on a charge of killing two children and injuring their mother in a motor accident.

Oyenuga was said to have committed the offence on Patience Street, Ebute-Metta, Lagos, while driving a Mercury four-wheel car with registration number: LAGOS FR 902 LND.

The legal battle between the two technology giants intensifies as Samsung seeks to block the newly announced iPhone 4s in France and Italy.

Samsung Electronics said it will file patent-infringement claims in France and Italy to ban the sale of Apple's new iPhone less than a day after it was unveiled, intensifying a legal battle between the two top brands.

It will also file legal cases in other countries to stop the sale of the iPhone 4S after further review, the South Korean maker of Galaxy smartphones and tablets said in a statement.