'I stopped collecting allowances paid to former Heads of State when I assumed office in May 2015' - Buhari

President Buhari yesterday said he stopped collecting his allowances as a former head of state immediately after he assumed office as President on May 29th 2015. In a statement released by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Shehu Garba on twitter, President Buhari also stated that he never collected cars, calendars and diaries from the Nigerian Army that were being distributed to former Heads of State. Read the statement below ...

'I stopped collecting allowances paid to former Heads of State when I assumed office in May 2015' - Buhari

President Buhari yesterday said he stopped collecting his allowances as a former head of state immediately after he assumed office as President on May 29th 2015. In a statement released by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Shehu Garba on twitter, President Buhari also stated that he never collected cars, calendars and diaries from the Nigerian Army that were being distributed to former Heads of State. Read the statement below ...

Photos: Soldiers damage eye of road safety official who pleaded for mercy for road victim being tortured in Lagos

An official of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Segun Enikuemehin, who dared to ask some soldiers who were assaulting a civilian to desist from such a dastardly act is currently at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) with one of his eyes totally damaged.‎ According to Sahara Reporters, the incident happened on Sunday August 14th.  Segun saw some military officers beating a harmless civilian. Worried that the officers could kill the man with the beating they were giving him, he approached the soldiers and pleaded that they stop beating the man and take him to the nearest police station if he had done something illegal.
The military men would not take such effrontery lightly as they descended on him and started beating him as well.

But not even the beating from the soldiers would discourage Segun as he was able to amidst his own beating, rescue the already battered man whom he then took to the Adekunle Police station at Ebute Metta. Eyewitnesses say Segun afterwards led some police officers back to the venue of the incident. Upon sighting him in the company of the policemen, the soldiers, who were by that time already cooling off at a nearby beer parlor, became even enraged and descended on him during which they pluckedout his eye and threw it on the ground. The damaged eye was picked from the ground and Segun was imemmdiately rushed to the General Hospital.  Rejected upon arrival by that hospital, the blinded man reportedly asked that he be taken to LUTH.

Meanwhile, the soldiers, upon realizing what they had done, were said to have taken to their heels but were overtaken by residents and handed over to the police.

When a relative of the stabbed Federal Road Safety Officer went back to the police station, he discovered that the soldiers had already been released by the police. While still digesting that development, one of the accused soldiers walked into the station in the company of a senior officer who was identified as Captain Okoli.

Segun's Uncle, Prince Ojatunwse Oluwajoba, who spoke on the incident, said the DPO of Adekunle Police Station informed him when he got there that the soldier who stabbed his nephew had been handed over to the military authorities.

He said that soldier, who had been in civilian clothes when the incident happened, arrived at the police station with Captain Okoli to collect his identity card and other personal effects that had been taken from him at the station. He added that doctors at LUTH are now saying his nephew’s left eye has been completely damaged and that the second eye might be affected as well if proper medical care is not given.

Woman declared wanted by the Nigerian Army, responds, says she will turn herself in

Aisha Wakil, along with Journalist Ahmed Salkida and Amb Ahmed U. Bolori were declared wanted by the Nigerian Army yesterday in connection with information on the conditions and the exact location of Chibok school girls abducted by Boko Haram 2 years ago. Wakil who is strongly believed to have direct links to Boko Haram, has now responded via an interview with Premium Times.

According to Aisha Wakil, she received news of her being wanted with rude shock, because she is not a stranger to the military.

"They know me very well. Right from (former President Goodluck) Jonathan’s time. I am not hiding. I’ve had meeting with them, I still met with the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, and other Army chiefs towards the end of last year. We had very lengthy meeting that we finished around11 p.m and the next day we continued. I’m in Abuja right now, but I am thinking of going back to Maiduguri so I can see them at the main barracks there. But if there’s anywhere I could see them in Abuja here I will go and see them."

Photos: Troops arrest Corp member, 3 others for vandalizing national assets in Borno State

Troops of Operation Lafiya Dole on patrol at the outskirts of Maiduguri metropolis, Borno State at about 1.20am today, August 15, arrested 4 suspected vandals of critical national assets in the area.

The patrol team, intercepted Aliyu Jubril, 24 years old man, who is also a member of National Youth Service Corps, Ismail Baba, 22 years old and a student of Ramat Polytechnic, Mohammed Suleiman,

aged 25, a driver and Mohammed Bukar aged 15, and assistant to the driver, at Silo along Maiduguri-Damboa road while attempting to cart away heavy armoured cable belonging to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) that they vandalized.

They lifted and loaded the heavy cables in a truck using a crane with registration number 09B-15BO before their arrest.

 

One of the suspects came with a Honda Accord car (2001 model) with registration number GA 544-ABC in a bid to escort to an undisclosed location. The suspects are being interrogated and would soon be handed over to the appropriate security agency.

#Justice4uzoamaka: Orderly Room trial to recommend dismissal of the 3 indicted policemen from the Police force

According to Linus Abaa Okorie who has been ardently following 15 year old Uzoamaka's case, the girl who has stripped naked and severely flogged on camera, the 3 policemen who were involved in the dastardly act have been indicted after an orderly room trial. A recommendation for dismissal for their part in the case has also been recommended. Read his post after the cut...

The quest for justice for Uzoamaka, the minor that was tortured and dehumanized by a combination of public officers and policemen in Uburu, Ebonyi state, has begun to bear positive fruits. ...

Sources have confirmed that the three policemen indicted in the crime have been recommended for dismissal by the Orderly Room trial that held yesterday at the state command headquarters. The Command Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) is expected to issue a statement announcing the decision any time from now.

The affected policemen are:
Cpl Paulinus Nwodom, Cpl Monday Nweke and Cpl Obinna Ironsi.

With this development, the affected officers will now be expected to join three other suspects Ogbonnaya Ene Odii (Coordinator Ohaozara Development Centre), Enekwachi Ene Odii and Martins to face prosecution in court on charges arising from the crime.  

The public now looks forward to a similarly expeditious conclusion of police investigations so that all suspects can be arraigned appropriately.  

One must commend the Ebonyi state Commissioner of Police, Peace Ibekwe Abdallah and her team of officers and men, for their professional rectitude in the administration and management of this case so far. I should also specially commend and appreciate the Ebonyi state governor, Engr. David Umahi Nweze, for providing the unfettered conducive environment for the police to work and achieve these monumental results. He had in a public statement roundly condemned the dastardly act and insisted that justice must be done accordingly, irrespective of the status of any suspect.  

Our call for steadfastness and conscious alert remains with the public until this case is finally disposed of in accordance with our laws.  

Finally, let me reiterate my earlier call on the government and people of Ebonyi state to take advantage of little Uzoamaka's case and the publicity surrounding it to domesticate the VIOLENCE AGAINST PERSONS PROHIBITION ACT (‪#‎VAPPA‬). This will provide a permanent protection for similar incidents and deter future abuses.

Graphic photos from the clash between Igbos and Hausas in Akokwa, Imo State

Six people were killed in Akokwa, Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State, Friday. According to Chidi Godswill Iwuchukwu, who shared these photos on a Facebook group: 

"A Fulani man pursued a girl hawking buns into an old woman's house in Akokwa today, when the woman intervened the Fulani man used shovel and murdered both the woman and the girl, thank God for a young lady that saw what happened and she raise an alarm, the youth of Akokwa gathered and killed the Fulani man and killed more 5 Hausa people before police came and intervene, news reaching me now is that all the hausas people are running away from Akokwa, Ideato and some other neighboring towns"