14022018 - Workers flee as herdsmen overrun LG offices in Ondo

Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2018—7
:Vanguard News :@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058
Police kill community leader over last
year's missing cow
•They attempted to burn down
By Ike Uchechukwu
CALABAR—THERE was
pandemonium in Itigidi,
headquarters of Abi Local
Government Area of Cross River
State, following the alleged
murder of a community leader and
mortician, Mr. Isong Nkanu aka
Isong No Joke, by the Police.
Vanguard gathered that trouble
started when some village chiefs
and the youth leader were invited
by the Police and later detained
over an issue that started sometime
in October 2017, when some
herdsmen allegedly reported that
one of their cows was killed by
unknown persons in the
community.
It was gathered that their
detention irked the community
youths, who went on protest
during which one of them was shot
dead by the Police.
A community leader, who
pleaded anonymity, told
•... another remanded in prison for beating wife to death
threatened to leave him for
another man.
“He stabbed his wife with a
kitchen knife during the
ensuing argument and he also
attempted to kill himself by
stabbing himself in the abdomen
with the knife.”
The convict had claimed that
his action was due to
provocation, but the judge
rejected his defence.
Bricklayer beats wife dead
Meanwhile, an Ebute Meta
Vanguard that they thought the
matter had been taken care of, but
were surprised that the Itigidi Police
Division invited their chiefs,
including the youth leader.
The source said: “When the chiefs
and our youth leader were invited,
they honoured the invitation as
law-abiding citizens, but were
detained and this infuriated the
entire community, which led to a
protest.
“The youths went on a protest
without any weapon or arms; they
went to register their grievances
over the arrests.
“It shows they have respect for
authority and law; it was during
the demonstration that Isong, one
of the community leaders, was shot
dead by Police.”
‘It's politics’
The community leader continued:
“To be honest with you, the matter
was politicised because if not we
see no reason why a matter about
The fifth batch of 136 Libya returnees disembarking from the
plane at Port Harcourt International Airport, yesterday. PHOTOS:
Nwankpa Chijioke.
By Ikechukwu Nnochiri
ABUJA—A
22-year-old
commander of the Boko
Haram sect, Abba Umar, who was,
yesterday, sentenced to 60 years
imprisonment by a Federal High
Court sitting at Wawa Military
Magistrate’s Court in Lagos, also
yesterday, ordered the remand of
a bricklayer, Akinyemi Edgar, in
Ikoyi Prisons for allegedly
beating his wife to death.
The 32-year-old accused is to
remain in custody, pending
receipt of legal advice from the
state Director of Public
Prosecutions.
The plea of the accused was not
taken by the court.
The prosecutor, Sergeant
Kehinde Olatunde, told the court
that the accused committed the
the station—Police
a cow that was shot dead in October
2017 will suddenly come
up now.
“They are claiming that
herdsmen reported the matter.
Those herders are not even
domiciled in this area; it is
because the Divisional Police
Officer is of northern extraction.
“We neither attacked any
policeman nor burnt any part
of the police station. The
building that houses the police
station is a rented apartment
belonging to an Itigidi man.
“So there is no way the place
could have been burnt down as
it is being insinuated by
mischief makers.”
The source also explained that
the chiefs and the youth leader
were later released at about 12
midnight on Monday, when
tension became too high.
Police story
Contacted, the Police Public
I’ll hurry back to Sambisa Forest if ever released
—22-yr-old Boko Haram commander jailed 60 years
Cantonment, Kainji, Niger State,
said he will rush back to Sambisa
Forest to continue with terrorism if
released.
The court found Umar, who was
among a second batch of over 1,000
Boko Haram suspects being
prosecuted by the Federal
Government at Kainji, complicit
in various acts of terrorism.
He had been in detention
since 2014 after a failed suicide
mission to bomb a school in
Gombe State.
Umar, who was 18 years old
when he was arrested, did not
offence on December 13, 2017,
at Agemowo in Badagry,
Lagos.
Olatunde alleged that the
accused, and another person
now at large, conspired to beat
Adejoke Kalejaiye to death
before dumping her corpse in
a shallow grave beside a well.
According to the prosecutor,
the offence contravened
Sections 223 and 233 of the
Criminal Laws of Lagos State,
2015; the case was adjourned
till March 22.
Relations Officer, ASP Irene
Ugbo, said some herdsmen had
complained some months ago
that indigenes of the Itigidi
community killed their cows.
Her words: “The youths got
wrong information; they
thought the Police at Ugep had
taken their chief and youth
leader to Calabar, not
knowing they were only
invited for a peace talk and
for the matter to be resolved
amicably.
“On that strength, we invited
the community leader to make
peace. Unfortunately, the
youths in the community read
a different meaning to the
invitation of their community
leaders.
“They became restive and
threatened to burn down Itigidi
Police Station. There was
intervention by the Police
and, in the process, one
person died.”
exhibit any sign of remorse as
the court passed sentence.
Speaking through an Hausa
interpreter, the convicted Boko
Haram kingpin said he will
hurriedly return to Sambisa
Forest to continue with his acts
of terrorism if he was ever
released from detention.
He confirmed that the 17
pictures the prosecution
tendered, which showed him,
the car and Improvised
Explosive Devices, IEDs, meant
for the botched suicide
operation, were authentic.
He told the court that being a
commander in the Boko Haram
sect, he had over 100
lieutenants under him.
Umar equally told the court
that he married two wives in
Sambisa Forest, describing
himself as “an Islamist warrior,
and a commander in the
Islamist army.”
Benue killings:
Police arrests
mole, recover
AK-47 rifle
By Peter Duru
M AKURDI—ONE
suspected mole has
been arrested by
operatives of Benue State
Police Command at
Ayilamo, Logo Local
Government Area of the
state over attack on Police
personnel that led to the
killing of an officer.
Parading the suspect
alongside five other
suspects in Makurdi
yesterday, the state’s
Commissioner of Police,
Fatai Owoseni, said one
of the attackers was also
killed in the operation.
Owoseni said: “After the
attack at Azege in
Ayilamo, where one of our
personnel was found
brutally slaughtered with
his two eyes, ears and
nose removed and
another missing, we
embarked on recovery
and rescue operation and
restoration of security in
the area.
“In the course of the
operation, the attackers
engaged the Police in a
shootout; one of the
attackers died in that
operation and the AK-47
rifle with which they have
been attacking the Police
was recovered, while one
other suspect was
arrested.
“Our preliminary
investigation from the
person that was arrested
goes to affirm what we
have been saying that if
the wall is not cracked a
lizard will not find an
entry.
“What we are getting
from the suspect, he is a
resident of that
community, who at one
time or the other had
been selling out
operations of security
agencies to militants and
the security agencies.
“The investigation is still
ongoing and we have got
words from him that is of
evidential value.
“As we round up our
investigation, we hope that
it will lead us to more
arrests and he will be
properly arraigned with
other suspects that we
might arrest in the course
of this operation.
“We still want to appeal
to the people of the state,
that we cannot overcome all
these challenges without
the cooperation of the
people, who should avail
us credible information and
also identify moles within
the communities that bring
in the criminal elements.”