25052018 - BENUE KILLINGS: ETHNIC CLEANSING OR JIHAD? Soyinka, Northern leaders tango

Vanguard, FRIDAY, MAY 25, 2018—15
Ebonyi community protests
alleged police intimidation,
mass arrest
By Peter Okutu
A BAKALIKI—
A K P O H A
community in Afikpo North
Local Government Area of
Ebonyi State, yesterday
protested the mass arrests
of their kinsmen and an
expatriate by a combined
team of security operatives
in Abakaliki.
The protesters who were
mainly aged men and
women alleged that the
security agents invaded
their community, arrested
and whisked away anyone
they caught over a “lawful
mining deal” they entered
into with a mining
company, Asphalt
Construction Ltd.
The company had paid
the sum of N19 million to
the people of the area as a
compensatory payment for
a piece of land acquired for
purposes of mining stones
(quarry business) which
leased period was 25 years.
Leader of the aggrieved
villagers, Mr Emmanuel
Mba Isu alleged that the
combined team of security
operatives including the
police stormed the
community, harassed and
intimidated the villagers
Enugu first lady didn’t blast
NGOs, public servants
THE Enugu State
government has said
that Governor Ifeanyi
Ugwuanyi’s wife, Mrs.
Monica did not abuse civil
servants or Non-
Governmental
Orgainsations, NGOs, as
reported yesterday.
A top government official
who reacted to our story
captioned; “Sickle cell
anemia: Enugu first lady
blasts NGOs, public
servants,” said that there
:Vanguard News :@vanguardnews :@vanguardnews NEWS HOTLINES: 08052867023, 08052867058
especially women and the
elderly.
“Security operatives
loaded in three Hilux vans
stormed the village and
started arresting the
residents. We later learnt
that they came on the
orders of the Ebonyi State
Government.
“We have met with the
Police Public Relations
Officer with our lawyers.
But they said that there is a
petition from some persons
in the community alleging
that the company did not
obey government’s rules.
We asked: which
government’s rule was
that?
"If they breached
protocols, will that warrant
the police to arrest the
villagers? Should that not
be government versus the
company?"
Contacted, the Police
Public Relations Officer,
PPRO, in the state, Mrs
Loveth Odah said they
arrested 16 persons
including a Lebanese.
According to her, the
arrest was a result of a
petition authored by some
stakeholders of the
community over the
business deal alleging that
the land in the matter was
in dispute.
Declaring me wanted's attempt to
embarrass my personality
—Innoson chairman
CHAIRMAN
of
Innoson Group of
Companies, Chief
Innocent Chukwuma,
yesterday responded to the
report of court declaring
him wanted, saying it was
attempt to embarrass his
personality.
According to a statement
he issued yesterday, “I
have been briefed by my
lawyers that Justice
Mojisola Dada of Lagos
State High Court Ikeja
granted the oral plea of
counsel to the Economic
and Financial Crimes
Commission to declare me
wanted because of my
failure to appear before the
court today. I have
expressly stated before that
I am not afraid of
arraignment but must be
arraigned through due
process of the law.
“It must be noted that I,
through my legal counsel,
challenged the jurisdiction
of the Lagos State High
Court to hear the forgery
charge filed against me by
the Economic and
Financial Crimes
Commission on the ground
of, inter alia, the charge
being an abuse of process.
I filed an application before
the court that this present
charge is an abuse of
process because a similar
charge on the same subject
matter, transactions and
issues is ongoing at the
Federal High Court Lagos
Division between the same
parties, in charge no FHC/
l/565c/2015. The last
hearing of the charge at the
Federal High Court was
this week, May 22nd 2018."
was nowhere Mrs.
Ugwuanyi abused or
lambasted anybody or
group because there was no
reason for such outburst
during the event.
“We were embarrassed
when we read this
morning (yesterday) that
the wife of the governor
blasted some people.
There was nothing like that
and the First Lady, did not
say what was attributed to
her,” the top government
official said.
N400m fraud trial: Absence of defence
lawyer stalls Metuh’s trial in absentia
A
B
By Ikechukwu
Nnochiri
U J A —
SCHEDULED
commencement of trial of
the embattled former
National Publicity Secretary
of the Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, Chief Olisa
Metuh, in absentia,
suffered a setback on
Thursday, following the
absence of his lawyer in
court.
Metuh’s lead counsel,
Mr. Emeka Etiaba, SAN,
was said to have gone to
the Supreme Court to
handle another matter.
Consequently, Justice
Okon Abang of the Federal
High Court in Abuja who
initially stood down the trial
till 1pm, subsequently
adjourned the case till
Friday.
Counsel to the Economic
and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, Mr.
Sylvanus Tahir had, after
Metuh’s case was called
up around 1:50pm,
applied for a further standdown
to enable him verify
if Etiaba had concluded his
matter at the Supreme
Court.
His application was
supported by the lawyer
representing Metuh’s firm
in the trial, Chief Tochukwu
Onwugbufor, SAN.
In a bench ruling, Justice
Abang who restated his
position that Metuh
jumped bail and deserved
to be tried in absentia
having failed to offer any
reasonable explanation for
his absence in court, said
he was however minded to
shift commencement of the
trial till Friday.
It will be recalled that the
high court had on
Wednesday, granted
EFCC leave to continue the
trial in the absence of
Metuh who was said to
have been admitted at the
Intensive Care Unit of the
National Hospital in Abuja.
From left—Mr. Bolu Odusanya, MD, TREXM Oil and Gas Services;
Mr. Moukarram Alameddine, Sales Director, Measurement and Control
Sub-Saharan Africa; and Mr Brent Omdahl, Commercial Counsellor,
US Mission to Nigeria, at the Baker Hughes, a GE company and
TREXM Oil and Gas Services technology meeting to educate regulators
and stakeholders on the latest trends in liquid custody transfer metering
in Nigerian market, yesterday.
Flood: Aba residents threaten to
boycott 2019 polls
ABA—RESIDENTS of
flood- ravaged areas in
Aba, Abia State, have
threatened to boycott the
2019 general elections if
the federal and state
governments as well as
their representatives at
various levels fail to
address the situation.
The residents drawn from
Mathew Avenue, Railway
Avenue, Ahuruonye and
Nwaogu Street, all in
Obuda community, told
Vanguard that they are
blaming their
predicament on the
representatives of the area
and are urging them to
correct the ‘errors of the
past’.
They lamented that they
have been forgotten by the
state and federal
governments as every rainy
season is a mourning
period for them and
threatened to boycott the
elections if nothing is done.
A resident of the area,
Japheth Charles Oforji
lamented that a boycott in
2019 is the only way to
express their anger, stating
that it is unfortunate that an
area that could boast to be
the second highest
populated area in Aba
behind the Ndiegoro axis,
has been left in ruin.
“We are tired of talking
and complaining. We will
boycott the 2019 elections.
When we talk about
elections in Aba, every
politician that misses our
vote is as bad as losing.
This area plus our
neighbouring streets
around can boast of over
6,000 to 10,000 people. We
are not asking for a
wonderful road network,
we are not demanding for
asphalted roads. All we ask
for is for them to come and
open the blocked drainage
so that more lives will not
be lost as the rainy season
approaches.
“We don’t want after the
impending flood, for them
to bring their inaccessible
relief materials. We don’t
need any relief material. If
you are giving me food
when flood has destroyed
my house, where will I
keep it? If you are giving
me blanket, where will I lie
down?
“If you are giving me
mosquito net, where will I
place it? What we are
saying is this, let them save
the money for their usual
relief materials and save
us from the impending
doom.
“You can’t channel water
into my house and give me
rice to eat on top of the
water. It doesn’t make
sense. Let them give us
good environment, we can
feed ourselves. I cannot eat
rice today and live in the
bush tomorrow. We wasted
all our energy to vote them
in and up till now, we are
still suffering. We are not
against anybody but we
beg them to save us before
we perish.We are tired of
government's neglect and
maltreatment.”
Leader of the affected
streets, Pastor Chisom
Oriaku stated that
politicians only visit the
area during electioneering
campaigns and disappear
after the elections.
The former PDP spokesman
was on Monday,
rushed to the hospital in an
ambulance belonging to
the court, after he fell
while on his way to enter
the dock to continue his
defence to the seven-count
money laundering charge
EFCC preferred against
him.
Justice Abang had since
maintained that Metuh
engaged in gross
misconduct when he
disobediently attempted to
enter the dock after the
court had permitted him to
remain where he was
initially seated.
The Judge stressed that
Metuh fell on his own and
disrupted the court’s
proceedings by
whimpering loudly and
groaning intermittently,
“giving the impression that
he was in serious pain”.
He said it was not correct
that Metuh collapsed, “the
defendant did not collapse,
he fell down on his own”.
According to Justice
Abang, Metuh “ignored a
humane disposition of the
court” by insisting on
entering the dock, an
action he said amounted to
gross misconduct and
wilful disobedience to a
lawful directive from the the
court.
He said Metuh had on
the day he fell , entered the
courtroom with a walking
stick “to give impression
that he cannot walk on his
own”.
The court accused Metuh
of employing various delay
tactics to frustrate his trial.
“The 1st defendant has no
right to hold this court to
ransom by doing things or
taking steps deliberately
intended to scuttle his trial.
“The 1st defendant has
repeatedly made the court
of law look like an accident
scene. This conduct should
not be allowed in that
temple of justice.”, Justice
Abang held.
“In a bid to dismantle the
road block, the court was
accused of being biased
and conducting unfair trial.
However, this court will
stand its ground and
always do what is right”,
Justice Abang added.
Metuh is facing trial
alongside his firm, Destra
Investment Ltd.
EFCC alleged that he
received N400million from
the Office of the National
Security Adviser, ONSA,
prior to the 2015
presidential election,
without executing any
contract.
The agency alleged that
the fund was electronically
wired from an account that
ONSA operated with the
Central Bank of Nigeria,
CBN, to Metuh, via
account no. 0040437573,
which his firm operated.