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Tag: Anambra

  • Obiano bans tinted glasses, reads riot act to criminals in Anambra

    Obiano bans tinted glasses, reads riot act to criminals in Anambra

    Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, has read the riot act to criminals following the recent attacks on police and naval formations in the state.

    In a state broadcast on Sunday in Akwa, he noted that another incident was foiled by security operatives and the security agencies have been directed to resist such attacks going forward.

    According to the governor, any attack on security operatives in the state is an attack on the entirety of the people and it is time for all security agencies, the vigilante services, and all task forces to rise in the defence of the state.

    As part of efforts to check the recent trend of security challenges in the state, he declared that fitted tinted glasses on vehicles, as well as covered plate numbers, would no longer be allowed on all roads within Anambra.

    Governor Obiano stated that the security agencies would be conducting special and strategic operations aimed at neutralising the emerging threats to the collective safety of the people.

    He also ordered a clampdown on all cultists and their activities, saying the state government would no longer tolerate violence in the name of cultism.

    The governor appealed to the youths to shun cultism and embrace meaningful lifestyles, adding that the government would no longer tolerate touting in whatever guise, especially in Onitsha.

    He, therefore, directed the security agencies to arrest anybody hanging on the road with sticks and molesting innocent residents.

    Governor Obiano also briefed on the recent killing of a suspected cultist, as well as the kidnap and murder of the President-General of Omor Community in Ayamelum Local Govt Area of the state.

  • SAD! Unknown gunmen murder two NCS staff, attack Police station in Anambra

    SAD! Unknown gunmen murder two NCS staff, attack Police station in Anambra

    Two individuals said to be members of staff of the Nigeria Correctional Services, NCS, attached to Ekwulobia Prisons in Anambra State have reportedly been killed by unknown gunmen.

    The men were alleged to have been attacked and killed while escorting a van conveying inmates of the prison to the court for hearing at about 11am on Friday.

    Two policemen and three soldiers had also been killed by unknown gunmen, the previous day in two locations in the state, with their arms carted away, while a police van was set ablaze.

    In the same vein, it was gathered that at about 4am on Friday, a police station in the same Ekwulobia was attacked by gunmen but the attack was quickly repelled by officers on duty.

    Ekwulobia station is one of the police stations razed during the EndSARS protest and was recently rebuilt.

    The Public Relations Officer of the Anambra State Command of the Nigeria Correctional Centre, Mr Francis Ekechukwu confirmed the attack, saying the command was devastated by the news of the attack.

    “You know this (attack) has been on for sometime now, but we never envisaged it will get to us. Yes, there was an attack on our men, and two persons were killed. One of them is our staff, but the other is not.

     

    “We are still investigating. We will issue a press release about this soon, but for now, we are trying to unravel how it happened and to go after the criminals. It was a gun duel, but two people were killed as a result,” Ekechukwu told DAILY POST.

    The spokesperson of the state Police Command, DSP Toochukwu Ikenga also confirmed the attack on Ekwulobia station but added that the men on duty overpowered the attackers, causing them to flee.

     

  • Gunmen attack police patrol team, kill one in Anambra

    Gunmen attack police patrol team, kill one in Anambra

    Gunmen on Thursday attacked a police patrol team along the Nimo-Neni Link Road in Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State, leaving one personnel dead.

    A source alleged that three policemen were killed after which their rifles were carted away by the gunmen, who set the police patrol vehicle ablaze.

    But the Police Command in Anambra State said only one officer was confirmed dead at an undisclosed hospital.

    Toochukwu Ikenga, a Deputy Superintendent of Police and the Command’s Public Relations Officer, said no fewer than 20 unidentified gunmen in three Toyota Siena buses and motorcycles engaged the policemen in a gun duel.

    Ikenga said the gun battle lasted about 30 minutes before the assailants fled the scene after a reinforcement was mobilised.

    He said: “There was an attack on Police patrol team at Okacha junction, Neni in Anaocha by yet to be identified gunmen on March 18 at about 4:30pm.

    “The hoodlums, numbering over 20, engaged the policemen in a gun-duel for over 30 minutes before reinforcement from the state headquarters arrived, forcing the hoodlums to escape.

    “As a result, two police operatives sustained gunshot injuries and were rushed to the hospital for medical attention where one was confirmed dead by a medical doctor.”

    Ikenga said the Commissioner of Police, Monday Kuryas, visited the scene and that investigation was ongoing to unmask those behind the attack, while assuring that they would be hunted down and prosecuted.

  • Police uncover another ‘baby factory’ in Anambra, rescue four pregnant girls

    Police uncover another ‘baby factory’ in Anambra, rescue four pregnant girls

    The Police Command in Anambra says it has uncovered a baby factory at Otolo, Nnewi following its investigation into an attempted child theft a week ago.

    The Command’s Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Haruna Mohammed, in a statement on Tuesday in Awka, said four pregnant girls were also rescued from the facility.

    Mohammed said the Nnewi Area Command Headquarters, on March 11, reported that a four-year- old pupil of St Joseph’s School, Otolo Nnewi was stolen while returning from school.

    He said two male suspects on a motorcycle had grabbed the child and zoomed off with him, but were pursued and accosted by some commercial motorcyclists when the victim’s siblings raised alarm.

    “Preliminary investigations conducted by the Police revealed that the suspects who were beaten to stupor by an angry mob (one of whom was confirmed dead), were sent by another suspect.

    He said the third suspect still at large, allegedly operates a baby factory and a brothel where she kept young girls, got them pregnant and later sell the children to waiting customers.

    The police spokesman said that the pregnant girls aged between 18 and 21, were rescued from Cool Joint bar in Nnewi.

    He said the Command was intensifying efforts to arrest the principal suspect who hails from Ohaozora, Ebonyi state, in order to bring her and other accomplices to Justice.

  • Anambra Information Commissioner receives 2021 Chinua Achebe Award for Intellectual Productivity

    Anambra Information Commissioner receives 2021 Chinua Achebe Award for Intellectual Productivity

    The Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, C. Don Adinuba, has received the annual Chinua Achebe Award for Intellectual Productivity for 2021 of the Institute of African Studies of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State.

     

     

     

    The award was given at the Chinua Achebe International Conference held from March 9 to March 11 at Princess Alexandria Auditorium in honour of Africa’s foremost novelist, eassayist and social critic whose books have been translated into several languages and sold in millions.

     

     

     

    After retiring from the University of Nigeria as a professor of literature in the early 1980s, Achebe returned to the Institute of African Studies at the same university as Emeritus Professor and editor of Okike, The African Journal of New Writing which he founded in 1971.

     

     

     

    “It is a great privilege to be honoured in memory of such a great man”, said the commissioner after being presented with the award by Professor Romanus Ezeokonkwo, the representative of member of the university’s senate and a member of the governing council who is also the director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Development Research.

     

     

     

    “Achebe was by every standard in the world a towering figure, yet he treated my great friend and brother, Okey Ndibe, and myself as though we were equal when we were in our 20s in the 1980s and we enjoyed his confidence. He not just inspired us but guided us well. Therefore, I am quite emotional to receive this award endowed in his memory”.

     

     

     

    The theme of the conference was “Reevaluation of African Values in the Face of the Crisis of the 21st Century”.

     

     

     

    Delivering a research paper entitled “Towards a More Robust Appreciation of Cultural Values and their Correlation with Organizational Growth and National Development: A Paradigm Shift for Nigerian Higher Institutions, Adinuba called on both the National Universities Commission (NUC) and Nigerian universities to embrace the relatively new approach to cultural studies by world-class universities like Harvard in the United States which link organizational cultural values to superior organizational performance and rapid national and regional development.

     

     

     

    “Certain values impede economic progress and while some others encourage progress”, he argued, citing the example of southern Italy which remains undeveloped because of the social values which protect and promote criminal organizations like the mafia while northern Italy is developed like the rest of western Europe because of the absence of such organizations.

     

     

     

    The commissioner referred to India as an example of a country held down for 3,000 years by its caste system which is etched in the dominant Hindu religion, saying it prevented millions of so-called untouchables from realizing their economic potential.

     

     

     

    Such great Indian entrepreneurs as Jamsetji Tata who were originally victims of the caste system were able to escape wretchedness because they lived outside India and on returning home changed to Budhism which recognized their full humanity.

     

     

     

    “Deeply religious societies are not as economically competitive as more secular ones”, he said.

     

     

     

    Adinuba asked Nigerian institutions to study differences in cultural values in countries, including African nations, to prepare their students for the “realities of today’s globalized world”.

     

     

     

    He revealed that the United Bank of Africa (UBA) subsidiary in Ghana was almost closed down by the Ghanaian authorities when it was opened newly because the Nigerian managers ordered the local employees to work beyond 4pm, as is the practice in Nigeria.

     

    Nigeria, he noted, has a “life-work balance different from Ghana where the people are laid back”.

     

     

     

    He also revealed that Nigerian businesses internationalizing into francophone Africa had difficulties with the local employees who insist on closing at midday for two hours to have siesta, as is the case in most French-speaking countries.

     

    “There are other cultural challenges which Nigerian students should be exposed to in the age of globalization.

     

     

     

    “This is a more rewarding enterprise than to limit cultural studies in the higher institutions to African dances, African literature, African fashion, African drama, African architecture, African music, etc”.

     

     

  • NDLEA uncovers heroin, cocaine at palace of Anambra monarch

    NDLEA uncovers heroin, cocaine at palace of Anambra monarch

    The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it has uncovered cocaine and heroin concealed in the palace of a traditional ruler in Anambra state.

    The drug enforcement agency released a statement to this effect through Femi Babafemi, its director of media and advocacy.

    The agency said its operatives at the Anambra command recovered 58.5 grammes of cocaine and 13.9 grammes of heroin.

    Although the NDLEA did not mention the name of the traditional ruler, it said security personnel at the palace are helping to trace the owner of the consignment.

    “In a related development, operatives of the Anambra State Command of the Agency have recovered 58.5 grammes of cocaine and 13.9 grammes of heroine concealed in the palace of a prominent traditional ruler in the state,” Babafemi said in a statement on Monday.

    “Investigations are on-going to unravel how the illicit drugs were hidden in the palace and the palace security guards are helping in tracing the dealer behind the consignment, Muhammadu Misbahu Idris, the Anambra state Commander of the NDLEA stated.”

    Babafemi said operatives of the agency also nabbed Hassan Taiwo, “a notorious trafficker”, with three parcels of cocaine concealed in a false bottom of his luggage at the Lagos airport.

    Taiwo was said to have been arrested at the weekend by operatives attached to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport.

    The alleged trafficker had arrived in the country from Addis Abba, Ethiopia, on Friday.

    The agency said it discovered that the suspect had been engaging in the “criminal trade through some Middle East countries”.

    “A notorious drug trafficker, Hassan Bishi Taiwo has been arrested by operatives of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, with three parcels of cocaine concealed in a false bottom created in his suitcase,” the statement said.

    “Preliminary investigations reveal that Hassan who was intercepted at the E-Arrival hall of the MMIA at the weekend upon arrival on board Ethiopian airlines at 1:30pm Friday has been plying the illicit trade through the middle east routes for some time.”

  • Just in: Any herdsman that carries AK-47 in Anambra is a criminal, must be arrested – Obiano

    Just in: Any herdsman that carries AK-47 in Anambra is a criminal, must be arrested – Obiano

    Anambra State governor, Chief Willie Obiano has declared herdsmen bearing guns as criminals.

    “Any herdsman that carries AK 47 is an armed robber and we will not tolerate herdsmen carrying guns in Anambra.

    Addressing a security meeting comprising security operatives, traditional rulers, youths and other stakeholders in the 181 communities in the state, Obiano said it was unwise to treat such herdsmen with levity because they are dangerous to society.

    According to him, after the last census of herdsmen conducted in the state, there were 77 of them in 2020 and directed the state Commissioner of Police to conduct a fresh census, adding that once the exercise was concluded, the state would no longer tolerate itinerant herders in Anambra State.

    He said: “By last year, there were 77 registered herdsmen in the state and I want the CP and the security committee to do a new census.

    The census will give us their names, phone numbers and their addresses and when we do that it will enable us to know when another herder strolls into the state.

    “Any herdsman that carries AK 47 is an armed robber and we will not tolerate herdsmen carrying guns in Anambra.

    So anytime any of them is seen, he should be arrested because he is not a genuine herdsman.

    “We should not allow itinerant herdsmen to come and cause trouble here.

    The itinerant herdsmen don’t know the terrain and the routes and so should not be allowed to stay here. “In the past, herdsmen carried only a stick and, perhaps a knife for killing reptiles in the bush.

    But this recent development of carrying guns shows that there is something behind it. We will not tolerate the carrying of arms by herdsmen in Anambra.

    He added that after the census, the real herdsmen should be properly documented and they should be attending our meetings in the state. Obiano said his administration saw tomorrow when it established the herders/farmers committee as of 2015 when most states did not know that the problem would assume the present dimension, noting that it was the reason the state has not had major challenges between herders and farmers in the state.

    The committee, he explained, is made up of the 14 communities where these herders go to all the times, with youth leaders, royal fathers and security operatives.

    Obiano added: “In Anambra, I spent a fortune buying vehicles for the security agencies since I became governor, I have bought 562 vehicles for the security agencies and in the last two and half years, security vehicles have been taking fuel free of charge in designated filling stations where the state government pays.

    “Before we took this decision, there could be a distress call and the police would say they did not have fuel in their vehicles. Today, every police vehicle you see on the road is fueled by the governor.

    The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Abubarka Adamu, who was represented by the meeting by the Deputy Inspector general, DIG, in charge of the South East, Mr Joseph Egbunike reminded Igbo youths that freedom would not be achieved through violent means, adding that the emerging trend of killing policemen and burning stations would no longer be tolerated.

    He identified drugs and cultism as the greatest threat to security and urged the stakeholders to assist the police in curbing the menace in their various communities.

    He said:, “Drug and cultism are the greatest challenges we have in Nigeria today. When they take all these things (drugs), they do not know the value of life any longer. That is the problem we have, but it is the responsibility of everybody to ensure that this stops.

    “Security is everyone’s business. Don’t rest because if you sleep because what happens in Sokoto may start happening here. Certain things should not be allowed to happen in Anambra as peace and security are the vehicles for any development.”

    He said that the IG directed him to commend the enormous contributions of Governor Obiano to security agencies, adding that all his efforts in peacebuilding and development were worthy of emulation.

  • Gunmen shot two policemen on patrol dead in Anambra

    Gunmen shot two policemen on patrol dead in Anambra

    Two Policemen were on Wednesday shot dead in separate incidents by yet to be identified gunmen in Anambra.

    The shootings occurred just a day after the new Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Monday Kuryas, warned criminal elements to repent or relocate from the state.

    CSP Haruna Mohammed, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Command in Anambra, who confirmed the incidents, said the police patrol teams were attacked in Mkpologwu and Omogho areas of the state.

    Mohammed, who did not disclose the number of personnel involved, said their riffles were carted away by the assailants.

    He said that the CP had visited the crime scenes at Mkpologwu, Aguata Local Government Area and Omogho in Orumba North, where the gunmen attacked the police patrol teams at about 11:30am.

    “The gunmen who drove in a car and a black Mercedes Benz 4Matic SUV, opened fire on the policemen deployed to patrol the two locations.

    “Meanwhile, the CP has ordered for discreet investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident and bring perpetrators of the dastardly act to book,” he said.

    The PPRO said the Police Commissioner also conducted an assessment tour of some black spots in the state to be abreast with the pattern of crime in Anambra.

    He said the areas visited included Enugu Agidi-Ukwulu roads, toll gate, Borromeo roundabout, Head bridge Onitsha, Upper Iweka, Owerri Road/Aba park and Nkpor roundabout in Idemili North Local Government Area.

  • Trending video: 80-year-old woman, accomplice arrested for kidnapping, torturing three kids in Anambra

    Trending video: 80-year-old woman, accomplice arrested for kidnapping, torturing three kids in Anambra

    The police in Anambra State have arrested two women, including an 80-year-old woman, for allegedly torturing three minors.

    The women allegedly confined the three children – two boys and a girl – inside different rooms without giving them food, and subjected them to torture.

    The victims’ age have not been disclosed by the police.

    The police spokesperson in the state, Haruna Mohammed, who disclosed this in a statement on Saturday in Awka, identified the 80-year-old woman as Chidi Nwafor, while the other woman is Rejoice Raymond, 39.

    Video:

     

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    Mr Mohammed, a chief superintendent of police, said the suspects were arrested at 13 Akunwanta Mbamalu Str., Federal Housing Estates, 3-3 Area, near Onitsha.

    The suspects inflicted several wounds on the children and left them unconscious, said Mr Mohammed.

    “On February 19, at about 5:50 p.m., following an intelligence report, police operatives attached to 3-3 Police Station, Nkwelle Ezunaka, arrested two suspects and rescued three minors.

    “Scene was visited by the DPO 3-3, CSP Abdu Bawa, where the gory sights of badly battered victims, one with a broken arm were found in the pool of their blood and whose parents were neither seen nor known.

    “Meanwhile, the children were rescued and rushed to the hospital for medical attention,” he stated.

    The police spokesperson said “fetish substances, blood stained canes, concoctions and other incriminating items were recovered inside the rooms”.

    The suspects would be brought to justice after completion of investigation, he said

  • Anambra 2021: Soludo declares his governorship ambition

    Anambra 2021: Soludo declares his governorship ambition

    Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has declared his intention to run for the governorship of Anambra in the November 6 poll.

    Soludo would be running on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

    Declaring his ambition on Thursday in Awka, he said he had been a party man since 2013 and would be better, if APGA offered him the ticket.

    He promised to achieve victory for the party, hoping to leverage his international connections to transform the state.
    He said that having served the global community, he was now poised to serve and develop Anambra.

    The governorship aspirant took time to assess Gov. Willie Obiano’s administration in Anambra and described him as one of the best in the country.

    He rated the governor high, in terms of infrastructure development and regular payment of ing workers’ salaries in the face of dwindling finances.

    He said that Anambra had experienced steady prosperity under APGA.

    “I granted an interview where they asked if I still stand by what I said in 2017 that ‘if Anambra is not broken, why mend it’ and I told them that Anambra is more sound now.

    “In 2010, Federal Bureau of Statistics conducted a survey and said the poverty rate in Anambra was 53 per cent.

    ”In 2020, it conducted another survey and said poverty rate had gone down to 14.7 per cent, what else can you use to measure good governance.

    “Anambra is doing well under Obiano and my mission is to continue and complete all the legacy projects of the governor,” Soludo said.

    Rep. Chinedu Obidigwe, representing Anambra East and West Federal Constituency, thanked Soludo for accepting the call to join the
    governorship race and promised his unalloyed support to him.

    Obidigwe said Soludo had paid his due as party a man and a technocrat and called on APGA to allow him to fly its flag as a sure way to victory.

    The event was attended by APGA chieftains in the state, including the state Chairman, Chief Nobert Obi.

    NAN