TheNewsGuru

Tag: Crime

  • Technology needed to fight ‘next level’ crime in Nigeria – Governor Ganduje

    Technology needed to fight ‘next level’ crime in Nigeria – Governor Ganduje

    Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State said on Wednesday that the introduction of technology in addressing the security challenges in the country was necessary if the fight is to be won.
    “Since crime has gone to the next level in Nigeria, strategy too has to go to the next level,” he said, while receiving the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, in Kano.
    The governor said it was in consideration of that reality that the state government installed CCTV in some strategic places in Kano, to secure the lives and property of people.
    “We have installed CCTV all over the metropolitan city, and now laying optic fibre to complement the satellite services.
    “We also have trackers, and at the major entrance of Kano metropolis, we built security dometories where we have a number of security agents manning the major entrances,” he said.
    The governor also said the government established Ruga project at Dansoshiya forest that share border with Katsina State.
    According to him, herdsmen have now settled there, as such it will be difficult for any bandit to make the forest his home.
    “Coming to one of the biggest forests in the country, Falgore forest, we established military training ground and it is now working,” he said.
    Earlier, IGP Baba had told the governor that he was in the state in connection with the passing out ceremony of Cadets of Nigeria Police Academy Wudil, Kano.
    He commended the state government for its effort in providing security agents with enabling environment to secure lives and property.
    He explained that it was when there was security that there would be peace, hence the need for the all stakeholders to join hands to secure the state
  • Northern Governors to new IGP: Adopt proactive measures to tackle insecurity

    Northern Governors to new IGP: Adopt proactive measures to tackle insecurity

    The Northern Governors Forum has urged the Acting Inspector General (IG) of Police, Usman Baba, to take proactive measures in tackling crimes in the country.

    The Chairman of the forum, Simon Lalong, made the call in a congratulatory message to the acting IG by his Director of Press and Public Affairs Dr. Makut Macham, on Saturday in Jos.

    The Plateau Governor said the forum would give Baba all the necessary support to enable him to provide the leadership needed for implementing proactive policing for the safety of lives and property.

    He said Baba’s appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari was well deserved, considering his track record of diligent service to the nation, across various police formations in the country.

    He said: “As northern governors, we remain committed to community policing and any other measure that will lead to securing our region which has been bedeviled by different forms of insecurity.

    “We must work together to adopt new measures that will enable us to overcome these challenges and remain on top of the situation by preventing criminals from carrying out their nefarious activities.”

    Lalong said the forum was particularly concerned that many farmers in the region were discouraged from cultivating their farms because of criminal activities.
    The forum’s chairman urged the police boss to bring an end to banditary, kidnapping and insurgency in the country.

    He wished Baba a successful tenure and called on Nigerians to support him and the entire security architecture of the country for a more secured nation.

  • How we fuel the wings of abductors – Ozioma Onyenweaku

    How we fuel the wings of abductors – Ozioma Onyenweaku

    Ozioma Onyenweaku

    In the 2000s the Niger Delta Militants hit the street big with the kidnapping of foreign oil workers. That was in a bid to draw attention to the plight of the Niger Delta people over oil spillage in the area. The oil companies in desperate move to rescue their officers offered to pay ransom. Seeing another side to the kidnapping, more and more top officers were abducted, and huge ransom collected. So was set the boom business of kidnapping.

    Following that, anti-kidnapping squad was set up by the Nigeria Police Force in the 2000s to curtail the rising case of kidnapping. Yet the kidnapping rate kept increasing.

    Intelligence Response Team was also created to deal with the threat of kidnapping. Hundreds of Police officers were deployed to man, and patrol the highways particularly those highways that record high kidnapping cases.

    Several states in Nigeria passed into law Bills that outlaw kidnapping and abduction. For example, Ebony State through its Internal Security Enforcement and Related Matters law (CAP 55) prescribes death sentence for the offence of kidnapping; Imo State Anti-kidnapping bill also prescribes death sentence; so also Akwa Ibom state, Rivers State, Enugu State, Delta State and some others.

    “The greatest incentive to crime is the hope of escaping punishment”

    In 2016, Kano State (the first from the region) signed into law a bill recommending execution for kidnappers who are convicted of killing their captives, while those that abducted but did not kill their victims would be jailed for life

    On the Federal level, Nigeria has Nigeria Terrorism (Prevention) Act 2011 to curb terrorism of any nature, and to promote “the protection of persons and their properties from abuse as well as enhance freedom of others in the same society” The punishment for the offence of kidnapping was put at maximum of 10 years.

    In September 2017 a bill was passed into law outlawing abduction, wrongful restraint or confinement for ransom – “Whoever is guilty of the offence and then results in the death of the victim shall be liable on conviction to be sentenced to death”; and 30-year jail term for anyone who colludes with abductor to receive ransom”. That leaves life imprisonment for the offence of kidnapping that results in no death of the victim.

    With all the machinery in place, Nigeria is overwhelmed by the insecurity occasioned by the activities of the kidnappers and abductors. In 2014 about 276 girls were abducted from their school in Chibok. In February 2018, about 110 school girls, ages of 11 & 19, were kidnapped from Government Girls Science & Technical College, Dapchi in Yobe State. Some others include the Kangara boys, another in Zamfara, and yet another in Niger State. Kidnapping and abduction of school children has become almost a daily affair. So what are we not doing right in the fight against kidnapping and abduction?

    So what fuels the wings of the abductors? We have to look inward and see where we are not getting things right in this area.

    What is our reality? Nigeria has been ‘fighting’ the fight with a kid’s gloves. How on earth does one expect to end abduction when the abductors are romanced, and treated to a King’s banquet! How do we end this menace when the abductors dictate the terms and they are obliged? For instance, about a hundred of the Chibok girls were released in a Prisoner Swap deal between the abductors and the government. In this deal, five Boko Haram Commanders were released in exchange for the hundred young innocent girls. In the case of the Dapchi girls where two of the girls were found dead, 104 of them were freed after the payment of ransom. The recent ones are no exception.

    Here, we are yet to record any bandit arrested for abduction, tried, convicted and sentenced to serve as a deterrent to others. Instead we present ourselves as people condoning the crime of abduction and kidnapping, and as such create enabling environment for it to thrive. Crimes are meant to be punished for. When there is no punishment for a crime, the criminal is emboldened to commit more crime. Like Marcus Tullius Cicero said, “The greatest incentive to crime is the hope of escaping punishment”

    In Nigeria, the abductors do not just hope to escape punishment, they have assured expectation of escaping punishment.

    For us to achieve result in combating abduction/kidnapping, we must review our current anti-kidnapping approach. We have to get our priorities right, and channel efforts and resources towards this cause. For now, we fuel the wings of the abductors.

     

     

     

     

  • Crime: Delta Government speaks on banning ‘okada’, ‘keke’ in Asaba

    Crime: Delta Government speaks on banning ‘okada’, ‘keke’ in Asaba

    Delta Government on Friday said it was not planning to ban commercial tricycle (Keke) and motorcycle (Okada) operations in Asaba.

    Mrs Joan Mrakpor, Director-General, Delta State Capital Territory Development Agency, said this while briefing newsmen in Asaba.

    Mrakpor said the state government would checkmate the operators’ excesses.

    She said that the state government would partner the `Keke and Okada’ union to streamline the operators’ activities to check the new wave of crime allegedly being perpetrated by them in the state capital.

    She noted that the aftermath of the EndSARS protest which led to a huge public and private property destruction in the state revealed that some `Keke and Okada’ operators outside Asaba were the hijackers of the protest.

    According to her, the state government will on Monday in partnership with the Keke and Okada Riders Union commence a process of identification of genuine members of the union to ensure security of life and property in the state.

    “Government is not planning to ban `Keke’ in Delta and it is not government’s intention to allow crime to thrive by not checking the excesses of the operators.

    “After the EndSARS issues, we noticed that things had fallen out of place but we feel that things need to fall in place but unfortunately, there are some criminal activities noticed that are worrisome.

    “Keke has suddenly become a great threat but the real operators in Delta don’t push people out to dispossess them of their belongings. It is strange and it came after the EndSARS protest,” Mrakpor said.

    She urged the unionists to streamline, identify their members and report strange and fraudulent operators who hid their identities to commit crime to the authority.

    She said that the state taskforce would commence ”Operation Clean up Asaba,” saying that all vehicles, private and commercial, must provide waste baskets for their passengers to avoid littering the state capital.

    On his part, Mr Charles Aniagwu, the Commissioner for Information, acknowledged the fact that tricycle and commercial motorcyclists had made good contributions in the partnership with the state government but stressed the need to streamline their activities.

    He called on the various unions to support the government in checkmating the criminal elements and bringing them to book to ensure the safety of passengers.

    According to him, no Keke rider will come in from the neighbouring Anambra State and other communities to operate within the state capital territory.

    “We want to ensure a cleaner capital territory; a 24-hour city life without threat to the people in Asaba.

    “In streamlining the operations, we shall define the routes of the Keke operators and also ensure that nobody intimidates the taskforce and the union from performing their roles,” Aniagwu said.

    Chief Obi Nzete, State Chairman, Keke and Okada Riders Union, represented by its Financial Secretary, Mr Tony Chukwudi, pledged the union’s readiness to partner the state government in fishing out the criminals among them.

  • Two brothers, others captured for fraud in Ibadan

    Two brothers, others captured for fraud in Ibadan

    Two brothers, Ayoola Timilehin, Olusola Timilehin, and others have been arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibadan zonal office, for cyber crime.

    They were arrested at their hideout yesterday at Alaka in Elebu area of Ibadan, Oyo State.

    The Head, Media & Publicity of the anti-graft agency, Dele Oyewale noted that the suspects were arrested based on intelligence linking them with riches without any identifiable means of livelihood

    The other three suspects arrested with them were Temitope Kumuyi, Babatunde Oyelakin and Olanrewaju Ibrahim. They are all aged between 20 and 30 years.

    Items recovered from them included four cars, laptops, exotic phones and a stamp bearing the identity of the bursary section of Queensland University’s School of Medicine, Australia.

    Oyewale said the suspects will be charged to court as soon as investigations were concluded

  • Naira Marley’s laptop contains no crime evidence, says witness

    Naira Marley’s laptop contains no crime evidence, says witness

    A Federal High Court, Lagos heard on Thursday the laptop retrieved from embattled musician Azeez Fashola a.k.a Naira Marley during investigation, does not show either it was used for crime or not.

    An operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuru Buhari, stated this while under cross extermination by Naira Marley’s counsel Olalekan Ojo (SAN) before Justice Nicolas Oweibo.

    Asked how he accessed the laptop without the owner’s password, Buhari replied that as a cyber-crime hacker he doesn’t need to know the password of any person to access their laptop because it was part of his training.

    Buhari, however, answered in the negative when Ojo also asked him if he remembered the manufacture date of the Naira Marley’s laptop.

    The court overruled EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo’s attempt to ask his witness to clarify what he meant by not knowing when the laptop, tendered in evidence as exhibit P1, was manufactured.

    Justice Oweibor adjourned the case until February 27 and 28, 2020.

    Naira Marley popular for his “Am I a Yahoo Boy” and “Soapy” tracks, is being prosecuted by the EFCC on an 11-count charge of conspiracy, possession of counterfeit cards and fraud.

    His co-defendant, one Yad Isril, is said to be at large.

    Naira Marley was arrested by the EFCC, for alleged internet fraud.

    He was arraigned on May 20, 2019 and pleaded not guilty and was granted bail of N2 million with two sureties in like sum.

    According to the charge, the defendant committed the offences on different dates, November 26, 2018, December 11, 2018, and May 10.

    Naira Marley and his accomplices allegedly conspired to use different Access Bank ATM Cards to defraud their victims.

    They allegedly used Access Card number 5264711020433662 issued to other persons, in a bid to obtain fraudulent financial gains.

    Naira Marley was said to have possessed these counterfeit credit cards, belonging to different cardholders, with intent to defraud, and which also constituted theft.

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  • Nigeria Police Force: Crime fighting and the tragedy of reformation – Godwin Etakibuebu

    By Godwin EtakibuebuJust only yesterday, November 26, 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari reviewed both salary and allowances of men and officers of the Nigeria Police Force upwards when he met with the Police Service Commission at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. Someone told me that the President also touched on the pension, this vital Organisation enjoys, upwardly.

    Unlike the “mixed-grill” approach of the main opposition party, the People Democratic Party, to the development, in praising the President suspiciously and questioning his [President Buhari] intention of bringing the increase at this time “when 2019 general election is very close”, I appreciate and applaud the President whole-heartedly on this development.

    Either the President brought about the increment for reasons of strengthening the police for the assignment ahead or not, we should learn to appreciate what is good at once and we must accept that there is reason for designing, inauguration and implementation of any policy at all times. Or is there any time in human history that things just involve without reason? Has any politician in the Nigerian clime develops a policy that will not enhance and strengthen his/her political agenda?

    The question that should be occupying our collective attention at this point in time ought to be the chances of the new policy bringing to fruition the aims and objectives it was meant to drive. This is because the President, while unveiling this good news to the Police Service Commission enumerated why it is necessary to imbibe and accommodate good welfare package for the Police now as he was quoted as saying that “to give attention to the welfare and operational needs of the Nigeria Police Force with a view to restoring its lost primacy in the internal security framework of the country.”

    By implication, the Nigeria Police Force, as presently operated, is in variance with its concept of being relevant to the community it was meant to protect. Is this not the Police Force; a Police that is moving up the ladder on daily basis as being in war with the citizenry, we have in today’s Nigeria? Like most Nigerians would admit, l would say yes. The President said more than this.

    “I am pleased to make the increase in salaries and allowances in the hope that it will increase the performance index of the police and strengthen Nigeria’s internal security system”, he said, after observing the total loss of confidence on the Nigeria Police Force by the citizenry. “From Taraba to Sokoto to the South-South, people don’t feel secure until they see the military. The military should be reserved for higher tasks while the police should be able to cope well with the challenges of armed robbery, kidnapping for ransom and such crimes.” On this premise, l would adjudge President Buhari’s intention for the salary and allowance increase to the Nigeria Police Force as good enough, at least for now.

    Yes, he may have a hidden agenda of “a stronger and better-equipped Police Force to prosecute his ambition of “sailing through the 2019 general election by all means”; as we saw in deployment of a 40,000-man police force to Osun State general election in order “to capture the place for the ruling Party”, we should not forget in hurry that the strong 40,000 officers and men deployed could not win the election for the All Progressives Congress. Instead, the trade by barter initiated by the two major Parties [PDP and APC] at the market place of Senator Iyiola Omisore; where the APC became a better dealer/bargainer than the PDP, won the election for the former.

    The point being made here is the reality that the Nigerian people, at any material particular, would be better off with a stronger police force, well encourage with adequate remunerations. For if the truth must be told, as long as we pay peanuts to officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force, so long shall we be having, in return, monkey services. A wage and salary that can never be regarded as “take-home pay” can only make a hungry man, equipped with sophisticated arms and ammunitions, escorting billions of naira from one point to another at all times, protecting politicians with their stolen wealth, to become more vicious to society at all times and himself sometimes.

    However, increase in salary and allowance alone cannot be an end on its own. It should be seen as a means to an end instead. It is therefore logical to reject the absurdity that salary and allowance increase alone will bring the Police Force of the Nigerian Peoples’ dream. No, that cannot be as long as we have a very flawed-type of appointment into the place of leadership in the Police Force, the poison of degradation shall remain a permanent feature of our Police organization. Flowing from wrong leadership cadre in the Police Force are many other things that needed to be put in place before we can have the Police of our Eldorado.

    Since the Police Force of any given country remains the reflection of the people of that country in its perception and cultural heritage; it is safe therefore to conclude that the people deserve the police they have.

    What this implies infinitely is that there is need for a comprehensive overhauling of our Police Force; which the increase on welfare packages is an integral part, but this cannot be done in isolation to other segment of the Nigerian society.

    Take for example the Nigerian Military where the salary of officers is proportionally comfortable [I don’t know that of soldiers], and unfortunately, malfeasance conducts bordering on fraud, corruption and diversion is still a terminal rope of Damascus hanging on most of these officers.

    This allegation against our military officers is gaining ground more with the gory stories coming from theater of war in the North/East where Boko Haram is inflicting colossus calamity on soldiers, due, as alleged, to illegal diversion of the funds meant for the prosecution of the war into private pockets. The take-away lesson of this analogy is the fact that increase in salary and all other remunerations alone without increase in character of morality would remain perpetually an invading danger.

    My final word to President Muhammadu Buhari therefore, is to thank him for the show of extending human feeling and milk to the men of the Nigeria Police Force but to urge him to do more than this. My candid expectation is for him to start from the top by sacking the incumbent Inspector General of Police, more so when the man is always in the habit of disobeying him [President Buhari told us this personally], reorganize the top hierarchy of the leadership and insulate both officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force from partisan politics.

    Can PMB faithfully implement the latter? Let us sit down and look.

     

    Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.

    Mobile: +234-906-887-0014

    Twitter: @godwin_buebu

    • You can listen to this author [Godwin Etakibuebu] every Monday, 9:30-11am, on Lagos Talk 91.3 FM live, in a weekly review of topical issues, presented by The News Guru [TNG]

     

  • Alleged N5bn fraud: Shema runs to appeal court

    Former governor of Katsina State, Ibrahim Shehu Shema has approached the court of appeal sitting in Kaduna to set aside the ruling of the Federal High Court Katsina which had on April 23, 2018 dismissed his preliminary objection to the corruption charge brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
    Counsel to Shema, E.C Ukala SAN unsuccessfully tried to convince Justice Babagana Ashgar to rule on his client’s preliminary objection challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the 26-count money laundering charge, before he could take his plea.
    But Justice Ashgar ruled that the objection would be considered alongside the final judgment on the matter as stipulated in section 396 (2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015.
    Dissatisfied with the ruling, Shema approached the court of appeal asking it to overturn the decision of the lower court.
    When the case was called today, October 2, 2018, counsel for the appellant, P.Y Kura, SAN, informed the panel of three justices that he had a pending motion, asking for an extension of time to enable the appellant filed a brief of argument.
    Counsel for the respondent, S.T. Ologunorisa, SAN, did not oppose the application. Consequently, Justice Bidiya Shata who led the other two justices, granted the application as prayed.
    The matter was subsequently adjourned to October 22, 2018 for hearing.
     

  • Police to partner with NYSC to fight crimes

    The Nigeria Police Force says it will partner with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to fight crime, including drug abuse, rape and illegal possession of firearms in the country.

    The force Spokesman, Acting DCP Jimoh Moshood, stated this while addressing the Nigerian Police Corps Forum (NYSC members serving in the force), prior to a sensitisation campaign on Friday in Abuja.

    The campaign was aimed at creating awareness among the youths on the need to avoid drug abuse, rape and other crimes.

    Moshood said that the force was ready to synergise with the corps to address crime and criminality bedeviling the country.

    He urged members of the forum not to relent in their efforts to sensitise the youths and the entire public on the dangers of drug abuse and other crimes.

    The spokesman said that the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, was committed to the fight against the security challenges in the country.

    The President, Nigeria Police Corps Members Forum, Mr. Victor Aku, said that one of the objectives of the forum was to sensitise members of the public to the activities of the police.

    He noted that most of the crimes in the country were being committed by youths.

    Aku who advised the youths to engage in productive ventures, said that the country needed their contributions to develop.

    He said that the forum would continue to work with the police to fight security challenges in the country.

    The president said that the campaign would further enhance the forum’s efforts in addressing crimes among the youths in the country.

    The forum carried out its sensitization campaig at the Garki 2 international market and the federal secretariat.

    NAN

  • N11.4bn fraud: Multi-purpose co-operative Boss ends up in jail

    Platinum Multi-purpose Co-operative Boss, Michael Osagogie, has been sentenced to a one-year jail term for fraud amounting to the sum of N11.4 billion.

    TheNewsGuru reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Lagos Zonal office, on Thursday arraigned Michael before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja.

    He was arraigned on a 14-count charge bordering on stealing to the tune of over eleven billion naira (N11, 498, 944, 038.29), an offence which is contrary to Section 285 (1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

    “That you, Michael Obasuyi Osasogie, Platinum Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society, SmartMicro Systems Limited and Platinum Smart Cruise Motors Limited, sometime in the year 2016 in Lagos within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired to commit felony, to wit:

    “Stealing of the sum of N11, 498, 944, 038.29 (Eleven Billion, Four Hundred and Ninety Eight Million, Nine Hundred and Forty Four Thousand, Thirty Eight Naira, Twenty Nine Kobo) property of First Bank Nigeria Ltd,” one of the counts reads.

    In view of his plea, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, urged the court to allow Orji Chukwuma, an investigator with the EFCC and one of the witnesses listed in the case, to clearly explain his findings during investigation of the matter.

    Oyedepo also pleaded with the court to allow a projector and camera to be mounted within the court room so as to ease the explanation of the prosecution witness.

    The court granted the prayers of the prosecution counsel and also stood the matter down for the projector and camera to be mounted.

    When the case was later called up, Chukwuma affirmed all the allegations levelled against the defendant by the Commission and also told the court how the proceeds of crime were housed in some new generation banks.