TheNewsGuru

Tag: Lagos

  • Governing Lagos mean you have to be on your toes – Ambode

    Governing Lagos mean you have to be on your toes – Ambode

    Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State says governing the bulging population of the state demands that one should be on his toes.

    Ambode spoke at the State House in Alausa while playing host to 21 students of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, who are in Lagos State on a one-week exchange programme.

    He said that with the challenge of urban migration,there was the need to continue to initiate policies that could cater for everyone.

    “There is an internal challenge of people coming into Lagos and not wanting to go back; that is our major challenge.

    ” An average of 86 people come into Lagos every hour and more than half not returning to their base.

    “Governing a bulging population of Lagos means you have to be on your toes,”Ambode said.

    He said his administration had, in the last two years, put in place the right policy framework to tackle issues of urban and population explosion as well as sustain its infrastructural challenges.

    Ambode noted that Lagos remained an integral part of the African economy, hence a compelling reason for the state to remain globally competitive.

    ” Lagos is more or less like a trigger to the economy of Africa,” the governor said.

    He said that good governance was a social contract between the government and the governed and the theory of governance was different from practical.

    According to him, providing the kind of governance Lagos needs involves thinking out of the box.

    Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Mrs Toyosi Ogunsiji, extolled the virtues of Ambode at ensuring rapid development in the state.

    Ogunsiji said that some of the available partnerships government could enjoy with students and Harvard Kennedy school of Government were especially in areas of public policy development.

    The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is a graduate and professional school that brings together students, scholars and practitioners who combine thought and action to make the world a better place.

    According to its website, it teaches current and future leaders the skills they need to be effective in the private, public and nonprofit sectors.

  • Baby rescued inside kidnappers den in Ijaiye, Lagos

    Residents of Ijaiye, Ahmadiyya and Abule-Egba areas of Lagos State are yet to overcome the shock of the ritualists’ den, discovered right under their noses, in the early hours of yesterday.

    The den, located beside the main road at the popular Obadeyi bus-stop, Ijaiye, was exposed by a female sweeper who heard the horrific cry of a victim screaming for help. The cry for help came from an underground tunnel, which linked to a canal at Obadeyi street.

    Unfortunately, before passersby entered the canal, the woman who cried for help had been killed, but her little baby was found.

    Under the tunnel, soldiers were said to have found different body parts and many routes linking to the canal.

    In the course of their hunt, a man belonging to the group was also arrested who later confessed to being part of a 28-member group operating under the canal.

    Items recovered from the shrine included charms, carvings, white clothes stained with blood as well as native soap.

    According to an eyewitness account, the suspected ritual killers allegedly target pedestrians crossing or plying the road early in the morning and late at night, as the den is just about 50 metres away from the pedestrian bridge.

    They then drag their victims into the manhole, which stretches along the expressway, where they are eventually killed.

    The discovery led to pandemonium yesterday, as irate residents stormed the scene to rescue the victims and apprehend the ritualists.

    Angered by the move, two more suspects were brought out but the mob overpowered the police and burnt them alive.

    According to a source, the crowd allegedly set ablaze one of the suspects but surprisingly to them, fire was burning all over his clothes but he appeared unhurt.

    The source said: “The ritualist said that no one can do him any harm. Even some people tried cutting him with machetes and all sorts of weapons but he still wasn’t hurt.”

    Meanwhile, Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni, told newsmen at the scene yesterday that the dungeon was discovered by joint efforts of security agents and members of the public.

    According to Owoseni, the place was discovered after a highway sweeper with the Lagos State Waste Management Agency (LAWMA) raised an alarm when she heard the voice of a woman calling for help from the canal. He said that two of those caught were set ablaze by the mob before the arrival of the police at the scene.

    Owoseni said that detectives would be on ground on Wednesday with more sniffer dogs and other security gadgets to ascertain more facts concerning the incident.

    “In the process, people moved in there to help and also noticed that some persons who had some charms like gourd in their mouths tried to escape and that made the crowd to suspect something unusual.

    “For now about seven persons, who are suspected to be using those buildings as base for rituals, have been arrested.

    “We will continue to give it a touch of professionalism and scientific approach by deploying sniffer dogs that can also penetrate into the canal to see whether we can get materials to be of evidential value,” Owoseni said.

     

  • JUST IN: 2 killed as Lassa fever hits Lagos

    …100 LUTH staff placed under surveillance

    Two patients undergoing treatments at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) have been declared dead following their contact with the dreaded Lassa fever disease.

    The hospital management confirmed the development to TheSun Newspapers on Tuesday.

    LUTH said about 100 workers are being monitored.

    Last month, one pupil of the Federal Government College, Langtang, Plateau State, died of Lassa fever, while two others were hospitalised.

    Details later…

  • Mob discover Kidnappers’ den in Lagos, set suspect ablaze

    There was confusion at Obadeyi Ajala, Ijaiye end of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway following the discovery of a suspected kidnappers’ den around a canal in the area.

    The crowd laid siege at the hideouts around 7 am after a highway sweeper with the Lagos State Waste Management Agency raised the alarm.

    An abandoned house near the canal was also reportedly used as a hideout by the suspects.

    It was learnt that the official had heard the voice of a woman calling for help from the canal.

    A suspected kidnapper, who fled from the canal, was caught by a mob and set ablaze before the arrival of the police at the scene.

    Details later….

  • Lagos set to recover over 100 assets sold illegally in Lekki, Magodo, Ikoyi, others

    The Lagos State Government has set the ball in motion to recover under-valued properties allegedly sold illegally in choice area in the state.

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that the government is set to implement a far-reaching report on the sale of such assets. The report is said to contain a list of over 100 properties, the names of their buyers and the locations of the assets.

    Sources disclosed that the report was arrived at after the submission of reports by a panel of inquiry set up in late 2016 by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to “investigate the sale of its assets in prime areas running into billions of Naira”.

    The source, who does not want her identity revealed due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the government decided to investigate the sale of its assets because they were sold below market value.

    According to the source, the loss ran into billions of Naira.

    She said: “The affected assets are located in high-profile areas, where decision-makers, captains of industries, top government functionaries and political actors among others often crave to build their homes and offices.”

    She identified the areas where the assets are to include Ikeja GRA, Magodo, Ikoyi, Lekki and other prime locations.

    She explained that the assets were disposed at abysmal (or give-away) prices and obviously against public interest, which in her words, stoked the interest of the present administration to investigate and review the process by which the assets were sold.

    She disclosed that what eventually culminated in the resolve of the State government to investigate the sale of its assets was overriding public interest, lamenting that some of these assets “were sold as low as N20 million.”

    She added: “Generally, we have a situation where government properties in prime locations were sold at give-away prices. The assets were abysmally under-valued. Besides, the assets were sold below the actual market value”

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that government took an exception to such transaction, stating that no serious government would allow such sales against public interest to stand.

    It was further gathered the report had indeed been submitted and implementation had begun with review of sales of properties that were sold grossly under market value.

    In one of the test cases under review, it was discovered that two wings of a five bedroom semi detached house located around Ikeja GRA valued at hundreds of millions of Naira was in 2010 offered to Funmi Smith of Debam Mega Solutions Limited for a sum far less than half of the value, but seven years after the offer barely half of the offered sum has been paid to the State Government coffers by the Company.

    It was reliably gathered that as part of the report’s recommendations, the State Government has been advised to invite the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to unravel several other transactions that have been identified by the panel of inquiry.

     

  • ‘Many innocent Nigerian children languishing in Lagos, other state prisons — UNICEF

    The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)’s Child Justice Consultant, Dr Wilfred Mamah, on Thursday said that there were many Nigerian children currently languishing in different prisons across the country.

    Mamah disclosed this in Lagos at a one-day Sensitisation Meeting on Diversion Community Rehabilitation Programme with media practitioners.

    The UNICEF’ Consultant also announced the inauguration of a pilot Community Rehabilitation Programme for Children in Conflict with the Law and Children at High Risk of Offending, in Lagos State.

    Mamah said that the inauguration of the pilot programme was to reduce the number of Nigerian children in the various Prisons, adding that certain children could not commit offences.

    “We have been working with the Lagos State Government in the protection of the Rights of the Children.

    “There are currently many children languishing in many Lagos State Prisons, as well as in other Prisons across Nigeria.

    “We have, therefore, come up with a Community Rehabilitation Programme with Grace Springs Rehabilitation Home, to gainfully engage these children and ensure that other children are not sent to Prison unnecessarily,’’ he said.

    Mamah said that UNICEF, as a global children’s protection organisation, would continue to create a situation whereby children were showed a better way of becoming responsible in life.

    “We need to know that no child is born a failure or an offender, but should be corrected and shown love always. We are aware that a number of children are still in prison.

    “Were it not for the intervention of the Chief Judge of Lagos State, who recently released about 80 children from the Badagry Prisons, those children would still have been languishing in there,’’ he said.

    Mr Yakubu Jubril, a Chief Social Welfare Officer with the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development, said that many of the children in Lagos Prisons were being wrongly held.

    Jubril said that his Ministry had come to realise that some of the children in different Prisons across Lagos State were not supposed to be there.

    “We have realised that children who are not supposed to be in Prison are there today.

    “We have found out that some of these children did not actually commit the offences levelled against them. Some of them were unduly raided by the Task Force,’’ he noted.

    Around the world, children languish behind bars, sometimes for protracted periods. In many cases, they face brutal and inhumane conditions.

    The lack of record-keeping and a wide array of institutions means that the number of children held worldwide in such environments is not known. The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has estimated that more than 1 million children are behind bars around the world.

    Many are held in decrepit, abusive, and demeaning conditions, deprived of education, access to meaningful activities, and regular contact with the outside world.

    Many of these children¬ — and adults who were convicted of crimes committed when they were children — have received excessive or disproportionate sentences that violate international law, which requires that imprisonment of children be in “conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.”

    Others are held for acts that should not be crimes at all, such as skipping school, running away from home, having consensual sex, and seeking or having an abortion. Some have never been tried for their alleged crimes; others are tried as if they were adults and, when convicted, sent to serve time in adult prisons.

    Migrant children are also routinely held in immigration detention, contrary to international standards. Children with disabilities and others may be institutionalized in the guise of protection.

    A UN study expected to be finalised in 2017 promises to put international focus on the detention of children and hopefully result in more systematic monitoring of abusive practices, increased compliance with international standards, and a dramatic reduction in the number of children deprived of their liberty.

    But governments need not wait for this report; they can and should act now to establish genuine alternatives to detention and ensure that those children who must be detained are held in humane conditions and benefit from schooling, health services, recreational opportunities, and contact with the outside world.

     

     

    NAN

  • In-Photos: Lagos arraigns 40 suspected homosexuals

    In-Photos: Lagos arraigns 40 suspected homosexuals

    No fewer than 40 suspected homosexuals were on Thursday arraigned at the Ebute-Metta Magistrate Court and the Yaba Magistrate Court in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

    The suspects arraigned by the Lagos State Government included 28 adults and 12 minors for allegedly engaging in homosexuality contrary to the laws of the land.

    The minors were arraigned before Ebute-Metta Magistrate Court, while the adults were arraigned before Yaba Magistrate Court.

    The defendants, who are all male, were arraigned separately on a one-count charge.

    They were all arrested last Saturday by men of the Lagos State Police Command in Owode Onirin area of the State.

    The defendants were said to have been caught in the act of homosexuality at a popular hotel in the area simply known as Vintage Hotel.

    According to the criminal charge, the defendants were said to have “On or about 29th July, 2017, at Vintage Hotel, No. 999 Ikorodu Road/Toyin Close, Weigh Bridge, Owode Onirin, Lagos, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did engage in gay activities by permitting male persons to have canal knowledge of themselves against the order of nature and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 261 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.”

    The adults are Adedayo Kamadupe (27), Abiodun Pedro (22), Ikechukwu Onyebuchi (32), Dike Stanley (19), Oji Charles Isioma (28), Garuba Ibrahim (21), Monday Favour (20), Ayo Marcus Ayobamidele (26), Stanley Adeasbo (25), Victor Isaac (18), Godwin Williams (19), Kashimawo Oluwatosin (25), Abass Tajudeen (24), Olamigoke Adeola (19) and Yussuf Fawaz (19).

    Others are Johnson Michael (19), Francis Michael (22), Samuel Adeyinka (25), Samuel Collins (25), Kazeem Akorede (25), Adebayo Bukola (23), Ochiagha Ifeanyi (19), Babatunde Taiwo (26), Raphael Dugh (30), Kenneth Ubaji (19), Alisi Ferdinand Okechukwu (30), Malik Ahmed (18) and Olamide Adeola (18).

    After the charge was read to the defendants, they all pleaded not guilty, while their lawyers – Ehiko Onoche, S.M Oladele urged the Court to admit them to bail.

    The prosecution team led by Ms Adetutu Oshinusi from the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP), Lagos State Ministry of Justice did not oppose their bail application but urged the Court to direct the defendants to submit themselves to the Lagos State Aids Control Agency (LSACA) for monitoring and Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) for rehabilitation.

    The officials of both agencies were also present in court.

    In his ruling, Chief Magistrate Adewale Ojo granted bail to the defendants in the sum of N500, 000 and two sureties in like sum.

    One of the sureties, according to the Court, must be a relative of the defendants, while the other must be resident within the court’s jurisdiction. The sureties must also present evidence of tax payment.

    The Magistrate also granted the request of the prosecution demanding monitoring and Sexual rehabilitation for the defendants, while the matter was adjourned to September 8, 2017.

    The minors were arraigned before Magistrate Segun Elias of Ebute-Metta Magistrate Court in a closed-session.

  • 55% of Nigeria’s VAT comes from Lagos tax payers – Adeosun

    55% of Nigeria’s VAT comes from Lagos tax payers – Adeosun

    The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun on Tuesday said 55 percent of Nigeria’s Value added tax (VAT), comes from tax payers in Lagos State.

    Adeosun made this known while speaking at a parley between the Federal Government and Progressive Governors forum in Abuja.

    She noted the 87 percent of Nigeria’s VAT was derived from five states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), while 13 percent of Nigeria’s VAT comes from 32 other states in the federation.

    “There is no poor country that has a high tax compliance rate, and no rich country that has a low one,” Adeosun said.

    “55% of Nigeria’s VAT was collected in Lagos State; FCT, 20%; Rivers, 6%; Kano, 5%; and Kaduna, 1%, I’m hoping that one day, finance commissioners will stop needing to come to Abuja monthly to share FAAC, because IGR (internally generated revenue) will be sufficient.”

    The Minister also urged the states to do more to generate revenue and not solely depend on the federal government for federal allocation, while stating that the country’s abysmal tax-to-GDP ratio is at six percent, which happens to be one of the lowest in the world.

  • BREAKING: Police uncover Badoo shrine in Ikorodu [Video included]

    A shrine belonging to Badoo gang, the notorious ritual sect, terrorising the Ikorodu area of Lagos and its environs was uncovered by the Lagos state police command, Monday.

    Policemen reportedly stormed the shrine, located on the outskirts of Ikorodu Town.

    The police team were led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, DCP Edgal Imohimi, with backing from the inspector general of police Special Tactical Squad (STS).

    Inside the shrine were big-horned idols and other moulded figures, which happen to be the deities worshipped by the devours.

    Also seen were baskets, broken eggs and left over of sacrifice as well as metal gongs, which was probably used to wake up the numerous deities placed in the room.

    When contacted, the state police spokesperson, ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole confirmed the reports…

    Details soon…

    Police uncovers Badoo shrine in Ikorodu, Lagos

    A post shared by Instablog9ja✅ (@instablog9ja) on

    Recall that TheNewsGuru had earlier published this on Monday the return of the dreaded cult group to Ikorodu.

    In the report, suspected members of the ritual gang, Badoo, murdered a couple – Mr. and Mrs. Adejare and their man and their two children.

    The incident occurred at the family’s room and parlour apartment situated at 4, Ile Baba Shade Mosque, Oke Otta, Ajose in Ibeshe, Ikorodu, Lagos.

    It was gathered that two of the three children, who were minors, were raped before their brains were smashed.

  • ‘We were poorly fed, allowed to bathe once weekly,’ says freed Lagos student

    Six kidnapped pupils of the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe who were recently rescued by the Police have said they were maltreated by their abductors.

    One of them, Ramon Isiaq, who spoke with Punch said the kidnappers exposed he and his colleagues to rain at the camp where they kept.

    He said they were fed with poorly cooked food and that they were only allowed to bathe once in a week.

    He said, “After they kidnapped us that day (May 25), we were kept around our school, while a (police) helicopter was patrolling the area. They asked us to hide in a bush so that people in the helicopter would not see us. In the midnight, they sent a boat to pick us.

    “The following day, they gave us spaghetti. We ate the same thing in the afternoon and evening. They told us that some security men were sent to fight them, but they killed the men. They threatened that we would die there.

    “We were seven in an uncompleted building.

    The seventh person is a man that was looking after us. It was a bad experience. We didn’t enjoy our sleep. We always prayed that rain would not fall. If rain fell, it would beat us. Sometimes, they didn’t give us food; at times they gave us food once in a day. At other times, they wouldn’t give us food at all. We ate together. We bathed once or twice in a week.”

    He added that at a point they complained about their maltreatment to the leader of the gang.

    “After some time, I met with their boss called ‘Chief’ or ‘Chairman’ that we did not enjoy the food they cooked for us and that we should be allowed to prepare our food by ourselves. They didn’t allow us to move around…”

    The children were dropped at a creek in Ondo State on Friday after spending 64 days in captivity.

    They were abducted at their school in May, after the kidnappers profiled them.