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Police begin probe as gunmen kill Naval rating in Lagos
The Lagos State Police Command has said an investigation had commenced to track down the killers of a naval rating in the Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state on Sunday.
It was gathered that the rating, who until his death was serving at the Lagos Logistics Depot of the Navy, was shot dead by gunmen in the community.
The rating was said to be alone when the suspects perpetrated the crime.
It was also gathered that the colleagues had been threatening to avenge his death, a development which had thrown residents and business owners operating in the community into a panic.
It was learnt that the rating’s corpse had been deposited at the Nigerian Navy Hospital morgue in Ojo.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, urged people in the community to go about their normal activities without fear, adding that a joint operation involving the Lagos State Police Command and the Nigerian Navy had commenced to track down the suspects.
Hundeyin said, “We have started an investigation but there has been no arrest yet. The naval authorities are aware and we are working together to unravel the circumstances that led to the shooting.”
A middle-aged woman, Kafayat Ayobamidele has narrated how some people in Nigeria are threatening to take her life. Ayobamidele, a mother of two based in South Africa said her life has been under threat since her marriage with her ex-husband, a situation that forced her to leave her former residence at No. 22, Salem Street, Magboro area of Ogun State seven years ago.
According to her, she was not aware that her ex-husband had a wife identified as Folashade, whom he married legally before she agreed to marry him about thirteen years ago.
The woman disclosed this in a WhatsApp note made available to journalists last weekend.
Ayobamidele stated that she could not come to Nigeria to check on her two children as a result of the daily threat she received from her former husband’s wife.
The victim added that she was attacked on April 9, 2022 when she came to Nigeria to check on her children by some thugs suspected to be hired by the woman, saying she was sexually molested during the process.
“My life is not safe in Nigeria. That’s the reason I left the country for South Africa. I had some issues with my ex-husband whom I had a child with. Before I married him, he lied to me about being single. But I later got to know he had a wife whom he married legally after a child.
“When the wife got to know about me, she started threatening to kill me. She said I should leave her husband, saying he belonged to her. I had to escape Nigeria when the threat was getting out of hand and I wasn’t safe anymore.
“After some time, I decided to go back to Nigeria to check on my two children. On getting there, I don’t know how the wife got to know I was around. She came to attack me with some thugs. Those thugs whisked me away to an unknown place. I was beaten and got injured in that process. I almost got killed but God saved my life.
“I have to leave Nigeria immediately I escaped the assassination attempt. At this point, I’m not safe to go back to Nigeria and my children are there. I cannot go back there to check on them. In fact, I was molested during that process,” she asserted.
A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Maitama, on Tuesday, fixed October 21 for the continuation of the trial of a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele.
The trial judge, Justice Hamza Muazu, fixed the date on the agreement of the counsel after the close of the cross-examination of the ninth prosecution witness, Mrs Abibia Ockiya-Ogeleye.
Ockiya-Ogeleye, a lawyer, answering questions from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commision’s counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, told the court that she rendered some services to the company, Architekon Nigeria Limited.
She told the court that in 2021, she filed the company’s annual report and also changed the director and shareholders of the company.
She added that before the addition, Architekon had only two directors.
She said, “Sometime in 2021 one madam Esther called me to effect a change in the company by adding her as a director of the company.”
She tendered a CAC document, which contained the names of Margaret Omoyile, McCombo Omoyile and Esther Oyeladun Adeoun as shareholders.
She also tendered another document containing the record of transfer from McCombo to Margaret, dated March 4, 2021, as well as another document containing the resolution of the company on Esther’s admittance as a director of Architekon.
The witness also presented to the court a copy of an email she said Oyeladun sent her requesting that she be added as a director of the company.
Justice Muazu admitted all the documents as evidence.
The defence counsel, Mathew Burkaa (SAN), during cross-examination, asked the witness if she had a physical meeting with McCombo and she replied no.
He asked her about the signatures in the company documents she presented and if she saw McCombo sign on it.
She replied that she couldn’t tell whether they were at the meeting and signed the resolution since they were sent to her and she wasn’t physically there.
Earlier, the eight prosecution witnesses, a Zenith Bank Compliance Officer, Mr Umar Tilda, tendered three bank documents before the court which included a copy of Emefiele’s bank statement.
Tilda, citing a portion in Emefiele’s bank statement, informed the court that there was a N4 million transfer from Emefiele’s account with the bank to Architekon on January 13, 2015.
When Burkaa asked him if he knew what the transfer was meant for, he said he did not know.
Also when asked if he knew that the accounts he listed as belonging to Emefiele were salary accounts, investments, savings and dividends, he replied, “I wouldn’t know.”
He also confirmed that some of the accounts contained Capital Interest Credit.
He also confirmed that a transaction of N15 million debit, dated April 13, 2015, in count number 2020000064 was part of litigation.
The court adjourned till October 21, for the continuation of trial.
President Bola Tinubu has directed the setting up of a presidential committee to oversee the Cholera Emergency Operation Centre, operated by the National Centre For Disease Control.
The Minister of Health, Ali Pate, made this known on Tuesday after the Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by President Tinubu at the State House, Abuja.
He added that the committee’s effort is in addition to state government support to ensure Nigeria makes progress in reducing open defecation.
“The Council then approved a cabinet committee comprising the federal ministries of Health, Finance,Water Resources, Environment, Youth, Aviation, Education because some of our children will be returning to school . In addition to this, the state government, we will co-opt, so that Nigeria makes progress in reducing open defecation because cholera is a developmental issue that requires a multi-sectoral approach.
“The President directed that a cabinet committee be set up to oversee what the emergency operation centre led by NCDC is doing and for the resources to be provided complemented by the state government,” he said.
Pate further disclosed: “At the moment about 31 states have recorded 1528 cases and 53 deaths in Nigeria. That is what we are working through the Emergency Operation Centre that was activated by NCDC on Monday.
“Now we have a cholera outbreak and we discussed extensively in the Council in addition to a new emergence of Yellow Fever specifically in Bayelsa State.
“On cholera we are in the middle of the 7th pandemic globally which is decades in the making. In 2022, the world had almost 500,000 cases of cholera so it is not only peculiar to Nigeria. In 2023 almost 700,000 cases of cholera were reported by the World Health Organization.
“This year more than 200,000 cases have occurred in five regions of the World.”
He emphasised that a multi sectoral approach is required to tackle the outbreak .
“Resources were deployed to 21 states to help them respond to cholera. We are improving awareness of population, handwashing, hygiene sanitation, in addition to treatment with drugs, and intravenous fluids,” he added.
