Raping: Police arrest Pastor

,,,for allegedly raping church member during deliverance

Operatives of Ogun State Command of Nigeria Police have arrested a pastor in charge of Life and Power Bible Church, Ogijo, Matthew Oladapo, for ‘forcefully’ having carnal knowledge of a 19-year-old member of the church (name withheld).

The command Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who disclosed this in a statement in Abeokuta, said the pastor was arrested following a report lodged at Ogijo divisional headquarters by the victim.

Oyeyemi said the victim reported that “while attending the church service on February 20, 2022, the pastor told her that he saw a vision that she is having a spiritual husband, which she needs to be delivered of.

“She stated further that the pastor told her she will undergo three nights of fasting and prayer in the church for total deliverance.

“In addition, she was asked to come to the church with N1,000 note and anointing oil.

“But on the first night of the fasting and prayer, she was taken to a room within the church where the pastor ordered her to pull off her clothes and undies and lay down on a piece of cloth on the floor which she obeyed.

“While lying on the floor, the pastor started rubbing the anointing oil on her body and inserted his finger into her private part.

“When she protested, the pastor pinned her down, covered her mouth and forcefully had sex with her with the claim that it is the only way to break the bond between her and the spirit husband.

“Upon the report, the DPO Ogijo division, Onatufe Umoh, detailed his detectives to the scene where the pastor was promptly arrested.

“On interrogation, the suspect confessed to the crime but claimed to have been overwhelmed by the spirit."

Meanwhile, the state Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, has ordered the immediate transfer of the suspect to the Anti-human Trafficking and Child Labour Unit of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for further investigation and diligent prosecution.

Man in remand over daughter's death

A 28-year-old-man, Dare Audu, accused of murdering his daughter, has been ordered by an Ado-Ekiti Chief Magistrates’ Court to be remanded pending legal advice.

The Chief Magistrate, Mr Bankole Oluwasanmi, did not take Audu’s plea for lack of jurisdiction.

The magistrate directed the police to return the case file to the Director of Public Prosecutions for legal advice.

He adjourned the case until March 23 for mention

Earlier, the Prosecution Counsel, Inspector Oriyomi Akinwale told the court that Audu committed the offence on February 19 in Ilawe-Ekiti.

Akinwale alleged that the defendant murdered his six-year-old child.

The offence, he said, contravened the provisions of Section 319(1) of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.

My ex-convict boyfriend lured me into hemp business — Suspect

*Says he promised her marriage with the proceeds 

*As NDLEA arrests 248 suspected drug traffickers in Ebonyi

A 31-year-old Senior Secondary School II dropout, Mary Donejay, has narrated how her ex-convict boyfriend, Henry Daniel, lured her into the Indian hemp business in Ondo State with a promise to finance their wedding with the proceeds.

Both suspects were arrested alongside 11 others by operatives of the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Ondo State Command during the destruction of 255 hectares of cannabis farms in five council areas in the state said to be worth N900 million.

In an interview, the bar attendant, Mary Donejay, said: “I met Henry Daniel in Oba-ile where I was working in a restaurant. He proposed to me after some months of dating him. I was hopeful for a blissful marital life.

“He told me that he was an ex-convict that deals in ‘Igbo’ business. He told me to join him to harvest cannabis and that we will get married, promising that he will open a provision shop for me and as a Senior Secondary School II dropout. I saw it as a good deal for me.

“The idea made me happy because I have two children from another man, who are with my mother at the moment. All I do for Daniel is to cook here in the forest.

“We were informed that the NDLEA guys were around. But before I could run away, they had already rounded me up, but my fiancee bolted leaving me behind.

“I have seen him selling cannabis to people on two occasions, but I never asked how much he sold the stuff.”

The agency’s Deputy Director, Strike Force, Mr Nnadi Chidi, said: “We found her on a quarterly harvested 10 hectares of cannabis farmland at Ogbese Government forest reserve with 16.5kg of Cannabis Sativa.

“All the suspects will be charged to court after investigation has been carried out,”

NDLEA arrests 248 suspected drug traffickers

Meanwhile, the agency, yesterday, revealed that it has arrested over 248 suspected drug traffickers in 2021 in Ebonyi State.

The agency also seized over 243,520 kilograms of drugs within the period under review in the state.

Deputy Commander of the agency in the state, Amaka Ekwalor, stated this at a pre-event press briefing for an advocacy and sensitisation programme for Izzii/Abakaliki Federal Constituency with the theme “Support the war against drug abuse.”

She noted that 20 of the suspected drug traffickers, all males aged between 20 to 65 years were successfully prosecuted and convicted at the Federal High Court.

According to her, cannabis accounted for 183,313 kilograms of the total drugs seized within the said period.

She lamented that the menace of drug use is taking a frightening dimension in the country despite measures put in place by the government.

Man sentenced to death for armed robbery

Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo presided over by Justice Archibong Archibong has sentenced a 36-year-old man, Destiny James Okon, to death for armed robbery.

Okon was condemned after the court found him guilty of robbing Ubotex warehouse in Ifa Ikot Okpon, Uyo, on  December 15, 2015.

Justice Archibong in a two-hour judgement, however, discharged and acquitted two other accused persons, 40-year-old Ikechukwu Eme and Nwaigbo Kelechi, 36, of the charges.

The trio were standing trial on a three-count of conspiracy, armed robbery and unlawful possession of firearms.

Destiny Okon had confessed to the Police that Ikechukwu Eme, who is the second accused person, told him that he had a job to monitor when he took him to Ubotex warehouse in a broad daylight and posed as customers and returned at night to rob the warehouse.

He explained that one Musa ” called him 15th day of December 2015 to assist him to keep some Cameroon Zinc, which he accepted and took to his father’s house in Okobo, Ibiono Ibom.

He also told the court that Eme, whom he claimed deals in buying scrap items, was invited to buy the Zinc but told “Musa” that he would not buy the items because they were not scrapped, except Musa would provide receipts of the Zinc.

The first accused said Musa did not come back before he was arrested on 18th December 2015.

In a judgement in the suit number HU/63C/ 2015, Justice Archibong held that “it is obvious that the acclaimed ‘Musa” is a fictitious person manufactured by the accused persons to mislead the Police in the course of the investigation”

He described it “as a ploy to deceive this Court into considering that someone else committed the offence of armed robbery or that the first accused person did not participate in the robbery”.

The Court further held that the Prosecution by circumstantial evidence of the Doctrine of Recent Possession has established its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

“It was a clear case of violation of the presumption in Section 419 of the Evidence Act 2019 now Section 107 (5) of the Evidence Act 2010, being the statutory version of the English Doctrine of Recent Possession.

“ It could not have otherwise if a person is found in possession of property which was properly reported to have been recently stolen with or without violence from another person.

“From the evidence, in this case, I can deduce that Musa is a fiction of the imagination of the accused persons. You are hereby sentenced to death. You shall die in a manner to be directed by Akwa Ibom State Governor. May God have mercy on your soul.” Court held.

'Family does not believe official account of how my husband died'

THE wife of a police officer, who died at the home of the former Ogun State governor, Gbenga Daniel, has said the family does not believe the official account of how her husband died.

Abosede Ogunsola, the wife of the police sergeant, said the family also rejected a N1 million offered them.

The deceased, Adeleke Ogunsola, died last weekend at the Sagamu home of the former governor.

According to the police, Mr Daniel’s driver hit the deceased while he was trying to open the gate into Daniel’s private residence in Sagamu.

He was rushed to a hospital where he was confirmed dead.

Mrs Ogunsola said that both the police and Daniel’s aides informed her that the death was as a result of an iron mistakenly hitting her husband in the chest.

She, however, said the mark she saw on her husband’s corpse at the mortuary could not have killed him.

She added that the family is already making arrangements to conduct an autopsy on the body.

Mrs Ogunsola said: “When we got to the mortuary we insisted on seeing his corpse. We saw a wound on his chest and we do not believe that injury could have killed my husband. But we are sure of something, whatever is hidden to men is clear to God. Again, we do not accept that it was that wound on his chest that killed him.”

Family was offered N1m

Mrs Ogunsola said after the incident, the family was offered N1 million. She did not specify who ‘offered’ the N1 million or what it was for.

She said although the deceased had two wives and three children, he never allowed any of his wives to fend for the family.

“Since this happened, it was yesterday (Monday) that they came to see us and they tendered N1 million to us. They didn’t give that money to us in our house, but few minutes after they left, it was the DPO that called us to say that they brought the sum of N1 million.

“My brother-in-law then asked what the money was for? Is it to send the children to school or to establish his wives?

“My husband’s elder brother had said, if they are not ready to say something tangible, we would leave the corpse at the mortuary, we have started discussing about the autopsy but we are not done, when we decide on that we will let you know.”

Police investigation

A source, who preferred not to be named because he was not authorised to speak about the incident, told PREMIUM TIMES that the police initially started investigating a murder case but was later compelled to change the case to a case of ‘death in active service’.

The source said: “It has always been issues about who opens the gate. The story they gave is not true. We were not there when the incident happened but people that were present told us that it is not an accident. 

“Later, when the driver was arrested and taken to the police station, the IPO in charge of the case knew that it was a case of murder and was already preparing the case of murder for discrete investigation before we learnt that the police authority in the state instructed that the case should be changed to a case of death in the cause of active service.

“This man is a friend of mine and very gentle and easy-going as well. We have also learnt that the people of the former governor are already negotiating for settlement, the question now is that, why settlement if they do not have anything in their cupboard?”

Gbenga Daniel speaks

In a statement after the incident, Daniel said he was not at home when it happened.

According to the statement: “On Saturday, February 19, 2022, one of the security details assigned to the residence of former Governor Gbenga Daniel, Leke Ogunsola, was involved in an accident at the security gate of the premises. He was immediately taken to the hospital, and then referred to Babcock Hospital in Ilishan,” read the statement issued by Steve Oloyede on behalf of the former governor.

“He was alive and responding as he walked his way to treatment all through until he, unfortunately, passed on later in the day.

“The former governor, who was not in Sagamu as at the time of the incident, was duly informed and he has been in touch with the deceased's family through police authorities.

“The matter is under investigation. We call for prayers for the dearly departed and the loved ones left behind. May his soul rest in peace.”

The statement added that the police is the only competent authority to speak on the incident.

“One, the victim is their staff; two, the matter is still under investigation, and it will be unthinkable that we should be talking about the circumstance of death at this stage; that will be preemptive of the outcome of investigation.”

Culled from Premium Times with Vanguard report.