10 feared killed in Warri, Ogbomosho auto crashes

Oshodi-Isolo LGA chairman, Hon. Kehinde Oloyede during his visit to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

NO fewer than eight persons were   feared dead in a motor accident involving a Picnic commercial vehicle and a Lexus, yesterday, on the Warri-Eku express road, Delta State.

An eyewitness, who simply identified himself as Mr Eguono, said the driver of the Picnic bus and some of his passengers died on the spot. 

He said: “I cannot say who was at fault now. But it was a close to Oha part of the road. I don’t think anybody survived in the Picnic vehicle.

“The driver of the Picnic shuttles between Warri and Abraka. He wears eyeglasses. He is a regular face on the road.“

In a related incident, two members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, were crushed to death by a trailer in Ogbomoso North Local Government Area of Oyo State.

Secretary of the party in the local government, Mr Tunji Alabi, who confirmed the incident, told Vanguard that the duo had been buried.

Investigations, however, revealed that one of the victims, Afolabi Tunde, who was an APC youth leader in the town, was a delegate from the state in the just concluded convention of the party. He is survived by his widow, two children and aged parents.

It was further gathered that Tunde, fondly called Tunde Aluta, celebrated his 49th birthday on Monday, after returning from the convention in Abuja. 

Sources said Tunde Aluta and another party member, Alawuye Sabitu, were on a motorcycle, on Tuesday afternoon, when the truck rammed into the bike and crushed them. 

An eye witness said Aluta died on the spot while Sabitu, who sustained an internal injury, died later, and Sabitu was buried according to Islamic rites immediately.

An unconfirmed report said the duo left a bar around Idi Abebe for Agric area to get their commission on a land sold when the accident occurred.

While confirming the incident to our correspondent, the party secretary, Mr Alabi said: “Tunde Afolabi and his friend died on a bike around the caretaker area. They were going to meet somebody for something very crucial.

“He was not a youth leader, but a committed and well-known party supporter. A core loyalist of Shina Peller, currently representing Iseyin at the House of Representatives.”

At press time, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Adewale Osifeso, did not respond to a text message sent to him for confirmation.

4 to die by hanging for robbery, murder

Four persons have been sentenced to death by hanging by a Rivers State High Court sitting in Port Harcourt.

The court ordered that the condemned persons be hanged in the neck till they are confirmed dead for murdering one Mrs Esther Edomobi sometime in 2008.

The sentenced persons are Zakariah Dauda, Inah-Inah Edet, Sunday Pius and Isaac Marcus.

It was reported that the four suspects had on May 24, 2008 robbed and murdered their victim at her residence in Cocaine Estate, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state.

The four young men have been standing trial since 2008 for conspiracy, armed robbery and murder of late Mrs Edomobi, who had employed the first accused person, Zachariah Dauda, as a security guard in her residence.

The trial judge, Justice Weli Chechey, found the four defendants guilty as charged, for conspiring among themselves to murder the deceased and carting away her property and millions of pounds.

The judge ruled that the evidence presented before the court showed that the defendants killed the late Mrs Edomobi in a gruesome manner by hitting her hard with an object which pulled out her eyes.

Justice Chechey held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.

NSCDC intercepts 2 trucks with 90,000 litres of adulterated diesel

The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, has intercepted two trucks loaded with 90,000 litres of suspected adulterated diesel in Ikom LGA of Cross River State.

Commandant of NSCDC in  the state, Mr Samuel Fadeyi, who conducted newsmen round the impounded trucks, yesterday, at the NSCDC exhibit yard in Calabar South, said the trucks were arrested on March 23, 2022 in Ikom local government area of the state.

He said the trucks were intercepted through intelligence gathering, having escaped the eyes of other security personnel along the Port Harcourt-Uyo road.

According to him, shortly after the arrest, men of the NSCDC mandated the drivers to take the trucks to Calabar and sadly, the drivers jumped out of the trucks along the road and ran away.

His words: ”These trucks were arrested on March 23, 2022 in Ikom Local Government Area. Each of the trucks carried 45,000 litres of suspected adulterated diesel.

“Both drivers ran away in the process of moving them to Calabar and this almost created a disaster; you can imagine what would have happened if it rammed into people.

“But my men were able to salvage the situation. I want to believe that if all is well with this product, there wouldn’t have been any reason for the drivers to run away.

“The product is going through analysis in the laboratory, pending what we get from it; but this truck is likely going to be forfeited to the Federal Government."

NDLEA nabs 5 members of airport drug syndicate

An alleged drug kingpin operating at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos and six other members of his gang have been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.

A statement by Femi Babafemi, Director, Media and Advocacy, yesterday, said a professional methamphetamine (Mkpuru Mmiri) cook and a lawyer were also arrested in Owerri, Imo State and Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State respectively.

“The Lagos airport drug syndicate was behind the smuggling of 1,584,000 tablets of Tramadol seized March 15 by NDLEA operatives in collaboration with Aviation Security (AVSEC) and Customs service personnel at the airport. 

“The seizure includes 17 cartons of 250mg Tramadol branded as 'Tamra' weighing 669.70kg and five cartons of 225mg Tramadol under the brand name 'Royal' with a gross weight of 217.15kg.

“The psychotropic substance, which was imported into the country from Pakistan was smuggled through the airport tarmac using one of the vehicles of the Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) and was intercepted at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Personnel Yard. 

“Two suspects, Ofijeh John Mowa, a SAHCO driver and Nyam Gazu Alex, who is a security guard with the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, NAHCO, were initially arrested in connection with the seizure.

“Further investigations by  NDLEA operatives, however, led to the arrest of five other persons involved in the crime including the ringleader, Yunana Fidelis, who fled Lagos to Kaduna the moment their lid was blown open. 

“Others include Adesanwo Temitope; Owoseni Taiwo Temidayo; Fasoranti Shola and Bamigbade Jonathan.

“Yunana Fidelis, who is also a staff of NACHO, had escaped and fled to Kaduna after depositing Nineteen Million Eight Hundred Thousand Naira (N19, 800,000.00) cash with a BDC operator to be paid later into his bank account.

“After tracking him for days in Kaduna, Fidelis relocated to Abuja where he was eventually arrested by NDLEA operatives  on March 27 while he was trying to collect N1, 000, 000.00 cash from an undercover agent who posed as a BDC operator.

Meanwhile, a professional methamphetamine (Mkpuru Mmiri) cook, Reuben Bekweri, 34, has been arrested in Owerri while trying to distribute a kilogram of the illicit drug he cooked and packaged in seven nylon sachets in the Irete area of Imo State  on March 24.

In Ado Ekiti, narcotic officers on Monday 28th March also arrested a 42-year-old lawyer, Mr Mayowa Oluwanisomo, in Zone 4, Embassy Island, Moferere area of the Ekiti state capital following credible intelligence that he deals in psychotropic substances. 

A total of 11, 570 tablets of Tramadol weighing 7.3kilograms were recovered from him when his residence was searched. 

He admitted ownership of the drug exhibits, adding that he graduated from Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti and Abuja campus of the Nigerian Law School in 2016.

Meanwhile, the agency, yesterday, arraigned a South African returnee, Nnakeanyi Chukwuka King, before a Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos for allegedly smuggling 9.70 kilograms of Cocaine into Nigeria from South Africa.

The defendant was arraigned before Justice Nicholas Oweibo, on a two-count charge of conspiracy and illegal importation of the illicit drug.

The prosecutor, Mr Abu Ibrahim, who stood in for Mr Augustine Nwagu, told the court that the defendant was arrested with the illicit drug on March 7, 2022.

He said that the incident occurred during the inward clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airline flight from Brazil through Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia at the E-Arrival Hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja-Lagos.

Ibrahim told the court that the defendant conspired with one Onyenka, who is now at large, to commit the offence.

Culled from Vanguard