Violence: Lady calls off wedding 48 hrs to ceremony

BARELY 48 hours to the traditional and church wedding between Miss Michael Ozioma Helen and David Okike in Ebonyi State, the former has called off the event over alleged battery by the latter.

It was gathered that Ozioma’s bride price had been paid.

Ozioma announced the cancellation, on her Facebook wall, yesterday.

She said: “I never wanted to bring this here but I have to. I am the type of person who likes to keep my relationship away from social media but this is for clarification purposes.    

“He was my secondary school classmate whom I thought I knew to an extent. On December 28, 2020, he did the 1st and 2nd stages in my family marriage list, which included the bride price.

“After he paid my bride price, he started maltreating me. 2021 was hell for me that at some point I left home. After everything, we settled around November 2021 and he promised he would never beat me again. Still, nothing changed.

“This is my reason for calling off the traditional marriage (Igba Ngwu) and white wedding ceremony between me and David Okike. (Beating me was not part of the agreement in our marriage).“

One of her friends who simply identified herself as Tochi, confirmed the cancellation, adding that they had bought Aso ebi in anticipation of the wedding. She applauded her friend’s courage in calling off the wedding, stating that it was better to call it off at this stage than walk into her casket.

Dubai returnee connives with kidnappers to abduct girlfriend, collects N2m ransom

THE Police in Lagos are on the trail of one Ahmed, a Dubai returnee, who allegedly staged his kidnap and that of his girlfriend, last month in Abuja.

He was said to have collected a ransom of N2 million from his girlfriend’s family before she was released.

His role in the kidnap saga came to the fore, following the arrest of one of the kidnappers, Uchenna Daniels, 30, in Allen Avenue, Ikeja, three days after the release of the abducted lady identified as Hannatu Kabri.

During interrogation, Uchenna revealed how Hannatu’s boyfriend initiated the plan of abducting Hannatu, all in a bid to extort her parents.

Parading the suspect before journalists at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters, Ikeja, yesterday, the command spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin, said: “On March 31, 2022, at about 2 pm, intelligence gathered revealed that one Ucehna Daniels kidnapped one Miss Hannatu Kabri, 22, in Abuja. Operatives of the command tracked and arrested the suspect at Allen Avenue, Ikeja. Lagos.

He revealed that the victim’s boyfriend, Ahmed. and one Biliya planned the kidnap with him and collected a ransom of N2 million through a bureau de change from the parents of the victim before she was released on March 28, 2022. He added that they made use of a toy gun to commit the crime.”

When approached, Uchenna said: “Ahmed was my course mate at Hassan Usman Polytechnic, Katsina State. He is from Sokoto State. He contacted me through one Ibrahim, who was also a coursemate."

“I met them when I went to Abuja to hustle but had no money to transport myself back to Lagos."

“ On the day of the abduction, we picked up Ahmed and his girlfriend as they were driving out of a hotel in Abuja. We took both of them to an accommodation Ahmed earlier paid for.

“While they were with us, he negotiated N10 million as a ransom for his release. He sent a fake N10 million alert to us and we released him. He gave us a stern warning never to molest his girlfriend, who was later released after Ahmed confirmed that the N2 million ransom had been paid.

“Ahmed was yet to pay me my share before I was arrested. He only gave me N110,000 before I left Abuja for Lagos, with a promise to send my share of the ransom”.

The command spokesman said the suspect would be charged to court, adding that efforts were ongoing to arrest others.

3 arrested over killing of Customs officer

As the family of the Customs officer, Augustine Onwegbuzie, allegedly killed by smugglers recently is yet to come to terms with the circumstances surrounding his death, the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Ikeja said they have arrested three suspects.

A family member, who spoke with Vanguard, said the claim is suspicious as their son, who was in the company of six operatives, died March 22, 2022 but that his death was not made known to them until after 48 hours.

The family source told Vanguard: “Seven officers went for operations and one went missing, the other six ran away and they never called for any kind of reinforcement, never declared him missing after 48 hours.

“Instead, the Unit leader went on to call a soothsayer to tell them where they can find him or his corpse. And everyone knows that the service, in their usual way, will attack the community in commando style to rescue him.”

But, the Public Relations Officer of the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Peter Duniya, said that he could not speak much about the issue as an investigation is still ongoing.

Duniya explained that they have the three detained suspects in custody, as well as statements from the colleagues of the deceased.

Informed that the deceased had complained to some family members about the O/C of his Unit, Duniya said: “Until it is formerly brought to the office, issues like that are best treated officially.  I only saw the picture after he was brought out of the pit."

“Well, as I speak with you now; cannot comment on that because the department has initiated action and the investigation is ongoing. “We have suspects that were arrested after the incident, the department is investigating the matter.

“Until that is reasonable concluded, that is when l or any other person can say precisely what happened because we have three suspects in connection to that murder and the officers that were there, we also have their statement.

“The suspects are not Customs officers; we just have to wait for the outcome of the investigation.”

When informed that the Officer in Charge of the Unit were late Onwegbuzie served before he met his untimely death, called the widow about 48 hours after ( not 24 as earlier reported), the Unit’s image make said “No, that is not the procedure.

“Let me dig in more as you rightly suggested but that is what we have in our record and that is what we forwarded to the headquarters.

“He never brought a complaint about the O/C of the Unit to the office, if he had done so I am sure that the office would have acted on it.

Whatever complaints he had, he decided to hold it to himself or share it with some of his family members and friends,” he noted.

Amotekun arrests 3 underaged robbery suspects

... nicknamed Oyenusi, Anini, Osunbo

*Mother, herbalist also nabbed 

*We’ve operated more than 46 times, pay our parents’ house rent

*I started robbing at age 12, hide gun in ceiling —Timileyin 

THREE underaged armed robbery suspects, nicknamed after three of Nigeria’s notorious robbers, Oyenusi, Osunbo and Anini, have been arrested by Ondo Amotekun, the state security outfit.

They are Timileyin Femi, aka Anini, 13 years; Ojo Sunday, aka Oyenusi and 15 years, Matti Lowe, aka Osunbo,16 years.

The mother of Timileyin, Iyabo Femi, who reportedly encouraged and fortified him with local charms while going for robbery operations; a herbalist, Adeyemi Ayodele and her mother, Kehinde Ayodele were also arrested and paraded in Akure by the security outfit.

Parading the kid robbers alongside other suspected criminals, the state Commander of Amotekun, Àdetunji Adeleye, said: “It is amazing that we have a second-time armed robber, who named himself Oyenusi and the first-timer here is 12-year-old and confessed that he has to climb a stool to keep his weapon in the ceiling and he is being empowered by the mother to guarantee that nobody could arrest him.

“Now he has graduated to a full-blown armed robber and he operates a seven-member group. He is the youngest but he is the most vicious and powerful.

“We also have a group that specialises in stealing of generating sets and we also have those that kill with impunity for ritual purposes. We have rapists and a daredevil armed robber arrested in Ore with some cartridges.

In an interview, Timilehin Femi (Anini) told newsmen: “I have been robbing since I was 12 years old. I used to hide my gun inside the ceiling and sometimes I used to give it to our herbalist to keep. My mother used to fortify me with charms so that I won’t be caught.

“After every robbery operation, we used to hand over the stolen goods to the herbalist, who will, in turn, sell them. But we don’t hand over any cash to him. I have participated in about 46 operations.

Also, Sunday Ojo (Oyenusi), said: “l have lost count of the robbery operations I have been involved in. I was given the name Oyenusi by people within my neighbourhood.

The mother of Timileyin, lyabo Femi said: “Timileyin is my only son, he used to engage in robbery anytime he sees Sunday. I took him to church so that he won’t be robbing again. In the church, I was given a soap that I used to bathe him by the riverside. But he still goes on operations anytime he sees Sunday, he is a bad influence."

The Amotekun commander, Adeleye, said investigations have been concluded on the suspects and would soon be charged to court.

Culled from Vanguard