Electrician sentenced to death for murder

An electrician, Abdulkadiri Issa, was on Wednesday sentenced to death by a Lagos High Court in Ikeja for the murder of Mrs. Catherine Kate-Amadi in Ebute-Meta, Lagos in October 2006.

Thirty-one-year-old Issa was found guilty of stabbing Kate-Amadi to death with a kitchen knife in her residence, where he had been invited to repair electrical faults.

Issa was said to have locked himself up with the corpse of the deceased in the house where policemen said they found him hiding in the toilet.

Justice Iyabo Kasali, relying on circumstantial evidence adduced by the prosecution, said Issa was guilty of the murder.

She said, “There are contradictions in the evidence of the defendant along with Exhibit P4 which is the statement of the defendant.

“The evidence of PW1, PW2 and PW3 is credible, irresistible and I find that the defendant killed the deceased.

“The prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt. The defendant is hereby sentenced to death by hanging.”

The defence counsel, Mr. Yemi Omodele, had urged the court to discharge and acquit his client, on the basis that the case of the prosecution, led by A.O Bajulaye, was only based on suspicion.

He faulted the prosecution’s case for failing to tender any medical evidence to establish the “act or omission” of the accused which led to the death of the victim.

Though the third prosecution witness, PW3, Investigating Police Officer, Patrick Nnadi, said autopsy was conducted on the deceased, no evidence relating to the autopsy was given in court.

The prosecution conceded that the Consultant Pathologist and Chief Medical Examiner of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Prof. John Obafunwa, was unable to give evidence in the case due to his appointment as “Vice-Chancellor and other administrative issues.”

Omodele also said the evidence of the first and second prosecution witnesses, PW1, Chief T.I Enyinma, the deceased’s cousin; and PW2, Charles Osuagwu, the deceased’s brother-in-law, was only based on hearsay.

The lawyer said the person who first informed Enyinma of the murder of the deceased before he (Enyinma) contacted Osuagwu to visit the house of the deceased, was unknown.

He argued that it was untenable to convict an accused simply because he was found at the scene of a crime.

Omodele had argued that “it is unheard” that a person who killed would lock himself in the same room where he committed the crime.

He urged the court to believe his client, who he said was “unshaken” under cross-examination.

Issa had, in his testimony, told the court that he used to go to the deceased’s flat to help her with electrical repairs.

He said he could remember that on the day of the incident, he was slapped by one of the two men sitting with the deceased at the time she went into the house.

Issa said he slumped and that by the time he regained consciousness he found people in the house surrounding the deceased in her pool of blood.

He was arraigned on December 7, 2009 on one-count of murder said to have been committed on October 30, 2006.

Confusion as Ekiti removes envoy as Regent

Ekiti State Government on Wednesday announced Mrs. Comfort Idowu as the new Regent of Ilasa-Ekiti in Ekiti State, barely 24 hours after Nigerian Ambassador to Republic of Congo, Princess Jolaade Onipede, was installed as Regent of the town.

The Commissioner for Information, Mr. Funminiyi Afuye, at a press conference, announced Idowu as the “rightful and lawful Regent” of the town.

Afuye said the government had taken its decision based on the recommendations from the appropriate authorities.

He said, “The state government hereby confirms Mrs. Comfort Dayo Idowu as the rightful and lawful regent of Ilasa-Ekiti. As far as the state government is concerned, traditional institution in Ilasa recommended the name of Mrs. Comfort Dayo Idowu to the Ekiti East Local Government and the local government recommended to the state government.”

However, Onipede, who was a special adviser on chieftaincy affairs during former governor, Mr. Segun Oni’s administration, said what the government did was a ruse.

She said she would not allow the state government to trample on the culture and tradition of the people of the town.

Onipede, who is the daughter of the Late Oba Abel Ajibola, who died on October 1, 2012, said the tradition of the town was that the eldest daughter of the late monarch ascends the thrown as the Regent.

She said, “It is a ruse, the commissioner does not know the tradition of Ilasa and he is not a native of the town. All the kingmakers of Ilasa will not come together and make a mistake. They are the people to announce and have done that.

“Idowu cannot come to my father’s palace and room. She will have to go to Afuye’s village to serve as Regent and not Ilasa. The state government does not know the rule.”

Onipede, after her installation on Monday, said she would not spend more than six months on the throne and asked the next ruling house to come up with its candidate.

Kogi warns impostors in flood relief camps

The Kogi State Deputy Governor, Mr. Yomi Awoniyi, on Wednesday in Lokoja, warned impostors at the various relief camps to leave in their own interest.

Awoniyi, who spoke on the state’s government’s efforts at rehabilitating victims of the flood disaster, said government would apprehend and punish those whose houses were not affected by the flood but who were currently occupying the various camps in the state.

He urged the flood victims not to rush back to their houses.

He said the state government was determined to embark on a thorough and long-term planning that would prevent future flood disaster in the State.

He also said the state’s Town Planning Development Board had commenced enumeration of all buildings that were affected by the flood in the state.

In a statement by the Kogi State Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Yabagi Bologi, Awoniyi, who is also the Chairman of the Flood Disaster Management Committee, said the markings being made on buildings by the board do not indicate that the buildings would be pulled down.

He added that integrity tests would be carried out on each of the buildings by professionals, while their location, in relation to the river bank, would be examined before identifying which ones that would be demolished.

Auto crash: 7 burnt to death on Warri-Agbor highway

WARRI—SEVEN persons were burnt to death, yesterday, in an auto crash along Agbor-Abavo-Asaba highway.
An eyewitness, Comrade Austin Ozobo, who is the national president of  Ijaw People Development Initiative, IPDI, told Vanguard that the accident occurred at about 3.40 pm, adding that there were four survivors, who were rushed to an undisclosed hospital.
He said: “A bus carrying about 11 passengers reportedly collided with a Peugeot J5 bus, which lost control.
“It is quite disturbing. I saw human beings burning alive and there was nothing anybody could do to stop the fire.
“Immediately it happened, there was an explosion and the bus caught fire. There was no fire service, even when the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC officials, came later, nobody could do anything. People were just watching until they were burnt. There were only four survivors.”

Okada ban in Delta: No going back on Nov 1 date – Commissioner

Asaba—DELTA State Commissioner for Transport, Mr. Benson Igbakpa, has said there was no going back on the ban on commercial motorcycles, popularly known as Okada, as the ban takes effect today.
He made it clear that the restriction would begin today in Warri, Asaba and Effurun, warning that the ban did not exclude private motorcycle users.
He said: ”Anybody who may claim to be using his or her motorcycle for private purposes or haulage should construct a carriage at the back signifying that it is not a passenger motorcycle.
“With the transport arrangements already on ground, we can move as much as 21,000 passengers at a time. So there is no going back on the November 1 take off date for the restriction order because the state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has been magnanimous enough.”
Governor Uduaghan had extended the ban by one month to enable a better take off of the system.
Already, the presence of tricycles on the streets of Asaba has become prominent in the last couple of days.
While some passengers that usually patronized Okada told our reporter that they were not comfortable with the ban as the tricycles would not be able to go into rough terrains, others heaved a sigh of relief over the ban.
Commissioning 1,250 tricycles to be used in place of motorcycles, the governor had warned politicians not to interfere with the distribution of the tricycles as it was exclusively reserved for commercial motorcycle operators.
The governor, who subsidized the cost of the tricycles up to 70 per cent, from N400,000 to N150,000, warned operators of the tricycles to restrict themselves to routes approved for them.
He noted that the introduction of the tricycles was to replace and gradually phase out commercial motorcycles as part of measures to ensure safety in the transport sector and promote security in the state.

Living in Lagos without Okada: Lagosians share their experiences

For a couple of days now, living in Lagos has become a sort of hell to some people. No thanks to the ban on commercial motorcyclists, otherwise known as Okada from plying some roads in the state.
The enforcement of the ban took a new dimension early this week when the okada operators took to the streets to protest indiscriminate arrest of their members and subsequent seizure of their motorcycles, and the process, destroyed public facilities including BRT buses.
This it was learnt, angered the state government warranting a heavy clampdown on the defaulters by enforcing agents. As a result of this, okada riders across the state suspended their operations. The situation is compounded by the ‘perceived’  scarcity of petroleum products. Perceived because, it is believed that the scarcity was created by greedy marketers who hoard the products only to sell at odd hours.

*Some commercial motorcyclists during operation

All these have made life miserable for Lagosians. At every bus stop, commuters are seen stranded while some were left with no option than to take a long trek to their destinations.
Some of the commuters who spoke to our reporter said they lacked appropriate words to described the hardship they are going through and called on the state government to immediately address the situation.
Even car owners were not spared. The ban has witnessed an increase in number of vehicles on the roads, as those who rarely use their cars , for fear of being held up in traffic and miss business engagements, had no option than to use their cars and spend hours in traffic.
Those who commented on this issue were of the view that the government should have put some measures in place before full implementation of the new law, so as to cushion the effects on residents.
Mr Christopher, a journalist with one of the national dailies in Lagos, said the ban has made his work more difficult, particularly in meeting up deadline.
“Yesterday, I spent over an hour at a bus stop in the morning and over two hours in the traffic. The same thing happened in the evening. It was a terrible experience that I wouldn’t want my enemy to have.”
A banker, Kola and Zico, a trader at Ladipo market also shared similar experiences and opined that it is becoming unbearable to live in Lagos.
Most of the people who shared their ordeals with us maintain that the ban on okada was not bad in itself but stressed that everything was wrong about its implementation. They accused the police and other law enforcement agents of extorting money from okada riders even from those plying approved routes.
They suggested that for the law to be effective, government should provide alternative means of transportation, open new routes and repair bad roads.  They also called for close monitoring of  the activities of enforcement agents,  to check their excesses.
Do have your say:
However, if you are in Lagos, feel free to share your experiences with us and what you think should be the solution- the best ways to go about the implementation of the new traffic laws.

Retired FG workers groan over unpaid N11bn pensions

By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North
ABUJA — Hundreds of Nigerian workers who retired from the employ of the Federal Government have not been paid their pension in the past six months, Vanguard has learnt.
The government has, however, not been able to explain to the affected workers why it had not remitted its share of the contributory pensions to the National Pension Commission, Pencom, for onward remittance to their respective Pension Funds Administrators, PFAs.
There are at least 54,558 retirees from public and private sectors of the economy, who collect a monthly sum of N1.77 billion under the Contributory Pension Scheme,CPS.
Under the scheme, the Federal Government makes available a certain amount of money while the workers contribute a certain percentage of their salary to sustain the CPS, which is being administered by PENCOM but remitted monthly via their chosen PFAs.
However, finding by Vanguard revealed that the Federal Government had not remitted its  share of the pension fund to the pension agency since May this year.
The delay in remitting the amount, which is said to be in the region of N11 billion, has caused anxiety among the beneficiaries, who daily throng the premises of the commission to seek clarifications on why they have not been paid.
Some of the retirees were sighted at the commission premises, yesterday, in small groups to demand payment but did not get any at the end of the day.
The Pension Commission, it was gathered, has been managing to calm down the aggrieved retirees, who believe erroneously that it is the agency that is holding on to their payment.
Paradoxically, the commission has refused to comment on the development, apparently out of the fear of being reprimanded for presenting its employers in bad light.
Although our correspondent visited the commission to find out why the retirees were not paid, no official was willing to talk on the development, although they tried to appeal to the growing number of retirees that their money would soon be paid.
One of the affected pensioners told Vanguard that it was unbecoming of the government to withhold its own share of the pension at a time the cost of living was becoming almost unbearable for the average Nigerian.
“We want to know why the government is keeping back our little entitlement and that is why we are here,” one elderly woman, who retired some years ago from the Federal Pay Office, Minna, said.
Several attempts to talk with officials of PENCOM proved abortive, as they relevant officers were said to be attending to some other pressing issues at the time.
The Federal Government had recently released N34 billion for the settlement of outstanding pensions of the affected retirees before the accumulation of the new figure.
However a competent source said that the government was aware of the unremitted amount and would soon release money to offset the backlog.