THE NATION MONDAY, MAY 12, 2014
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CITYBEATS
Maintenance begins on Lagos bridges
By Adeyinka Aderibigbe
THE China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) yesterday began the maintenance of the two bridges along Alhaji Masha Road in Surulere Local Government Area of Lagos State. The work will end on May 30. Commissioner for Transportation Kayode Opeifa, who disclosed it yesterday, said work would begin on the Masha Bridge 1 (at Adeniran Ogunsanya junction) on Saturday and will end on May 20. He said work would start on the second bridge on May 21 and end on May 30, adding that the exercise would include the replacement of the bridge expansion joints. Opeifa said as part of the traffic management strategies during the exercise, vehicular movement on both directions of the bridges would be restricted. Similarly, vehicles moving inwards Alhaji Masha Road, he said, would use the service lane during the maintenance work. He advised motorists and other road users to use alternative routes to avoid delays, adding that government had directed all relevant agencies to ensure free flow of traffic.
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LUTH declares patient ‘unknown’
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WOMAN has been declared an “unidentified patient” by the management of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba. According to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the hospital, Mrs Hope Nwawolo, the light-complexioned woman of about 35 years old, was brought into the Accident and Emergency Centre of the hospital by a lady and some policemen, on the April 7 at about 10.20am. The patient, according to
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By Oyeyemi GbengaMustapha
Mrs Nwawolo, was said to have been found unconscious in front of a company on Bode Thomas Road, Surulere, by the lady who promptly alerted the police. Mrs Nwawolo said the hospital’s management requests anyone looking for a female relation that fits the above description to visit the Accident and Emergency Centre of the hospital for identification.
• The patient ...yesterday
Civil Defence official ‘shoots’ woman dead
N official of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) attached to Lagos State command has allegedly shot a woman, Mrs Angelina Dansu, dead in Lagos. The tragedy, The Nation gathered, followed a pandemonium that ensued when some NSCDC officials arrived Saponkoji village near Ogogoro village on an Island in Apapa, Lagos. Their mission was said to be undefined as they allegedly to have fired sporadically into the air.
By Jude Isiguzo,
Residents were said to have scampered for safety during the drama that lasted several hours, but luck ran out on the victim when the officials stormed her shop where she was selling kerosene. An eyewitness, who identified herself simply as Bose, said the officials entered the woman’s shop on Wednesday and attempted to forcefully seize her petroleum product, which she
‘When they threatened to shoot her, she fled from the scene even in her nakedness ... one of the officials opened fire on her and the bullet hit her lap’ vehemently resisted. The source said Mrs Dansu was
Illegal deal lands five marketers in jail
FTER intense legal fireworks that lasted over a year, five marketers of petroleum products have been jailed by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos. The marketers are: Ishola Ganiyu, Ishola Omopariola, Kayode Ajose, Aramide Solomon and Aranosiola Muruf. They were pronounced guilty by Justice Ibrahim Buba on two of the five-count charges of conspiracy to wit tampering of pipelines and obstructing free flow of petroleum products. They were arrested with two truckloads of stolen petrol from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipeline in Ibafo area
By Jude Isiguzo,
of Ogun State and charged to court after investigations by the Inspector General of Police Special Task Force on Anti-Pipeline Vandalisation. Justice Buba, who found them guilty of the charges, said that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt. He sentenced them to three-year jail each, but gave them an option of fine to the tune of N300, 000 each. On January 6, last year, the convicts were arrested by operatives of the IGP’s task force while discharging the “stolen” products at a filling station in Ogun State. The police were said to have acted
‘It does not matter the number of years ... the most important thing is that they have been convicted... I believe that this will serve as a deterrent to others’ based on intelligence report that vandals were operating and moving the products to an unknown destination. They were later traced to Ogun State where the products were being sold.
The head of the task force, Mr Friday Ibadin, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), who described the judgment as fair, praised the court for handling the case speedily. He said: “I must sincerely commend Justice Buba for his efforts in expediting the process. It does not matter the number of years that they were sentenced to, the most important thing is that they have been convicted. There are so many others in various courts awaiting trial. I believe that this will serve as a deterrent to others. The department will do its best possible to drastically reduce the cases of pipeline vandalisation by ensuring that suspects are made to face the wrath of the law.”
nearly beaten to coma and stripped naked. When they threatened to shoot her, she fled from the scene even in her nakedness, adding that one of the officials opened fire on her and the bullet hit her lap. The source said residents ran into their homes and remained there for about an hour before coming out one after the other to find the victim dead. The deceased’s husband, Paul, who told The Nation that he was not at home when the incident occurred, said he returned to hear the news of the killing of his wife by the NSCDC officials. The man who had not recovered from the shock said his wife was not a petroleum pipeline vandal as being suspected by the officials. He said she bought kerosene with her money and was retailing the product when the officials came to seize it. Paul, who lamented that the officials had left him with the burden of caring for their four children, said he was told that the officials came with guns, arrow, and cutlasses, among other weapons with which they broke into people’s houses, destroying doors in search of petroleum products. All efforts to reach the spokesman of state command of the Corps, Kehinde Bada, on telephone, failed.
RCCG landlords decry illegal arrest •Urge Adeboye to intervene
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HE landlords of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), the Baale of Agunfoye Village, Chief Yekini Babatunde Agunfon, and the head of the family, Chief Amos Oshin Agbabo, have urged the church’s General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, to call its contractors to order and stop them from harassing the family with policemen. Agunfoye village is the site of the new auditorium being constructed by the church. The two men were on Friday whisked away by men of the X-Squad of the Police, Alagbon, Lagos, led by an officer, Mr. Dosunmu, based on a complaint lodged by the church’s contractors, Chief Tunde Ojelade (aka Mania), the Baale of Mowe and Chief
By Uyoatta Eshiet
Jimoh Balogun, the Baale of Imedu Nla. They have since been released. The Baale and the family head said the call to Pastor Adeboye became important because they were afraid that their safety was no longer guaranteed. The family had earlier appealed to the church to increase the money payable to tenant farmers on the acquired land for their damaged crops from N20,000 per acre to N50,000. They also demanded additional N200,000 on every acre of the land purchased by the church as well as N50,000 per acre as compensation for damaged crops on the acquired land. The family went to court to press for the demands as
• Pastor Adeboye
the church had given contractors money to pay customary tenants of the village instead of allowing the village heads to do the payment. The families were inundated with demands and threats from the displaced people on the land who thought they had collected money from the church, hence their decision to go to court. They said they were surprised to see five policemen coming to hound them like common criminals, arresting and embarrassing them, thus their appeal to Pastor Adeboye.