Man arrested for allegedly setting wife, son ablaze!

A man, who had been on the run after allegedly setting his wife and son ablaze in their one-room apartment at Agugu area of Ibadan, has been arrested.

It was reported that DSP Olabisi Clet-Ilobanafor, the Oyo State Police spokesperson, confirmed the arrest on recently in Ibadan.

The suspect, who was said to have committed the offence on Dec. 27, 2013 at about 4.00 a.m., was arrested recently at Ita-Baale area of Ibadan at about 11.30 a.m.
Clet-Ilobanafor said that preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect killed the duo after accusing his wife of engaging in extra-marital affairs.

“Although investigations are still not conclusive, preliminary findings showed that the couple had a history of domestic violence.

“We learnt from neighbours that the woman called him an ex-convict during a dispute and before he stormed out of the house, he swore that she would not see 2014.

“The fire started in the room and surprisingly, the door to the room was locked with a padlock from outside.

“This suggests that the woman and her child were locked in from outside,” she said.

The police gave the names of the victims as Felicia and Gbolahan. 

Source: News Agency of Nigera

Ex-policeman to die by hanging for killing 20-year-old!

Mathew Egheghe, a former policeman attached to the Bayelsa State police command is to die by hanging for killing 20-year-old Victor Emmanuel at a checkpoint along Sani Abacha Expressway, Yenagoa, on October 16, 2011. 



Victor was killed in the presence of his mother, who tried in vain to stop the policeman from killing her son. After the shooting, the police reportedly removed a copy of the Bible he held in his hand and replaced it with a pair of scissors. 

The victim who was being conveyed by a commercial motorcyclist to his destination after a church service was killed for condemning extortion and bribery at the checkpoint. He was reported to have said: “Oga policeman, don’t you people go to church even on Sunday. Pity this poor man, now.” After a protracted legal battle spearheaded by the mother of the deceased, Grace, and human rights community including Ankio Briggs, the state High Court, Nembe Division, sitting in Yenagoa, on Tuesday found Mathew guilty of murder. 
The court presided over by Justice Lucky Boufili, however, discharged and acquitted Lucky Oberemelu (first accused) and John Imeh (third accused) over what it described as the failures of the prosecution to directly link them to the murder. 
He said the first accused person could not have been responsible for the shooting that led to the death of Victor since evidence before him showed he was only armed with a smoke gun. He further ruled that the third accused person though was assigned an AK47 rifle on the day of the incident, evidence from the police proved that he returned the gun with all his assigned ammunition intact. In a judgment that lasted over an hour in a quiet and sultry courtroom, Boufili traced the origin of the matter, dissected all evidence before him and held that all the bullets that eventually killed Victor were fired by Mathew. 
The judge was faced with the task of determining whether the prosecution was able to establish its case beyond every reasonable doubt by proving that the deceased died; that the death resulted from the acts of the accused persons and that the act was intended to kill or cause bodily harm to the deceased. On the first ingredient of murder which is whether the deceased died, the judge said, “Evidence before me unequivocally points to the fact that Victor Emmanuel died.” Referring to the report of the pathologist and the evidence he gave before the court, he said nine bullets had entry and exit points on the body of the deceased. “The pathologist certified the cause of death to be multiple gunshot injuries,” he said, adding that five of the bullets hit late Victor on the head. On whether the evidence of the pathologist could be relied upon in determining the culpability of the second accused persons, the judge said any evidence averred to by a qualified medical expert could be used to determine the cause of death. 
The judge further said: “There is no doubt that the death of the deceased was as a result of the gunshot fired at him by the second accused person.”  

Nigeria seeks more foreign investors’ Participation At World Economic Forum!

Nigeria is looking to attract more foreign investors at the World Economic Forum in Davos, to ensure a beneficial global participation in this year’s World Economic Forum on Africa which will be hosted by Nigeria in Abuja from May 7 to 9 2014.

Leading key members of the government’s Economic Management Team from the public and private sectors and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, The Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, will leave Abuja on Tuesday for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

A statement from the presidency reveals that President Jonathan is scheduled to host special events in Davos aimed at boosting attendance at the economic forum in Abuja by leading players in the world’s political and economic affairs who meet in the Swiss winter resort annually.

“It is expected that the forum will bring regional, continental and global leaders together in Abuja to discuss innovative structural reforms and investments which Nigeria and other African nations can buy into to sustain their economic growth, create more productive jobs for their youthful populations and greater prosperity for all their citizens,” the statement read.

The theme of the World Economic Forum on Africa in Abuja is “Forging Inclusive Growth, Creating Jobs” which is in tandem with Nigeria’s economic priorities for 2014, as enunciated in this year’s national budget proposals.

Kate Henshaw Narrowly Escapes Death After Almost Being Crushed By BRT Bus!

Nigerian movie star Kate Henshaw narrowly escaped an auto accident in Lagos yesterday after an ugly encounter with a BRT Bus, in Anthony area of the state.

It was revealed the ugly scene would have resulted to a ghastly crash between the BRT Bus and Kate’s car if not for divine intervention. Kate wonders if the BRT drivers receive any driving lessons…see her tweets and peep’s reaction below:

Obama says; Pot is ‘a bad habit’ that is no ‘more dangerous than alcohol’!

In an interview with David Remnick published in The New Yorker on Sunday, President Obama equated smoking marijuana with “a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.”

When Remnick asked whether it was “less dangerous” than cigarettes or alcohol, the president demurred. It is less dangerous, he said, “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer. It’s not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy.”

Obama then acknowledged the structural inequalities surrounding drug laws in the United States. “Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do,” he said. “And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties.”

He went on to attack the hypocrisy of long sentences handed out to users by laws written by politicians who have likely committed the same crimes. “[W]e should not be locking up kids or individual users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing,” he said.

Of the challenges to federal drug policy issued by the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, the president said that “there is a lot of hair on that policy.” By which he meant, it seems, that there is some validity to the slippery slope argument used by opponents of legalization: “If marijuana is fully legalized and at some point folks say, ‘Well, we can come up with a negotiated dose of cocaine that we can show is not any more harmful than vodka,’ are we open to that? If somebody says, ‘We’ve got a finely calibrated dose of meth, it isn’t going to kill you or rot your teeth,’ are we O.K. with that?”

Obama seemed particularly concerned with the plight of African-Americans and Latinos throughout the wide-ranging interview. “You have an economy,” he said at one point, “that is ruthlessly squeezing workers and imposing efficiencies that make our flat-screen TVs really cheap but also puts enormous downward pressure on wages and salaries. That’s making it more and more difficult not only for African-Americans or Latinos to get a foothold into the middle class but for everybody—large majorities of people—to get a foothold in the middle class or to feel secure there.”

Anti-gay law: Openly gay Nigerian woman speaks on CNN!

A lot has been said concerning the new Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act in Nigeria, which has drawn the attention of many internationally.

Vladmir Duthier of CNN, recently interviewed an openly gay Nigerian woman who was simply identified as Ade, who shared her views and worries over the new law.

In her words, “There are many people living in fear on a day-to-day basis, and with a lot of pain.”

Also speaking on the issue, an activist for the Initiative of Equal Rights, Michael Akanji, said “The constitution says you cannot discriminate anybody based on sex, so why make a law that discriminates people based on their sexual orientation?”

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has also condemned the anti-gay law, calling it ‘draconian’.

Central African lawmakers elect country’s first woman president!

Catherine Samba-Panza, the affable mayor of the Central African Republic capital Bangui who was chosen as the troubled country’s interim president on Monday, is known for her tenaciousness.

Following the election by the transitional parliament — in which she edged out Desire Kolingba, the son of a former president, to become the country’s first woman leader — she called for an end to violence by the mostly Muslim Seleka ex-rebels and Christian self-defence militias known as anti-balaka (machetes).

“I’m launching a resounding appeal to my anti-balaka children who are listening to me: Show your support for my nomination by giving the strong signal of laying down your weapons,” said Samba-Panza, who is Christian but did not campaign on a religious platform.

Born in Chad, the daughter of a Cameroonian father and a Central African mother, Samba-Panza represents the country’s diversity, which previously was not a source of conflict in a long history of coups, attempted coups and army mutinies since independence from France in 1960.

Observers say her smiling demeanour conceals an intense rigour, while her hostility to corruption is well known in the capital.

“She is someone who comes from the private sector, who works,” said a Western source.

Samba-Panza has long fought for equal rights for women as well as for the rights of victims of sexual violence.

She entered politics in 2003 after then president Ange-Felix Patasse was overthrown in a coup by Francois Bozize — himself ousted last March by rebel leader Michel Djotodia.

At the time Bozize made her the vice president of a national reconciliation conference.

She made her mark by reconciling David Dacko — the country’s first post-independence president as well as its third, from 1979 to 1981 — with his sworn enemy, then prime minister Abel Goumba.

Djotodia named her mayor of Bangui after his rebels ousted Bozize’s government last year.

As the country descended into bloodshed, she used the post to push for peace between Christians and Muslims.

Last month, at the height of the inter-religious violence, she persuaded an angry group of Christian fighters threatening to kill five Muslim civilians to instead set them free.

She is married and has three children.

Culled