Category: News

The National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has condemned park management structure plans by some states across the country.

National president of the union, Alhaji Bikunle Baruwa said the planned initiative was not in tandem with the promulgation of Decree numbers 21 and 22, as a trade union in Nigeria has an affiliation with Nigeria Labour Congress.

He explained that the members viewed the park management initiative in some states as exploits, fraudulent and an attempt to build thugs and clowns for the politicians.

A statement issued by Baruwa on Wednesday said the body is saddled with the responsibility of organising workers who are qualified for membership in the union.

It explained that prior to 1976, the management, administration and activities of drivers in the motor parks were at the mercy of the commission agents, which was igniting conflicts and violence between the drivers and the commission agents.

The president also revealed that the union seek the protection and advancement of the social-economic and cultural interests of workmen, and organises all gainfully employed transport workers such as taxi, township bus service and trailer drivers operating in all local government-controlled motor Parks that convey passengers, goods and foodstuffs.

The statement said: “Imposition of park management is unconstitutional, the union is among the forty – two trade unions formed as a creation of Decree. A letter issued on August 15th, 1978 was communicated to the secretariat of the ‘Union’ as a Trade union with number 00054.

“With this development, park management is not known to any law establishing the union, rather is meant to encourage reign of terror.”

The statement also disclosed that the event in Lagos State Council leading to the National Administration Council’s decision to suspend Mr Musiliu Akinsanya was meant to instil discipline among the members of the ‘Union’.

“The overwhelming Lagosians who viewed Musliu Akinsanya as thug, clown and devil in human flesh were happy at the decisions of the National Administrative council of the Union at the Abuja headquarters.”

A middle-aged man, Taofeek Gbolagade, has reportedly fled after beating his pregnant wife, name withheld, to stupor over her failure to prepare Ramadan meal for him in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

The incident happened on Tuesday morning around 4a.m at their residence in Ogbere housing estate in Ibadan, Oyo State.

According to report, an eyewitness said: “This man always hit his wife over any little misunderstanding they have. I was able to record today’s event. He is a Muslim so I think they had an argument over Sahur.

“This man didn’t mind that she was with his second child and started pouncing on her. She wailed for hours before she was able to flee to her parents’ house. Gbolagade has flown his house after being declared wanted by the security personnel.”

Meanwhile, The State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Adewale Osifeso, who confirmed the incident said investigation had commenced on the matter and updates would be provided in due course.

The decomposing body of a bar attendant, Oritoke Manni, has been found at a site in Otolu town, Akodo, in the Lekki Local Council Development Area of Lagos State.

According to PUNCH Metro, it was gathered that Manni went missing after visiting her boyfriend, Segun Titilayo, at his house in the area.

When efforts by Manni’s family members to locate her proved abortive, they reported a case of missing person to the police.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, in a statement on Thursday, said the victim’s corpse was found after an engineer reported to the police that his company, while excavating its site at Otolu town, exhumed the body.

He noted that Manni was identified by workers of the hotel.

Adejobi said, “The Lagos State Police Command has arrested one Segun Titilayo, 29, of Otolu town, Lekki LCDA of Lagos State, for killing and burying the corpse of his girlfriend, Oritoke Manni, 26, a bar attendant at K.C. Hotel, Apakin town, Lekki.

“On October 13, 2020, around 11am, it was reported that the suspect, Segun Titilayo, put a call to the deceased and she went to Segun’s house, but Oritoke (Manni) could not be traced or seen afterward.

“The police recorded a case of a missing person for the deceased. The police wireless message on the case was widely circulated to all police formations across the state for search and necessary police action as a practice.

“However, on November 7, 2020, one Engineer Adegbago David of Adron Homes and Properties reported to the police station at Akodo rea, Lagos State, that while the company was excavating its site at Otolu town, their caterpillar exhumed a decomposing corpse. Police detectives swung into action and the corpse was identified by the staff of the hotel to be Oritoke’s. The corpse was evacuated to a public morgue for autopsy.

“The police placed a manhunt on the suspect and he was arrested. He is being detained at the SCID Panti and giving useful information to help the police in their investigation.

The state Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Hakeem Odumosu, has condemned the crime and directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the State CID, DCP Yetunde Longe, to carry out thorough investigation into the matter.

“The CP cautions the youth, especially ladies, against keeping unscrupulous and destructive friends. He also encourages Lagosians to promote moral values and shun crimes and criminality.”

A three-member of a gang; armed with guns had stormed the station in the early hours of the day and dispossessed staffers of phones, laptops, ATM cards, and other electronic gadgets.

The Union in a statement by its Chairman, Demola Babalola condemned the invasion of the station and called for a probe of the attack.

Not only that, the NUJ called on the Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeko to swing into action with a view to fishing out the gang to forestall a future recurrence on other media houses in particular and general public in general.

According to Babalola, “the attack on Fresh FM came to the NUJ as a rude shock. Here is a station that has been globally applauded for its rich content and pro-masses agenda.

“The rascals who carried out such an heinous crime against Fresh FM and inflicted hardship on the staffers of the station must be apprehended without much ado.

“I hereby call on the Commissioner of Police to set up a high powered investigative team of detectives to ensure long arm of the law catches up with those intruders.

“This is to also appeal to the management of Fresh FM under Evang. Yinka Ayefele and my colleagues not to allow this development affect their contributions to nation building and good work they are doing for a better Oyo State and Nigeria as a whole.

Leaders of a Christian fellowship, Chidi Samuel and Paul Zakari, are undergoing interrogation at the Homicide Section of the State Criminal Investigation Department, Eleweran, Abeokuta, Ogun State after they were arrested by state police command in connection with the death of a member, 20-year-old Okumazor Favour, whom they also buried secretly without the knowledge or consent of her parents.

Before Favour’s death, she was said to have been very sick without her parents being informed.

Briefing journalists about the suspects’ arrest, the state Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, said that Samuel and Zakari took seven youths away from their parents to an isolated area in Oyan Village via Imala for what they claimed to be Bible study and fellowship.

“While in the isolated area, one of the youths, whose parents have reported missing at Ibafo police station, fell sick and later died. The suspects, who refused to let the girl go when she fell sick secretly, buried her in a shallow grave within the village,” the police commissioner disclosed.

He added that it was one of the youths who escaped from the group that informed the deceased‘s parents, leading to the suspects’ arrest.

It was learnt that the person who accommodated the fellowship members was not informed of the lady’s death. She had reportedly returned home one day and asked about Favour, but was told that she had returned to her parents, unknown to her that she had been buried after she died.

Three of the group members were said to have engaged in the secret burial.

In an interview with Saturday Tribune, 32-year-old Samuel narrated his side of the story: “Im from Abia State but living at Alamo, Magboro. I am a pastor at Lifebuilders Network. It is a ministry not a church, and it’s about youth programme, evangelism and Bible study.

“In October 2021, we went for a programme at Oyan Village in Imala town to engage in Bible study and prayer. The journey was supposed to last for six months. We had done about four months when we got sick. We managed ourselves but one of the girls we came with got so bad. With the little money we had, we took her to hospital but she died.”

According to him, the nurse who treated her said that she had typhoid, malaria, and anemia.

On whether her parents were informed about the journey, Samuel replied in the affirmative, saying that the invited youths called their parents when they got there. However, he admitted not calling the deceased’s parents when she was sick.

“We tried our best. It was a spiritual attack, but our mistake was that we did not call her parents,” Chidi stated.

He also said that the second mistake made was in burying the deceased without her parents’ knowledge.”

The second suspect, 39-year/old Zakari, from Idoma in Benue State, and a member of the fellowship, said that he found the place they stayed in Oyan Village because the fellowship needed a quiet place to avoid distraction.

“I didn’t have any bad mind. We didn’t force any of the youths to follow us. They followed us willingly with the consent of their parents. We were there studying the Bible and praying. When Favour became sick, we took her to the hospital but were told she was dead as she was short of blood. We took her back home and started praying to God for her to come back to life, but nothing happened. Out of fear, we decided to bury her there. We didn’t tell the person in whose house we were staying because we didn’t want to put her in trouble. I know we didn’t do the right thing and I’m not proud of what we did. We are very sorry,” Zakari said with remorse.

ODUDUWA NEWS has gathered that a suspected internet fraudster died shortly after he underwent money rituals in the Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State about three weeks ago.

Peter Albert’s death was a tragic turn of fate. The 20-year-old suspected internet fraudster had longed for the good things of life but lacked the means to acquire them.

To achieve his desires, he sought the counsel of one of his friends, an 18-year-old simply identified as David, who introduced him to a Muslim cleric, Alfa Araokanmi, for a money-making ritual that eventually terminated his life instead of transforming him into an overnight millionaire as assured by Araokanmi.

According to sources, Albert, who lived with his father in the Asore area of Atan, and his friend, David, who lives with his parents at Iju, both in the Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State have been friends for a long time and attend the same church.

Exasperated by his unsuccessful rounds in internet scams, Albert reportedly asked David to help him become successful at internet scams. He craved success as a Yahoo Boy.

In response, David allegedly attributed Albert’s poor outing in cybercrime to some spiritual problems, and he promised to link him with his spiritualist, Araokanmi, to whom he attributed his success as a cyber fraudster. David explained to Albert that there was more to his success than meets the eye and that Alfa Araokanmi was behind his fortune in an internet scam.

Thus David introduced Albert to Araokanmi aka Alfa Wa in the Iju area of Ado-Odo/Ota LGA. “David linked the boy (Peter Albert) to one Alfa Araokanmi, who promised to do some propitiation that would make the boy become a successful internet fraudster.

“They actually started chatting on Whatsapp until the boy later visited Alfa Araokanmi for some money rituals leading to his untimely death,” the source said.

Expatiating further, the source said that Araokanmi told the deceased that he would ingest concoctions and bath at midnight for some days after which he should expect a ghost that would give him a sum of N5 million every day.

ODUDUWA NEWS has gathered that some yet-to-be identified armed robbers invaded and attacked Fresh FM Ibadan few minutes past 6am while Gospel Tunes program was still live on air on Sunday morning, April 10, 2021.

According to Abolade Salami during his programme, ‘Agbo Oselu’, the armed robbers came around 6am with fire arms and stole from members of the staff on duty.

According to report, valuable things like phones, laptops, ATM cards, others were carted away during the day time robbery.

The Fresh FM family came into existence, 6 years ago, and ever since then it has expanded its tentacles to Ogun state, Ekiti state, Lagos state, Osun state, Ilorin, Ondo while it recently added urban station Blast 98.3 FM in Ibadan.

Fresh FM Nigeria is owned by the ace tungba maestro and a media mogul in Nigeria, Dr. Yinka Ayefele MON.

It is another blackout in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Katsina and Jigawa States after the national grid collapsed on Friday evening.

At least three Distribution Companies (DISCOs) confirmed the development via their respective social media handles, informing their customers of the situation in their respective domains.

They include Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), Abuja Electricity Distribution Plc (AEDC), and Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO).

The power outage is also experienced in some parts of Ibadan but as the time of filing this report the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company IBEDC yet to make official statement on it.

While their various updates, they blamed the outage being experienced by consumers in various states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on a general system collapse that occurred at about 6:30pm and 8:50pm