INFO-WORLD

There was pandemonium at the Apata area of Somolu on Saturday when some hoodlums attacked a police patrol team and allegedly freed a notorious cultist, identified simply as Friday. The five policemen attached to the Alade Police Division, were said to be on patrol of some streets in Somolu. At Fadipe Street, a hemp peddler was said to have taken to his heels when he noticed the approaching patrol team. The peddler allegedly took refuge at a building on Olabiran Street. A resident, who spoke with PUNCH Metro, on the condition of anonymity said, “The police rushed into the building in pursuit, but the peddler had already scaled the fence and left the compound. “Instead, they found Friday, an alleged wanted criminal, in one of the rooms. One of the policemen recognised him and he was arrested. They cuffed him by the hand and leg to one of the seats in the commercial bus they brought.” PUNCH Metro gathered that some people in the community immediately mobilised themselv...

There was confusion on Friday evening on Bajulaiye Road, Somolu, Lagos State after five suspected cult members stabbed a yet-to-be-identified young man in the middle of the road. He was said to have been disembowelled and left to die. As of press time, the fate of the man was unknown after policemen took his blood-soaked body off the road. Eyewitnesses said the incident happened around 6pm. It was learnt that while the gang was stabbing the young man, shocked residents could do nothing for fear of being attacked. However, a Rapid Response Squad van, which was patrolling the area at the time, was said to have given the  cultists a hot chase. Pandemonium reportedly enveloped the area as the policemen began shooting sporadically into the air while chasing the men. An eyewitness who craved anonymity said, “On sighting the RRS officials, the cultists left their victim who was already soaked in a pool of blood. “The cultists were five in number. Two of them passed ...

A gang of robbers invaded Vine Branch Church on Queen Elizabeth Road, Ibadan, Oyo State on Sunday, killing two policemen. Some church members also sustained injuries as they attempted to flee the scene. It was gathered that the robbers attacked the church to snatch offering and tithe boxes. The robbers were said to have pretended to be worshippers as they joined the congregation during the service. It was learnt that they struck soon after the offerings were collected. PUNCH Metro gathered that a van with some bank officers and two policemen drove into the church immediately the offerings were collected to take them to safety. When the bank officer entered the church, the robbers were said to have attacked him, but they later realised that he had not taken possession of the money. Realising that they had made a failed attempt, the robbers shot into the air and attacked the policemen waiting in the van outside. They killed the policemen and took away their rifl...

The All Progressives Congress (APC) is set to unveil its “Road map to a New Nigeria” at the Party’s National Summit to be held in Abuja on Thursday. The party’s Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said in a statement in Lagos yesterday that the Road map will detail the party’s priorities in fixing the widespread failings of successive PDP governments since 1999, in order to bring hope and succour to the long-suffering people of Nigeria. It said the Road map was a product of an empirical and painstaking process embarked upon by the APC, in a deviation from the old practice of packaging such documents on a whim. ‘’With conditions deteriorating throughout Nigeria, with security an ever increasing concern, with the lack of jobs pushing families and young people further and further into poverty and with new stories of corruption within the PDP government appearing day after day, the APC decided to commission the largest ever public opinion survey in ...

Despite having three refineries, Nigeria still finds it difficult to meet the domestic needs for petrol and other products. The refineries with an installed capacity to process 445,000 barrels per day (bpd) are not working at optimum capacity. Against this background, the proposed $9 billion Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company in Lekki Free Trade Zone (LFTZ), Lagos, is expected to help refine products to bridge the gap in local needs, conserve foreign exchange and create jobs. The Dangote Group of Companies is promising to train over 8,000 engineers to run the refinery. It says on completion, the project will create no fewer than 85,000 direct and indirect jobs. Since it is a complex business, it is expected to open up other jobs in construction, management, engineering, and administrative duties. These jobs can be broken into pure engineering and journeyman. Engineering refers to disciplines requiring formal education. In the journeyman category, workers do n...

As rescue operations at the scene of Maiduguri’s twin bomb blasts progressed on Saturday, another set of Boko Haram insurgents wreaked havoc in  Mainok,  a village about 50 kilometres   from Maiduguri, Borno State. The insurgents did not only sack the entire village, they killed no fewer than 39 residents. The British Broadcasting Corporation reported that  buildings in  the village  were still on fire while bodies were lying in front of a  mosque waiting to be buried as of Sunday morning. An eyewitness,who did not give his name,    said,  “They (insurgents) started shooting everywhere, they started burning all the houses in the village. “I don’t think that there is any house that is standing in the village and they have killed at least 39 people  . “These people have guns – AK47, RPGs and so on;  they can come and attack anybody and kill, including women and children, they kill everybody that can see...

FOR Mr. Edward Abele, life has not been the same since he was severely beaten by a witch doctor around Agege area on the orders of a Nigerian Ambassador to one of the African countries (names withed). Trouble started for Edward, a hotel staff based in Lagos when a guest to the hotel where he works raised alarm over the theft of a whooping 75,000 US Dollars. The ambassador did not point any accusing finger at anyone else but Edward whom he had accused of opening his luggage and stealing the sum, which amounts to N12million if converted to Nigerian currency. The suspect was allegedly taken to a witch doctor where he was beaten up and his hand allegedly paralyzed. He was later taken to a Police station where officers from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, detained him. He was detained inside their cell for over two weeks while the officers expected the Ambassador to show up and make statement. When the ambassador failed to show up, they freed him. However, after hi...

She was on fire from head to toe. She ran out of the house screaming, ‘Madam has killed me’ –Eyewitness It is not likely that nine-year-old Eno Bassey has heard the word ‘trafficking’ before. She was not even educated past primary one when, two months ago, a woman came to her mother’s house in Calabar, Cross River State and asked that she should be allowed to go live with her in  Lagos. Going to Lagos would have been a dream-come-true for Eno. In May 2013, after discussing with Eno’s mother, she left with Mrs. Nkeze Iroakazi, the fair looking ‘Madam’, who promised Eno’s mother she would be enrolled in school as soon as they got to Lagos. But before they took off for the Centre of Excellence, where Eno thought her life would be turned around, they made a detour and picked up another girl, 13-year-old Happiness Bassey, in another part of Calabar. They bear the same surname but are not related. On Monday July 29, 2013, our correspondent visited the Burns Unit of the G...

President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Dr. Nasir Fagge, has said that the union will resist the rise in tuition fee at the Lagos State University. He added that the establishment of universities by the government should be for knowledge acquisition rather than for profit making. While speaking at a symposium organised by the Education Rights Campaign group held at the University of Ibadan, Fagge said the hike in tuition fee would not take care of infrastructural demands in LASU but would deny children of the  poor masses access to public education. He said, “Universities are not commercial centres for internally generated revenues but knowledge production centres. The new fee introduced by the school would have come earlier than now but it was halted by the intervention of ASUU through a delegation led by Dr. Dipo Fashina. “ASUU will not support hike in fees in any public university in Nigeria. The union’s final response will be determined by the outc...

Prince Buruji Kashamu, Chairman of Organisation and Mobilisation Committee of the People’s Democratic Party in South-West geopolitical zone, has called on the anti graft agencies to go after the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. Kashamu in an open letter to President Goodluck Jonathan entitled: “Why Sanusi must be probed” accused Sanusi of blackmailing many bank chiefs into silence while he parades himself as the governor of the apex bank. According to the elder statesman, “I am worried by the attempt by the opposition to make it look as if they own Sanusi more than the government that appointed him, and thereby politicising the whole issue. “From the comments of the opposition and some of its leading lights, especially those he favoured with questionable waiver and contracts, it is obvious that while he was appointed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP led Federal Government, Sanusi was therefore acting their script. “Now t...

A member of the House of Representatives, Hon Albert Akintoye, has alleged that the former Minister of Niger Delta Ministry, Chief Godsday Orubebe, surreptitiously cornered N110 million allocated for the constituency project for the Okitipupa\Irele federal constituency of Ondo State. Akintoye who represents the constituency made the allegation when officials of the ministry were led by the supervising minister, Mr. Darius Isiaka, to the House of Representatives for budget defence. The lawmaker, who doubles as the deputy chairman of the Niger Delta Committee, in making accusation, lamented that all the constituency projects in the 2013 budget were executed except that of the Okitipupa\Irele federal constituency. Akintoye, who is facing a tough time from his constituents who accused him of embezzling the money, said “The funds was released for the constituency projects in the 2013 budget, but my constituency money was not released when all were released and all efforts since t...

When President Goodluck Jonathan decided to extend the celebration of Nigeria’s centenary to his personal Facebook page, little did he know that his action would stir up the proverbial hornet’s nest. No sooner had the President posted about 32 photo shots taken during an event held in Abuja to mark 100 years of the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates on the social network, than many of his friends on Facebook rose to criticise the action. The photographs showed Jonathan receiving visiting world leaders and presenting medals or certificates to past military Heads of State and elected Presidents of the country. In the post, he told his Facebook friends that Nigeria’s centenary was worth the celebration. He said, “We may not have overcome our challenges, but our challenges have not overcome us.” But many of his cyber-friends refused to be pacified. They accused him of indulging in merrymaking while insurgents were killing innocent Nigerians in the north ...

There is an indication that the choice of who emerges as presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is already creating a rift within the top hierarchy of the party. The development, Sunday Tribune learnt, began to take root the moment former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the broom party. While Atiku is believed to have the structure to emerge, if the ticket is subjected to primaries, other leaders of the party are said to prefer consensus. But the opinion in some quarters is that some top echelons of the party have secretly endorsed General Muhammadu Buhari. A fresh indication that trouble is brewing was a tweet credited to the APC’s Deputy National Secretary, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai. El-Rufai, who has consistently maintained his clear preference for former military head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari, as the party’s presidential candidate, restated his choice in the tweet, while replying an enquiry fr...