THIS undoubtedly should rank as the rave of the moment in the crime world. Known only by its street name - One Chance, it is almost entirely unique to the Lagos metropolis.
In fact, some have argued that it was originally exported to other parts of the country by Lagos. As it is, the one chance menace has overtaken the 'agberos' or social miscreants in terms of notoriety in Lagos.
THIS undoubtedly should rank as the rave of the moment in the crime world. Known only by its street name - One Chance, it is almost entirely unique to the Lagos metropolis.
In fact, some have argued that it was originally exported to other parts of the country by Lagos. As it is, the one chance menace has overtaken the 'agberos' or social miscreants in terms of notoriety in Lagos.
Once upon a time, the nation's commercial capital used to be a paradise of some sorts, where residents and indigenes would not only sleep with their two eyes shut and doors and windows to their apartments wide open, they could also literarily jump into any commercial bus or car for that matter, with no second thoughts.
Today, only a new comer to the city can afford to take that risk. Today, also the phrase 'shine your eyes' is more than a mantra for the average resident, it is also the revered code of conduct, for those who do not want to risk their material belongings, not to talk of their lives.
From the Ojota end of the Ikorodu road to their favoured Oshodi-Apapa expressway with its Airport road axis: And from the Okokomaiko end of the Badagry expressway, the tales of woe and grief recounted by victims have become like a symphony in the Lagos air, and a sad one at that too.
Aptly put, one in every 50 Lagosian has fallen victim to this unnerving experience called 'One Chance' that has become a fashion accessory for criminals who for the sheer love of the game or for their favourite excuse of unemployment lay siege to commuters at dusk posing as passengers and dispossessing them of their belongings midway into their journey.
The harrowing experience often leaves some victims speechless from shock either at having a gun pointed at your face or being hurled out of a moving vehicle.
While some have been extremely 'lucky' to merely part with just their material belongings, others have been maimed from injuries sustained on impact with the hard tarred road when unceremoniously pushed out of a vehicle moving at nearly 100 miles per hour!
Still for others, their whereabouts is still a thing of mystery fit to be resolved only by the Scotland Yard, as the Nigerian police are up to their neek deep in the riddle as to why Lagos often accounts for a huge number of missing person cases.
Through the entire duration of their operation, hardly is any gunshot fired. In fact, no single shot is fired, but the sight of a gun in the hands of people who look like they are from another planet and not the Nigerians, your compatriots, you used to know, is enough to dissuade any intended resistance.
And so the story goes that at the end, you and the other hapless victims so unfortunate as to board that commercial bus that fateful evening, will end up losing hard-earned property.
And the high number of people who daily troop to the customer care offices of the telecommunications companies seeking to recover their lines is testimony to an equally high increase in the activities of the 'One Chance stakeholders' in the country.
Their choice vehicle is the 14-seater Volkwagen Vanagon,' popularly called the 'danfo', not that other brands are forbidden. Even the cars, 'Coaster', the 'Civilian' brands of Mass transit buses are no exception as they operate with ease in any of these. Whether hijacked or owned by them is never a problem in carrying out their activities on unsuspecting commuters.
In all these, however, the Mercedes Benz 911, or 1414 brands, popularly called the 'molue' in commuter parlance seems to be the exception for the One Chance operatives, probably because of the high risk involved in hijacking and managing the crowd of nearly 100 passengers that the metal contraption conveys at any given time.
Ironically, throughout the 80's and almost the entire 90's, the phenomenon that has evolved and is nicknamed One Chance was virtually unheard of.
According to many residents, this trend is relatively new to the city. For them, when it first surfaced at the tail end of the 90's they had watched in hope that it would one day go away, but all to no avail, instead, the trend has grown in leaps and bounds, and metamorphosed in modus operandi to the extent that criminal in other state capitals have replicated one form or the other of the same One Chance menace, even though, it might not exactly be the same.
Today, in the metropolis, what used to be strictly a nocturnal operation is done right in broad day light and even in full view of passersby and the police!
Picture this Hollywood-like scenario: Have you ever boarded a commercial bus or car and someone seated beside or in front of you, pulls out a knife or gun at you and orders you to give up your possessions? And while the vehicle is still in motion, he along with his other fake passengers proceeds to bundle you out of the vehicle and onto the hard and rough tarred or 'un-tarred' (depending on the location) road?
That is the classic scenario in any 'One Chance' playout. The scenes could be modified, adapted to any particular setting, but the tale of misery is the same by all victims.
Sampling the various opinions of Lagos residents on the menace posed by the criminals whose stock in trade is 'One Chance', there are two schools of thoughts as to how this crime not only evolved but why it has also waxed strong.
For Funke Adetutu, a journalist, the matter of One Chance was a time bomb waiting to explode in the face of the city which has no discernable government-run mass transit system.
"Look, government does not anymore have buses on the road or even any other efficient mass transit system. It is individuals who put their cars or buses on the roads. As it is, what these people choose to do with their vehicles is entirely their business. It is only the masses who suffer in the end," said Adetutu.
Indeed, it appears that since the collapse of the Lateef Jakande metro-line initiative on mass transportation for Lagos residents, private individuals have run the scheme.
The deteriorating security situation in Nigeria is prompting some oil and gas companies to think twice about continuing operations in the country.
"Nigeria is just notorious for a lot of bad stuff," says William Sheridan, senior director of global human resource services for the National Foreign Trade Council in New York. "It's been going on for a period of time."
According to strategypage.com, an online military-affairs research and reporting organization, nearly 150 foreign oil workers have been kidnapped this year, as of June, yielding "at least $100,000 per captive in ransom."
The problem has become so common, according to the report, that negotiations "now usually take days instead of weeks."
The "flow of ransom money has attracted more kidnappers, and attacks on foreigners working at non-oil-company firms," according to strategypage.com
Kevin Rosser, oil and gas practice leader in the London headquarters of Control Risks Group, a security and risk consultancy, says the security issues are exacerbating the "real shortage of technical personnel" needed by oil companies in the exploration and production business as well as oil-services companies that focus on work such as drilling or construction.
"The security problems come from a number of different sources. You have militant groups. You have organized criminal groups. You have communities who have -- may have -- some involvement. Some of these overlap," he says.
The difficulty of managing sometimes disruptive labor unions adds another level of complexity, he says, as does increasing piracy affecting offshore locations, which once were "reasonably insulated" from security problems.
"Kidnapping may be a militant phenomenon insofar as it has a political language and a criminal one insofar as the people behind it are looking for a ransom," Rosser says, adding that the situation in the country has been deteriorating for the past two to three years.
The combination of criminality and political radicalization has generated "chronic insecurity verging on an unmanageable security problem," he says.
Last year, the country saw the highest number of kidnappings on record -- about 27 incidents. This year, he says, that number was passed in the first quarter. Rosser says he hasn't seen the strategypage.com report, which puts the number of kidnappings at 150.
The HR implications of such a situation, he says, are that companies need to determine "their duty of care toward staff who they want to send into high-risk environments and what that means in practice from a security-management program."
It means HR must train workers to identify risks and "come up with a program for managing them effectively," Rosser says.
Workers need to know how to conduct themselves in a hostile environment, what to do if they hear gunfire, if they are in a traffic accident, if they are kidnapped, he says.
Sheridan notes the security risks "certainly inhibit" companies in their in-country activities "and it's going to inhibit people from taking the assignment."
While the oil industry is providing a great deal of gross national revenue to the government, he says, "the money doesn't tend to get very far. It doesn't benefit the community."
Most of the security problems are in the Niger Delta, an area filled with swamps and jungle, where the oil is located and where the government, Rosser says, has never fulfilled its promises to develop the region.
He says some companies have shut production sites or "mothballed" operations. "About 20 percent of Nigeria's total productive capacity is simply unavailable because certain producing areas are off limits right now," he says.
To recruit and retain workers, some companies are offering up to 1.8 times the normal salaries, he says.
Whether families of workers remain in the country depends on the area, he says. In an area such as Port Harcourt, which is in the delta and serves as headquarters for many oil companies, companies generally prefer that families do not accompany workers. In early July, a 3-year-old British girl, who was kidnapped on her way to school, was released after being held for four days.
In Lagos, the commercial capital -- where there are security issues but not at the same level as in the delta -- it's a little different, Rosser says. "I think the preference increasingly is not to have dependents."
Other than Iraq -- which now has very few foreign oil workers as the national oil company is handling the work -- Nigeria offers the highest risk to oil and gas expats.
Other countries with security risks, but nowhere in the same league, he says, include Colombia, Algeria, Pakistan, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.
"The Niger delta," says Bill Daly, senior vice president and head of the New York office of Control Risks, "I would say, is one of the most risky areas to do business in these days."
But, he notes, "there's a tremendous amount of interest in the area because of the resources in the area."Gunmen seized the employee of Elf, a subsidiary of French firm Total, from outside his church on Tuesday evening in the oil city of Port Harcourt, the colleague said who requested anonymity due to company restrictions on speaking to the media.
Kidnapping rings have seized over 150 foreigners this year. Victims are not usually hurt, and released after the payment of a cash ransom.
The practice began when disaffected communities began to seize foreign oil workers to protest unemployment or pollution, but gradually more organized militant groups demanding more political rights for their impoverished region began to carry out attacks.
Police say most of the current spate of kidnappings are carried out by criminal gangs only interested in cash. Recently, they have also begun to seek rich Nigerians as targets.
The police were not immediately available for comment on the latest kidnapping.
The attacks, and a string of bombings, have cut production in Africa's largest oil producer by around a quarter.
It is not funny at all when a man tells kidnappers that they can hold on to his mother as he could not afford the ransom demanded. Yet that is precisely what the Speaker of Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Hon. Werinipre Seibarugu, has done. He simply asked the hostage-takers holding her 70-year old mother to keep her, as he has no N50 million to give them.
In a manner that proves that the descent into anarchy in the Niger Delta has assumed a bizarre proportion, the septuagenarian was kidnapped last Tuesday. This is a woman who goes by the sobriquet, "Mama Yenagoa". What point on earth would the kidnappers want to make by visiting the poor woman with so much trauma? In response to the outrage expressed by the public to this criminal act, the kidnappers have demanded a N50 million ransom from her son.
The son is certainly not alone in protesting this crime. The other members of the House of Assembly have embarked on hunger strike to demonstrate their disgust at the phenomenon of hostage taking in the troubled region. On Monday, they all wore black suits to draw national and international attention to this heinous practice. In solidarity with the embattled speaker, the House has adjourned sittings for a week. Informed sources have explained the latest act as a fall-out of local politics. However, nothing can justify this act of brigandage. It cannot be rationalised on any ground. Whatever the motivation, it is as criminal as the kidnapping of babies, toddlers, oil workers and innocent expatriates that some other gangs perpetrated. At one time the victim was a girl, whose father is British and mother, Nigerian. She was taken on her way to school. Few days later it was a son of a chief. In some instances lives were lost in the efforts to rescue hostages.
t began as kidnapping of expatriate oil-workers; now fellow citizens of Niger Delta origin are becoming victims regardless of age and circumstance. Hostage taking has become a fast-growing industry with different criminal groups competing for turf in the region. The violence and other criminal activities are taking enormous socio-economic tolls. In a region in which some reports put the unemployment rate as being above the national average, companies are either scaling down activities or closing shops. It is no only the activities of oil companies that are affected. The economy of the already impoverished region is in serious jeopardy.That is why while all decent people should join in calling for the release of Madam Hansel Seibarugu, this incident should be seen by the federal government as a chilling reminder that the Niger Delta debacle should be resolved as quickly as possible. This is more so that the federal government is reportedly attempting a fresh look at the problem.
Significantly, President Umaru Yar'Adua listed Niger Delta, as an issue of priority is his inaugural address on May 29. The problem is also an item in his seven-point agenda on which his campaign was hinged. Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, who incidentally is from the area, is reportedly given the special assignment of closely engaging the forces at play in the crisis. Soon after inauguration, the federal government had scheduled a summit on the Niger Delta.
The summit had to be rescheduled for a thorough preparation. It is good enough that the summit would not be taking place in a vacuum of ideas. There are documents that could illuminate serious discussions of the problem. Some of these documents arose from sober studies of the developmental and security dimensions of the Niger Delta condition. Attention should, therefore, be continuously drawn to these reports begging for action.
First is the Master Plan "facilitated by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in partnership with state governments, Local Government Areas (LGAs), oil companies civil society and communities" in the region? The document could as well be termed the Niger Delta Manifesto of Development. The process of putting together the report has been essentially inclusive of the views of the various interests in the region. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who received the report, acknowledged that much. According to him: "What we have is not an NDDC plan, but a people's plan, one that one that all can claim ownership. The collective vision of the stakeholders captured in this Master Plan is the accelerated development of this hitherto turbulent and underdeveloped region into Africa's most peaceful, most prosperous and most pleasant region."
The summit may have to deliberate on how the implementation of the plan has not been funded to achieve optimal objectives. The Master Plan and the agency saddled with the task of its implementation cannot, of course, be immune from the dynamics of the politics of the region within context of the crisis of the Nigerian distorted federalism.
The second document that is worth referring to be the NIGER DELTA HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT prepared last year by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The report recommends a seven-point action plan, described as a "new development paradigm".
The elements of this plan are promotion of " peace as the foundation for development"; making "local governance effective and responsive to the needs of the people"; improvement and diversification of the economy; promotion of " social inclusion and improved access to social services"; promotion of environmental sustainability to preserve the means of people's sustainable livelihood"; taking "an integrated approach to HIV&AIDS"; and building "sustainable partnerships for the advancement of human development".
These recommendations arose from the question posed by the study: "The delta's human development dilemma raises the question of why abundant human and natural resources have had so little impact on poverty.
There is also the report of the committee headed by former Chief of Defence Staff, General Alex Ogomudia, on the security situation in oil -communities. This report was prepared in 2002 and submitted to the government. What was remarkable about the report is that it was signed by all the then incumbent service chiefs, heads of all security agencies, chief executives of all the companies operating in the upstream sector of the oil industry and secretaries to the governments of the oil-producing states. The committee recommended short term, medium term and long-term solutions to the problem. It is also instructive that this committee, which included Generals and security chiefs, reasoned that the there is no military solution to the problem. According to the committee, the answer to the crushing poverty of the region is development. And the method to resolve the conflict should be political. Nothing was done about that report in the lifetime of the administration that set up the committee and received the report. The report only became a subject of attention last year following the upsurge in hostage taking. Those who are preparing for the summit should study this report as a working document.
The three reports cited above are, of course, just a few among existing serious studies and suggestions on how to resolve the Niger Delta debacle. What is common to them all is the theme that what we are witnessing in the region is primarily a crisis of underdevelopment. This has been exacerbated by an irresponsible form of exploitation of a natural resource and gross inequities in the distribution of the wealth. The security and criminal issues are only derivatives of the development question
The Yar'Adua administration has to move fast to rein in the anarchy that is enveloping the region. It is good to be methodical in going about it and taking a holistic view of the issues as the administration is reportedly doing. However, this government does not have all the time to restore normalcy in the region. Before more damage is done, the government should come up with its own workable approach to check those who have turned hostage taking, oil bunkering, violent cultist activities and other crimes into a burgeoning industry in the region. The first thing to do is to isolate the criminals from the legitimate struggle of the people of the region for justice and equity. The most potent weapon the government could employ is embarking on a massive anti-poverty programme. The summit will be meaningful if it could come up with such a programme achievable within a time frame. It would be easier for government to confront the criminals if the issues of development are seen to be tackled seriously.
It is also important that those groups legitimately agitating in the region should join in the efforts to isolate the criminals who are defaming the struggle of the people of Niger Delta. For instance, it was salutary that militant groups such as the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) and the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF) have openly condemned some of the criminal activities. They even issued ultimatums to the criminals in some instances. It will also be productive if the militants could also adopt a more political approach in their struggle. The way they respond to the consultations for the summit will show how politically transformed they could possibly be in the coming years. If generals say that the government cannot solve the problems militarily, the militants too should be told that they wouldn't achieve their objectives employing violent tactics.
Death Toll Increases in Warri (Vanguard)
The death toll keeps increasing with each passing day. Although about 17 persons have been confirmed dead, the lives of many others are hanging on the cliff as a result of severe burns from kerosine explosions which rocked several parts of Warri, the oil-rich city in Delta State.
Explosions from killer kerosine have become a recurring decimal in the country and each time such incidents occur, blames are traded between the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC) on the one hand and marketers on the other hand as to the source of the adulterated product.
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This time, DPR sources explained that the killer kerosine might have been scooped from a vandalised pipeline. The source claimed that what people thought was kerosine is actually condensate, a lighter variant of crude oil but which looks very much like kerosine.
The disastrous incident which occurred in Warri is already having negative effects on kerosine dealers in Lagos. Palpable fears have gripped residents of Lagos that the killer product may find its way into the city. Some apprehensive residents of the city said they would rather queue at petrol filling stations to buy their household kerosine than buy from open tanks whose sources they cannot guaranteed.
Royal fathers visit victims
Some royal fathers in Delta State, led by the Orodje of Okpe Kingdom, Major-General Felix Mujakperuo (rtd), yesterday, visited the victims of the kerosine blasts on admission at the Central Hospital, Warri on condolence visit.
The royal fathers, including the Obi of Issele-Uku, the Ughelli monarch and an Ijaw traditional ruler donated N100,000 to the victims to augment their medical treatment.
They asked those adulterating kerosine to stop the dangerous practice and commended the state government for its intervention.
Chief Consultant-Surgeon in the hospital, Dr. Peter Oside, conducted the royal fathers round the wards to see the victims.
An 18-month campaign of guerrilla attacks on Western oil facilities has prompted thousands of foreigners to leave Africa's top producer, reduced output by a fifth and helped oil prices rise to record highs.
But since taking office two months ago, President Umaru Yar'Adua has moved swiftly to engage the militants. He has met two of their demands by freeing two jailed leaders of the Ijaw ethnic group, the most populous in the Niger Delta.
In response, 25 armed groups have joined into a united front for talks with the government. The two sides are now working on preconditions for formal talks to address militant demands for more regional control over the delta's oil.
"I am very optimistic. The militias are ready to cease fire and give negotiations a chance," said Dimieari Von Kemedi, an Ijaw activist involved in the talks.
A truce called by several armed groups has held since Yar'Adua's inauguration on May 29. However, a crime wave continues to sweep the delta's largest city of Port Harcourt, posing a threat to the peace drive, he added.
Armed groups protesting against neglect and poverty in the vast wetlands region have stepped up violence against oil workers and industry facilities since the 1990s.
But the line between militancy and crime is blurred and dozens of criminal gangs use militant rhetoric as a cover to kidnap foreigners for ransom or steal oil from pipelines.
BLIP?
Security consultants working for international oil companies are split over the significance of the peace moves. Some see them as a temporary respite in a long-term decline in the vast region of swamps and mangrove-lined creeks.
"Though violence has eased in the last few weeks, the perception of companies is still negative," said one security consultant working for Western multinationals.
"Companies see a long-term deterioration in security. It may not be linear, but each cycle of violence is worse than before," added the consultant, who is not allowed to talk to the media.
There are still good reasons to be worried.
One powerful militant who leads a faction of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has so far refused to take part. His fighters have been responsible for some of the fiercest attacks over the past 18 months.
"The government is attempting to resolve the unrest in the delta through selective appeasement. This will secure a cease fire but how long this 'peace' will last, I cannot tell," said the leader, who uses the pseudonym Jomo Gbomo, in an e-mail.
"They will attempt to stall and pacify dissenting voices financially. Let's watch and see where things go. We will attack without further warning if there is a need to," he said, adding that he saw no prospect of better use of resources in the delta.
Despite these concerns, some projects and investments that had been on hold because of a surge in attacks in the first half of the year are now going ahead.
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has moved some workers back to its western delta oilfields, where 500,000 barrels per day has been shut since they were evacuated in February 2006.
It has resumed pumping 36,000 barrels per day from one oilfield and two tankers are expected to load from the Forcados terminal in August, the first shipments in 18 months.
U.S. oil giant Chevron has lifted a ban imposed in May on non-essential staff in offshore operations, industry sources say. And construction workers have begun setting up work sites to start building a new $1.8 billion highway across the delta, which had previously been frozen by security concerns.
"There's no big deal about it. It's a continuous process," said Col. Mohammed Yusuf, who said the process was routine.
He said that under new Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua, the armed forces would be sticking strictly to rules that said members must retire at the age of 60, or after 35 years of service.
"They will now try to follow the process very properly, like it did not happen before. Once it is time, there is nothing you can do," he said.
Yusuf said the retirements had no political motive.
"There is nothing like mass retirement," he said, pointing out that classes of officers often graduate over 100 at a time.
He refused, citing national security concerns, to say how many generals were in the Nigerian armed forces or how many generals were among the 40 top officers being retired.
Nigeria has undergone several tumultuous decades of military rule and seven coups since wresting independence from Britain in 1960, but last April's elections that marked the country's first civilian-to-civilian transfer of power.
The elections were widely condemned as rigged by domestic and international observers, but some Nigerians were simply grateful that there was a peaceful transfer of power at all. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had also previously been a military ruler of the country in 1975. He returned to power in 1999 on the back of a popular vote and also proceeded to retire a number of generals shortly afterward.
Most Nigerians do not believe that a coup is currently likely.
Before he promoted current President Yar'Adua as his protege, several of Obasanjo's supporters tried to force through a constitutional amendment that would have allowed him to run for a third term.
Although the country receives tens of billions of dollars in oil revenues annually and is rated as one of the most corrupt in the world by Berlin-based Transparency International.
Bank Manager, 3 More Killed By Armed Robbers in Lagos (Daily Champion)
ONITSHA branch manager of a second generation bank (name withheld), Nnamdi Obi and two policemen were killed by yet-to-be identified gunmen in separate incidents Sunday in Onitsha and Enugu, respectively.
Similarly, armed robbers yesterday stormed the domestic wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, (MMIA), Lagos, leaving an unidentified man dead, and several others wounded after their operation.
Daily Champion gathered that Obi who hailed from Nawfia in Njikoka local government area of Anambra State, was shot dead inside his car near the abattoir in Onitsha where he had accompanied his wife to.
Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for Anambra command, Mr Felix Agbo, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) confirmed the killing.
He told our correspondent on telephone that investigation was on-going to unmask the killers.
Other gang of armed robbers Sunday night shot and killed two policemen in what appeared to be a planned attack on a police check point along Ogui Road, Enugu and about a 100metres from the police station on the same road.
The hoodlums also snatched the service rifles of the slain cops after, as eyewitnesses recounted, hurling abuse on and kicking their corpses.
The police check point had been mounted near two popular fast food shops and restaurants that are the favourite haunts of Enugu's rich and famous and had been targets of armed robbery attacks in the past.
The permanent police presence there had helped to keep the hoodlums at bay. The weekend's attack on the check point is widely viewed as an act of vengeance by the criminals against the men who had prevented them from operating freely in the area.
Eyewitnesses said the incident occurred at about 8.30 pm when the robbers who were travelling in a flashy car whose make could not be ascertained suddenly opened fire on the unsuspecting policemen as they approached their checkpoint. The hoodlums were said to have climbed down from their cars and after molesting the corpses of the cops, took their service firearms.
"It all happened in a flash, we suddenly heard gunshots and the next thing we saw were some people climbing down from a car and rushing at the policemen who were already lying on the ground. They kicked at the bodies and shouted insults at them before taking their guns and escaping in the car", said one witness, who pleaded anonymity.
Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Mike Abattam, who confirmed the incident, said the bodies of the two dead cops had been recovered, adding that a massive man-hunt for the hoodlums had commenced.
"We have alerted all units to hunt down those hoodlums and I can assure you, we will get them in no distant time. They cannot escape", he said.
The hoodlums are also suspected to have been behind several robbery incidents in different parts of the city on Sunday night shortly after the attack on the policemen.
It also came barely a week after robbers killed a policeman and wounded another in a failed attempt to rob a bank at Nsukka.
Daily Champion learnt that the robbers, who started their operation at about 2am, tied up the six security operatives on duty and the three plain clothed caps seizing the gun of one of the victims.
According to some of the workers the alleged mad man was also shot dead on the spot. It is not the bureau de change office when he accosted the armed robbers.
What the rampaging hoodlums carted away, extensive damage to most of the offices and the vehicles that were parked there.
The chairman of the bureau de change, Alhaji Aliyu Abubakar, who spoke with Daily Champion confirmed the incident and stated that there have been strict orders to everyone at the bureau de change not to keep money overnight.
"We have a very strict order that nobody should keep his money overnight in the compound, so that order has been very helpful; because nobody kept money and the robbers did not find any money in the safe that were forced open," he said.
According to him, three safes opened and almost all the offices in the bureau de change were broken into by the bandits who went on a rampage riddling bullets on vehicles and windows when they found nothing to steal.
Airport Command police authority are yet to comment on the incident not reacted to it.
It is recalled that a similar incident took place early in January at the Nigeria Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) where over N120 million was carted away and the suspects not been captured.
Unlike Sunday afternoon's robbery in Isolo, Lagos where the robbers allegedly trailed the bullion vans, yesterday's robbery in Lagos witnessed the raiding of some bureau de change offices at MMIA.
A police officer's rifle was allegedly snatched during the operation.
This is as the Speaker, Hon. Werinipre Seibaragu returned, weekend, from South Africa to join forces with the state government officials to effect the release of his mother.
A competent source told Daily Champion yesterday that the kidnappers wanted N50 million as ransom for the release of Mrs Seibaragu.Special Assistant on Media to Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Mr Jonah Okah, however, said he was not aware of the N50 million ransom but confirmed that negotiations were on to release the old woman.
Speaking on the travails of his mother, the lawmaker appealed to the kidnappers to release his mother on humanitarian ground.
While expressing sadness over the incident, Mr. Seibaragu said that the Nigerian security operatives were capable of effecting the release of his mother.
He described his mother as caring, innocent and loving, who does not deserve the current travails, while pledging his commitment to the development of the state.
Okah also expressed hope that Hansel would be released on humanitarian grounds.
"We are pleading with the boys to have the fear of God and release the old woman. The Bible teaches us to be respectful to the old. They should release her quickly," Okah told Daily Champion on phone yesterday from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
On the return of his boss to Nigeria, he said "yes, my boss is back. In fact, she (Hansel) would soon be released. You know the speaker is back, he cannot afford to allow the old woman, to remain in that condition."
Daily Champion recalls that the Bayelsa State speaker who had travelled to South Africa to attend a Commonwealth Parliamentary conference along with some principal officers of the House was compelled to cut short his trip when the news of his mother's abduction reached him.
Madam Hansel was kidnapped last Tuesday (July 24) at Akaibiri in Ekpetiama, old Yenagoa local government area, by yet to be identified militants just as her whereabouts is still unknown. She has already spent five days with her captors.
Two Policemen Gunned Down in Lagos (Daily Champion)
Armed robbers yesterday killed two policemen at Oke-Afa, Isolo and carted away about N700,000.
The dead policemen were said to have accompanied a bullion van belonging to a second generation bank to collect money realized from weekend sales from a fast food eatery, Mr. Biggs at Jakande estate, Isolo, Lagos. They were said to be on their way back to Allen Avenue, Ikeja branch of the bank when they met their untimely death. The policemen whose names could not be ascertained as at press time were attached to Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) Centre police station, Ikeja.
According to reliable police sources, the robbers, who operated with a Mercedez Benz jeep were said to have trailed the bullion van and escort vehicle from Jakande estate near Isolo. The bandits eventually overtook the convoy of the van after descending Oke-Afa bridge, a boundary between Isolo and Ejigbo, blocked them with the jeep, and shot dead the policemen before carting away the safe containing the money.
Meanwhile, an eye witness, who pleaded anonymity, told Daily Champion that the owner of the jeep was earlier shot dead before the robbers snatched his vehicle.
A curious angle to the robbery, a police source told Daily Champion, was that the three policemen in the escort van led by a police sergeant could not give account of how the robbers made away with the safe containing the money.
Having succeeded unchallenged, the robbers were said to have shot their way through Okota Road to safety. They were also said to have thrown canisters of tear gas at passers-by who scampered for safety on hearing the gunshots from the rampaging robbers.
On reaching Isolo Divisional Police Headquarters, the robbers were said have shot into the station apparently to dare them.
The incident was said to have caused temporary traffic jam in the area as some motorists abandoned their vehicles on roads. Eye witness account said pedestrians were seen raising their hands as they were searched by policemen.
However, when Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Mr. Olubode Ojajuni was contacted on phone for confirmation, he said he was yet to be briefed on the incident by the Divisional Police Officer of Isolo Divisional Police Headquarters. Meanwhile, police have accused the affected bank of nonchalance in taking the deceased cops to the mortuary. A policeman at Isolo who spoke under anonymity informed Daily Champion that the body of the late officers were left lying in the sun for about five hours due to non-release of money by the bank to pay for mortuary expenses. But the corporate affairs manager of the bank debunked the allegation, saying the deceased were immediately taken to the mortuary after the bank received information of the incident.
The men of the underworld met their waterloo when the police getting information that a gang of armed robbers are operating in the area and they immediately swoop into action.
A source said that as the police Anti-crime Patrol team was mobilized to the scene, the robbers on sighting them, opened fire and in the process exchange of fire ensued.
It was learnt that during the exchange of fire, the three armed robber suspects were gunned down and others took to their heels and escaped.
The source further said the police have intensified efforts to track down the fleeing suspects and bring them to face the full wrath of the law.
The police public Relations Officer of the state Police Command, Ireju Barasua, a Deputy Superintendent of police (DSP) who confirmed the incident however called on the public to always assist the police with timely information on criminal activities, as to enable the police move into action.
Another Missing Ship (Nigerian Tribune)
CURIOUSLY, it seems that Nigeria’s reputation for the proliferation of absurdities is on a steady rise. Now, it is commonplace for ships arrested for one crime or the other to literally disappear from the custody of those keeping them as if they were some small items that could be pilfered by a common pickpocket!
ABOUT two months ago, two ships, MT Balle and MT Alruhula, were used to transport crude oil that was fraudulently obtained. The officers and crew of the ships were arrested by some “overzealous” naval men in the Calabar area and the ships were steered to Port Harcourt. The ships were then officially delivered to the officers of the NNS Pathfinder at their base in Port Harcourt.
BUT rather than moor the ships, the officers of the Pathfinder found a path for the ships to escape and the naval authorities tried to cover up the scandal until a group called Nigerian Youths for Good Governance made allegations against the Nigerian Navy establishment and when the press asked the Navy to react to these allegations, they issued a statement on the matter.
ITS Director of Information, Captain Obiora Medani, said it was true as stated by the Nigerian Youths for Good Governance that two ships detained at the Port Harcourt base had disappeared but that the naval authorities had not tried to conceal the matter and that a board of inquiry headed by a Captain Bimbo Ayuba would determine if the crude found on the ships was illegally obtained and whether the NNS Kyanwa had a good reason to arrest the two ships.
IT is pertinent to recall that many high ranking naval officers were retired following the disappearance of MT African Pride because, according to the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ganiyu Adekeye, the officers had criminal connection with crude oil. As we asked in our Editorial of June 28, 2007, from where the foregoing is copiously quoted, “Is retirement a retribution for these Mephistophelian atrocities? Is retirement alone enough deterrent to others who might have discovered a greater reward in this criminality than in continued stay in service?”
CAPTAIN Medani, however, after our editorial on the Navy and the missing ships, had made allegations in the newspapers about a smear campaign in the media being sponsored by certain ex-naval officers who had been compulsorily retired from the Nigerian Navy and their relations trying to impugn the integrity of the Chief of Naval Staff and discredit the Board of Inquiry. Captain Medani even called the Nigerian Youths for Good Governance a fictitious group.
HOWEVER, hardly had he finished writing when another ship, an impounded Greek vessel, MT Tritya, escaped, this time, with three security officials detailed to secure it. This was disclosed at a press conference by the legal consultants to the shipping agents. The ship, according to the legal consultants, was legally detained as a pre-judgment security for the satisfaction of the civil claims of the shipping agents until an acceptable security by way of bank guarantee had been furnished by her owners. The ship had been impounded through an injunction obtained from the Federal High Court in Lagos against the vessel and three others claiming certain amounts of money until the final payment for short delivery of the cargo of gas and oil.
WE are worried by the regular disappearances of vessels from Nigeria, especially vessels detained over one offence or the other. We think that their escape in the various circumstances had been facilitated by bribed hands. The latest ‘disappearance’ is even curioser, as the security officers who were supposed to secure it ‘disappeared’ with the vessel. Were they abducted by the criminals who steered the vessel away under the cover of night? Or did they too connive with the criminals to get out of the country to seek for greener pasture elsewhere? The three security officers who reappeared some days after claimed they were abducted and brutalised by their captors before being released on the high sea. This claim needs to be investigated too by the authorities.
DISAPPEARANCE of vessels with ease speaks volumes about the security of the country’s territorial waters and this is where the Navy is implicated. If ships under its observation can ‘disappear’ without any trace and officers who had been found guilty had only been retired, how much easier will it be for other ships bound only by legal constraints from the courts to escape too?
THE ‘disappearance’ of MT Tritya should be properly investigated using all diplomatic leads and those found to be guilty should be appropriately punished by the relevant authorities. The Navy too should do better than whine about a smear campaign when in reality ships are disappearing, like small items that can easily be contained in someone’s pocket. It is plainly absurd that in the Nigerian state, ships can easily slide into the waters when the pockets of some felons bulge with ill-gotten wealth.
PASTOR Ayo Oritsejafor is the general overseer of Warri-based Word of Life Bible Church and the national president of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN who recently initiated a spiritual solution to the protracted Niger Delta crisis. After several weeks of evangelical mission to Europe and America, he recently granted Sunday Vanguard, an interview during which he x-rayed the state of the nation, and the Niger Delta. Excerpts
THE Yar'Adua government started with an industrial action. We just want you to look at the state of the nation.
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For me, I will say, first, thank God that we came through the elections and we are still a nation together. I say thank God because there were some things some of us won't want to say publicly. Before the elections, there were spiritual indications which I never said anything to you about, that the problem was not just going to be the elections but immediately after the elections and so some of us had to set certain things in motion.
I don't want to go into all the details. We needed to get people to do certain things - to pray us through and so that's why I said, number one, thank God that we came through the elections and we are still and will continue to remain a nation. The second thing is, in my own opinion, some of the things that have happened like the industrial action, for example, it was rather unfortunate. I think first of all that there were problems on both sides.
I am going to be economical with words because it has come and gone. I don't think at this point, I should be the one stirring up anything, talking this way or talking that way but, like I said, it was a very unfortunate thing that happened when it happened at that point in time. But thank God again it has come and gone.
I believe also that the Yar'Adua's government is beginning to find its feet. It's not going to be easy because in my own opinion, he is stepping into very big shoes, big Nigeria and big Obasanjo that has just left. So, it's going to take a while for him to stabilise and be able to bring out his own style of doing things.
I will appeal to the media to help him and give him a chance. Sometimes, some of the things I read are so troubling. Oh Obasanjo is influencing you, and so on. They should just leave this man and let him find his feet. Let him know what he wants to do and how he wants to do it. Give him a break.
The media is only mirroring the mood of the nation. Everybody seems to think that the past president has an overbearing influencing on every decision taken by Yar'Adua...
Is there any proof of that?
Well, for instance, he has taken over the PDP Board of Trustees?
Are you a PDP member? (Laughs). Again, you see, these are some of the troubling things. You are not a member of PDP, I am not a member of PDP. Let's leave PDP to sort themselves out. I've heard people say Yar'Adua is not the president of PDP, he's the president of Nigeria. I hail that.
That is true. He stood for election as a PDP candidate but now he's the president of Nigeria. So let's concern ourselves more with what the government does for Nigeria. Let's downplay this issue of PDP Board or no Board and all that stuff.
I think we are over flogging that issue. To me, it's too much,
let's concentrate more on the government and Nigeria. We want to move forward. There are other parties. I don't want to get a PDP membership card. I'm not a member and I don't want to be a member, I don't think you want to. If they want somebody from the moon to be their chairman, that's their problem, that's not mine.
The day I become a member then I can tell them, I don't like it. But to say that Obasanjo has hand in Yar'Adua's government, to me again, is speculation. It is true that Obasanjo was very much instrumental in bringing him in, we won't run away from that. That's the truth! It's there, it's obvious, but that doesn't make him a man that doesn't know what he wants in life. I mean, when you look at him, the man is 56 years old for God's sake, he's not a child. How did he get to where he is?
Was it Obasanjo that held his arm and took him to school through university? Was it Obasanjo that governed Katsina State for him? I think we should give the man a break. A lot of most of the things we are seeing is speculation and I will tell you why there's so much speculation. Part of it is because there are certain persons who know what people want to hear. I keep repeating that, and they blow up these and you people make them movie stars because they know what you want to hear too.
So, they open their months wide and you put all these things on your front pages and then the next person you go to says his own too and you put his own there. The president and his predecessor should be friends, they shouldn't be enemies! For one thing they belong to the same party, one was instrumental to bringing in the other, and secondly Yar'Adua naturally should consult with him in the sense of you've been in this thing, how did you do it? What happened here, what happened there? These are normal things. So, to me, let them allow this man settle down and do his job.
As part of his settling down, he called for a government of national unity. Are you in support of that?
One hundred per cent! I think it's a very good thing. I think it's a good thing because, first of all, Nigeria is more important than me as a person. Nigeria is more important than Yar'Adua. Nigeria is more important than any individual person. Nigeria is more important than any political party. We all know that we had serious problems during the elections. It's a fact, you can't run away from it. The reality is that there were a lot ofirregularities from all parties. If I may say, some did it more than others, but they all did it.
Let's not pretend about it because that's a fact. I met someone who ran for an office in a certain state and somehow it didn't work out and he was trying to tell me how they did this. So, I sat him down and started telling him how his own people did this and that too. I said we at the grassroots know what happened.
So the truth is that, everybody had a part to play in whatever had happened before. So, looking at where we are coming from, when you think of all the things that happened, yes, some people have been declared winners at the presidential and the state levels.
To find a way to keep Nigeria one, I think it's a very wise thing to reach out to other parties and say alright, come and contribute your part to this. For example, you see that in Obasanjo government, whether we want to give him credit for it or not, some of the people he appointed did very well, some didn't.
Incidentally mostly the women did very well. But if you want to look at it, you should say, Obasanjo did very well as far as those people are concerned. But my point is, some of those people were not even party people initially, but eventually they had to become. But they were not at all. Some were actually from other parties.
Could you imagine if some of those people were not given the opportunity to serve, we will never be talking about them today. That's one. Two, they would never have achieved the things they achieved, not for themselves but for all of us, for Nigeria. The reason they were able to achieve those things was because they were brought in and given that opportunity.
I think the idea is, some of these other parties may have credible people who can come into government, who can also add to this nation, to Nigeria. Because all we want is power supply, good roads, water and food. These are the things we want.
The Niger Delta question and power will be his cardinal programmes. He has spent two months and not even one word yet in that direction...
Is it really that not one word yet? I wouldn't say not one word yet. Again like I've always told you I think nobody will say now that I love Yar'Adua so much. I don't even know the man. Take the Niger Delta for example, I know that they have inaugurated a committee that is supposed to look at the security situation in the area. That is very important because most of the people in that committee know what is on ground.
If you go to Delta State, you'll see that the same thing is on ground now. There is a committee set up by the governor, a waterway security committee and the people in that committee know what is on ground. Now, that is very important. If you are going to solve the Niger Delta problem, you must involve the people who know what is on ground. They've done that. For example, again, NDDC, I initiated something, the week long prayers for peace which was concluded recently.
I actually initiated it through the past president. I think that is very important because one of the mistakes they've always made, when they call the so-called stakeholders in the Niger Delta, they never involve the Church. And it puzzles me, it has always puzzled me why they don't bring in the Church.
I went with the vice president and the Delta State governor, Dr. Uduaghan, to the creeks. I was shocked the way I was received! I was surprised by some of the leaders of the town and the young people. Before the vice president arrived, because some of us went ahead of him, they took me into a big room and gave me a special welcome separately. You know the way we entertain visitors. They brought out money, put money on the table, everything, received me.
I couldn't believe myself. They started singing songs with my name, but I'm a pastor. As I stepped into the place, they were shouting Papa. I couldn't believe myself. I said this is unbelievable. In this kind of place? So, it's a mistake not to have involved the Church all along, because we have something at stake. The Niger Delta, basically, is supposed to be a Christian part of this country.
That is the truth. Let's be honest with ourselves. There are no genuine Muslims anywhere in the Niger Delta. They are not there. Everybody you see there, if they want to be honest with you are Christians, one way or the other. They may not be very committed but that's who they are. Now, if they are Christians, they were baptised in a church probably. Their mothers took them to a church; their fathers took them to a church.
Organizing of prayers
We want to be involved in negotiations in the sense of, you see, some of these boys don't trust a lot of government officials but there are people they believe are credible. It's possible they may think some of us are also credible. We can become the bridge, we can say to these boys, we have talked to government, let's give them one year - no fighting, no cheating, no nothing, put your arms down, let them do something.
If they don't, then nobody can blame you. And then we say to government, you see, we have put our neck on the line, my credibility is on the line, now perform. If they don't perform, we'll come out publicly to condemn them. I don't need money from government. I don't need anything. I say it everywhere, every time, I don't need it. No governor has given me one naira before, it doesn't happen because I don't want it. I don't need it. If they don't perform, we will come out and shout. And when we start talking, people will listen because they know we are not politicians.
So they need to involve us more.
For example, the master plan, a plan is just a plan until you can implement it, but how do you implement it? So, we want to be involved to help, so that this plan can be implemented. And in implementing it, there has to be dialogue and this dialogue has to involve the church. A lot of the institutions in this country have been bastadized, many don't have credibility and I don't want to start mentioning them.
But I think to an extent, there are still people in the Church leadership that have credibility that can say this is it and they will stick to it. And we know that if we say something and we don't do what we say then we're in trouble because we have nothing to preach to anybody. My members can walk out of the church because truth, justice, equity, all these things are directly, not indirectly, related to what we do. It's a direct thing. So if I don't stick to what I say, it goes completely against everything that am saying. So I have no platform.
What practical solution do you expect from the prayer sessions?
First of all, everything physical derives from the spiritual and so prayer is very important because there's no way you'll want to achieve peace without calling on the prince of peace. God is the owner of peace. There is a spirituality that goes with peace. When you call upon Him and you do it right, God can enter into the hearts of men. Two people who disagreed before suddenly can begin to agree.
You remember in the Bible, Jacob was coming from his uncle's place and he was told that Esau was coming with 400 men angry because of what Jacob did to him. And Jacob had an encounter, in other words, he had an all-night prayer meeting. In the morning, when Esau saw him, instead of killing him, Esau embraced him. So who created that peace? Was it Jacob? No, it was supernatural. So there is a supernatural aspect to the problem in the Niger Delta.
There are demonic forces that want to maintain the status quo because it is only in this kind of atmosphere that idol worship can thrive. Idol worship only thrives in confusion, in poverty, in this kind of situation. The moment development starts coming, believe you me, idol worship is gone.
Nobody will have time for that. And these spirits know this that's why they blind our people spiritually to make sure they can't understand this fact. If not, you sit down and think, our people had all these shrines, the white man came and colonised them with all these heavy shrines, used them as slaves and yet the juju couldn't do anything.
They can't even think, when these people came, some of our people were naked, they had to give you cloth to cover you and your juju was there, your juju liked you naked, running around in the forest. People are not thinking, with all these things you're serving, telling you bring blood, telling you to kill your brother, kill your fellow human being. You think that's a good thing? It certainly cannot be, but they are not thinking. So there are problems there and these spirits like it that way.
So we have to challenge this and the way to challenge it is spiritually. You can't challenge spiritual things with physical things. So what we have brought into it now is the spiritual dimension so that the prayers that have been done now for this one week, and like I told them, you can't end with one week of prayers.
‘I cried and watched my aged mother being lowered into the boat and it disappeared into the night'
THE kidnap on Tuesday night of Mrs. Hansel Seibarugu, the mother of the Speaker of Bayelsa State House of Assembly, in the sleepy riverine settlement of Akaibiri in the Ekpetiama clan of Yenagoa Local Government Area has again brought to the fore the anarchy in the troubled Niger Delta.
Armed groups initially operating in the oil fields of the Niger Delta, demanding a greater share of political rights and revenues for their polluted and impoverished region, resorted to kidnapping expatriates to draw attention to the blighted region and have burgeoned into several splinter bodies some of which have degenerated to money making machines. But the availability of arms as well as growth in the number of criminal gangs and the involvement of some powerful local politicians during last April elections has also helped to stoke this alien culture of violence in the once peaceful region.
For those not conversant with the beautiful but underdeveloped rural riverine settlement of Ekpetiama, one of the host communities to the multi billion naira Ubie Gas Gathering Project, being undertaking by oil major, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), it is a long stretch of marshy land on the bank of the Nun River that snakes through the state capital. It is an area that could be accessed both by land and river while most of the communities can only be reached by boat during this period of the year (flood season).
Interestingly, the natives, many of whom reside in the big cities across the country, love returning to their ancestral home to spend their vacation because of its serene and natural surroundings believed to be a soothing balm to the hassles associated with life in the city.
However, Tuesday night abduction of 70 year old Mrs Hansel, fondly called “Mama Yenagoa” has not only shattered this myth but has also brought to the fore the frightening dimension youth activism has assumed in the troubled oil rich Delta where armed gunmen now prey on toddlers and parents of public office holders for monetary gains. It is still not clear what led to the abduction of the septuagenarian woman whose only crime is giving birth to a son who turned out to be the speaker of the state House of Assembly. But an eyewitness, Mr. Tuanake Nimitei, told Sunday Vanguard, who visited the community shortly after the news of the kidnap filtered into Yenagoa, that some strange faces were noticed ostensibly on reconnaissance about four days before the victim was whisked away.
Wary of their movement, he claimed to have challenged one of the strangers who told him they were fuel dealers in search of potential market. The strangers, he added, turned out to be the invaders who whisked away the aged woman in their speedboats without any resistance from the villagers many of whom had travelled to a neighbouring community for a social function.
The younger sister of the speaker, identified as Powei Sam, who was with her aged mother when the gunmen struck, recalled with pain how she was kidnapped.
Sitting in front of their cream coloured apartment which stood out from other buildings in the community, the visibly lady, fighting tears from dropping from her swollen eyes, recounted how she and her mother were seated at her shop located by the bank of the Nun River when four boys walked up to them and requested to buy liquor ‘Chelsea’.
The mother, she noted, had made it a habit to spend her time at the shop as a form of exercise. “As I was about attending to them, two of the youths grabbed mama and immediately dashed to the water front where a speed boat occupied by two others was already steaming waiting for those that came for my mother,” she said, adding that her shout for help was of no consequence as most of the youths who could have come to her rescue had gone to town to attend a social function.
“I cried and watched my aged mother being lowered into the boat and it disappeared into the night,” she lamented. Sympathizers, especially women who thronged the kidnapped woman’s home, were heartbroken, saying, “we want mama back, because she is sick.”
A youth who simply identified himself as Ebiowei told Sunday Vanguard that the operation could have been averted had the speaker taken seriously information allegedly leaked to him shortly on his arrival from London, last week, that plans were afoot to kidnap his mother. He said though the speaker had planned to relocate his mother to Yenagoa on getting the information, nobody knew why he changed his mind before jetting out to South Africa.
Also an eyewitness said he was at the river taking his bath when the gunmen struck but that there was nothing he could do because the invaders were heavily armed, stressing that they even released volley of shots in the air to warn any likely intruder before they disappeared into the night.
Similarly, the deputy Amananaowei of Akaibiri town, Chief Mekwe Nimitei, said he had retired to his bed after the day’s job only to be jolted from his deep sleep by the distress cry of the people. The royal father who spoke in his native Ijaw dialect said the kidnappers were already gone when he came out.
With the invaders gone, he said he had no choice but to mobilize his fellow chiefs and community leaders to contact the Joint Task Force and police in Yenagoa. The foremost militant group in the region, Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), in a swift reaction, distanced its members from the act, which it linked to what it called internal politics with no connection with the genuine Ijaw struggle for self-determination and resource control.
The group in an online reaction signed by its spokesman, Jomo Gbomo, said, “We were not involved in such a despicable act. The abductions are undoubtedly related to local politics and the government should rather look inwards for the perpetrators or masterminds of this crime.”
Meanwhile, Speaker Werinipre Seibarugu, who was away in South Africa for a parliamentary conference when his mother’s abduction took place, has cut short his stay to return to Yenagoa to join in effort to secure the release of the victim whose whereabouts remained unknown even as his immediate family has moved out of the Legislative Quarters home in Ekeki, Yenagoa. Also, fierce looking mobile police men have taken over security activities at the quarters with only residents allowed into the premises. Confirming the incident, the state commissioner of police, Mr. Julian Opalaeke, said about six heavily armed youths carried out the attack between 8 and 9p.m. He said a suspect had been arrested and was helping the command in its investigation.
Reacting to the incident, Governor Timipre Sylva vowed to purge
the state of criminal elements, which he said were damaging the state economy as well as the sense of security of people doing business there. As at the time of filing this report, no contact had been established with the kidnappers which is coming barely five days after the state assembly through its chairman committee on information, culture and media, Hon. Robert Enogha, denied initiating moves to impeach Seibarugu and the state deputy governor, Mr. Peremobowei Ebebi. Ebebi and the speaker were until a few days ago at the centre storm of an impeachment saga rocking the state.
It was gathered that some youths sympathetic to Seibarugu travelled, weekend, to an undisclosed community in southern Ijaw notorious for hostage taking and other related vices where they alleged the aged woman was being held captive by the kidnappers.
Contacted, special assistant to the speaker on media, Mr. Jonah Okah, said the family and the police were still waiting to get word from the kidnappers.
On the whereabouts of the speaker’s wife, Okah said, “Mrs. Seibarugu has just been delivered of a baby, and should be left out of the current problem.” He expressed optimism that the old woman would be released soon as, according to him,” she is innocent and has not done anything to deserve what she is presently passing through.”
Police spokesman, Mr. Iniobong Ikpokette in a telephone chat on Friday, said the command was yet to trace the whereabouts of the kidnapped victim.
WILL abduction, shooting, cult related violence and killings ever stop in Rivers State? This is the question on many lips. Many had thought that with the raising of a peace and rehabilitation committee by the state government to reach out to militants and cultists in the state, peace would have started returning to the area. But this much sought after peace is appearing to be a mirage or perhaps it is only a matter of time for it to reign. Within the last two weeks several persons have been killed with many sustaining gun shot wounds.
The most recent victim of the sad state was an American professor, Michael Watt, who was reportedly attacked at the office of a new tabloid, National Point, in Orominike street, D line in Port Harcourt. He was allegedly to have been trailed from a bank on Olu Obasanjo Road where he had gone to withdraw money but was told to come back later.
A staff of the tabloid told Sunday Vanguard he was there to receive an award. Shortly after he stepped into the office, the gun men, about eight of them appeared from the blues, ordering him to produce the money he had gone to withdraw from the bank before coming there.
It was like a dream to the professor, according to an eye witness. He however pulled out the six hundred dollars he had on him. But the dare devil militants or robbers thought he was joking and immediately shot him on the right arm. Perhaps for him to know they were serious and not in a Hollywood session.
When it however dawned on them that the six hundred dollars was the only cash the man had on him; in their frustration they, reportedly, smashed the computers in the office and then thoroughly ransacked the place for anything of value. Before fleeing they allegedly shot a guard attached to the newspaper for making effort to deny them entry initially.
Both victims were later rushed to a nearby hospital. Sunday Vanguard later gathered that the professor who was researching on the Niger Delta was badly wounded on the fingers. None of the hospital staff was ready to comment on his health condition when Sunday Vanguard visited the place.
This sad incident came barely twenty four hours after a newly sworn- in commissioner for energy and natural resources, Eldred Billy Braide, cheated death in the hands of suspected assassins and cultists. But his brother, Ipaly Braide and one other were not lucky as they were felled by the bullets of the assailants. Narrating how it happened to the Sunday Vanguard, a family source said minutes after the commissioner was sworn in at a colorful ceremony in Brick House, last Monday, himself and his wife, political admirers, friends and family members retired to a guest house in Amadi flat area of the state capital for a brief reception put together for him by some of his friends and associates.
When they finished there, they moved to his family compound in Lomumba Street for another get together. It was there the gun men struck. The sources said that residents of the street started noticing some strange youths parading the area on motor bikes after the second leg of the party started. But before they could put their fingers on what was to happen, one of the youths came down from his bike and started shooting into the crowd. Many ran but the killers chased them.
They reportedly caught up with the commissioner’s brother, said to be slightly above forty years and shot him at close range and he allegedly died on the spot. Several others sustained bullet wounds. One of them later died at the hospital.
Confirming the sad news, the state commissioner of police, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, linked it to political rivalry.
Meanwhile, on that same day, an oil worker simply described as Elder Echendu was shot dead at Ede street in Ogbunabali area of the state capital. Sources said he was driving into his house when gun men caught up with him and immediately opened fire, killing him on the spot. Their intention was not clear at press time. But some people in the area feared it was a case of mistaken identity.
It would be recalled that, two weeks ago, a Lebanese was also shot
dead in the same neighborhood. Sources said he was attacked at about midnight. The state police commissioner said the police were not ruling out failed abduction, robbery or even assassination in his case.
The Lebanese according to those in Ogbonde street said he had been doing his furniture business in the area for decades.” We cannot understand why anybody will want to kill him. He had been doing his furniture business in this area for years. He was almost a Nigerian to many of us”, some of his neighbors lamented.
Coming after his experience was the case of two persons who were shot dead on their way from a bank in the state capital. Sources said the gun men trailed them on a motor bike up to Elekahia before opening fire on them. It could not be confirmed if they dispossessed them of any valuable.
Robbers, Sunday Vanguard learnt, now position themselves in front of banks in Port Harcourt waiting for those that go in to make huge withdrawals. But how they manage to know these people is still a mystery to many. Could it be that they have links within the banks? They wait for their victims to come out, trail them to quiet spots and then threaten to shoot them if they don’t hand over the cash.
The security situation has become alarming in many parts of the state. The caretaker committee chairman of Asari Toru Local Government Area, Mr. Ibaninabo Hamilton Dawarey, last week, reportedly, ordered a curfew in the headquarters of his local government after two rival cult groups clashed in Buguma last Sunday leaving one dead.
Governor Celestine Omehia is deeply worried by the sad situation. This prompted his constitution of a peace and rehabilitation committee to persuade these cultists and militants to drop the nefarious acts. The committee headed by Alhaji Hassan Douglass is expected to begin tour of the twenty three local government areas of the state to pursue peace.
It is the prayer of all that peace returns to the state. Already night life has disappeared from the state capital. As early as 6.30 p.m., most residents start racing home for fear of their lives. So the people truly desire peace.
Demuren who addressed journalists at the Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos at the weekend said that the five international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt and Calabar must meet international standards before they will be cleared for International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) certification, which will take place in September.
He decried the lack of basic facilities in some of the airports and regretted that the Nigeria Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) is saddled with too many airports and therefore face daunting challenge to maintain them.
"NCAA will degrade the airports that did not meet the expected standard. FAAN is saddled with so many airports. We cannot accept such decay in our airports. They must meet certain standards so that they will serve the Nigerian public effectively. We must not compromise standards."
On the issue of safety, Demuren said that bad weather was involved in all the accidents that had taken place in Nigeria and cautioned that pilots must wait for bad weather to clear before they operate their flight.
He noted that Nigeria and other countries in Africa are located around tropical revolving thunderstorm, adding that the Gulf of Guinea where Nigeria is located is very stormy.
The NCAA boss disclosed that as part of updating both operators and passengers, weather information will soon be made available at arrival halls of Nigerian airports, stressing that the problem of weather is all over the world.
"All accidents that took place in Nigeria happened in bad weather. Pilots must wait for bad weather to clear before they operate. Nigeria is located in the area of tropical thunderstorm in the gulf of Guinea, but very soon we will begin to show weather reports in arrival halls of the airports."
Demuren revealed that Nigeria has been making progress in the aviation sector, stating that the country must become category 1 compliant so that Nigerians who wish to travel to United States must not go through Europe before going to America but take a direct flight to US.
He said that if the country becomes category 1 compliant it is Nigerian carriers that will benefit because they can now fly to US, which is a very lucrative route.
Besides, the category 1 certification will declare Nigeria's airspace safe and this will boost the nation's economy, noting that within three weeks America's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will reply NCAA with its report, which will prompt the authority to start a programme for a more comprehensive assessment by FAA.
The Director-General also noted that it was because the country passed the ICAO audit opened opportunity for Nigerians carriers through the Cape Town Convention and could lease modern aircraft which have boosted the airlines fleet, that in the major routes of Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt one could only see modern aircraft, unlike in the past when old airplanes dotted the nation's skyline.
"About 18 months ago we lost the confidence of the flying public after the two accidents. Nigeria must be category 1 compliant. Things have changed since now. We have relatively new aircraft. We have safe tower project and Nigeria stands a better chance today for investors to come in and do business."
The points where the holes are common place are First Gate, Agboju, Oluti, Alakija, Mazamaza, Mile 2, Abule Ado, Under Bridge (Trade Fair), Volks, Iyana Iba and Okokomaiko. Added to the woe of commuters on this route is activities of the men of the underworld, who take advantage of the ugly situation and unleash terror. The traffic caused by the collapsed road is being compounded by flood since the rain started .
Consequently, the profile of victims of robbers on the route has been rising. The situation, Sunday Vanguard Business checks reveal, is already taking its toll on trade between Nigeria and neighbouring West African countries, because the route is the major link Nigeria has with these countries like Ghana, Togo, Benin Republic. Following collapsed sections of the road, operators of transport service and traders from Lagos to other cities on the West Coast spend hours from Lagos to Badagry and Seme border for a journey that should not take more than one our.
As a result, transport operators have jerked up their fares, even as the road users count their loses. Our reporters observed last week, many of the commercial transport operators on the Nigeria, Cotonu (Benin Republic) and other West coast route from their base in Mile 2, in Lagos under the aegis of International Transport Association identifying primarily, bad road networks, as one of the major obstacles impeding free flow of traffic. Chairman of the international transport union, Alhaji Abdelrahem Jimoh, who spoke to our reporter, at their Mile 2 garage lamented seriously the effect of the bad road on the Nigerian economy in terms of loses.
Jimoh said that in addition, this ugly situation and adverse negative effect it has brought the nation’s economy, a journey which ought to have taken a passenger less than two hours now takes about four hours. Speaking further, he blamed the governments for not taken their responsibilities serious, quarrying that all the big talks about developing trans boarder working transport system only ends in government papers without actions .
He noted that if the present government is serious in this matter, it must immediately play its role by ensuring that as from today the issue of this international roads will be addressed and made motor able, as this will not only increase business among Nigerians and other people, but it will also help in saving the lives and properties of innocent citizens from further loss of lives to this bad road
“Can you imagine the number of innocent people who have lost their lives on this road, why we are saying this is that it is a problem that cannot be swept aside. Another thing is that sometimes robbers exploit this situation to unleash terror on transporters and passengers. Because we cannot say who will be the next victim, either you or me. Please our urgent call is to tell the present government as transporters to help Nigerians and people of other West African nations in putting this road well. It will help all of us, but above all, it will also help boost the Nigerian economy which all of us are working for.”
