Armed Robbery Suspects Gunned Down (The Tide)
The police in Rivers State have killed three suspected armed robbers during an exchange of fire along Rumuigbo Road, old GRA, Port Harcourt.
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.
Report from the Creeks (Vanguard)
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.
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