metro
Murder: Adeleke denies reports of state pardon to Adedoyin
Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun has said that the government has no plans to grant state pardon to Dr Rahman Adedoyin, who was sentenced to death for murder of Timothy Adegoke.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Osun High Court of Justice sitting in Osogbo had on May 30 sentenced Adedoyin, owner of Hilton Hotels, to death by hanging for the murder of Adegoke, a postgraduate student of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife.
A statement issued on Monday in Osogbo by Malam Olawale Rasheed, the governor’s media aide, denied reports on social media that Adeleke was plotting to subvert the judgement by granting state pardon to Adedoyin.
The statement quoted the governor as saying that his administration had never and would never subvert justice.
It said those behind the fake news were enemies of the public.
”Those who concocted the fake news are evil minded political operatives, who are merely grasping at straws in their desperation to blackmail the state governor.
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”Governor Adeleke has not and will never contemplate exercising the prerogative of mercy or whatever the report calls it, on a matter under adjudication, which has generated deep interest among local and global communities.
”It is important to clarify that neither the governor nor his political party has any hidden plot on the said murder case other than a public interest agenda to see culprits in the dastardly act face the full wrath of the law.
”That explains why no PDP member was involved as counsel for any of the convicted individuals and why the state judiciary enjoys and exercises its full independence in the hearing and jugdement of the case.
“It is uncharitable for political enemies and their paid agents to attempt any link between the convicted businessman and the governor.
”We affirm with all sense of responsibility that Gov. Adeleke was not at any material time a friend or partner of the owner of Oduduwa University and did not interfere, intervene or manifest any untoward agenda in the arraignment, hearing and sentencing of the accused,” Rasheed said.
He therefore urged the members of the public to ignore the rumors of Gov. Adeleke granting a state pardon to the convict and the watery push to link service records of a state judicial official to a popular verdict on the gruesome murder of a postgraduate student.
“Those peddling such lies are agents of darkness acting on behalf of disgruntled, dark political elements. They are better ignored.
“We convey appreciation to men and women of goodwill who have put up spirited defense for the governor in the face of this orchestrated falsehood.
“The undiluted truth is that neither the state government nor the state governor is interested in the subversion of the wheel of justice,” Rasheed said.
metro
Notorious cultist, Pelele, gunned down in Rivers
Notorious cultist, Pelele, gunned down in Rivers
Operatives of the Rivers State Police Command have successfully neutralized a suspected cultist and kidnapper, Gbarani Bume, popularly known as Pelele, in Luawii Community, Khana Local Government Area.
Bume, a reportedly known member of the Iceland cult group, had allegedly been terrorizing the Beree/Tabaa area of Khana LGA alongside his gang.
The Command’s Public Relations Officer, Grace Iringe-Koko, confirmed the incident in a statement released in Port Harcourt on Sunday.
According to Iringe-Koko, the police acted on intelligence that Pelele and his gang were attempting to abduct a site engineer in Luawii. Upon arrival, the operatives were met with gunfire from the suspects. In the ensuing shootout, Pelele sustained fatal injuries and later died, while his accomplices fled with gunshot wounds.
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The statement reads: “The Rivers State Police Command has made a significant breakthrough in its efforts to combat crime, neutralising a notorious cultist and kidnapper, Gbarani Bume, a.k.a. Pelele, a native of Bere Community in Khana LGA.
“He was a member of the Iceland Cult Group, which has been terrorising the Beree/Tabaa axis of Khana LGA.
“On the 15th of November 2024, operatives from the Bori Division, acting on a tip-off, were mobilised to Luawii Community where Pelele and his gang were attempting to kidnap a site engineer.
“Upon sighting the operatives, the hoodlums opened fire, resulting in a fierce crossfire, during which Pelele was fatally wounded. His accomplices escaped with various degrees of bullet wounds.
“Items recovered from the suspect include one AK-47 rifle, two magazines, and 10 rounds of live ammunition.”
She further stated that investigations are ongoing to track down the fleeing gang members, emphasizing the Command’s commitment to tackling crime and enhancing public safety in the state.
Notorious cultist, Pelele, gunned down in Rivers
metro
Court stops police from arresting 68 Obaseki’s allies
Court stops police from arresting 68 Obaseki’s allies
metro
26 dead, 59 missing as Israel hits Gaza, Lebanon in deadly strikes
26 dead, 59 missing as Israel hits Gaza, Lebanon in deadly strikes
Strikes by the Israel military killed dozens in Gaza on Sunday, the civil defence said, while also hitting a Hezbollah stronghold near Beirut’s international airport.
Israel has been fighting on two fronts since September, intensifying attacks on Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah after nearly a year of cross-border clashes alongside its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
A year after the Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attacks on its south, Israel vowed to stop the Islamist militants from regrouping in the north of the Palestinian territory, launching a major assault there.
In the latest violence in the besieged Palestinian territory, the civil defence agency said Israeli air raids killed at least 46 people.
The deadliest strike, in the middle of the night in Beit Lahia in the north, killed 26 people, including women and children, and left at least 59 others buried under the rubble, said civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal.
Another strike killed 10 people in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, where a separate strike on a house claimed the life of a woman, he said.
An Israeli drone strike killed five people in the southern city of Rafah, Bassal said, adding another strike killed three women and a child in the Nuseirat camp.
Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry on Sunday said the overall death toll in more than 13 months of war had reached 43,846.
The majority of the dead are civilians, according to ministry figures, which the United Nations considers reliable.
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Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
– Lebanon rescuers mourned –
On Israel’s second front in the north, AFPTV footage showed several strikes hit Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold, shortly after the Israeli military warned people to evacuate.
Columns of smoke were seen rising over the capital’s southern suburbs, where Lebanon’s only international airport is located.
Further south, overnight Israeli air strikes and shelling hit the flashpoint town of Khiam, the Lebanese state-run National News Agency reported.
Following the bombardment, the Israeli army said about 20 projectiles were seen crossing from Lebanon into Israel, and that some of them were intercepted. Emergency services did not immediately report any casualties.
Israel has escalated its bombing of Lebanon since September 23 and has since sent in ground troops, following almost a year of limited, cross-border exchanges of fire begun by Hezbollah militants in support of Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza.
Its military on Saturday said Hezbollah had already “paid a big price”, but vowed to keep fighting until tens of thousands of Israelis displaced from the north can return home.
Israeli forces also shelled the southern area of Lebanon along the Litani River, the NNA said on Sunday.
The news agency had earlier reported strikes on the southern city of Tyre, including in a neighbourhood near UNESCO-listed ancient ruins. Israel’s military said late Saturday it had hit Hezbollah sites in the area.
In Lebanon’s east, the health ministry said an Israeli strike in the Bekaa Valley killed six people including three children.
Hezbollah said it fired a guided missile that set an Israeli tank ablaze in the southwestern Lebanese village of Chamaa.
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In eastern Lebanon, funerals were held for 14 civil defence staff killed in an Israeli strike on Thursday.
“They weren’t involved with any (armed) party… they were just waiting to answer calls for help,” said Ali al-Zein, a relative of one of the dead.
– Gaza famine alert –
Lebanese authorities say more than 3,452 people have been killed since October last year, with most casualties recorded since September.
Israel announced the death of a soldier in southern Lebanon, bringing to 48 the number killed fighting Hezbollah.
A UN-backed assessment on November 9 warned famine was imminent in northern Gaza, amid the increased hostilities and a near-halt in food aid.
Israel has pushed back against a Human Rights Watch report this week alleging that its mass displacement of Gazans amounts to a “crime against humanity”, as well as findings from a UN Special Committee pointing to warfare practices “consistent with the characteristics of genocide”.
A foreign ministry spokesman dismissed the HRW report as “completely false”, while the United States — Israel’s main military supplier — said accusations of genocide “are certainly unfounded”.
In Israel, police said they arrested three suspects after flares shot near the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the central city of Caesarea, south of Haifa, while he was away.
Demonstrators in Tel Aviv on Saturday reiterated demands that the government reach a deal to free dozens of hostages still held in Gaza.
The protest came a week after mediator Qatar suspended its role until Hamas and Israel show “seriousness” in truce and hostage-release talks.
26 dead, 59 missing as Israel hits Gaza, Lebanon in deadly strikes
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