metro

How 50-year-old father of three butchered estranged lover

Published

1 year ago

July 7, 2023

Austin Gola Ejewor

How 50-year-old father of three butchered estranged lover

Tragedy struck at Okolor Inland, a community in Udu Local Government Area of Delta State, where a 50-year-old father of three, Austin Gola Ejewor, allegedly murdered his estranged lover, 45-year-old Felicia Citibekpe.

Ejewor, a welder, allegedly used a machete to hack Felicia during a fight, which led to her death. The suspect initially escaped after the incident but later surrendered to the police.

Narrating what transpired while being paraded in Asaba, the state capital, by the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Wale Abass, the suspect accused his late lover of sundry offences, including having an affair with his relative just to slight him.

He told Daily Sun that Felicia had held on to his money meant for the purchase of a tricycle for commercial purposes, since the welding business was no longer profitable.

He said: “We had saved money in the cooperative with the intention of buying a tricycle for commercial operation, since the welding work was no longer viable. She seized the money. The money we saved was about N700,000.00 and the cooperative gave us over N1 million.

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“When I asked her to bring out the money during the currency swap earlier this year, she said she was holding on to it for her own business.

“So, after the naira crisis, I asked her again to produce the money, she insisted that she had seized it, and that I should approach the bank for loan to buy the tricycle. After persisting and she was not yielding, I had to let go and move on.

“Then later I inherited one of my late brother’s wives, which she rejected. Then she took one of my boxers to a spiritual place with the intention of making me impotent.

“As if that was not enough, she went to sleep with the late man’s son and asked me to go and commit suicide if I like.

“It was after that we started fighting, which led to her death. The day she came, she carried masquerade with the intention to kill me but since she was holding a knife and I was armed with a cutlass, a superior weapon, I had the upper hand.

“I defended myself with my hand as a man, so we cut each other and she died.”

According to him, Felicia’s relatives were enraged by the development, and they razed his dwelling place, stole his motorcycle, “destroyed my cousin’s storey building and my father’s house. As we speak now, I have nothing.”

The suspect claimed that he met the deceased about three years ago, adding that they were living together until she overstepped her bounds.

“She was earlier pregnant for me but lost it this year. So, we don’t have any child between us, and we have been together for three years now. However, before I met her, one woman had given me three children.

“We were together but she overstepped her bounds because I gave her boundary that she should not relate with people, and people advised her wrongly,” he added.

Parading the suspect alongside others, Abass said, on receipt of the reported murder case, the Divisional Police Ofiicer in Ovwian detailed operatives to embark on investigation.

Abass said the suspect was eventually arrested when he turned himself in at Ovwian Aladja Police Station.

“The suspect stated that he murdered the woman during the course of disagreement, using a machete,” he added.

metro

BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

Published

9 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

The federal government has unveiled a proposed budget of N47.9 trillion for the 2025 fiscal year.

Atiku Bagudu, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, disclosed this to journalists on Thursday following the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu.

Bagudu revealed that the council had approved the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for 2025-2027.

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According to the minister, the government has pegged the crude oil benchmark at $75 per barrel, with an oil production target of 2.06 million barrels per day (bpd).

The budget also sets the exchange rate at N1,400 per dollar and aims for a gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 6.4%.

BREAKING: FEC proposes N47.9 trillion budget for 2025 fiscal year

metro

EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

Published

9 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) told FIJ that they have arrested Timber Wabote, the former executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCMB), on the grounds of a failed $35 million Bayelsa refinery project fraud.

Dele Oyewale, the EFCC’s spokesperson, confirmed this to FIJ on Thursday.

“It is true,” Oyewale responded to FIJ’s inquiries.

Wabote is accused of misappropriating public funds for a refinery project that should have improved local energy production.

Vanguard reported that the NCDMB under Wabote paid $35 million to support the development of energy infrastructure in the Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa, yet there was nothing to show for it.

The EFCC picked Wabote up following the arrest of Akintoye Adeoye Akindele, the Managing Director of Atlantic International Refinery and Petrochemical Limited, for alleged misappropriation, money laundering and diversion of $35 million in public funds.

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“NCDMB under the watch of Wabote allegedly paid the $35 million to Akindele to build a 2,000 barrel per day (BPD), refinery, jetty, gas plant, power plant, data centre and tank farm at Brass free trade zone (FTZ), Okpoama Community in Brass LGA of Bayelsa State,” a source with the EFCC had explained.

Since December 2020 when the payments were made, Akindele abandoned the project with little or nothing to show for the huge sum he received.

Preliminary investigations showed that Wabote’s NCDMB financed 17 different projects, including the 2,000 BPD refinery in Brass LGA.

There has been a series of public fund misappropriation cases in the energy sector in recent times.

FIJ earlier reported that members of the House of Representatives summoned three ministers to defend how over $2 billion was spent on renewable energy with not much to show for it.

A recent FIJ report also recently detailed how residents of Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa, have not had power in their homes since July due to the vandalisation of the Ahoada-Yenagoa transmission towers caused by unidentified persons.

The Bayelsa state government told FIJ it was the federal government’s responsibility to provide electricity for residents. The state has no renewable energy options reliable enough to power its capital despite the multi-million-dollar NCMB energy project.

Transparency in the energy sector has become necessary at a time when Nigerians have suffered power instability due to frequent grid collapses.

EFCC arrests ex-NCMB boss over $35m energy project fraud

metro

Court adjourns Yahaya Bello’s trial till Nov 27

Published

10 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Trends Admin

Yahaya Bello

Court adjourns Yahaya Bello’s trial till Nov 27

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has requested an adjournment in the new case against the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, stating that the 30-day window for the previously issued summons is still active.

The commission has granted administrative bail to his co-defendants, Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu, and asked the court for an extension of time for Bello to appear.

At the resumed hearing before Justice Maryann Anenih of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja, EFCC Counsel Jamiu Agoro noted that the court’s order from October 3rd had not yet expired.

“In that wise, we feel it will not be appropriate for us to take proceedings while that 30 days is still running. So we have discussed and agreed to come back on the 27th day of November, 2024, my lord,” he told the court.

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He also mentioned that the previously set date of November 20th was not convenient for the prosecution counsels.

Counsel to the second defendant, Aliyu Saiki, SAN, confirmed that his client had been granted administrative bail by the prosecution and had no objection to the adjournment request. The third defendant’s counsel, ZE Abass, concurred.

The prosecution counsel also requested the court to allow the notice of hearing to be pasted on the last known address of the first defendant.

After hearing from all counsels, the judge granted the EFCC’s application for adjournment and the issuance of the hearing notice.

“I have considered the application for adjournment by the complainant and issuance of hearing notice and the submission by the second and third defendants. The application is granted,” she said.

Justice Anenih then adjourned the case to November 27th for arraignment.

The former governor, alongside Umar Oricha and Abdulsalami Hudu, are being prosecuted as 1st to 3rd defendants, respectively, in a fresh 16-count charge instituted against them by the EFCC.