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Navy foils pirates’ attack on Rivers waterways, 20 passengers rescued

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Navy foils pirates’ attack on Rivers waterways, 20 passengers rescued

The Nigerian Navy Forward Operation Base in Bonny, Rivers State rescued 20 passengers including women and children on the Port Harcourt-Bonny sea route after foiling a pirates’ attack on the Port Harcourt to Bonny sea route.

Commander of the NNFOB in Bonny, Maksum Mohammed who confirmed the incident to newsmen on Monday, September 16, 2024, said the Navy also uncovered a new strategy adopted by pirates to abduct travellers.

Mohammed said intelligence suggested that some of the boat operators may be working with the pirates to launch attacks.

According to him, the boat operators would load fully, get to the entrance of a river midway on the high sea, fake engine problem, and while pretending to be fixing the problem, the pirates would swoop on them and whisk the passengers into the creeks and demand ransom.

He said the latest incident showed a boat loaded with 20 passengers including infants, which he said almost turned fatal.

“This is a clear case of willful endangerment of passenger safety. Why would any mariner in his right senses sail with passengers on board a boat whose engines were outrightly faulty and unable to sustain an hour’s journey?

“And then, we’re also dealing with recent cases of attacks on the river; what if these criminals had seen and approached them and taken them captive?

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“What leverage would they have had to escape their assailants?  It’s quite unfortunate that hapless passengers could be so exposed to avoidable risks and for the exorbitant amount they pay?.”

Mohammed further said the case appeared to be a simulation, saying the places they saw the boat twice were exactly dangerous places for attacks.

“This is just in case, maybe, there was some kind of a plan because nearly all the kidnap incidents occurred where there was an engine failure or simulation in front of a river mouth, which now resulted in the kidnap as they come out and then pick their victims and carry on.

“We encountered the same boat again simulating another engine failure in front of another river entrance. Simulating another engine failure – as far as I’m concerned, I’ll use simulation – in a place that is also known for kidnap activities.

“It was at that point that we decided to evacuate the passengers onto our boats and continued with the movement”, he added.

Mohammed advised the coastal state governments and Local Government areas to urgently consider deploying ferries on the waterways, especially, the Bonny-Port Harcourt sea route as a safer, sustainable, and subsidized means of transportation.

Navy foils pirates’ attack on Rivers waterways, 20 passengers rescued

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Man remanded for allegedly defiling stepdaughter in Benue

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Man remanded for allegedly defiling stepdaughter in Benue

A Makurdi Magistrates Court, on Wednesday, ordered the remand of one Adera Sunday, 40, accused of defiling of his 16-year-old stepdaughter.

The Magistrate, Mrs Sonia Ayange, did not take the plea of the defendant, a resident of Welfare Quarters, Makurdi, for want of jurisdiction.

Ayange thereafter ordered that the defendant should be remanded at the Makurdi Correctional Centre pending further investigation.

She adjourned the case to Oct. 11 for further mention.

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Earlier, the Police Prosecutor, Insp James Ewache told the court that the teenager reported the case at the State Criminal Investigation Department in Makurdi on Aug. 30.

The prosecutor said that the complainant informed the police that her stepfather had been taking sexual advantage of her since she was 13 years of age without her consent.

“He lures her into taking noxious drugs and while under the influence, forcefully takes advantage of her,” the prosecutor said.

Ewache said that investigation into the matter was still ongoing and prayed the court for another date for mention.

He said that the offence contravened Sections 284 of the Penal Code, Laws of Benue State, 2004.

Man remanded for allegedly defiling stepdaughter in Benue

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FG worries over Abuja tremor, says it’s monitoring situation

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Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, Chief Uche Geoffrey Nnaji

FG worries over Abuja tremor, says it’s monitoring situation

The federal government has said it is monitoring and analysing earth movement in and around Abuja to forestall any further earth tremor in the federal capital territory.

The Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology, Uche Nnaji, who disclosed this at an emergency press briefing in Abuja, yesterday, said the government would soon implement measures to mitigate the seismic risks.

Over the past week, a series of earth tremors have been reported in some parts of the Maitama, Katampe, and Mpape areas, causing concern among residents.

Tremors are small, mild shaking or vibrations of the ground, often caused by minor movements in the earth’s crust.

It could be recalled that Mpape experienced a similar sequence of earth tremors from September 5 to 7, 2018, which drew significant local and international attention to Nigeria’s increasing seismic activity.

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The recent tremors were accompanied by loud noises and ground shaking, causing widespread alarm among residents.

The minister said “The government is currently processing and analysing comprehensive datasets from its Seismological and GNSS stations to provide relevant recommendations to the FCT Administration.

“We urge the residents of Mpape, and by extension the wider Abuja area, to remain calm and continue their normal activities,” Nnaji said.

Also, the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) has urged residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to remain calm.

NGSA Director General, Prof. Olusegun Ige, made the call in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.

He urged the residents of the affected areas and other parts where the tremors were felt not to panic, as the tremors were generally minor and did not pose any threat to the environment.

He said the agency was closely monitoring the situation across Nigeria and would provide updates as required.

The NGSA boss stated that a team from the agency had visited the affected areas for an on-the-spot assessment of the various incidents.

FG worries over Abuja tremor, says it’s monitoring situation

(NAN)

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Police parade suspected ritualists, armed robbers in Osun

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Police parade suspected ritualists, armed robbers in Osun

The Osun State Police Command has said that it has arrested seven suspects for possession of human body parts.

The police made this revelation to journalists while parading the suspects at the Command headquarters in Osogbo on Wednesday.

The suspects paraded include Johnson Daniel, Adetunji Okunade, Olaniyan Azeez, Balogun Temitope Asimiyu, Oladapo Hammed, Kazeem Rasak and Asaka Rauf.

Addressing journalists, the Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Giwa-Alade Emmanuel also said suspected human bone fragments, a female pant and note books were recovered as exhibits from the suspects at the point of arrest.

He said, “The above named suspects were arrested upon a credible information from a good spirited individual that, one Johnson Daniel ‘m’ a mortuary attendant at lpetu-ljesa sells portions of human remains deposited at the mortuary to native doctors whose names are listed above.

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“The said suspects use these remains gotten from the mortuary attendant (Johnson Daniel) for different ritual purposes. Daniel also confessed that, he conspired with one other mortuary attendant named Adetunji Okunade ‘m’ to sell remnant of water used in bathing corpses to interested native doctors.

“In the course of investigation, search were conducted at the residences of these suspects which led to the recovery of fragment of substances suspected to be human skull at Asaka Rauf ‘m’ and Oladapo Hammed ‘m’ residences while a female pant and a note book containing instructions on ritual practices were recovered from Balogun Temitope Asimiyu’s residence.”

Giwa-Alade hinted that the suspects have been charged to court.

Similarly, the police paraded Taiwo Adekunle, Adebayo Opeyemi, Hasan Ibrahim, Oba Wasiu and Olajide Oladapo for alleged armed robbery.

Exhibits recovered at the point of arrest include a Ford Jeep with registration number SMK945OS, Hunter motorcycle with registration number WWD604QF, one empty shell cartridge, one Iphone and one magnet.

Police parade suspected ritualists, armed robbers in Osun

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