A Nigerian lady and her friend yesterday, died after inhaling toxic fumes from an electricity generator.

The bodies of Muobuikwu Uju Kate and Nkiru Anozie were discovered in a shop located on Second East Circular road in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State on Tuesday morning, December 12.

It was learnt that Muobuikwu, the owner of the shop had invited Anozie to help her sew clothes. She had turned on a generator to enable them work throughout the night in order to deliver the clothes to her customers in time.

Confirming the incident, her brother, Chukwudi, said that he had received a call from his sister on Monday but could not reach her when he called back.

“I got a call from my sister at about 2pm when she complained that her friend was getting weak. I told her to give her anointing oil. Minutes later, I put a call to her mobile phone to know the situation of things but she did not pick my call. So, I came here this morning and we invited the police to force the door open and that was it.” said Chukwudi

The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Johnson Kokumo, who confirmed the incident said preliminary investigations revealed that the women died after inhaling the toxic fumes from the generator.

“I think they were fashion designers who must have been working all night to, probably, meet up with the demands of their customers this Yuletide,” said Kokumo.

“Maybe they (deceased) had a lot of things to get done for their customers and slept where the generator was on. So, they eventually died of the fumes of the generator. I think they did not know. We will embark on public enlightenment to enlighten members of the public that it is dangerous to the health.” he added.

A 200-level female student of the Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, Dorcas Oluwatimilehin Olanrewaju, has recounted her ordeal at the hands of ritualists and how she narrowly escaped death.

According to Sunday Tribune, the lady was heard being interrogated by the security personnel believed to have visited her Omu-Aran family residence after her release last Friday morning.

Dorcas who is the daughter of the chairman, Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kwara State Council, Mr. Layi Olanrewaju.

She recalled that she left her off-campus hostel at about 11:16 a.m. last Thursday, after picking up her course registration form but could not find a commercial motorcycle to convey her back to campus.

According to her, in the process of trying to get an alternative transportation, she flagged down an Ilorin-colour painted taxi which unknown to her was being operated by ritualists.

Noting that she was the only KWASU student in the cab, Dorcas further narrated that two passengers occupied the front seat while she was the third passenger at the back. She added that no sooner had the taxi taken off than a female co-passenger sitting next to her complained of cold and requested that the side glass be wound up.

“I became unconscious afterwards,” said the victim, stressing that she regained consciousness in the den of ritualists in the evening of the fateful day.

Dorcas said she was blindfolded and driven to an unknown location, where she met 12 other victims – male and female.

“We were kept in a room. When they touched me, the woman said I was not pure… They started touching my body with some things and the woman said they should go and keep me somewhere, that they don’t need me now, that I’m in my period and it is not the time they need people who are menstruating,”

“I think around 2:00 a.m., one of them called me and started asking me questions. He said where am I from, and that do I know what I was doing there? I said ‘no,’ that ‘I just found myself here’ and that ‘I was supposed to be in school writing my exam.’ At times, they (the ritualists) speak in Hausa but it was not audible.

“They would stay by the door and later open the door and talk. And sometimes, they would come inside and just parade and go. When I got there, we were 13 but I left five people there. The man told me that I should not worry, that he would not allow them to touch me. So, he took me out and that was when I knew we were in a compound. He covered my face and locked me up in the boot. I knew they entered the car and were talking about Ekiti State.

They dropped me around 5.00a.m. “…I knew when we got somewhere, I was almost losing consciousness and the man said he had forgotten to put water in the radiator and he came to the boot, took me out and told me to go.

“I didn’t know I was in Omu-Aran. It was when I started walking around 5:00 a.m. and I got to the roundabout (close to First Bank) before I realised that I was in Omu-Aran.”

If they took people out, it was their screaming that we would hear. I wrapped my school ID card in my back pocket and did not leave any trace that I had a phone on me.”

Her friend’s account

Her course mate who resides on campus (name withheld), said they were together at the College of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), where their department (Mass Communication) is domiciled, until around 10:00 a.m. on the fateful day when she left for her off-campus accommodation to pick up her course registration form, which she forgot.

She said after waiting for her call some 30 minutes later, she looked around for her without success.

“After the examination, I went everywhere searching for her, still without any breakthrough. So, I later went to my hostel to see if she was waiting for me there. I also had to go down to her hostel but didn’t see her either. I asked her hostel mates the same thing. I didn’t want to call home, so that her parents would not panic, as I was anxiously waiting for her call.

“Around 6:54 p.m. I saw a text message that she has been kidnapped and that I should call her brother and inform him. Immediately I called her brother, they came to Malete that night. After I saw the message, I went to Safety Unit to report and the Safety Unit called the police station (in Malete) to report it.

“She said she was the only one (student) in the taxi. A female ritualist was beside her and that was the woman she said was feeling cold.

“At about 1:16 a.m. the following day, we were still communicating because they didn’t know she had the phone on her and I was asking her the situation of things and she said somebody called her out and was asking where she was from and she told them she was from Omu-Aran. So, in the morning, I sent her a text message asking her the situation of things but she didn’t reply. I was even scared but the message delivered. That means the phone was still on.”

“When they called her, she was even thinking that it was her turn, but they took her inside the car and drove her to Omu-Aran and dropped her in front of her father’s house,” the friend said.

KWASU insists only one student kidnapped, released

Apparently trying to put the incident in its correct perspective, KWASU management has clarified that only one student was kidnapped, as against the conflicting figures in some media reports. Speaking through its Director, Office of the University Relations, Dr Isiaka Aliagan, the university management said, “We don’t know where people get the statistics they are bandying about. To the knowledge of the university, we only have one student who was kidnapped but she was eventually released.”

Stressing that security has been beefed up within and outside the campus since the incident, the Aliagan said KWASU would stop at nothing to protect its students.

Aliagan, who stated that the kidnapped female student has since been reunited with her family, challenged anyone with contrary facts and figures to make them public instead of disparaging the university.

“Aside the victim, none of our students or staff has been reported missing,” he insisted.

The university spokesman, however, assured parents, guardians, and other stakeholders that security operatives were making efforts to track down the perpetrators and guard against a recurrence of such incident.

He said the University Safety Unit, in collaboration with security operatives, has intensified its patrol operations to protect lives and properties of students, staff, and visitors to the institution.

“Management wishes to urge students to be security conscious, to patronise only registered transport and to report strange persons or movements around their hostels and campus,” he advised.

Mr Layi Olabrewaju, Dorcas’father also spoke to Newsmen

He said ;

“What can I say again? I thank God for everything. It’s all about answered prayers. So, we thank God. Sure, it was an harrowing experience. I won’t want any parent to have it at all. She’s quite young for that kind of bad experience. She shows expression of shock like that sometimes when she remembers what she passed through. All the same we thank God for His protection and blessings in our lives.

“I appreciate the management of the school, colleagues of my daughter, the DSS, Police and other agencies and individuals for their prayers, efforts, and support. All have performed creditably well in ensuring her freedom. The family will still need their prayers for her to get over the trauma fast.

“I also want the school to improve security around the students to discourage future occurrence. Nothing should be left out to achieve this,” he pleaded.

Culled from Tribune

In a new twist to the recent viral topic of Christians paying tithes, a clergyman has come out to state that it is purely voluntary and it is not a do or die affair.

The director of Catholic Communication and the Apostleship of Prayer League of Sacred Heart of Jesus, Very Rev. Msgr. Gabriel Osu, said this while explaining broadly on tithing in an interview with Punchng.

The Catholic Priest said:

“The first mention of a tithe in the Bible occurs in Genesis when Melchizedek, a king and a “priest of God Most High,” offered a sacrifice of bread and wine in thanksgiving for Abraham’s victory over several enemy kings.”

“As an offering to God, Abraham gave Melchizedek “a tenth of everything.” (See Genesis 14.) In the Old Testament, the tenth of one’s bounty was customarily given to the priests in their service to God. The Torah (the law of God as revealed to Moses) prescribe the giving of tithes.”

“A person offered to God, or ‘tithed,’ one-tenth of the harvest of the grain of the fields or the produce of fruit of the trees, one-tenth of new pressed wine and oil, and every firstborn animal of herd or flock (Leviticus 23 30-33. Deuteronomy 12:17. 14:22-29). The Bible book of Numbers also records how God prescribed that the Levites, the priestly class of the Jewish people, were entrusted with these tithes: (Number 18:21-24). Therefore, these tithes were contributions offered to the Lord and distributed to the Levites for their support.”

“Payment of tithe, like other donations made in the Catholic Church, is not obligatory. This means that members are not compelled to pay the tithe. It is purely voluntary. Also, Catholics are under no obligation to pay a certain percentage of their income to the church as a tithe.”

“In the early history of our church, the priests depended upon the generous support of congregations for their sustenance. This custom was based on the New Testament instruction: Jesus taught the apostles to depend upon charity when He sent them on a mission (see Matthew 10:10). St. Paul also instructed the early Church community to provide for the needs of their priests (I Corinthians 9:13).”

“As cited in the Catechism (No. 2043), the precepts of the church maintain that each person has the duty to support the material needs of the church. Of course, a person fulfils this obligation according to his abilities. The Christian faithful are obliged to assist with the needs of the Church so that the Church has what is necessary for divine worship, for apostolic works and works of charity, and for the decent sustenance of ministers. They are also obliged to promote social justice and, be mindful of the precept of the Lord, to assist the poor from their own resources”

A regional commissioner in Tanzania, John Mongella has announced that pregnant teenagers will be arrested and charged to court, The Citizen reports.

Mongella, speaking on Monday, said pregnant teenagers have a tendency to not divulge who it was that got them pregnant.

They should be taken to court, he said, and should be forced to testify and name the persons who impregnated them.

He said:

“There have been a tendency of pregnant schoolgirls not to mention the name of a person who impregnated them. This is a challenge when one is required to testify in court.

Directors and district commissioners in the Mwanza region have been ordered to locate all pregnant schoolgirls and take them to court.”

History of ban on pregnant school girls In Tanzania

In June 2017, President John Magufuli upheld a 2002 law that banned pregnant schoolgirls from returning to school after giving birth.

He also added that men who impregnated schoolgirls should be imprisoned for 30 years.

Tanzania’s ban on pregnant girls attending state primary and secondary schools dates back to 1961, when the country secured its independence from Britain, though it does not extend to private schools.

More than 55,000 Tanzanian schoolgirls have been expelled from school over the last decade for being pregnant, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) said in a report in 2013.

Some wealthier families are able to send their daughters to private schools but the majority end up looking for casual work.

Hypocrisy against pregnant schoolgirls

The president was under criticism for granting pardon to prisoners on Saturday to two child rapists who were sentenced to life in prison.

Congolese musician, Nguza Viking alias Babu Seya and his son Johnson Nguza alias Papii Kocha were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2010 after they were found guilty of raping and defiling ten primary school pupils between the ages of six and eight in 2003.

There were cheers after the announcement of their release while child rights advocates questioned the decision which did not take the victims into consideration.

The Chairman of Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria (ESVABORN), Mr. Olayinka Sonaike, has died at the age of 74.

According to Punchng, Sonaike who was appointed the chairman of the board in March 2017, died while delivering his speech at an event at the headquarters of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission in Abuja on Tuesday.

After the acting Chairman of the ICPC, Mr. Bako Abdullahi; the Secretary, Dr. Musa Usman, the Head of Department, Education (ICPC), Mohammed Baba; and the President and Chairman of Council, Nigerian Institute of Management, Prof. Munzali Jibril, delivered their speeches, the first session ended after which most journalists had left the venue.

It was learnt that around 1pm, when Sonaike was to make his presentation, he picked up the microphone and was still flipping through the pages of his document when he slumped.

The nurses at the ICPC sickbay were immediately alerted and they administered first aid but he was still not responding.

He was conveyed unto a vehicle and rushed to Limi Hospital, where he was certified dead.

One of the participants who spoke to PUNCH‘s correspondent said;

“Around 1pm, Mr. Sonaike who was made the chairman of the session because he was the first to arrive at the venue, was about to make his presentation when he slumped.

Of course, we all ran towards him and started pouring water on his face in a bid to revive him but he did not respond.

The nurses at the ICPC sickbay were immediately alerted and they administered first aid but he was still not responding. He was conveyed unto a vehicle and rushed to the Limi Hospital which is located in the next compound.

Less than an hour later, the ICPC acting chairman and other senior employees of the commission went to the hospital to see how he was doing but he was certified dead.”

It was learnt that some senior members of ESVARBON had gone to Sonaike’s home to inform his family of his demise.