Former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu has said leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu is currently in London.

Kalu revealed this in an interview he granted Sunday Punch, adding that he does not know about the whereabouts of Nnamdi Kanu’s parents.

He said contrary to what has been fed to the public so far, the military did not take Kanu and his parents away.

Orji Uzor Kalu told Sunday Punch:

“Kanu was not taken away by the military. Kanu went to Malaysia from where he travelled to the United Kingdom. Nnamdi Kanu is in London right now as we speak.

“He was not arrested by anybody. He left the country on his own.

One of his relations has spoken to me and explained everything because I wanted to see him and talk to him wherever he was and see how I could meet some Federal Government officials on his issue.

“I also wanted to see ways of talking to the President about him, and find common ground but his family told me that he has left the country, unless they are lying to me.

“I believe, whether he had left the country or not, he is not with the military because I asked the Commander of the 14 Brigade, Brigadier General A.K Ibrahim, who is a very fine and good soldier, well educated and dedicated, and he told me that they don’t know his whereabouts and I am sure, the Department of State Services have the same information.

“I also visited the Commissioner of Police and he said he didn’t know his whereabouts and that they are also looking for him.”

On the whereabouts of Kanu’s parents, Kalu told Sunday Punch:

“I don’t know.

“I visited them in December last year and I was not impressed with the discussion I had with the father and the mother because I expected them to have acted better.

“Since then, I have not visited them.

“I feel that they have not impressed me because they ignored my advice to them to talk to their son on the need to stay at home and avoid public outings. I said his people can continue to carry their flags around but that they should not disturb anybody again.

“They have a right to express themselves but that such rights should be within the limits of our constitution.

They have the right to carry Biafran flags but they should do so within the limits of the constitution. Once your activities are within the limits of the law, you are in order.

“You cannot carry Biafra flags and be stopping vehicles and smashing their windscreens.

“You cannot carry Biafra (flags) and be raping young girls, you also cannot carry Biafra (flags) and be assembling young men every day.

“These are people who have no job and after doing that, they will go and engage in kidnapping or they will go and do armed robbery while some will go and do other things to make money.

“Hunger is a very terrible thing.

“The traders in the market have warned them to stop the nonsense they are doing. Why should you be extorting money from people in the name of Biafra agitation?

“They are extorting money from people in the market against their will.

“If the federal and state governments continue to watch and allow all these things to continue, there will be chaos in the state.

If Kanu had not proved stubborn but listened to advice and kept to the rules of the court, we won’t be where we are now.”

According to multiple reports, a man was said to have allegedly battered his wife, after he found her in a beer parlour with her boyfriend.

According to a Facebook user who shared the story, the man had returned home to find his wife gone and his eight-month-old baby alone with the maid.

He went in search of his wife only to find her in a beer parlour with her boyfriend who resides outside the country. In anger, he beat her mercilessly while the boyfriend fled.

Others in the beer parlour stood watching and made no effort to stop the abuse.

Read the full story below.

According to multiple sources, there’s an ongoing protest in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State Capital, after a trigger-happy policeman reportedly killed a young boy selling pure water along Okporo road, Port Harcourt.

The boy was reportedly shot by the policeman over environmental sanitation in the area.

Reports have it that an angry mob are currently protesting in the area, and they are threatening to burn down Okporo Police Station.

Chelsea won by 2-1 in injury time on Wednesday in their UEFA Champions League game against Atletico Madrid.

Michy Batshuayi secured a last minute goal for the London club at Estadio Wanda Metroplitano.

The victory which was a happy moment for almost all Chelsea fans worldwide was quite the opposite for “Deco” in Accra, Ghana.

Deco was stabbed in Aketeman-Zongo by fellow soccer fans who were in to enjoy the action.

An eye witness who spoke to Asempa FM, a radio station in Accra did indicate that an argument on Chelsea defender David Luiz was what got Deco stubbed.

Deco made some remarks to three fans reportedly opposing Chelsea at the time which did not go down well with the three. These remarks were in response to the three critiquing the performance of David Luiz on the night.

The three fans reportedly went out only to come back with a jack knife and clubs to attack Deco. After Deco was stabbed, he was rushed to the Korle-Bu teaching hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Police at the Tesano Police Station are undergoing investigation and are in the hunt for the three suspects

The win for Chelsea takes the club to the top of the group C in the UEFA Champions League with 6 points followed by AS Roma, Atletico Madrid and FK Qarabag.

The annual Olojo festival in Ile-Ife started on Friday with the historic appearance to public of His Imperial Majesty Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II to receive his numerous guests who are in Ile-Ife from all parts of the world for the historic festival which commemorates the creation of mankind.

Ooni, the Spiritual leader of the Yoruba race worldwide terminating his seclusion that had kept him incommunicado in the last one week arrived the palace from ILOFI where the spiritual seclusion had taken place accompanied by the notable Ife indigenes and High Chiefs. He was received by a mammoth crowd of participants.

He was seen offering prayers to the multitude of participants who were in batches paying homage to him on the sacred throne of Oduduwa, the progenitor of Yoruba race.

ILAGUN, a very sacred aspect of the festival celebrating the relevance of OGUN(god of Iron) to the creation of the world had earlier taken place at OKEM’OGUN shrine located at Enuwa, Ile-Ife.

Leading a team of the Afro Caribbeans, Mr Arthur Brown said the festival is an impactful connection between the Afro Caribbeans and their brothers at home in Africa.

This year’s Olojo Festival continues on Saturday when the Ooni is expected to appear to the general public with the sacred AARE crown that is worn once in a year.

Signed ;
Comrade Moses Olafare,
Director, Media and Public Affairs, Ooni’s Palace.

A 55-year old woman identified as Josephine Igbineweka has been killed by her last child, Caleb Obasogie.

Caleb, aged 22, allegedly killed his mother because she refused to give him money.

The killing occurred around 8am at their residence at 31A, Iyamu Street, off Textile Mill Road, Benin City.

Witnesses said Caleb locked his mother in a room and stabbed her repeatedly with broken bottle until her intestines ripped out.

He reportedly dangled the intestines and his mother’s womb before neighbours before they could rush in to rescue her.

Neighbours said the deceased passed the night at a neighbour’s house because her son locked her out for not giving him the money he demanded from her.

Caleb is a final year student of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) while his late mother was a beer parlour operator in Benin.

Spokesman of the Edo State Police Command, DSP Moses Nkombe, confirmed the incident and disclosed that the suspect has been arrested by the police.

A staff of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons [NAPTIP], has revealed exclusively that some parents actually encourage their daughters to travel to Europe to become sex slaves so they could send money to them.

The NAPTIP official, Esther Otegheri who revealed this shocking fact to Pulse, said many of the sex slaves the agency have managed to rescue in some European countries like Italy, Russia, Germany, and Spain, claim that their parents pushed them into the trade.

Otegheri also posited that some of the parents go as far as providing the money for their wards to travel out or take them to shrines to swear to oaths that they will not abandon the sex trade when they get to Europe.

“It will shock Nigerians to know that most of the girl who gets trafficked to Europe to engage in prostitution are often encouraged or pushed into it by their own parents,” Otegheri begins.

Otegheri who was one of the NAPTIP officials who just came back from Europe where they managed to rescue some girls who were trafficked for the sex trade, said that some of the girls they rescued are as young as 13 and most of them had undergone untold hardship and were exposed to various kinds of diseases.

“I wept bitterly when we saw some of these girls who were as young as 13 roaming the streets of Europe soliciting for men to have sex with them for money.

They have these madams whom they report to and any money they make is used to offset the debts they owe the madams or send back home for their parents to pay off the people they borrowed to send them to Europe.

There are girls aged 13, 14 and 15 on the streets of Europe, selling themselves for money. They are so young, vulnerable and having terrible experiences. Some of them are exposed to sexually transmitted diseases because many of the patrons prefer sleeping with them without condoms.

Only the strongest of hearts would not cry when you see them or hear their stories. Many of them go through harrowing experiences before they get to Europe all in the name of making a living for themselves and their families.

In the course of our investigations, we discovered the routes these traffickers operate from and it would break your heart to see what they go through.

We discovered that some of these young victims go through the border between Sokoto and Bori Koni in the Niger Republic while some trek through the deserts taking the Katsina Maradi-Niamey-Ouagadougou-Mali, on to Libya before crossing the Mediterranean sea into Europe.

We also discover that majority of the victims are trafficked through Lagos to Cotonou for onward trafficking to Europe, with the connivance of Immigration and Customs officials.”

It has been discovered that Nigerians make up the biggest nationality crossing the Mediterranean in smuggling boats launched from Libya, and many of the migrants are girls and young women who are destined for the sex trade.

“Many of the girls come from very poor families and the parents feel the only way they can come out of their poor status is if their daughters could travel Europe and engage in prostitution. That is how low most of our parent’s reason.

Many of the girls have not been to school or have very little education, so they are easily taken advantage of. They dream of a better life in Europe, they see Italy as a paradise.

You will be surprised to hear some parents even boasting about their daughters who are in Europe and when you ask them what the girls do, they will be proud to tell you that they are hustling.

For them, hustling means one thing: prostitution. They are not ashamed to say it and it is very pathetic.

Some of these girls have little or no idea where they are heading or what they would do when they are being trafficked out of Nigeria. They don’t know the danger in front of them only to realize it when they get to a point of no return and they would have no option but to fall in line.

They are forced into prostitution and if they refuse, they are beaten up, detained and threatened with juju. It is very sad.”

Otegheri also pointed out that the victims of the sex trade live in terror of the madams who run them, as well as organized Nigerian gangs who operate as a mafia team and are used to whip the girls into line.

“The madams are like demi-gods and they control the girls in every way imaginable, from beating, torture, illegal imprisonment and threats of death.

There are also Nigerian gangs organized like the Mafia and they are used by the madams to intimidate, abuse and terrorize the girls.

The gang often kidnap the girls, rape them and force them into the streets to solicit for men.

Even some local churches are not left out in the trafficking. We have arrested some so-called pastors ho run these trafficking trade. They pretend to send these girls abroad to work when they know they are being sent to become prostitutes.

Once the girls arrive in Italy or other parts of Europe, they are made to sign agreements to pay back between 30,000 to 50,000 Euros to the madams before they are free to be on their own.

Most of them can spend three to five years without being able to pay up the money, thereby living in perpetual bondage.

The exploitation of these minors by their parents and the organized sex trade rings is rather pathetic. The way our government is handling the matter is also not encouraging. We have advocated for these rings to be smashed by all means but they still keep sprouting and it is worrisome.”

The problems associated with human trafficking for the purpose of engaging in prostitution is hydra-headed and the government needs to take serious measures to checkmate it.

Some of the measures that have been advocated include investment in quality education for the youths, sensitizing the people, especially those in the rural communities so as to reach the most vulnerable people who think traveling abroad is the one sure way of beating poverty.

The government should also create employment and skills acquisition opportunities to enable the young girls to learn a trade because a large number of the trafficked persons were lured into the act due to unemployment and poverty.

A Nigerian lesbian Nneka Obazee has been reported to have taken overdosed of pain medication after finding out she was to be deported.

The United Kingdom news site independent.co.uk reported that the lesbian asylum seeker attempted to take her own life in order to stop herself being deported from the UK.

Nneka Obazee, 34, was meant to be flown on a charter flight to her home country of Nigeria but she overdosed on pain medication which led to her hospitalisation, according to activist group Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants.

Ms Obazee was set to be deported along with her 19-year-old stepson on an 11pm charter flight on Wednesday back to her home country despite fearing for her life, causing outrage from the LGBTQ community.

“When Nneka was made aware that she would be returned to Nigeria she was so frightened that she attempted to suicide and took an overdose which demonstrates how dire the situation would be for her if she was returned to Nigeria” a spokesperson for LGSM, who are in direct contact with Ms Obazee, told The Independent.

Her step-son was deported and is now arriving in Nigeria without his mother or a support network. Ms Obazee came to the UK in March 2013 on a visit with her abusive husband and stepson and took the opportunity to run away for him while in the UK.

It was only once in the country that she says she felt she was able to reveal her sexuality. For the past four years Nneka has been living in Manchester and is an active member of the cities LGBT+ community, organising with the queer migrant group African Rainbow Family.

Ms Obazee has had her case rejected by the Home Office and failed two appeals tribunals. She is currently undergoing a judicial review. “Sexual identity is a very difficult thing to have to ‘prove’, not least when it has been the cause of significant trauma in the past,” LGBTIQ specialist senior caseworker at Asylum Aid, Rajiv Bera, told The Independent.

Mr Bera added that he continually represents people who have exhausted their refugee status determination and appeals process without success but “With adequate representation and proper support, the same people have gone on to eventually win their cases”.

It is also not uncommon for the same LGBTQ+ asylum seekers to suffer from mental health problems: “By the time they are recognised as refugees, they have experienced the effects of disbelief, destitution and detention, often at a huge cost to their mental health” he said.

Ms Obazee has experienced severe mental health issues, including depression according to LGSM, which she says have been exacerbated by the asylum process.

The group have said that since being detained her mental health has worsened and she has suffered a nervous breakdown which has included thoughts of suicide. Last year a report by LGBT charity STONEWALL and UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group found that UK detention centres were poorly equipped to deal with the needs of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers.

It detailed how LGBT detainees were denied access to HIV and anti-depression medication well as being bullied, harassed or physically attacked by other detainees, and victims said they did not feel protected by detention staff. Leila Zadeh, director of UKLGIG, told The Independent that the organisation was concerned about Ms Obazee’s deportation:

“We are concerned that too often people’s sexuality is disbelieved and asylum claims incorrectly refused. It’s also concerning that somebody can be removed from the country when there is a judicial review outstanding.” A spokesperson for Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants told The Independent:

“Only two months ago we joyfully celebrated with our friend Nneka at London LGBT+ Pride and now all we can do is watch powerlessly as she is railroaded through an unjust and inhumane immigration system to face certain danger in Nigeria.”

In 2013 Nigeria made same-sex marriage illegal and according to a report from Human Rights Watch the law is “used by some police officers and members of the public to legitimise abuses against LGBT people”.

Anti-gay laws in Nigeria can lead to punishments including 14 years in prison to death by stoning and LGBTQ people are frequently faced with violence due to their orientation and gender identity. Ms Obazee is currently in Yarls Wood.

The Ibadan Zonal Office of the Economic Crimes Commission, EFCC Friday 29 September 2017, arraigned four suspected Internet fraudsters; Omosehin Sina, Oladimeji Oladayo, Olowosagba Olamilekan Samson and Afilaka Oluwole Michael before Justice Ayo Emmanuel of the Federal High Court Ibadan, Oyo State on separate charges bordering on possession of documents containing false pretense.

While Omolehin and Oladimeji were arraigned on a six-count charge, Olowosagba and Afilaka were docked for four and three- counts respectively. They pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

In view of their plea, the prosecuting counsel, Harrison Ibekwute approached the judge for a trial date and since there was no application for bail before the court, the judge remanded the accused in Agodi prison and adjourned till 31 October 2017 for the commencement of trial.

One of the charges against Omosehin Sina and his co-travelers, reads that “Omolehin Sina, sometime in April 2017 in Ibadan, Oyo State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable court, was found in possession of a document used by you as “Rose Thompson” on B3, and dated by April 3, 2017, which to your knowledge contains false pretence that you are a woman and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 6 and 8(b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act”.