The Lagos State Police Command has arrested one Ifunanya Eme for allegedly dumping her one- day- old baby girl.

Ifunanya, aged 31, and a single mother, claimed she dropped the baby to die in the bush as she had no means of feeding her.

“The man responsible for the pregnancy denied me. I was staying in Ajah, a Lagos suburb, but relocated to Ajamgbadi where I was offered a job in a factory. When I thought about losing the job, I made up my mind to dump the baby that has already put me in problem.

“The baby is a child of destiny because, I did not go for ante-natal throughout the pregnancy. The day I was in labour, I did not seek assistance from anybody. I went to the bush with a knife. I delivered myself of the baby and I used it to cut the placenta. In fact, I made up my mind that I must do away with the baby. I don’t want to be embarrassed in future by the baby who would ask of her father.

“The only thing I know is that the man who is responsible for the pregnancy told me he was traveling. Since that day till now, the phone number he gave me can’t be reached, she said.

A police officer who doesn’t want to be named said the baby was discovered by a passer-by who heard her crying and reported to the police.

He said the trace of blood was trailed to the a house,where the woman was found.

Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, said the command has taken custody of the baby.

He said,

“the baby was seen by the eagle eye the patrol team from Ajamgbadi Division. They picked up the baby during investigation, they were able to trace the mother. “The baby was taken to the hospital for examination and we will do the needful by sending her to the appropriate government agency for rehabilitation.”

Widely circulated reports especially on social media quoting Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, as saying “Nigerians eat too much rice, that’s why it is expensive”, has been dismissed as false.

The minister was quoted as making the comment yesterday during a meeting with an Agro company.

Dismissing the report as totally false, misleading and a sheer display of irresponsible journalism, Mr. Ogbeh expressed that the “mischievous headline” was completely at variance with the content of the news story.

A statement by the minister’s media aide, Aishat Ayijimoh Onusi, further described the report as reckless sensationalism and poor ethics.

According to the statement, Ogbeh decried the deliberate misinformation by the media, which he noted, has become a frequent occurrence and called for caution, self-censorship and ethical compliance by journalists and social media activists.

“For the avoidance of doubts, the minister stated that during a recent meeting he held with an indigenous Agro Company investing in the production of Irish Potato in Nigeria, he did talk about the health risk associated with the excessive consumption of rice and advised Nigerians to occasionally substitute rice with potato for improved diet”, Onusi said.

She, therefore, wondered how the statement attributed to the minister in the headline came about when no supporting statement or quote was provided in the content of the news report.

The statement advised Nigerians to beware of misleading headlines; pay close attention to media reports that come with such and should challenge the Press to abide by their professional ethics.

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested the four men who allegedly robbed Mr. Wilson Onazi, the father of Nigerian footballer, Ogenyi Onazi.

The suspects are Kingsley David, Ebuka Ugochukwu, Joseph Ozo and Ali Audu.

Our correspondent had reported that the suspects on Monday attacked the home of the Onazis at the Government Reserved Area, Jos, Plateau State.

They were reported to have carted away several items, including a white Toyota Highlander and an undisclosed amount of money.

They reportedly inflicted machete cuts on Pa Onazi, who was admitted in a hospital after the incident.

PUNCH Metro gathered that after the robbery, the suspects moved to a bar in the community where they deliberated on what to do with the vehicle.

It was learnt that the four men took off for Lagos and lodged in Shibiri Hotel in the Ajangbadi area where they were arrested by policemen attached to the Ilemba Hausa Police Division after a tip-off.

A police source in the division told PUNCH Metro that the men were arrested around 7pm on Wednesday while they awaited a buyer for the vehicle.

He said, “We got a tip-off that some suspicious people had lodged in a hotel in the area. They had been bringing several people to inspect the vehicle at the hotel, but they did not get a buyer.”

The suspects, who were arrested along with one of the intending buyers of the car, Osita Eze, were paraded at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters on Thursday.

The leader of the gang, David, 24, a polytechnic graduate, said he lived close to the victim’s house and had monitored his movement, adding that they robbed him to celebrate Sallah.

He said, “We are all friends. We planned the robbery a week to the actual day. I live close to the man’s house and I sold the idea to my friends. Our intention was just to take his car for the Sallah break. I didn’t follow them into the house. I only pointed the place to them and they finished the job. It was after they were done that I joined them in the vehicle.”

Ugochukwu, 26, an indigene of Idemili, Anambra State, said the robbery was easy for them because only Pa Onazi was at home.

He said, “We discovered that the man is old and he lives alone in that big house. He does not stay with his wife or even house help. There was no security man guarding the house or any other form of security. We also robbed him because he does not help people.

“When we got to the house, we knocked the gate and pretended as if we wanted to deliver a letter to him from Lagos. While he was checking the letter, we brought out our cutlass. We just held him by the hand as he begged us not to harm him.

“We asked him to take us to his bedroom and he did. He said he didn’t have any money in the house, but we took his ATM card, which we couldn’t use because it had expired.

“He gave us N5,000. We also stole his vehicle. We didn’t touch him because of his advanced age; if we had touched him, he could have died.”

Ugochukwu blamed the incident on financial challenges, saying he had never robbed in his life.

The third suspect, 24-year-old Ozo, who claimed to be a graduate of a university in Plateau State, said the gang wanted money to celebrate Sallah, adding that he drove the vehicle to Lagos.

He said, “Kingsley (David) brought the idea. He said he knew Pa Onazi’s house, adding that we could rob him, take his vehicle and sell it in Lagos. They invited me because I can drive very well. I was promised a share of the money.

“We were not afraid because the car papers were complete. It was due to indecision between Kingsley (David) and Ebuka (Okechukwu) that delayed the sale.”

Another suspect, Audu, said his only role was to use the letter to distract the victim.

The intending receiver of the car, Eze, said he was introduced to the gang while relaxing in a bar, adding that they had yet to negotiate.

“After the meeting at the bar, I collected their contact and I went to meet them at the hotel where I met policemen,” he added.

The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Fatai Owoseni, said the suspects would be handed over to the Plateau State Police Command, together with the exhibits recovered from them.

He said, “We are passing a strong message that wherever a crime is committed in Nigeria, we will hunt the culprits. There is no hiding place for criminals in this country.”

A professor of the University of Ilorin and his family members have been given a severely horrific treatment by armed gang.

A professor in the Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Prof. Abdullahi Onimisi has been attacked by a three-man robbery gang.

According to Punch Metro, the men also attacked the don’s wife and son, whose names had yet to be ascertained.

The Commissioner of Police, Kwara State Police Command, Mr. Olusola Amore, on Thursday said the victims were inflicted with machete cuts, adding that the don received severe cuts and was admitted in an undisclosed hospital.

Amore, while parading the suspects at the command’s headquarters in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, identified them as Onimisi’s former driver, Opeyemi Esan; Benjamin Musa and Olusegun Omoyajowolo.

He added that Esan, who had been sacked by the don, came from Lagos after recruiting Musa and Omoyajowolo to attack the don and his family.

Amore said, “The professor told us that he was attacked by the three men, who were armed with machetes, and that they carted away his valuables, including a Toyota Muzzle Camry.

“Acting on intelligence report, the command’s Anti-Robbery Squad raided an identified black spot on Unity Road, Ilorin, arrested the suspects and recovered all the stolen items.”

Esan said the gang robbed Onimisi because he allegedly owed him one month’s salary.

Meanwhile, the state command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps paraded a former territorial manager of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, Mr. Benedict Uwulekhue, along with 11 other suspects for alleged vandalism, criminal conspiracy and illegal sale of equipment of NITEL.

The Commandant, Kwara State Command, NSCDC, Mr. Pedro Ideba, said the suspects included three security men, adding that the security men had confessed to the crime.

He added that some vandalised high-tension cables, transmitter and transformer belonging to NITEL were allegedly sold to two buyers in Ilorin.

The commandant said the buyers could not produce documents to authenticate ownership of the items.

He added that it was during a search in one of the buyers’ house that two industrial generators belonging to the government were also discovered.

He said, “NITEL still has some telecommunication equipment on its premises in Ilorin. The men stole from the equipment and offered N140,000 bribe to NSCDC personnel to stop criminal investigation into their alleged offences.”

The 62-year-old former NITEL territorial manager claimed that he decided to move out the equipment from NITEL premises for safekeeping, but was forced to sell the equipment by prospective buyers.

The two buyers, Ugwuma Marcelius and Chukwudi Mba, said they bought the items from auction sale organised by the National Telecommunications Commission in April, and claimed that they had documents to prove that the equipment were bought during the auction.

They claimed to have bought the generators for N650,000 each, while the NITEL transmitter and high-tension cables were bought for N700,000.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has warned Nigerians to be careful of any deposit money institution that is not insured by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) especially the trending MMM Nigeria community.

The bank through its the acting Director of Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, made this known yesterday against the proliferation of wonder banks in the country in recent times.

Okoroafor said such deposit money institutions were dubious present Ponzi schemes.

“At times like this when the economy has suffered some decline, Nigerians should be very careful with those they deal with. Any institution that is not licensed by the CBN to accept deposits should not be given money to keep under any guise,” he advised.

He warned Nigerians to beware of the so-called wonder banks, explaining that they were makeshift institutions to dupe people.

“We can vouch for the banking system. The deposit money banks are the only licensed institutions to take deposits. If you need to deposit money in any form, go to any of the deposit money banks and put your money, you can buy fixed income instruments or invest in stocks,” he said.

Okoroafor said the CBN could not guarantee the unregistered institutions, insisting that when depositors lose money to them, the bank would not be able to help them.

“These people always come with very interesting propositions. These are fraudsters who are just out there to collect people’s money and run away as soon as they hit their target. There is no insurance because the NDIC does not even protect them against such risks when they occur,” the CBN said.

He said the CBN was intensifying efforts and liaising with the various security agencies to identify the promoters of these schemes and have such persons arrested and prosecuted, adding that anyone caught with them would also be made to face the law.

Promoters of wonder banks and other pyramid schemes in the country are currently taking advantage of the rising level of unemployment as well as the shrinking disposable income to attract unsuspecting prey.

From Lagos to Port Harcourt and some other big cities in the country, owners of these illegal businesses have been offering Nigerians mouth-watering interest rates, which cannot be found in the banking system, in a bid to attract large number of customers before they run away with huge cash.

For instance, at the Ojuelegba area of Lagos, THISDAY was recently given a small handbill advertising investment schemes that offers 30 per cent returns in 30 days.

Also, there is a new Ponzi scheme called ‘MMM’ that is spreading like wildfire. A lot of young school leavers have already signed on to this scheme, which the promoters are marketing as a “mutual fund.”

“MMM offers its participants 30 per cent growth rate per month for each and every donation they make into the system… MMM belongs to the community, its sustainability depends on the activities of the people that make up the MMM Nigeria community, that is me and you and other MMM Nigeria participants,” the promoters wrote in an online advertisement.

Typically, what promoters of such pyramid scheme do is that they offer rates far beyond what is obtainable in commercial banks. This would always attract a lot of people who would always rush in to stake their funds. But, those who join the scheme late would always be the ones to lose their shirts as they would have been convinced by those that joined earlier to invest huge amounts of money.

But experts have warned against falling for the bait of illegal deposit-taking institutions which are not licensed by the CBN, saying that their only intention is to defraud members of the public.

Recall that with the Nigerian economy is in recession, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently revealed that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 2.06 per cent in the second quarter of 2016, compared to the negative growth of 0.36 per cent recorded in the first quarter of 2016.

Also, national unemployment rate also rose to 13.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2016, from 12.1 in the first quarter of 2016.

Former first lady, Patience Jonathan, has denied allegations that her accounts were used to launder huge sums of money.

According to The Nation, Mrs Jonathan made the denial in a statement by her media aide, Yemi Akinbode, shortly after four companies which are being investigated for fraud and which she had earlier claimed ownership of their accounts, pleaded guilty to money laundering charges at a Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday September 15th.

The statement in part reads;

“That Mrs. Patience Ibifaka Jonathan is laying claim to ownership of a whopping sum of $31.7 million dollars fund recovered by EFCC is a complete fallacy. Mrs. Jonathan does not own and has never owned such amount of money. The reason for this lie is best known to the EFCC.

That another sum of $20 million dollars has been traced to Mrs. Patience Ibifaka Jonathan, is again, another falsehood aimed at hoodwinking the public against Mrs. Jonathan.

That a further sum of $5 million dollars has again being traced to another account of Mrs. Patience Jonathan. This is also a fallacy. That Mrs. Patience Jonathan opened accounts in the names of cooks, drivers and artisans. This is perhaps the biggest falsehood to the knowledge of EFCC.”

The former First Lady expressed doubts in the authenticity of the representatives of the four companies who pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering. Her lawyer, Gboyega Oyewole, said she would appeal the validity of the representatives of Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited, Seagate Property Development and Investment Company Limited, Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited and Avalon Global Property Development Company Limited. Mrs Jonathan’s counsel alleged that the EFCC presented four unknown people as the companies’ representatives, all of whom he said did not show letters authorising them by their respective boards to represent them in the case.

“This is a clear evidence of the desperation of the prosecution to pull down the former First Lady and confiscate her hard-earned money,” Oyewole said in his statement. Mrs Jonathan accused the EFCC of attempting to dent her image and trampling on her fundamental human rights.

“This is an irony. I was the one who went to court for the repatriation of my confiscated money when I realised that the EFCC and its co-travellers were playing politics with this issue after I had come out publicly to say that the said money belongs to me and that I have all evidence to prove the sources of my money. Up till this very moment, EFCC has refused to interrogate or invite me for questioning, while the agency has continued to detain Dudafa under heavy armed security guards.

The biggest twist in court on Thursday (yesterday) was that the fourth to seventh defendants pleaded guilty to all the 15-count charges. It is clear that these unknown faces were agents of the EFCC, who have been stage-managed and tutored to come to court to complicate the case as a strategy to confiscate my money.”

Mrs Jonathan insisted that she was not a director, shareholder, promoter or participant in any of the four companies that pleaded guilty, and that she was the sole signatory to all the accounts, contrary to the fabrication that she used her driver and cook as proxies. She also denied ever receiving any monies from any unknown sources into her accounts, adding that they were opened in order to facilitate her travel overseas particularly for medical treatment, sundry purchase for herself and her late mother Mrs. Charity Oba (Mama Sisi).

On how her monies got to the accounts, she said she directed a former Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs to President Jonathan Waripamo Dudafa to open the accounts for her, only for him to open them in his companies’ names rather than her name.

“She immediately complained about this anomaly to Hon. Dudafa and the bank officials, Demola Doledeoku and Dipo Oshodi came back to the villa with forms to change and convert the said accounts to the personal name of Mrs Jonathan. This was her firm request which the bank officials promised to effect immediately and she duly completed account conversion forms and signed the mandate forms as a the sole signatory, but as it would appear, the said bank officials did not change the account names despite her request,” the statement added.

The Ajangbadi Police Division of the Lagos State Command on Thursday, September 15th, arrested Ifunanya Eme for dumping her newborn baby by the road side around 3am on Tuesday, two hours after delivering the baby by herself.

The 31-year-old single mother claimed she dumped the baby because she couldn’t afford to feed her as the father had abandoned her when she became pregnant.

It was gathered that a passerby alerted the police after hearing the pitiful cries of the baby. The police arrived the scene and took the baby to a nearby hospital for check up, before they initiated an investigation to discover the mother.

Their first clue came when some neighbours alerted the Divisional Police Officer, Alim Musa, a Chief Superintendent of Police, about the pool of blood trickling out of a neighbour’s house. When the police got to the residence, the suspect was seen recuperating, while the baby was nowhere to be seen.

The police questioned her once they confirmed from the neighbours that she was indeed pregnant. Ms Eme, who works as a sales person in a tricycles shop, admitted to the offence.

The suspect, who was paraded at the police command headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos, said the fut she claimed she had just gotten the job and that the pay wasn’t much.

“I gave up my daughter because I had no help and my mother is dead. I don’t even know the whereabouts of her father. The only thing I know is that he told me he was traveling. Since that day till now, the number he gave me can’t be reached.”

Source: Thisday