A 25-year-old mother of six children, Mrs. Patience Abantelhe, has accepted to embrace a family planning technique after she was delivered of quadruplets.

The babies, who weigh 1.7, 1.7, 1.2 and 1.3 kilograms respectively are currently in an incubator at the hospital and are the third, fourth, fifth and sixth children of the Abantelhe, who already have two children.

Southern City News learnt on Tuesday that Abantelhe’s desire to embrace family planning technique was influenced by the Director-General of the Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Betta Edu, who visited her in the hospital.

Abantelhe was delivered of three boys and one girl last Friday at the Sacred Heart Hospital in Obudu, Cross River State through a caesarean session.

She had said that she would no longer wish to have more babies.

In a message related to Southern City News by the director-general after the visit, Abantelhe said, “I know about family planning and I will do it before I leave the hospital, I do not want any other children now.”

However, Edu said the economic situation in Nigeria called for a review of family planning techniques.

She stressed that the mother of six might face some level of hardship because she was jobless while the husband was a carpenter.

The director-general also urged parents to adopt family planning technique so as to reduce maternal mortality rate in Nigeria.

She said countries where the technique was imbibed had a low rate of mother/child death after delivery.

Edu said:

“Just five days ago, a woman in the northern senatorial district of the state delivered quadruplet, she already has six children while the husband is a carpenter and she is a full time housewife.

“Family planning is like a vaccine for maternal mortality. If there is family planning, there is the likelihood of reducing maternal mortality. If we imbibe family planning, this maternal mortality that is getting too high in Nigeria will be reduced.

“Again, family planning will help them manage their situation economically considering what Nigeria is going through. If women can embrace family planning, they can take good care of the few children they have.”

An 8-man robbery gang that had been terrorising the residents of Calabar, Cross River State, have been captured and paraded by Mr. Jimoh Ozi-Obeh of the Cross River State Police Command.

According to Punch, the gang members were arrested at different locations in Calabar after they kidnapped a businessman identified as Godswill Uduma on July 18.

Narrating to the police how the members were arrested, Ozi-Obeh said that the men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad launched a manhunt for the gang members, leading to a shoot out.

One suspect – Edem Boy – died, while two others, Ademola Babajide and Bassey Effiom, were arrested. These two identified the corpse of Edem Boy.

“We are still searching for Eyen Uyo and Kingsley Okon who is the driver of the gang as the investigation progresses,” Ozi-Obeh told the press, adding that the other members were arrested after a botched armed robbery operation.

“On Friday, July 15 at about 2200 hours, operatives attached to SARS, state police headquarters, Calabar while on routine patrol arrested some armed robbers who had been terrorising and robbing various locations in Calabar metropolis,” Ozi-Obeh said.

“On July 16, one Williams Tony (20) was arrested with locally-made pistol by patrol men attached to the State Housing Police Station,” he added.

Meanwhile, the state’s police commissioner has said that the suspects in police custody will be charged to court.

“We will leave no stone un-turned in our effort to rid the state of the activities of miscreants. I therefore want to use this medium to warn all criminals and perpetrators of heinous crime to steer clear as they will not be spared,” he said.

Today, a Federal High Court in Lagos and the NDLEA arraigned a 15-year-old boy in a private court hearing for allegedly peddling Indian hemp.

PUNCH reports that the minor identified as Uchenna Akoma was arraigned before Justice Babs Kuewumi who told everyone present, except the prosecuting counsel for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and other lawyers, to vacate the courtroom.

The 15-year-old boy, who had been apprehended by the NDLEA for drug peddling, confessed to taking two wraps of marijuana on a daily basis. T

he NDLEA had also arraigned seven others for dealing in marijuana without lawful authority. The Agency had arrested the seven accused with different quantities of the illicit substance at various parts of Lagos in the month of June.

The suspects were caught with 100 grammes of cannabis sativa, 200g of marijuana on June and 400g of marijuana. The seven accused pleaded guilty to the one count pressed against them and the judge adjourned both cases till September 5, 6 and 7, 2016. He stated that the prosecutor will have to review the facts of the cases after which the accused may be sentenced to prison.

The suspects have been remanded in prison custody.

The beautiful Wife of Ogun State Governor, Mrs. Olufunke Amosun today, Tuesday, visited 9-year-old Korede Taiwo, who was rescued from the Celestial Church of Christ in Ajibawo near Ota in Ogun State, where his father Prophet Francis Taiwo chained him for weeks for stealing food.

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After abducting a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Ikorodu on Sunday just before the start of service for the day, the abductors are allegedly asking for N100 million in ransom for the release of the cleric.

According to a relative of the pastor who spoke to Punch newspaper, the kidnappers have gotten in touch and requested the lump sum for his freedom.

“Those men have called. They are asking for N100 million. That is a big worry. The pastor was cleaning the chairs on Sunday with a few members when the men came in. But God is in control,” she said.

The residents of the area claimed that there have been a salvo of kidnapping for ransom in the area in recent times.

The suspected perpetrators of these abductions are believed to be Niger Delta militants who are deep into the creeks of Ikorodu.

One of the residents, Jacob also spoke to Punch.

He said,

“An immigration officer was kidnapped in our area. After the officer was released, they picked him again. They also picked a hotelier. The hotelier has not been released because his family members have yet to pay the N10m ransom the abductors demanded.

“On another occasion, they abducted twin brothers. The twins’ father was the target of the hoodlums because he worked in a big company in the Somolu area of Lagos. But since he was not at home, they abducted his 13-year-old twins. That was last Monday. They were, however, released on Wednesday after the man paid N20,000.

“It was a relation of the kidnappers who took the money to them in the creeks. That was how the victims were freed.”

Also, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmos, revealed that the Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, had directed the case be transferred to SARS.

She said, “The CP has directed that the case be transferred to SARS to give it the attention it deserves.”

Mrs. Mary Attah, a 28 year-old housewife, has been sentenced to death by hanging for a grievous crime.

She was sentenced to death by a Delta State High Court, sitting in Effurun, for stabbing her husband, Pastor Darlington Attah, with a kitchen knife and setting him ablaze.

She was pronounced guilty on the one-count charge proffered against her by Justice E.I. Oritsejafor.

According to The News, the Prosecution Counsel, Patrick Mekako Esq, told the Court that the accused who was married the deceased, with four children, had on 6 July, 2012 at Effurun attacked her husband with a kitchen knife and stabbed him in the neck as a result of an alleged phone call from the husband’s lover.

He further told the Court that the accused was infuriated by the telephone call at a time they were having a ‘nice time’ which prompted her to rush to the kitchen, collected the knife and armed herself with grounded pepper which she rubbed on her husband’s face to immobilize him before stabbing him in the neck.

Not satisfied, the convict doused the husband who was already weak as a result of excessive bleeding with fuel and set him ablaze and he later died at the Warri Central Hospital where he was rushed to.

The offence is punishable by death under Section 319(1) of the Criminal Code Law, Cap C21, Volume 1, Laws of Delta State of Nigeria, 2006.

Delivering the death sentence on the convict, Justice Oritsjafor, held that the Prosecution was able to prove beyond all reasonable doubt the essential ingredients of the offence of murder against the accused person.

“I must also add that the evidence before this Court do not and cannot support the plea of self defence in favour of the accused person. I agree with the learned Assistant Director for the Prosecution that there is just no possible defence to avail the accused person when she stabbed her deceased husband in the neck with a knife and thereafter doused him with fuel before she struck the match on him was to kill the deceased or do him grievous bodily harm. The law is trite that a man intends the natural consequences of his act.

“From the evidence before this Court and in particular the extrajudicial statement of the accused person, Exhibit A and the evidence of PW1 and PW2 which corroborates and is consistent with the facts contained in the said extrajudicial statement Exhibit A, I hold that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused person murdered her deceased husband on or about the 6th day of July, 2012, and I find the accused person guilty of the murder of Darlington Attah as charged. Accused person is accordingly, hereby convicted of the offence of murder. The sentence of this Court upon you, Mary Attah is death by hanging by the neck till you be dead and may the Lord have mercy on your soul,” Justice Oritsejafor held.