A young boy has been stabbed to death during a friendly street football match in Okota, Lagos after the match turned violent.

One of the players stabbed an opponent to death at the weekend when the misunderstanding started.

According to Vanguard, some youths from Oseni Liade Street were playing football at the end of the street, when a group of boys from neighbouring Taiwo Street came to join them. But the visiting youths were told to wait for their turn.

At the end of the first round, another set of players, among who were the visiting youths, were expected to take over the football pitch.

But eyewitnesses said they were disallowed, an action that degenerated into a fight. In the process, one of them, Kayode Babayanju, of 8, Taiwo Street, was alleged to have stabbed another youth, Michael Tanko, in the hollow of his left elbow.

Tanko, a Senior Secondary School 2 student of Hills International School, reportedly chased his assailant until he became dizzy and slumped. Unfortunately, he died moments before reaching the hospital he was rushed to.

Doctors at the hospital revealed that he bled to death, as the arteries in the hollow of the elbow were cut. Information at Vanguard’s disposal revealed that the deceased was an orphan, who came to live with his uncle in Lagos last year, after the demise of his only sibling.

When Vanguard visited the deceased’s home yesterday, his guardian, Mr. Oke Obi Odiaka, was still in shock. The mother of the fleeing assailant and her relatives came visiting at about 4p.m. Immediately the woman sighted the bereaved family, she went on her knees and begged in tears. However, the family insisted that they produce their fleeing son to the police.

Confirming the incident, Lagos State Police Command’s spokesman, Superintendent Dolapo Badmus, said: “Effort is being intensified to arrest the suspect who fled the scene immediately after committing the offence. The corpse has been deposited at the Isolo General Hospital morgue.”

Senator Oluremi Tinubu, today applied for Police Protection, following her recent spat with Dino Melaye.

In a letter dated July 18 and received same date by the office of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, Mrs Tinubu said her life was no longer safe following her fight with Senator Melaye.

The letter entitled: Request for Police Protection’ reads:

“I am Senator Oluremi Tinubu, representing the Lagos Central Senatorial District of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“During the proceedings of the Senate on Tuesday, July, 14, 2016, I had cause to contribute to a matter of national importance. Apparently dissatisfied with my contributions, Senator Dino Melaye threw caution to the winds, resorted to vulgar abuse of my person and wanted to assault me.

“It was the timely intervention of a number of colleagues which prevented Senator Melaye from unleashing physical attack on me. However, as the leadership of the Senate did not call him to order in the circumstance, he proceeded to threaten my life without any provocation whatsoever.

“In view of Senator Melaye’s antecedent particularly in the House of Representatives where a brawl led to the untimely death of a member, I have decided not to ignore his threat to my life. Therefore, I’m compelled to urge you to use your good offices to provide me with adequate security.

“Please accept the assurances of my regards and esteem.”

The much talked about ATM fraudsters are not resting on the oars. They are all over the place laying siege to any susceptible victim. These criminals go about fleecing unwary members of the public with their ingenious, ever-changing modes of operations.

The latest being the infamous identity theft. Before now, cloning and PIN harvesting through electronic chips cleverly concealed in the Automated Teller Machine (ATM), was the universal mode. Over time, the tricks and decoys to entrap their victims keep changing and have assumed a disturbing dimension.

The Ibadan Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is on the trail of a suspected ATM fraudster, who goes by the name Akinade Tofunmi. Her trade in stock is identity theft. Her duty post is any ATM Point and Point of Sales (POS) machines across the country.

However, she does not ‘work’ during the official hours of the week rather; she operates late in the night when all bank transactions had closed and preferably over the weekend when her ‘prospective’ victims might not be able to alert the banks for any unauthorised transaction. In her last operation, within twenty four hours; this fraudster who operates with the identity of her victims succeeded to have raked in about three million (N3m) within 24 hours.

Dateline was Friday, June 3rd, 2016, at about the close of work. A woman simply identified as Alhaja and her husband who was waiting in the car wanted to use an ATM somewhere in Ibadan, Oyo State, when Tofunmi noticed that the woman limps.

Pretending to be polite and cultured, she offered to assist her with the transaction on the ATM. Unaware of the intention behind the pious approach, she gave the fraudster her ATM card and divulged her PIN. Smartly, the fraudster quickly checked the balance in the account which had one million, seven hundred and forty nine thousand, twenty six naira and seven kobo (N1, 749, 026. 07). After the intended withdrawal of N20, 000:00, the fraudster swapped the card and gave Alhaja a fake ATM card. Oblivious of the swap, she left with her husband.

Shortly before midnight, the fraudster started the ‘harvest’ of her booty. She withdrew one hundred and thirty thousand naira. Having exceeded the daily withdrawing limit for that day, she waited for a few minutes to the following day which was a Saturday. Shortly after midnight, she made another rounds of withdrawals to the tune of one hundred and fifty thousand naira which was also the daily limit for that day. However, Alhaja and her husband had no one to run or call that night to save the situation when the debit alerts start coming in torrent.

In a desperate need of where and how to empty the balance in the account, she went to a night club where she met a motorcycle transporter, popularly known as Okada whom she approached for a help. Her decoy was that she had enough money in her account but could not access it having exceeded her daily withdrawal limit.

She showed the bike man her balance and pleaded with him to give her his ATM card, account details and PIN for a quick teller transfer from her (Alhaja’s) account to the bike man’s account. With that, she has been able to secure some of Alhaja’s money in the bike man’s account thereby stealing the identity of the unsuspecting bike man.

At the early hours of that Saturday morning, she asked the bike man to take her to a hotel with an intention to further steal the identity of the hotelier for another movement of the money. At the hotel reception while paying for her accommodation which was N10, 000 (Ten thousand naira) for one night, she deliberated credited the hotel’s account with one hundred and one thousand naira (N101, 000) feigning a mistake and demanded a refund of ninety-one thousand naira (N91, 000) balance of an overpayment. This was also done with Alhaja’s ATM card through the POS machine at the Hotel.

To further conceal her identity, she provided fake personal details in the hotel and gave the hotel the bike man’s account detail when the hotel management requested for an account to deposit the refund.

All these happened on Saturday; hence, Alhaja and her husband are still in dilemma with no help in sight to stop the transactions in the account. By Sunday, Alhaja’s money had moved to the fraudster both in cash and through transfer to the bike man account domicile in the same bank.

All these while, the fraudster was in possession of both Alhaja the first victim and the bike man, the second victim’s ATM cards. Later the following day, Monday, the bike man could no longer reach the fraudster on phone; he (the bike man) then went to the bank to request for another ATM card.

It was later discovered in the bank that part of Alhaja’s money was transferred to the bike man’s account. He was arrested by the bank and He’s now helping the EFCC operatives to track down the fraudster. Investigations have revealed that this same fraudster had stolen the identities of other victims earlier and had absconded to, Ilorin, Kwara State.

Instances of Tofunmi’s nefarious activities have also been spotted in other parts of the country particularly Port Harcourt City. The Commission is hereby seeking the cooperation and support of public spirited members of the society to please help unveil the identity of this fraudster. Her face, though with different disguises, is on display for anyone who knows her to please contact any of our offices across the six geopolitical zones and Abuja. She must be apprehended, who knows the next victim?

Besides, it is imperative to reiterate the need to be careful with our ATM cards and PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (PIN). On no account should we divulge any information about our account details to anyone. The criminals, ATM fraudsters are on the loose, taking advantage of people’s insensitivity and carelessness.