Brit student Claudia Aderotimi dies in US after 'butt-boost' jab

STUDENT Claudia Aderotimi was prepared to risk everything for her dream of stardom.

The 20-year-old was convinced she needed a little surgical help to launch her showbiz career.

But she paid with her life after flying to America for a cut-price implant to enhance the shape of her bottom.

The aspiring actress and dancer had a heart attack after complaining of chest pains within hours of the bodged silicone jab in a cheap hotel room.

She died in hospital on Tuesday just two weeks before her 21st birthday.

Claudia had travelled to Philadelphia with three pals after arranging the £1,120 “butt boost” on the internet.

Yesterday it was revealed she had a similar operation in the States last November.

US medical experts suspect the cause of her death was silicone being injected into a vein rather than muscle tissue, causing a clot.

Detectives believe whoever carried out the illegal op may have used industrial-style silicone sealant rather than the proper medical kind.

Police yesterday raided the New Jersey home of the woman they believed set up the jab.

They also seized emails which could lead them to the person who carried out the procedure.

A source said possible charges could include negligent homicide – the same accusation facing Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray.

Claudia and her three friends were staying at the Hampton Inn hotel in east Philadelphia after arriving on Saturday for a week-long stay.

One of them, aged 20, also had the operation but is said to be well and helping police with information.

In her last message on Twitter the day she had the jab Claudia tweeted: “I’m goooonneeeeee so faR away.” Popular Claudia, believed to be of Nigerian descent, had performed with hip-hop stars Akon and Sisqo.

She used the stage-name Claudiyah “Superstar” James, and said on a website: “I’m really interested in becoming a full-time actress and model. I also dance and write music.

“I truly believe I can take the world by storm – I just need an agent.” She also boasted that rap star 50 Cent had called her an “African princess”.

Claudia’s devastated family were still coming to terms with the tragedy at their home in Hackney, East London, as they arranged for her body to be flown home.

Her tearful sister Vivian said: “We’re still in shock. We need to think about what we have to do.” A relative added: “Her mother is inconsolable. She has had to be sedated. We are still trying to find out what exactly happened.”

A 17-year-old neighbour who did not want to be named said: “Claudia was a really pretty girl. I don’t know why she felt she had to have the treatment. It’s such a waste.” Friends posted dozens of messages on networking sites.

One read: “RIP Claudiyah.. i will never forget u.. gone too soon love u always – rest in perfect peace.”

Last night a leading consultant condemned the practice of travelling abroad for unlicensed cosmetic operations.

Rajiv Grover, President Elect of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, said: “There must be some very desperate people around to organise on the internet to meet a stranger in a cheap hotel room near an airport and pay to have a dangerous illegal procedure.

“It seems she got away with it the first time around, and it’s true that you can get away with it sometimes.

“But it is like playing Russian roulette. Each time you have it done, you’re risking your life.”

People tell lies on your online community. They tell lies to get around your policies. They tell white lies that probably don’t hurt anyone. And then they tell lies that can.

Katie Baker, a contributor over at Gawker Media sports blog Deadspin, recently penned a fascinating piece on her experience using hockey-themed Usenet groups as a teenage girl in the late 90s. The title? “The Confessions Of A Former Adolescent Puck Tease: I Was Teenage Hockey Message Board Jailbait.” You had me at message board.

Baker has an interesting background. As a pre-teen, she participated in Apple’s eWorld community, which closed on March 31, 1996. But, some former Apple employees got together and launched Talk City. Baker moved to the site and, eventually, they hired her as a chat room moderator. She was even featured in a BusinessWeek article about the company.

She eventually moved from IRC chat rooms to Usenet newsgroups and, as a sports fan, jumped into some related sections – mostly targeted at hockey. At some point, she began to lie. It began with her adding two years to her age – from 15 to 17 – but lies piled on top of lies until she needed a system of documentation to remember all of the details of her fictional life. Eventually, it all comes crashing down.

Yes, people will lie on your online community. What can you do about it? Very little, or nothing.

In the realm of “very little,” you should do what you can to develop an environment where honesty is encouraged and where people are not ridiculed for holding a reasonable, if different, opinion. You can also set the example by being honest yourself, and ensuring that your staff is honest, in public and when dealing with members.

But, you can’t control people and you can’t verify many of the things people will say on your forums, especially when it comes to personal details that a member is sharing about themselves. Often times, these lies don’t end up hurting anyone. Sometimes they do.

That is nothing new. People have been lying about personal details long before the internet existed. And so, they lie on the internet, as well. There is nothing you can do to stop it. If, by some chance, a member is caught in a lie, you can definitely take it up with them, but your impact will certainly be limited.

One area of frustration for community managers is when kids lie to circumvent COPPA, The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. To be brief, COPPA is an internationally enforceable act that requires websites to receive permission from a parent or guardian before collecting personal information from children 12 or younger that live in the United States or its territories (and U.S.-based websites must do so when collecting information from children 12 or younger, regardless of where they live)...

Most websites that are COPPA complaint tie it in to a form where people will give them information, such as their e-mail address and location. For example, a registration form. They will usually ask the member to specify their age, date of birth or to certify that they were born before a certain date.

Of course, this relies on honesty. And not everyone is honest. Some kids just want to get in and post and it’s easy enough to lie, so why not? The problem: the act was designed to protect them and, potentially, a website owner can get in serious trouble if they knowingly collect information from pre-teens without consent from a parent or legal guardian.

What can you do? Again, very little. The only thing you can do – and can be expected to do – is to act as soon as you find out that someone has lied to circumvent your COPPA compliant registration system. If they let their age slip in a post (I’ve had this happen before), you should deactivate their account immediately and, if you want, send them an e-mail with your COPPA form, for their parent or guardian.

As you can see, the main thing you can do with lies is react once they are made clear. Otherwise, people are free willed and some will lie. You can’t stress about it or regard everyone in the world as a liar. Take what people say at face value and try to give them the benefit of the doubt, until they give you a reason not to.

By Ella Davies Earth News reporter

A polar bear swam continuously for over nine days, covering 687km (426 miles), a new study has revealed.

Scientists studying bears around the Beaufort sea, north of Alaska, claim this endurance feat could be a result of climate change.

Polar bears are known to swim between land and sea ice floes to hunt seals.

But the researchers say that increased sea ice melts push polar bears to swim greater distances, risking their own health and future generations.

We are in awe that an animal that spends most of its time on the surface of sea ice could swim constantly for so long in water so cold. George M. Durner

In their findings, published in Polar Biology, researchers from the US Geological Survey reveal the first evidence of long distance swimming by polar bears (Ursus maritimus).

"This bear swam continuously for 232 hours and 687 km and through waters that were 2-6 degrees C," says research zoologist George M. Durner..

"We are in awe that an animal that spends most of its time on the surface of sea ice could swim constantly for so long in water so cold. It is truly an amazing feat."

Although bears have been observed in open water in the past, this is the first time one's entire journey has been followed.

By fitting a GPS collar to a female bear, researchers were able to accurately plot its movements for two months as it sought out hunting grounds.

The scientists were able to determine when the bear was in the water by the collar data and a temperature logger implanted beneath the bear's skin.

The study shows that this epic journey came at a very high cost to the bear.

"This individual lost 22% of her body fat in two months and her yearling cub," says Mr Durner.

"It was simply more energetically costly for the yearling than the adult to make this long distance swim," he explains.

Swimming long distances puts cubs at risk

Mr Durner tells the BBC that conditions in the Beaufort sea have become increasingly difficult for polar bears.

"In prior decades, before 1995, low-concentration sea ice persisted during summers over the continental shelf in the Beaufort Sea."

POLAR BEAR FACTS Polar bears are the world's largest land carnivores They have black skin and transparent hairs but appear white, turning yellow with age On land, they can reach up to 40 kph (25 mph) when sprinting short distances to catch prey

"This means that the distances, and costs to bears, to swim between isolated ice floes or between sea ice and land was relatively small."

"The extensive summer melt that appears to be typical now in the Beaufort Sea has likely increased the cost of swimming by polar bears."

Polar bears live within the Arctic circle and eat a calorie-rich diet of ringed seals (Pusa hispida) to survive the frozen conditions.

The bears hunt their prey on frozen sea ice: a habitat that changes according to temperature.

"This dependency on sea ice potentially makes polar bears one of the most at-risk large mammals to climate change," says Mr Durner.

The IUCN red list identifies polar bears as a vulnerable species, citing global climate change as a "substantial threat" to their habitat.

Team Goodluck Recants:

The presidency yesterday distanced President Goodluck Jonathan from reports that he had called governors of certain states ‘rascals’ when he said “the southwest is too important to be left in the hands of rascals”.

Presidential spokesman, Ima Niboro, said that “at no time did the president ascribe the ‘rascal’ he mentioned to anyone.

“Please note that the president didn’t call any names when he said the southwest is too important to be left in the hands of rascals,” he said. “So anyone who wants to appropriate the name to himself is welcome to do so.”

Mr. Jonathan had, on Tuesday, while flagging off his presidential campaign in the southwest geo-political zone in Ibadan, made comments about the PDP’s election chances in the southwest.

“We must take it over from them,” he said. “The ruling party must take over Lagos. We must also take over Osun and Ekiti states.”

Team Fashola Reply:

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, yesterday, expressed disappointment with the statements credited to President Goodluck Jonathan during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign in Ibadan, Oyo State. Mr Jonathan had reportedly said: “We (PDP) must take over all the States in the Southwest. The zone is too important to be left in the hands of rascals.” Describing Mr Jonathan’s statements as one that is not worth coming from a president, Mr Fashola, speaking to journalists at the presidential wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, said that leaders seeking elective offices in Nigeria should refrain from using words that are offensive. “The office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a very high office and I don’t think that the kind of language coming from the PDP presidential candidate is presidential,” he said. “But Lagosians will have to make the determination for we are beginning to see clearly the pattern of the candidacy of the PDP candidate who seeks to lead this country to poverty, inefficiency and to insecurity.” “But having said that, I think that I have asked myself whether the president is more concerned about who is governor of Lagos or becoming president. I think that if the PDP wants to swap candidates for the governorship of Lagos I will be ready to face him, because his candidate is not talking about what he wants to do in Lagos.

And I will leave our own presidential candidate, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to respond to the president on issues that are genuine to Nigerians; why the federal roads in Lagos have not been fixed, why Lagosians do not have electricity, why Lagosians have to pay all the cost of their own security in spite of the enormous votes every year by the federal government on security,” added the governor.

 The PDP versus the ACN Explaining that elections are meant to be won by men of integrity, Mr Fashola urged Nigerians not to vote based on sentiments, adding that he made to the office of the governor based on upright manifestos of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). “Elections cannot be won by resulting to derogatory language, by claiming luck,” he said. “Elections require those who seek elective office to focus on the people over whom they plan to exercise authority and to communicate to them in a very clear and practical manner how you intend to improve their lot.

 Look, I think that the PDP led federal government has a lot of questions to answer in Lagos and it is interesting that these remarks are being made from outside Lagos. So I hope that when they come here, they will be able to call us rascals again; and if we are rascals, it means that some of the other governors he has been presiding over is a republic of rascals.”

Comparing the achievements of the ACN with those of the PDP in the state, the governor said that the later failed in the delivery of the dividends of democracy. “They spent ten years trying to build a 400m bridge in Otta; and on the day that they finally came to open that bridge, instead of apologizing to Lagosians, they were fighting themselves about who was to cut the tape,” he said. “Meanwhile the road that leads to the bridge is not finished. We built Okota link bridge in 18months and it is longer than that bridge over which they were fighting. So that is what we expect them to come and talk about. Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki Expressway is their road and it is pothole ridden, the road to the biggest airport in this country. This is a national embarrassment.”

Ribadu reacts Also reacting to the Mr Jonathan’s comments, the Nuhu Ribadu Campaign Organisation described the statements as “unbecoming of a president” and “one that smacks of desperation.” In a statement signed by Ibrahim Modibbo, the Director of Media and Communications, the organisation said that Mr Jonathan had “finally shown Nigerians how desperate he is to remain in power by resorting to name calling and character assassination instead of addressing issues that bother on the welfare of Nigerians and the people of the south west in particular.”

 “We recognise the president’s dilemma,” the statement said. “Of course he knows that both he and his fellow PDP governors in the south west have no achievements to brandish. They have no alternative to proffer to the positive changes being witnessed by the people in Lagos, Ekiti and Osun. It is however unbecoming of the president that in his frustration at the failure of him and his party to provide good governance to the people of the region and all Nigerians, he would resort to name calling.”

As long as you are able to keep yourself fairly active throughout the day, and stick to a healthy balanced diet, you can easily achieve the recommended 30 minutes of exercise a day and keep a great figure.

So here are some every day activities that you can do to keep yourself fit without having to exercise.

How To Lose Weight By Doing Housework

Even if you can’t get to the gym very often, housework can be a great way to burn some calories.

For example, washing the car burns about 300 calories, making the bed about 100 calories, ironing about 100 calories and cleaning the windows about 150 calories.

So if you are a busy parent who has a lot of chores to do throughout the day, you are probably already getting a very good workout.

But if you find that you are not losing the weight you want to lose, then you probably need to focus on what you are eating as this will likely be what’s holding you back.

Most housework will help to tone your arms and legs, but if you pull your tummy in while you are working you can help to tone that to.

Overall housework is a great way to keep in shape, because not only do you keep your house clean and tidy but you can also keep yourself fit and healthy.

Lose Weight By Shopping!

Shopping for a large family can be the equivalent of a long workout session at the gym.

First you have your aerobic exercise, which consists of you walking throughout the shop and up and down the aisles. This not only helps to tone up your leg muscles, but will also benefit your heart and lungs.

Then you have your anaerobic exercise. This consists of picking things up from the shelves, and then carrying your bags back to the car and then back into the house.

This helps to tone up your arm muscles, and strengthen your shoulders. However it is important to remember to always balance the weight you are carrying, so that you avoid injuring yourself.

To get an even better workout from shopping, take stairs instead of escalators and eat before you go so that you are not tempted to snack on junk food while you shop.

Start Gardening To Lose Weight

Gardening has the potential to provide you with a very good exercise session, providing you are willing to push yourself a bit so that you raise your heart rate and work up a sweat.

For example, digging will burn around 300 calories, raking leaves around 200 calories, weeding around 200 calories and mowing the lawn around 150 calories.

As well as being a good way of relieving stress, gardening will help you to get lots of fresh air and exposure to the sun which will help to raise your vitamin D levels.

In addition to this, touching the soil has been shown to be a natural antidepressant which means gardening can actually help to improve your mood.

Use Sex For Weight Loss

Providing you can make it last, regular sex is one of the most enjoyable forms of exercise you can do and can be very effective at helping you to lose weight.

A 30 minute session in the bedroom will help you to burn around 150 calories whilst also boosting your circulation, improving your mood and reducing stress levels.

However in order for you receive weight loss benefits from sex, it must last as long as possible. So if you can only go for a few minutes, then the health benefits you get will be relatively minor.

To maximise weight loss during sex, choose positions in which you have to do the majority of the work.

Other Ways To Lose Weight Without Exercise

• Instead of using the remote control to change the TV channel, get up and change it yourself and you can burn around 150 calories during an average viewing session.

• Instead of sending e-mails to your work colleagues whilst at work, walk over and talk to them yourself. The same applies to your friends or family who you could easily walk over to and speak with.

• Always take the stairs instead of taking the lift, and always walk up escalators.

• If you need to use the toilet whilst at work, use one that is further away from the one you normally use.

• Buy some fitness equipment that you can keep close by you, and then use it whenever you have a few minutes free. This will help to get you into the swing of exercising on a regular basis.

• If you are carrying things back into your house, such as your shopping from the car, carry one bag into the house at a time and you will burn double the amount of calories you normally do.

One dead, two BRT buses burnt, as LASTMA, Okada riders clash

Some say the Fear of LASTMA is the beginning of wisdom but to okada is not erring alone but human.

As two elephants fight while lagosians suffer .

By Olasunkanmi Akoni, Evelyn Usman, Daniel Eteghe & Monsur Olowoopejo

Business activities at mile 12 area of Lagos, were, Wednesday, brought to a halt when a bus belonging to the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transportation Agency, LAMATA allegedly killed an Okada rider while trying to escape from being apprehended by the men of the Lagos State Transport Management Authority, LASTMA.

Lagbus on fire

Meanwhile Governor Babatunde Fashola, SAN of Lagos, yesterday, ordered investigation into the incident.
According to an eyewitness (name withheld), explained that the Okada rider had earlier escaped after violating a traffic law at Ojota axis of the state.

He said: “I do not know which traffic law he violated, but what I saw was that they (LASTMA officials) pursued him from Ojota towards mile 12.”

“On getting to Mile 12 at about 10: 30 am, the Okada rider still on the service lane, discovered that the LASTMA officer were still trailing him. while trying to connect the BRT lane in a rush, he was smack down by the bus and died after some few minutes.”

Another eyewitness said “as I was coming to the office this morning at about 10: 30 am, I saw an Okada man lying down helpless. And his colleagues and sympathisers were also on ground trying to rescue him.”

“I quickly call the two emergency lines-767 and 112, to come to the rescue. But it took the several minutes before arrive the spot,” he said.

The eyewitness added that if men of the LASAMBUS officials arrive on time, the okada rider would not have died.
He noted that after discovering that the Okada rider had lost his life, the LASTMA officer took to their hills and ran towards ketu axis for safety.

“On discovering that the LASTMA officers have escaped, other okada riders and irate youths at the scene vented their anger on the LAGBUS and the Bus Rapid Transport, BRT, and set the two empty buses ablaze,” the source added.

Meanwhile, Governor Fashola who spoke with airport correspondents, said “I have received a preliminary report of the incident and I have ordered an investigation and therefore I think it would prejudicial to come to any conclusions now without getting a detailed report. But I think what is important to be said here is that i doubt that any Okada man will leave his home in the morning with one sole mission to go and fight LAG bus and I also doubt that any LAGbus man will leave home with the sole mission to go and fight Okada man.

“And this is why I have consistently advocated peaceful co-existence, tolerance. Incidence will happen that will provoke our temper, I am human too and at every time I have find it in me to control temper and this is what all of us must do as a people.

I think it is important here to stress that violence and anger are not options for a people who want development. Violence and anger is not a strategy it is sign of weakness. It superior thinking that endures. And therefore I want to appeal to people, anger management is something that we must develop.

“The burning of 2 LAG buses if that is true, it means that those who participated in it have just also contributed in burning the assets that we acquired with their money. This is tax payers money it doesn’t belong to Fashola. It is collective asset for our benefit. So we bought those buses with your money and my money and somebody decide to set it ablaze, has he really contributed to our development?

Now those buses are not manufactured here, even if we have money now we can’t replace them today. Now, those buses serve 100s of Nigerians every day, so we are two buses short and we are 100s of Nigerians who are going into inconvenience and pain.

PDP begs Daniel not to decamp OGD recieves Power Delegation

A middle-aged Islamic scholar has been shot dead by armed robbers who invaded Aleke Village in Imota area of Ikorodu, Lagos, South West Nigeria.

•The late Mallam Abubakar Gbagba.

The body of the victim, Mallam Abubakar Gbagba, was riddled with bullets by three armed robbers who rode a motorcycle and carried out the attack in the early hours.

The robbers, who escaped on the motorcycle after the operation, were apprehended at the next village called Isiwu by a vigilance group in their hideout. They were handed over to the Police at Imota Division.

The first wife of the deceased, Hajia Kuburat, who was with the deceased during the attack allegedly identified a member of the gang at the Imota Police Station.

The man, popularly called ‘Bebo’ was fingered by the woman as the person that shot her husband with a dane gun.

Narrating her ordeal in the hands of robbers, Kuburat said that the bandits mistook the polythene bag stocked with foodstuff bought on Lagos Island, as money and shot her husband in the chest when he told them he had no money.

“The three armed robbers broke into our house around 2.10 a.m. and shot my husband after they broke the doors. They later demanded for money and pointed their gun at my little daughter’s head before they took all the money in my husband’s pocket.

“When they were going, I pursued them to where the three of them climbed the Okada and I started shouting for help to assist my shot husband,” she stated.

Some of the vigilance group members who made statements at Imota Police Station disclosed that “all of us heard the gun shots since it was dead in the night and one of us who saw them returning with a bike to our village, Isiwu trailed them to their hideout and alerted us. We, along with other residents, surrounded their house and threatened to burn down the house if they did not come out.

“It was a big surprise to us that some of our members that were sent to Imota police station have not yet returned, but we saw a team of policemen from Shagamu police station, Ikorodu who accused us of beating the robbers and threatened to shoot us if we don’t give them medical treatment immediately,” a member of the vigilance group lamented.

“We were also surprised when one of the armed robbers, called Bebo, called the policemen to see what they have done to him while a policeman called Yemi threatened to deal with us if we failed to give him medical treatment immediately despite the fact that we told him that the robbers have just shot somebody dead.”

According to them, “it was the arrival of the police team from Imota Police station, led by the Chief Security Officer, Ibrahim that saved us from Yemi and his team who hurriedly left the place and disappeared.”

Confirming the arrest of the bandits, the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, of Imota Police Station, Mr. David Etim said the police had been on the gang’s trail for sometime and was happy that they were apprehended, adding that other victims of the gang’s recent attacks had started coming to the station to identify them.

It was also gathered that the gang recently invaded a church (name withheld) where they made away with N500,000, raped some female members of the church and later went to another house in the village to rob an old woman and raped her.

Meanwhile, the remains of the slain scholar has been released to the family by the police and buried near his house at Aleke according to Islamic rites. The robbery suspects would soon be transferred to the State Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS.

At least eight people have died at the .University of Bening Teaching Hospital following kerosene explosions that rocked communities in Delta and Edo states in the past two weeks. The deaths were as a result of the severe burns sustained by the victims from the explosion.

The kerosene explosions occurred in Oghara, Delta state and Benin city, the Edo state capital. Six children of a police officer, Hope Adeleke, who lived in Oghara, the headquarters of the Ethiope West local government area of Delta state all died as a result of the explosion while cooking with with their mother in the kitchen with a kerosene stove. The children died at the hospital due to the severe burns they sustained when a fire sparked by the explosion ravaged their home.

The mother of the six deceased children, Edna Adeleke, who was also a victim, is still receiving treatment at the Intensive Care Unit of the Accident and Emergency Ward of UBTH.

Another woman whose identity could not be ascertained also died last week at the same hospital as a result of a kerosene explosion. The woman and one of her children were rushed to UBTH from Ekehuan village near Benin city following injuries they sustained from an explosion. The child was said to have survived after receiving treatment and has since been discharged.

Over the weekend, a 12-year-old girl from Kwale, Ndokwa West local government area of Delta state also died when a kerosene explosion reportedly occurred at her home. She was rushed to UBTH where she died.

According to the director-general of Save Accident Victims of Nigeria, Eddy Ehikhamenor, the 12-year-old received 93 degrees of burns on her body. Mr. Ehikhamenor called on the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation to warn all dealers and retailers against the adulteration of kerosene.

He queried the high cost of kerosene presently selling at between N130 and N150 per litre, just as he requested the NNPC to embark on an analysis of the kerosene currently on sale to ensure that the product does not have a mixture of petrol. Kerosene, the nation's main source of cooking for most families across the nation has been scarce, leading to a price hike.

The Dubai-based Nigerian family reported missing while travelling from Lagos to Asaba last week has been found at last.

•The lucky kids, the doctor and the father of kids (standing). PHOTO: Emmanuel Osodi.

However, it was a tale of tragedy as three of the travellers – the mother, Edna, a Dubai-based staff of Standard Chartered Bank, her cousin, Chinyere, who had lost her only daughter last December, and the driver of the chartered Toyota Camry saloon car, Godfrey Inalegwu – were found dead in a village near Okada after their car plunged into a river, while trying to avoid a pothole. Only the three children – Loveth, 11, Precious 8 and Golden 6 – were rescued and taken to a private hospital in Ofumwegbe town, near Benin City, Edo State, Southsouth Nigeria. Their escape was simply miraculous, according to the rescuers.

P.M.NEWS in its Wednesday, 2 February 2011 edition, reported that the family was missing last week Wednesday during their trip from Lagos to Asaba in a Toyota Camry saloon car with registration number Lagos KU 108 EKY.

The husband of the Dubai banker, himself an accountant, Mr. Ugochukwu Onyeocha had told P.M.NEWS that when his family left Lagos about 10.00 a.m in the car, he communicated with his wife on phone twice, about 11 in the morning and 3 p.m.

He sensed something was wrong after he lost contact thereafter, believing that the wife was in an area where there was no phone network or that her phone was switched off. In the morning, he was awoken by a phone call from his mother-in-law that his wife and the children were yet to arrive Asaba. This prompted Onyeocha to involve the police. His report to the police at the State Criminal .Investigation Department, SCID, Panti, Yaba, Lagos however yielded no immediate clue as to the whereabouts of his family.

The police investigators told Onyeocha that the tracker in the Toyota car had shown that the car and the occupants got missing in a village called Otu Costain in Edo State.

The missing car was located at Okada, near Benin City.

It was discovered that the family had an accident and their vehicle plunged into a river. The survivors were later taken to Emiloju Medical Centre, in Ofumwegbe town, near Benin City, Edo State.

The Medical Director of the centre, Dr. Mohammed Yakubu, treated the three children.

According to him, “On 26 January, 2011 at about 7.30 p.m, these three children were brought here by kind-hearted villagers. They were unconscious. The villagers said the car in which they were travelling skidded into a river as the driver tried to manoeuvre a pothole on the road,” Mohammed said.

The doctor stated that the villagers with the help of policemen from a nearby police station were able to recover the car. But their mother, her cousin and the driver were dead. Only the three children were grasping for breath.

Dr. Mohammed said he was able to revive the three children and they were recuperating in his hospital, this morning.

The doctor added that the villagers with the help of policemen from Iguobazuwa Divisional Headquarters, Edo State, moved the three corpses to the mortuary of another hospital near the village.

As at the time of going to press, the father, Onyeocha, P.M.NEWS correspondent and Dr. Mohammed were on their way to the hospital where the corpses were kept.

The tragedy has confirmed the fears of Nigerians abroad, wary of returning home because of the epidemic of armed robbery, fraudsters, political violence and carnage on the roads.

—Oluwole Adeboye/Okada