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Imagine For instance as a parent, your four-year-old daughter comes home telling you an “uncle” in the neighbourhood took her to his room, made her lie down, removed her clothes, made attempt at penetration, before ejaculating all over her?

This is the nightmare Emeka Okafor (not real name) has been living with since July 30, 2010, when his second child and only daughter recounted how earlier that day, while playing around his wife’s shop on Shamura Street in Oshodi, a suburb of Lagos, a 22-year-old man, Onyedikachi Samuel, lured her into his room nearby in the pretext of wanting to give her “something”.

“I had just come back from work after picking them from the shop when my daughter called me and said ‘Uncle Onye put his wiwi in my ansarot and urinated on me.” Three times I asked her what do you mean. And each time, she repeated the same thing. At that, I melted. This was precisely by 8pm on that Friday,” said Mr. Okafor.

By “urinating”, she meant ejaculating. Mr. Okafor then took her into his room, inspected her, and in his words, “I could see traces of well cleaned sperm on her body.” The little girl said the man she called “uncle” gave her milk and told her he would beat her if she revealed their “secret”, in an attempt to cover his act.

Mustering the little sanity left in him, Mr. Okafor that same night reported the case at the Makinde Police Station, where officers interviewed his daughter and asked her to take them to the crime scene and identify her abuser.

Shocked beyond words “I didn’t know the boy in question. My daughter took them to his room where we met his step-mother who said her son had gone for night vigil. But outside the Boy’s Quarters where he lives, he emerged and my daughter pointed at him. In his presence she repeated what he did to her and he was arrested,” Mr. Okafor said.

At the station, Mr. Samuel denied having any carnal knowledge of her. But according to Mr. Okafor, he accepted taking Miss Okafor into his room and offering her milk, and asking her not to tell anyone because he had taken the milk without the consent of his step-mother.

Mr. Samuel was eventually charged for indecent assault at the Igbehin-Adun Magistrate Court 15, Oshodi, on August 2, 2010 where he pleaded not guilty. He met the court’s bail conditions of N200,000 and two sureties before the scheduled hearing of his case on August 16.

Efforts to reach Mr. Samuel failed as his elder brother and step-mother denied access to him. But a man who introduced himself as a human rights lawyer, Bello Hassan, working with Strong Towers Chambers, said Mr. Samuel is the one being persecuted. He couldn’t, however, explain why a four-year-old would make such allegations against his client.

“I don’t know why. I can’t attest to the veracity of their claims but my client is aggrieved because I know the other party has gone to great lengths to report this matter to several places. What is unknown is more than what is known. The court will decide. I won’t speak because the case is in court,” said Mr. Hassan.

But on August 16, the case was adjourned to October 18. The reason advanced was that the judiciary was on recess.

On October 18, it was deferred to November 8, as the magistrate was said to be indisposed. The case was again postponed to November 25 as Mr. Okafor was told the magistrate was attending a seminar.

Frustrated, Mr. Okafor took his case to Media Concern Initiative for women and children. The non-governmental organisation offered the family trauma management free of charge and also notified on their behalf, the Lagos State Social Welfare Service, the Department of Public Prosecution and the Office of the Public Defender, which gives free legal services.

“The case is in an open court when it should be in a family court, and this is a major concern because open courts are still handling cases of children. So we need the court to sit, for a motion to be moved to transfer the case to the family court. This is especially important to avoid the child becoming more traumatised,” said Princess Olufemi-Kayode, Media Concern’s executive director..

A haunting trauma

For the Okafor family, however, four months after, the alleged abuse is still fresh in their memory. Mr. Okafor says he has since stopped his children from referring to non-relatives as “uncle” as this connotation sends a wrong signal to children to believe strangers are family. He says he is fighting for his children and as many others his action will save from becoming the next victims.

“For months she kept asking ‘why did Uncle Onye urinate on me?’. All I could reply her is don’t mind him, he’s just a stupid boy. What else can I tell her? And each time I brought her to court, she would ask ‘Daddy why are we in court?’,” said Mr. Okafor.

“There are so many women out there, why an under-aged who doesn’t even know the difference between one and two. I can’t let it go because if nothing is done he will not know the gravity of what he has done. Will he not do it to other people’s children? I only have two kids and that is my only daughter. My reason for living is for them, so if I can’t defend them, then my life is worthless,” lamented Mr. Okafor.

Are you struggling to stimulate activity in your online community? Do you have lots of members but little participation. Try asking the sorts of questions that stimulate discussion in every online community.

Here are 20 to get you started:

1. What is your favourite ………. ? Asking members about their favourite anything will stimulate a response. Try it.
2. What is your average day like? People love to talk about themselves. Ask them what their average day is like and they’ll tell you. They’ll also compare it with anyone else that answers.
3. What do you think about ………? Giving opinions is human nature. When you ask for opinions you’ll get a lot.
4. What advice would you give to the person above you? Careful about these. Can stimulate a lot of activity, can also get way out of hand. Useful for a light-hearted touch to your community efforts.
5. Can anyone recommend …..? People like to be helpful and show off knowledge. Asking for recommendations will solicit knowledge and engagement from users.
6. What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you whilst ….. ? Self explanatory. Let members share their stories. It’ll almost certainly boost activity and return visits. Members will slowly get to know and like each other.
7. Can anyone fix …… ? Present a difficult problem, let members try to suggest ways to fix it.
8. What is the best/worst …………….. ? Opinions, opinions, opinions. Solicit them in as many different ways as possible. Pick a sub-category and ask people for their best/worst suggestions.
9. Who do you most admire? Pick someone in your niche you most admire and tell others why.
10. Is {x} really better than {y}? Make it controversial. Pick an issue members will be split on – but not divisively so. Ask questions about it. Let people take sides.
11. If you weren’t ……….., would you ………….. ? Create a hypothetical situation in which all members can give their opinion on something radical.
12. Who/What are your top 5 …………… ? Ranking is addictive. Ask people to rank their top 5 anything and then try to create an overall ranking based upon the community.
13. How would you handle {topical issue}? If your members in charge, how would they handle a topical issue in your sector?
14. What …… do you use? Relevant in almost all online communities, ask people to compare what relevant products/services they use. Companies love this information too.
15. Does anyone know how to ………….. ? Does anyone know provokes interest, the how to can be broad or specific. People are likely to participate.
16. Has anyone tried…………….. ? Again, has anyone is all-encompassing and people are likely to share their experiences.
17. Is …….. right about ………. ? Take someone’s stance on a topical issue and throw it open to comment by the entire community.
18. What would you do if ……. ? Create a hypothetical situation, perhaps a problem lots of people face, and ask members what they would do. Life problems work well here.
19. What should every newcomer know about ….? Well, what should every newcomer know about something relevant in your sector? It’s great advice – perfect for a sticky-thread.
20. Share your pictures/top tips here. Sharing advice and pictures can be an easy win for stimulating activity. Try it. I suspect you will find it easy to gain lots of valuable insights....

The more open-ended the question, the more everyone can participate. When you post a question, try prodding a few members to reply and get the activity started.

DECEMBER IS APPROCAHING ! THE months when Accidents occur . BE WARNED ! PICTURE ADVISORY

Road accidents have continued to claim several lives despite intense road safety campaigns. Weekly Trust reports on why the scourge has not calmed down.

At the trailer park in Gusau, a group of men were busy loading cattle into a trailer, preparing the cattle for the trip from the north to the south where they would end in the various abattoirs where they would be butchered for meat. And just as they finished loading the animals and began to leave, some twenty-three men began climbing aboard the trailer, jostling for space with the cattle. Some improvisations were introduced with long planks placed on top of the trailer to provide more space for the humans looking for opportunity to hitch a ride with the animals...

Some hours into the journey, maybe it was just minutes (eye witnesses account differ), the humans in the trailer would share the fate of the cattle: butchered, not in the abattoirs, but on the highway together with the cattle when the trailer was involved in an accident at Gidan Kano village, along Sokoto-Gusau Road. Eyewitnesses said the driver lost control when he approached a very sharp bend at high speed at Gidan Kano and could not negotiate it. The articulated vehicle skidded off the road and somersaulted. Twenty of the passengers, some of whom were hanging on the side of the trailer, died on the spot while three others died in the hospital. Sixteen other passengers sustained various degrees of injuries.

That was in December last year, precisely on a Wednesday evening on the 23rd. Just two weeks ago, another reenactment of that gory incidence where the fate of humans is indistinguishable from the fate of cattle took place in the same state, Zamfara, where 20 persons were confirmed dead and 33 others sustained serious injuries at Kaura-Namoda Local Government Area of the state. This time around, the vehicle was carrying more than 100 bags of potatoes with 42 people on board hitching a ride together with the potatoes, all coming from Sokoto. Just like the cattle driver, the potato driver was over-speeding when the trailer had a burst tire and skidded off the road, said the FRSC Assistant Corps Commander of the Kaura-Namoda Unit to newsmen, Sani Abdussamad.

The mass deaths are not confined to heavy vehicles only. On the same day, 20 kilometres from Kaura-Nomada at Kaura-Shinkafi Road, a Peugeot 505 salon car had a head-on collision with a Toyota Carina II vehicle where 11 people, mostly women and children, were burnt beyond recognition. Eight others were taken to the hospital with various degrees of injuries.

Wastage of human lives, butchered with such careless abandon by a combination of reckless driving, overloading, poor and narrow roads occur on all Nigerian highways, not just on the Sokoto-Gusau axis. The Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, had said recently that road accidents kill 14 people daily on Nigerian roads, totaling on average over four hundred deaths in a month. “Out of this number,” said a Commander of the Corps, Kayode Olagunju, “tanker driver-induced accidents claim at least three lives every day.”

The tanker drivers are road cousins of the trailer drivers, a law unto themselves on the road. Speeding with the latest consignment of fuel from the south to the north, just as the cattles and potatoes make the journey from the north to the south, the tanker drivers are kings of the road because of the essential importance of the commodity they transport: petroleum. Nothing embodies this pompous status more than at Tafa, a village located some few kilometers from Abuja where both shoulders of the highway have been appropriated by tanker drivers, who despite causing so many accidents and so many deaths over the years, remain untouchable. “I always remind myself that I am approaching a danger zone whenever I drive close to the village,” said Ashafa, a salon car driver at the Jabi Park in Abuja who plies the road daily on his way to convey passengers from Abuja to Kano.

Ashafa said: “Most of the tanker drivers are just boys, they think the machines are toys, something they could play with. But a trailer or tanker is not just a mere toy; the slightest carelessness will cause so much pain and anguish. So many families are robbed of breadwinners and loved ones.”

The Lokoja-Abuja Road, a link road between the north and the south, where daily hundreds of trailers, tankers, trucks, salon cars and buses hurry with passengers and goods is a hot spot that brings into relief how government failure to construct new roads and rehabilitate old ones have contributed to the statistics of deaths from road accidents in the country. One of the country’s busiest roads, it is nevertheless the narrowest. A road contract awarded since 2005 to dualise the road has mostly seen work move at the pace of a snail. But the devastation wrought by the road on human lives comes very easily and fast. In the month of October only, the road has claimed about 59 lives. Just some few months ago in July about fourty people had lost their lives at a go when an accident occurred on the road. The road has been eating lives, and still counting.

Statistics from Koton Karfe, Abaji, and Yangoji as well as Gwagwalada unit commands of the FRSC shows that 39 vehicles were involved in accidents in which 236 people sustained various degrees of injuries between the months of October till November, 12, 2010. Twenty-two out of the 39 crashes were fatal mostly occurring as a result of wrongful overtaking, a mistake which the narrow road does not forgive.

Other causes of crashes on the road from the FRSC statistics include, lost of control, tire burst, over-speeding, obstruction, fatigue, dangerous driving as well as break failure.

Abaji unit commander of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Mr. Joseph O. Ezeh said the state of the Abuja-Lokoja Road has contributed to some of the accidents along the road where some drivers who are in the process of trying to avoid a pothole crash into an oncoming vehicle from the opposite direction.

While the physical factors that contribute to the scourge of accidents on the roads is taking a long time in being addressed by the concerned authorities, the FRSC unit commander of Yangoji, Abdullahi Umar, has introduced a way of taming the human elements, mostly recklessness, that contributes to the spates of accidents on the road. The command has adopted a system where any driver arrested for reckless driving is taken to the command for education for 45 minutes and in the process shown pictures of corpses of accident victims on the road with the hope of using fear to educate him on the hazard of reckless driving. “These drivers never care to stop when we observe some recklessness in their driving and this is why we have devised another method,” Umar said.

On a nationwide scale, the FRSC Corps Marshal, Osita Chidoka has introduced a system of reward for Corp officers who were able to reduce the accidents in their units to the barest minimum. He said: “The commission’s gesture is to create a kind of competition among all the 36 state sector commands of the FRSC in redoubling their efforts in reducing accident and at the end reward the best command. And we are involving the state government. Infact, the state governors will be the chairmen of this committee so that they can be able to partake and as well monitor the performance of every sector command.”

It remains to be seen how far the new initiatives will go in curbing road accidents as the recklessness has somewhat been taken to a new level, especially by salon drivers who enact the human/cattle scenario by filling their car boots not only with luggages and sacks but with humans. This is after packing the front of the car with three or four passengers including the driver and the back seat with four passengers or more supported on human laps.

The culprits in this practice are the new crop of commercial drivers who favour using the Volkswagen Golf because of its speed and lightness. The practice is common along rural roads and roads linking one local government area to the other where few FRSC officers are on watch. The few police manning the various checkpoints, as usual, stretch their hands for the usual bribe and look the other way.

Salihu, a driver in Jabi Park Abuja blames the practice on passengers who often prefer to pay less than the standard amount for a ticket. “The boots cost less, sometimes half the price of a seat inside the car. In addition, the more people you carry inside the car whether in the back or front seats, the less the passengers pay compared to when you take only one passenger in front and three passengers in the back of a salon car.”

When accidents occur in such instances identifying the identities of the victims becomes a problem because such vehicles are either boarded on the highway or in illegal parks were passengers’ manifest are not kept before boarding. In Yobe for example, where two buses had a head-on collision last week where 33 people were burnt beyond recognition, identifying the victims was a big problem as their identity cards were also burnt save for one passenger whose identification survived the fire. In the end, all the victims were buried in a mass grave since relatives could not be contacted to identify their corpses.

Statistics made available to Weekly Trust by the FRSC’s Media Assistant to the Corps Marshal, Sani Abdullahi, shows that within the last three months of September, October up to 7th November this year a total number of 1,053 crashes took place. The number of vehicles involved in the crashes within the same period is 1,722; number of people killed in the crashes is 820 while the number of injured victim is 3,366.

The FRSC claims there have been an improvement. Based on its analysis it says comparison between incidence of accidents between last year and this year in a three months review shows that while 1,357 cases of road crashes were recorded in 2009, 939 were recorded within the same period in 2010, representing a reduction of 44.52 per cent. The figures also claim that while 4,167 people were injured in the same period in 2009, this year the figure dropped to 2,981, representing a reduction of 39.79 per cent.

The figures do not show improvement in the number of persons killed within the period under review. While 744 people were killed last year within the same period, this year 759 deaths were recorded, representing an increase of 1.97per cent.

The FRSC says it research has shown that the increase in fatality was as a result of more accidents involving 14-seater buses carrying 18 passengers and incidences of crashes involving tankers who claim many lives at a go.

The passengers hitching a ride with cattle and potatoes may have thought they were paying less, but as the inevitable happened they must have realized that they have sold their lives cheap....

A 24-year-old man committed suicide live on the internet, Japanese police said Friday.

Some online chat forum users egged on the man after he posted that he was considering suicide, local media reported. Some chatters urged him not to, while others said he was lying, local media said.

The man started live-streaming his own hanging. Viewers called police.

The suicide was reported to police in the northern Japanese city of Sendai about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, said the vice chief of the Sendai North Police.

Officers found the man at his home, after he had hanged himself. They determined his address with help from internet chat sites.

Police released no further information, citing privacy protections in cases of suicide.

An image has been floating around cyberspace, showing a person hanging from what looks like a fabric belt, looped across a horizontal pole or rod.

The streaming service Ustream said the image was not doctored and that it shows the man who killed himself....

Ustream removed the image after users flagged it, said spokesman Fumihiro Ito.

The company planned to beef up monitoring of user content following the suicide, Ito said.

A 13-year old boy, Kabiru Sanni has drowned in an abandoned soak away pit at 17, Orisanu Street, Ijegun in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria.

It was learnt that Kabiru drowned in the pit covered by flood as the victim attempted to pass through it.

P.M.NEWS gathered that the landlord of the house, the late Ogunsake Saba attempted to construct the soak away but could not complete it before he died a few years ago.

The house was inherited by the late Ogunsake’s children. But they also did not complete the soak-away.

According to the tenants, they paid advance rent to enable the landlord’s children complete the soak-away but they did not do it or refund their money.

Efforts by the tenants to compel them to complete the project did not yield any result until the incident occurred.

Following the death of Kabiru Sanni, the owners of the storey building were arrested by the police at Isheri Oshun for allegedly causing the death of the boy.

Those arrested were Idowu Saba and Kehinde Saba while other members of the family have gone into hiding to escape arrest.

When P.M.NEWS visited Isheri Oshun Police Station, the reporter was referred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Yaba, Lagos where further investigation has commenced on the matter after the suspects were transferred there.

At the time of filing this report, the suspects were still in SCID custody.

Photo:previous soakaway pit victims from enugu

Enugu Incident in June:

On Friday 22 May, the staff of One With God Sewage Services in Enugu had finished evacuating the septic tank at 15 Umuaniabor Street Awkunanaw, Garki, Enugu and were about to go when a woman in the house asked them whether they had done a thorough job. Confident that his team had done a marvelous job, Sunday Chukwu, one of the staff of the sewage company who cleared the faeces, opened the lid of the pit. But the pungent fumes emanating from the pit overpowered him. He fell into the pit, unconscious.

The Killer Soak-away pit

When Chukwu did not come up, Chibuike Okoye, a Nigerian Law School student and tenant in the said house who invited the sewage company, went into the tank to rescue him. But he, too, fell unconscious. This prompted a third person to attempt a rescue. This ended in disaster as the man also succumbed to the fumes and passed out. When tenants of the house saw that the three men in the pit were lying motionless in the tank, they fled from the building, screaming and crying.

At this juncture, personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, led by Mr Paul Inaya, arrived the scene but discovered that they were too late to save the three men. Officials of the Enugu South Local Government Health Department later came to dilute the strong gas in the tank with chemicals and water before people could go down to bring out the corpses. But before this was done, a live cock was dropped inside the tank and it survived. The dried up corpses of the three men were later released to the Police coroner for autopsy.

The Coordinator of the Health Department, Mr. Christian Egbo said the tragedy occurred because the septic tank was not allowed to cool for at least two hours before the men went in. He added that human feaces has chemicals that can kill. Egbo advised sewage service providers to always study the environment of houses/yards they intend working on for air escape routes before opening such tanks. He also urged them use ample chemicals to neutralise the poisonous gas before going inside septic tanks..

The landlord of the building, Mr. Bartholomew Mbaorji was said to have travelled. But his wife was later detained and released by the Police in Awkunanaw. She absolved herself of any blame, saying that she engaged the services of a registered sewage company which ought to know its job...

President Goodluck Jonathan is making efforts to pacify chieftains of the Peoples’ Democratic Party in Delta State bent on ensuring that Emmanuel Uduaghan, who was recently sacked as the state governor, does not contest the rerun election expected to take place in the next three months.

Mr. Jonathan is reportedly talking to Edwin Clark, a foremost Ijaw leader who is allegedly bent on truncating the re-election bid of Mr. Uduaghan.

The former governor who was in Abuja on Wednesday to meet Mr. Jonathan told journalists at the Presidential Villa that he had come to, “brief President Jonathan, the leader of our party, on the political development in my state.” He later met with the president in the evening, and Mr Jonathan was said to have assured him of his support.

The national leadership of the PDP is also working to reconcile all warring parties in the state to ensure that all those likely to work against the re-election of Mr. Uduaghan listen to the appeal of the president and work in “one accord” to make sure the party wins the rerun election.

Mr. Uduaghan has had a long-running battle with a faction of the party under the influence of Mr Clark. The group had publicly celebrated the former governor’s ouster and announced its opposition to his nomination as the party’s candidate in the rerun election expected to hold by early February. Mr. Clark is also one of the staunchest supporters of Mr. Jonathan in the country.

Mr. Jonathan, a source privy to the meeting said yesterday, threw his weight behind the former governor, just as he has done in previous cases in which he had supported incumbent PDP governors.

This support is critical for Mr. Uduaghan, who is currently battling to return to the Delta State Government House, amidst strong oppositions ahead of the re-run election for the gubernatorial seat in the state....

Mend thy ways

A presidency source said although Mr. Jonathan re-assured the former governor of his support, he admonished Mr Uduaghan to be more amenable to his critics in the future.

“The president may have really been angry with the former governor because of his past alleged disloyalty. However, he reassured the governor of his support to re-contest the seat,” the source said.

“The former governor has been directed to go and do a few things to correct his past mistakes,” the source added.

The former governor had earlier told journalists at the presidential villa that he was set to do battle with his political opponents in the rerun election.

Obviously counting on the president’s support, Mr. Uduaghan said he was confident that he would win the election, maintaining that he was confident in the electorate, whom he said “will decide.”

New voters register

Meanwhile, a body known as Good Government Initiative (GGI) has called on the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC) to use the conduct of the re-run election in Delta State to prove it has the ability to conduct a free and fair election. The group, in a statement signed by Eric Omare, its coordinator, urges INEC not to use the present voters register to conduct the re-run election in the state because it is fraught with irregularities.

The statement condemned what it called the inconsistent judgments of various panels and tribunals, adding that yesterday’s judgement was an indictment on the Nigerian judiciary.

“The voters register was deliberated manipulated in the last voters’ registration to favour Emmanuel Uduaghan. This manipulation was done in some wards in some local government areas where Dr.Uduaghan was perceived to have strength,” he said. “We therefore call on Jega to ensure compilation of a new voters register before conducting the re-run election in Delta State. The present voters register in Delta State cannot guarantee a free and fair election”, the statement said.

Nigeria’s Super Falcons yesterday continued their march to re-capture the title they lost in 2008 to Equatorial Guinea. The Falcons faced the Twiga Stars of Tanzania with a chance to cement top spot in the group. And it was another great performance from Perpetua Nkwocha as she confirmed the Nigerian team’s superiority and inched closer to achieving her target of scoring 15 goals in the championship.

The match was largely played in the half of the Twig Stars, who tried to defend their goal with two banks of five players but Nigeria was on the front foot as early as the first minute when Francisca Ordega was caught offside marginally. A minute later, Ordega went on another rampaging run down the left flank and earned a corner kick.

Two minutes later, Nkwocha crossed from the right with Ebere Orji lurking to score. It caused the goalkeeper to panic and palm the ball across the goal. A header from Ordega followed but it went wide.

The Falcons did not play with a lot of imagination and wide players were squeezing into the middle with Nkwocha dropping off the front to join a congested midfield.

Nkwocha’s sixth and seventh goals..

But they got the first goal in the 10th minute, when a cross by Ulunma Jerome was squeezed into goal from a tight angle to give the Falcons the lead. That was the sixth goal for master poacher, Nkwocha.

The match then sparked to life and in the 21st minute, Jerome’s cross cum shot hit the cross bar and out of play. The Tanzanian team were now really working hard to deny the Falcons any more scoring chances.

Nonetheless, Nkwocha scored the second goal of the match and her seventh in the 32nd minute when a defensive error involving Twiga Stars’ captain Sophie Mwaskili presented the Nigerian striker with a sight on goal - and she duly converted the chance.

The Twiga Stars tried to cut the lead with long range shots but Precious Dede easily gathered the efforts.

The first half should have ended with a third goal for the Falcons but Ordega was in an offside position when she took the ball off Orji’s toes after she had dribbled the keeper and was ready to score.

The second half was very disjointed with the Stars raising their game through Aisha Sada, who was changing from the right to the left flanks throughout the game.

The half witnessed another barrage of shots from distance with Sada hitting the cross bar in the 55th minute and Dede getting injured in the process of making the save. Gloria Akpa came on for Jerome and Desire Oparanozie came in for Nkwocha. The changes disrupted the Falcons game but the team finally scored the third goal in the 82nd minute when a spilled shot by the Tanzanian keeper was tapped in by Oparanozie - it was her first goal of the championship.

In yesterday’s other match, South Africa walloped the Malian team 4-0 to join the Falcons in the semi-finals. Their likely opponents will be defending champions, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon, who have four points each in Group B.

Policemen attached to Shasha division in Lagos have begun investigation into the discovery of the lifeless body of a 17-year-old girl, Peace Asukwo, dangling from the ceiling fan of an apartment in Shasha area of Lagos.

Already, the dead girl’s boyfriend, a 300 Level Law student of University of Lagos, Akoka, in whose apartment the lifeless body was found, has been arrested.

Controversy is however trailing the teenager’s death as her 23-year-old boyfriend, Fisayo Tifase, was alleged to have a hand in her death.

However, Police hinted yesterday that it was too early to form any opinion as investigation would at the end determine whether the case was that of homicide or suicidal.

Residents of 10 Kalejaye Street were thrown into pandemonium last Friday, following the starling discovery, as some of them have reportedly fled their homes for fear of being arrested in connection with the incident.

Although there was no suicide note found in the room by Policemen, a version of the report said deceased could have committed suicide because she was jilted by her boyfriend.

Versions of same story
The late Peace, an orphan, according to a version of the report, arrived her boyfriend’s apartment at about 7p.m. But another version claimed she had been living with her 23-year-old boyfriend, until the relationship turned sour following his refusal to continue with the relationship.

Trouble started at about 8p.m. when the door of the apartment was reportedly discovered to have been locked from inside with no one responding to knocks. Sensing danger, the door was reportedly forced opened, only to discover Peace’s body dangling from the the ceiling fan.

Spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command, Mr Frank Mba, said: “Detectives who visited the scene met the body stark naked. Investigations are being carried out by policemen at Shasha Police Division preparatory to the case being transferred to the Homicide section of the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID.”

Yet another dialogue between the presidency and leaders of the Nige..rian Labour Congress (NLC), to forestall a planned nationwide strike today, has been deadlocked.

President Goodluck Jonathan who rushed down from Lagos yesterday to lead a high level delegation of government officials to meet with the leaders of the NLC could however not convince the congressmen to abandon their planned agenda of embarking on a three day working strike, starting today.

The N.igeria Labour Congress (NLC) had threatened to embark on a three-day warning industrial action, starting from November 10, demanding an increment in their minimum wage.

According to the acting president of the NLC, Promise Adewusi, the strike action will still continue, while the body holds consultation with the respective organs involved in the congress.

“We have heard the message of Mr. President, we are going to go back to our organ and the only thing we can say now is that the strike is on until called off by the organ that instituted it” Mr Adewusi told eagerly waiting pressmen.

He added that the congress will meet with its body at 3pm today to convey the presidents’ message.

With talks scheduled for yesterday night between Goodluck Jonathan and labour officials, uncertainty seems to reign supreme in the financial sector, with bankers saying they will close shop if the strike went ahead today...

The Nigeri..an Labour Congress had issued a three-day ultimatum to go on a warning strike today over the federal government’s refusal to secure legislative backing for a new minimum wage for workers in the public service.

“The bank workers are union members and their unions are also members of the participating unions in the planned strike,” said Sunday Salako, assistant national president, Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions.

Bankers are, however, of the opinion that though there may be skeletal operations to keep ATMs and other things running, banks, customers, and the economy would be affected.

A banker at Intercontinental Bank said security is a strong issue that would put bank staff off, if the strike commenced.

“What would happen if they are attacked, who would take responsibility for that? That is why a lot people would keep away, though there has been no formal declaration. We would probably have to wait till 11:59 for confirmation,” he said.

A banker at First Bank said, “If the strike is real, then banks wouldn’t open for security reasons, but there would be skeletal activities. For instance, ATMs would work, and other minor activities,” he said.

Financial cost

The Intercontinental banker said he could not estimate the monetary loss to the banks during the strike.

“I can’t really say what this would cost the banking industry specifically or its corresponding effect on the economy, because in effect, it’s not as if the banks don’t want to render their services,” he added.

“There is no way it won’t hurt both banks and customers alike. For instance, taking only cheques as an example. No one would be able to drop cheques. You know, there are duties and charges for transactions, which would not be carried out if the strike actually begins,” he further said.

There was, however, no unusual surge of customers at banks randomly visited yesterday. Some customers said they do not believe that the strike would hold, while others said though they were aware, they have to make withdrawals. It is also risky for them to make large withdrawals in anticipation of the strike, because of the security state of the nation.

Setback on the economy

Akinbamidele Akintola, a research analyst at Renaissance Capital, an investment firm, said it is expected that the president would resolve the issue in due time.

“This is not positive, as it would cripple the entire system if we assume it would affect the banking sector, ports, airports, schools, oil and gas segment, transport, and a couple of other segments. We expect the government of President Jonathan to resolve the issue promptly with labour congress, as election campaigns and political activity pick up ahead of next 2011 elections.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Elite agents of the American Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) are on their way to Nigeria to join the hunt for the abductors of two U.S. nationals. They were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen off the coast of Akwa Ibom state during an attack on an oil rig. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the agents, skilled in trailing and capturing kidnappers will work with Nigerian officials to secure freedom for the hostages and investigate the incident.

The hostages who work for oil services firm, Afren, were taken last Sunday. The company operating an oil has increased the number of those seized to seven .A spokesman for Afren said the company had confirmed two Indonesians were among those taken when gunmen in speed boats attacked the offshore rig.The attack happened about 12 kilometers off the coast of Akwa Ibom state. Afren had previously said only five people were kidnapped, and identified them as two Americans, two French and one Canadian. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The State Department said the Niger Delta is home to criminal gangs that steal oil and take hostages for ransom. Officials also said the region also has militants who claim they are fighting for a fairer distribution of oil wealth. It warned American nationals to take extra security measures and postpone all unnecessary trips to the region.