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The police have issued a warning for harassment against an airport worker after he allegedly took a photo of a female colleague as she went through a full-body scanner at Heathrow airport.
The incident, which occurred at terminal 5 on 10 March, is believed to be the first time an airport worker has been formally disciplined for misusing the scanners..
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Police received an allegation regarding an incident that happened at Heathrow Terminal 5 on March 10. A first-instance harassment warning has been issued to a 25-year-old male."
BAA said: "We treat any allegations of inappropriate behaviour or misuse of security equipment very seriously and these claims are being investigated thoroughly," a BAA spokesman said. "If found to be substantiated we will take appropriate action."
The incident is likely to reignite privacy concerns over the scanners by civil liberty groups. The Equality and Human Rights Commission last month warned that the government needed to take action to bring its policy for body-scanning passengers at UK airports within the law.
The commission said it had concerns about the apparent absence of safeguards to ensure the scanners were operated in a lawful, fair and non-discriminatory manner. It raised doubts as to whether the decision to install them at all UK airports was legal.
The scanners were introduced at Manchester and Heathrow last month after the Christmas Day bombing attempt over Detroit in the US. The £80,000 Rapiscan machines show a clear body outline and have been described by critics as the equivalent of "virtual strip searching".
While American transport authorities offer passengers a choice between going through the full-body scanner or going through a metal-arch scanner and a physical search, the British government has said that a refusal to go through the body scanner would bar passengers from boarding aircraft.
Earlier this month two women, one a Muslim, became the first people to be barred from boarding a flight at Manchester airport because they refused to go through a full-body scanner. The women, who were booked to fly to Islamabad with Pakistan International Airlines, were told they could not get on the plane after they refused to be scanned for medical and religious reasons.
A House of Commons home affairs committee report on airport securitytoday welcomed the scanners' deployment and said it should have come sooner.
"Having witnessed these full-body scanners working at first-hand, we are confident that the privacy concerns that have been expressed in relation to these devices are overstated and that full-body scanners are no more an invasion of privacy than manual "pat-downs" or searches of bags," the committee said.
"Air passengers already tolerate a large invasion of their privacy and we do not feel that full-body scanners add greatly to this situation. Privacy concerns should not prevent the deployment of scanners."
• This article was amended on 11 June 2010 to remove information about a BAA employee, along with a quote, reported from another media source, that has since been contested
Ritual Church! Founder’s body in morgue five years after • Members still worship skeleton
From MUTIU GANIYU, Osogbo
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Has the world eventually entered the “last days” as prophesied in the Bible, the holy book for Christians? Maybe, if the activities of some so-called Christians are anything to go by. According to II Timothy 3-7: “In the last days, perilous times shall come.
The founder’s skeleton
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good.”
The holy book further states that in the last days, men would have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof and men will ever be learning, and will never be able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
The story is hardly believable but it is true that about five years after the death of a pastor, members of his church still worship his skeleton because of their faith in the efficacy of his powers..
To members of the church, late Jacob Adebayo Oladele, who was the founder, Millennium Gospel Church (MGC), remains powerful even in death.
In February 2010, the police stormed the premises of MGC located at an abandoned aerodrome in a vast forest at Egbedore Local Government Area of Osun State, following a tip-off by the monarch of the town, Alayemoore of Ido-Osun, Oba Adedapo Adeniyi Sapoyoro. The monarch, who said the palace had been inundated with series of allegations of high-handedness and weird worship style of the church members, led a team alongside the police to the church where a purported skeleton of the church’s founder was recovered.
The police arrested 15 suspects while people of the town warned the church members never to return to the land, which belongs to the government. Sunday Sun gathered that five of the suspects are still standing trial at an Osogbo Magistrate Court. Members of the church however insist that they are not ritualists and never killed anybody or performed any ritual in the church.
One of those standing trial, Mrs Florence Oluwaloni Oladele, who is the deputy founder said: “We are not ritualists. We worship our Lord Jesus Christ like every Christian. The skeleton belongs to our founder. Truth shall prevail and we will be vindicated. This is a test of our faith and members should be steadfast and more prayerful.”
Head, Pathology Department at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital (LAUTECHTH), Dr Akinwumi Komolafe, confirmed the presence of the skeleton in the morgue, but said the police did not present a request for tests to be carried out on the skeleton. He said the hospital authorities would keep the skeleton until it receives further directive from the police.
It was however gathered that some of the church members have been visiting the mortuary in order to worship the late founder who they described as their Messiah. “Before stopping them from coming to see the skeleton, some who came were practically worshipping the skeleton. They rolled on the ground, shouting his name, weeping, wailing and appealing to him to answer their prayers. They are fanatical about him and if care is not taken and the skeleton remains in the mortuary more than necessary, they may go wild and take steps to recover it. The mortuary needs more security,” a source at the hospital warned.?
When contacted, the Osun State Commissioner of Police, Solomon Olusegun, said the “case is in court.”
But a police source said: “The skeleton may soon be released to the members since nobody had come forward with a claim that his/her relation was missing.”
“Apart from the skeleton, police did not find any other human or animal part at the church. Initially, we were made to believe that more bodies were going to be recovered from the church like that of the infamous Okija Shrine. None was found apart from the skeleton. However, all theories pointed to the fact that the skeleton belongs to the church founder. You know how fanatical some people could be with living or dead founder of their faith.
“The skeleton will soon be released for burial. At least, the man should be allowed to rest in peace. We still appeal to people who may have contrary information about the church to volunteer it to the police.”
At press time, police authorities were in confusion over what to do with the skeleton even as the hospital management anxiously awaited the collection of late Adebayo’s skeleton for burial because according to them, “the mortuary is meant for dead bodies and not skeleton.
SHOCK, surprise and disbelief could best describe the impressions on the faces of crack detectives attached to the dreaded State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti Street Yaba, Lagos on the gory discovery of mutilated body of a middled-aged women tucked in a ‘Ghana Must Go’ bag and dumped in an uncompleted building somewhere in Igando area of the state.
Okanlawon Efukayo ...I didn’t kill the woman
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One of the officers who could not hide his emotion after the bag which contained parts of the woman was zipped opened simply described the act as ungodly. “This is the height of man’s inhumanity to man.” The woman, who residents said was very popular in the community, was identified as Rashidat Akinsola. She was said to be nursing a 3 -year-old boy before she met her painful and sudden death in the hands of yet to be known killers.
Already, a 45-year-old welder, Okanlawon Efukayo, who was picked up from an apartment in the uncompleted building and on whose bathroom some dangerous weapons including cutlass, knives and hammer were allegedly recovered, is in police net undergoing interrogation. But in swift self defence, the self-acclaimed father of 8 has flatly denied the allegation saying he was just a victim of circumstance.
Crime Guard scooped that a night preceding the discovery, a deafening noise was heard coming from the building as if some people were pounding yam in a mortar. After a while, remarked some anonymous respondents, the noise calmed down and everybody went to sleep only for residents to wake up the following morning to behold a bag soaked in blood and carefully dumped in an uncompleted building on Olorungbebe street, Isuti-Egan in Igando.
The building, it was learnt, had some tenants including the arrested welder as illegal occupiers. Residents promptly raised an alarm and alerted the police. Meanwhile, the late woman, said to be very popular and friendly with many in the sleeping community report was not seen for three days before the discovery of her butchered remains.
However, on scrutiny, sources hinted that the police discovered that her vital parts like the lips of her private part, her breasts and finger tips were missing, fuelling speculations that she may have been a victim of ritual murder.
Describing the act as “wicked”, a resident who simply gave his name as Baba Ibeji said, “This woman you are seeing in this bag like an animal, is well known in this community and very jovial too. To discover her butchered body like some pieces of meat is to show you how wicked people can be in their quest to hide their dastard act.
The people who perpetrated this act thought by severing her into parts, it would be difficult to identify her and so escape justice. But they forgot that God is alive. There is no hiding place for the wicked.”
Continuing, the respondent said, “ This morning, people were screaming that there was a bag soaked in blood and kept in this uncompleted building. So everybody raced to the scene. When the bag was opened, it was discovered that it contained human body cut into pieces and somebody was able to identify the face as Rashidat. That was why we invited the police.
Arrest
When the police arrived the scene, they turned the entire uncompleted building upside down, following which the suspect was fished in a hide out in one of the apartments.
An officer who did not want his names in print told Crime Guard that, “When we arrived the scene of the crime, we saw a bag soaked in blood and when it was opened, we discovered a woman’s body that was cut into pieces like that of an animal.
The body was packed in a ‘Ghana Must Go’ bag. During investigation, we spotted some blood stains and we followed it until we got to a room. In that room, we discovered a carton was used as carpet; that too was soaked with blood.
Then, on the walls, we spotted a pair of trousers which was also stained with blood. We moved further to the bathroom and we saw some weapons, like the knife and cutlass and hammer which had blood stains on them, and eventually we discovered the suspect in one of the adjacent rooms. He was of an unsteady posture and we had not alternative than to arrest him.
We are of the strong conviction that he may have used the weapons to slaughter the defenceless woman for whatever purpose.
Suspect’s denial
But Mr. Efukoya whose tales sounded convincing vehemently denied the allegation blaming his desperation to get an apartment for taking to reside in an uncompleted building.
Said he, “ I have been
looking for an accommodation for long time now, and since I lost my shop to officials of the Lagos State Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) in Igando, life has been difficult for me. There was no enough money to rent a good apartment, that was how I found myself here through an agent, Olorungbebe.
“I did not kill this woman even though the police is claiming that I am responsible for her death. How I go take kill somebody wey I never see in my life before? I am not a killer, I did not kill her. God bear me witness.”
In the mean time, the mutilated remains of Mrs. Akinsola has been deposited in a public mortuary for forensic analysis..
