Trial (3)

OPERATIVES of the Department of the State Security Service (SSS), on Tuesday, quizzed former governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu.
 
According to a high security source, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) chieftain was reportedly quizzed at the SSS headquarters, otherwise known as Yellow House, Abuja.
Though no official reason was given by the SSS for the questioning, the Nigerian Tribune learnt that it might not be unconnected with Tinubu's pending case at the Code of Conduct Tribunal, as well as his recent outburst at the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) rally in Ibadan, during which he reportedly called President Goodluck Jonathan a "drunkard."

It was gathered that Senator Tinubu, who received the SSS invitation on Monday, arrived at its headquarters at exactly 3.15p.m. in Abuja, on Tuesday.

According to our source, he was quizzed over his utterances which the service considered as security "risk" but was later released on self recognisance.

"He (Tinubu) has been making some statements considered unhealthy for peaceful coexistence in recent times. The service deemed it fit to interact with him over such issues," a source said.

The former governor is also said to have a case file before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The Nigerian Tribune learnt that the former governor was left off the hook after the questioning around 4.15p.m.

Efforts to get official confirmation on the questioning of Senator Tinubu from the service were not successful as the telephone lines of SSS spokesperson, Maryln Ogar, an Assistant Director of Public Relations, were defective.

However, a top operative in the service, who wanted anonymity confirmed the questioning, saying it was a normal routine that could be extended to anybody.

Meanwhile, with the swearing in of the new acting chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Danladi Yakubu Umar on Tuesday, the stage appears set for the commencement of the prosecution of past and present public officers indicted for alleged violation of the asset declaration law.

Nigerian Tribune, on Tuesday, exclusively reported the appointment and swearing-in of Umar by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu...

The covert swearing in reportedly took place around 10.00 a.m at the Supreme Court, with a handful staff of the Code of Conduct Tribunal present.

Code of Conduct Bureau spokesperson, Mrs Idowu Jokpeyibo, confirmed the swearing-in to the Nigerian Tribune, on Tuesday.

It was also gathered on Tuesday night that the Federal Government, through the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, had almost concluded arrangement for the appointment of two other members that would be sitting on cases with the acting chairman.

The tribunal is a three-member panel, though two members are required to form a quorum.

It was further learnt that the tribunal might start sitting from next week, which would see to the commencement of the trial of Senator Tinubu and others charged before the tribunal by the Code of Conduct Bureau for violation of assets declaration law.

The two members are expected to be appointed and sworn in before the end of the week.


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Effiong Elemi-Edu, 40, was released from prison in Nigeria last month after spending more than 15 years inside awaiting trial. He was newly married and working in a plastic manufacturing firm when he was rounded up by police in Lagos in November 1995, the month after the murder of pro-democracy activist Alfred Rewane. His brutal killing has been linked to the government of former military ruler Sani Abacha. Mr Elemi-Edu told the BBC about his arrest and how he was largely forgotten in the justice system even though military rule ended in 1999. I was shot in my left leg shortly after my arrest. We were all tortured and beaten” I left my house to buy some suya (grilled meat) for dinner when I heard repeated gunshots. So I ran to a drain ditch to take cover - and when the shooting died down I wanted to rush to my residence. On my way I heard a voice shouting: "Stop there, stop there!" I had to stop. "Who are you?" I explained myself to the armed police, but before I knew what was happening, they were saying I was an armed robber and I was already in their vehicle. Then they drove me down to Sars [Special Anti-Robbery Squad] - it wasn't only me. I saw a lot of people inside and they were all arrested. I'd never been to the Sars detention camp before. I was handcuffed and asked to sit down under the fruit tree and before I knew it, a man came and took me to "theatre". I didn't know what "the theatre" was - I thought I was going for an operation. At the "theatre" I was asked to lie down flat, face on the ground, my hands up and they chained me with rubber twine and then suspended me from my legs. They were asking me if I knew the incident that happened to Pa Rewane and I said I didn't know what they were talking about. "I have never robbed, I've never stolen in my life - I don't know what you're talking about," I said. Wrongly Accused Calendar * 6 October 1995: Alfred Rewane is murdered * 11 November 1995: Effiong Elemi-Edu is arrested * January 1996: Effiong Elemi-Edu is forced to sign a statement; accused of Rewane's urder * June 1998: Military ruler Sani Abacha dies * May 1999: Military rule ends with elections * January 2011: Effiong Elemi-Edu is freed after a judge rules on lack of evidence. His co-accused Lucky Igbinovia is freed too. Their fellow survivor Elvis Iremuna was released a few months earlier I had never met him, and there was no way for me to get in touch with people. I wasn't able to ask for a lawyer, my family weren't even allowed to get close to me. When they came looking for us, they drove them away and started insulting them. About 50 of us had been arrested but seven of us were eventually charged with the murder of Pa Rewane. I was shot in my left leg shortly after my arrest. We were all tortured and beaten. And when I refused to recopy a statement that the police wrote with my handwriting, I received the same torture - I was punched with blows to my left ear which filled up with blood. I was almost at the point of death so I did what they asked me. Four of the others died while in detention in 1996 because of the torture. Only three of us have been released. Basketball dreams My wife gave up and got married to another man” God alone knows why he kept me alive. I had it at the back of my mind that God would rescue me one day. Life in jail was a hell. Not hearing from your people. During the whole process I lost my mother. She died the month after my detention of a heart attack. My wife gave up and got married to another man. I was always very sad. It was very painful, there was nothing you could do but look at the four corners of the prisons 24 hours a day. Then there was the tribunal time - it was no joke back and forth in the Black Maria (police van). There were 50 appearances before military tribunals - and between 200 to 250 adjournments in court. No trial ever got under way. You become so tired. Alfred Rewane * Prominent pro-democracy activist critical of military ruler Sani Abacha * Killed in his home on 6 October 1995 * Gunmen pulled into his compound in a van marked with the logo of one of his companies * Staff and security overpowered and locked up * Rewane shot dead in the chest in his bedroom * His killers are yet to be found When the ruling was made for my release last month I felt like cold water was poured on me. I give glory to God. I am now living with a younger cousin in Lagos. I am trying to locate my other family members and will soon travel to my village in Cross River State. I intend to visit the site of my mother's grave. My life has just been wasted like that but God has a purpose for it.... I had dreamt of becoming a basketball player - because of my six-feet-four-inches height my school mates nicked me "The Dream" after Hakeem Olajuwon [a professional Nigerian player in the US]. Coming back to society is not that easy. I'm calling on government that they should do something because presently now I don't know where I will start from. I don't have anything. I've lost many things.
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From the photo it is clear that one of the boys is black I hope say no be naija man pickin !

An eight-year-old girl cuddled her teddy bear and cried as she told a jury in a recorded interview that she had been raped by two ten-year-old boys.

The defendants sat with their mothers in the well of a courtroom as the recording was played at the Old Bailey yesterday. The girl, who was interviewed by specially trained police, said that the boys had refused to return her scooter unless she did what they demanded. She said that they led her from a lift at a block of flats to a bin shed, then a hedge, and exposed themselves and raped her.

Wiping away tears, she said that while it was happening she had thought about going to a sweet shop with her mother.

She said that on the day it happened, in October, she had been playing with her younger sister and a five-year-old friend when the boys approached and led her away. They told her to pull down her underwear, warning that she wouldn’t get her “scooter from the bush” if she didn’t

Sometimes rushing her sentences, the girl said: “Then they took me and my friend downstairs to the bin shed and they put the bins near the entrance so we couldn’t get out. We wanted to go out but they wouldn’t let us. They put the bins so no one could see us.”

Rosina Cottage, for the prosecution, said that the girl’s mother had been told by her younger daughter, who returned home alone, that the two boys had been “hurting her”. The alleged victim’s mother and younger sister went to look for her and came across the mother of the younger defendant and a five-year-old playmate.

When the boy’s mother asked the little boy where her son was, “he said that he was in a nearby field and that he was with her and that he was hurting her”, the prosecution said.

He pointed to the field and they went to find the children. The girl’s mother went into the field in Hayes, West London, but could not find her. “As she was walking out she saw her with the boys and asked what they had been doing. They all said nothing,” Ms Cottage said.

The mother asked for her daughter’s scooter back from the younger defendant. As they walked home, the woman “could see things were not right with her daughter”. It is claimed that the girl later told her mother what had happened and the police were called.

The judge and three barristers in the case are appearing without their usual wigs and gowns because the defendants and alleged victim are so young. Mr Justice Saunders has also moved from the raised judge’s bench to the lower court clerk’s seat. The sitting hours will be shortened.

The two boys often discreetly asked their mothers or solicitors questions and occasionally pointed at the screens used to show maps and CCTV footage of the area. The girl was introduced to the jury via a video link from an anteroom of the court after the taped recordings had been played.

Opening the case, Ms Cottage said that after the alleged attack the girl was taken to hospital complaining of stomach pains, and scratches and grazes were found. When officers interviewed the older boy he denied raping the girl and blamed the other, who said nothing to the police.

Both boys deny two charges of rape and two of attempted rape. The trial continues.

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