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 Residents of the area had woken up to see the woman perched dangerously atop the minaret which is under construction as part of ongoing renovation works on the three-storey mosque.

The scene of the incident became a Mecca of sort as residents from the neigbouring communities gathered to witness the incident. Many of the onlookers expressed surprise at how Bolaji managed to climb the mosque tower even as they wondered how the mother of three would be rescued safely.

Meanwhile, there were different sides to the Bolaji saga. While some people claimed she was a witch on a failed mission, and reaping the fruits of her wickedness, others said she was mentally deranged, a claim

Amid the confusion over how to rescue Bolaji safely from her precarious position, a commercial tricyclist, simply identified as Ikechukwu, offered to bring the lady down if his colleagues would compensate him with the sum of N1, 000. There was another angle to the Ikechukwu story, as another account said he had actually placed a bet with some other young men at the scene that he could bring down the woman. The wager was put at N1,000.00.

Ikechukwu, after getting the assurance that he would be given the money began to climb the minaret. Unaware that he was embarking on a dangerous mission, Ikechukwu never returned to claim the money he was promised. He was allegedly pushed down by Bolaji using one of the wooden beams the construction workers had placed in the minaret. He landed, hitting his head on the concrete floor. He died instantly. Following Ikechukwu’s fatal fall, Bolaji was said to have boasted that she would kill more people should they venture to bring her down.

However, the Imam in charge of the mosque, Ganiyu Oyebanjo, was said to have contacted the policemen and men of the State Fire Service. Daily Sun gathered that before the arrival of the crime fighters, a native doctor was said to have made a futile attempt to rescue Bolaji. The medicine man was said to have recited some incantations, cast spell but to no avail. He was reportedly chased away by the crowd. Men of the state fire service on their arrival splashed water on the victim hoping it would scare her, yet she remained adamant.

When Daily Sun arrived the scene Bolaji was seen entertaining her audience. Repeatedly, she would remove her clothes dance around while the malefolk applauded her. When it was obvious that the woman just had to be saved from possible death, able-bodied men comprising mainly of members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), took over the rescue mission.

They beckoned on her to come down, while she shouted in Yoruba language that they should leave her alone. She began throwing stones at the men who for safety had to wear helmet. Gradually the men climbed up the tower, distracted the lady while another with the aid of a plank pushed her from the minaret to the roof of the mosque. She was eventually brought down from the roof.

The mob attempted to lynch Bolaji but for the quick intervention of the police. She was whisked to Ijesha police station and later moved to a private hospital where she is receiving treatment. Her father lamented that things would not have degenerated to this if his daughter had not been turned back by Yaba Psychiatric hospital. According to him, the hospital had asked that the family should first treat the wounds Oluremi had inflicted on herself before bringing her for admission. The angry mob took to the street, protesting the death of Ikechukwu and calling for the heads of the woman and members of her entire family.

The mob barricaded Ijesha Lawanson Road, disrupting commercial activities and vehicular movements. Some hoodlums who hijacked the protest used the opportunity to snatch peoples mobile phones and handbags. The police eventually dispersed the protesters by firing tear gas canisters.

The Imam, Ganiyu Oyebanjo, expressed shock on how the woman managed to climb the minaret. “I think she was being controlled by a demonic force. She climbed the minaret at about midnight and was brought down around 11:00 am.”

He alleged that worshippers had prevailed on the deceased, Ikechukwu, to wait for the arrival of policemen and the fire fighters but he was adamant, probably because of the N1, 000, allegedly promised him by his colleagues.

Lagos State police spokesman, Mr. Frank Mba, who confirmed the death of Ikechukwu, said the quick intervention of the police saved the lady from being stoned to death by the mob. He said both the police and fire fighters rushed the woman in an ambulance to the police before taking her to the hospital.

He said the body of Ikechukwu had been taken by his family for burial. Mba advised members of the public to always report such incidents to the police rather than resort to jungle justice.

A Nigerian, Zainab Suleiman,62, on Sunday died onboard an Ethiopian airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Abuja..

The deceased’s husband, Suleiman Abdulra’uf, a Kano based businessman, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent in Addis Ababa that they were returning from New Delhi, when they transited to Addis Ababa and boarded another plane for onward journey back to Nigeria.

‘‘We travelled to New Delhi for treatment. She was discharged and on our way back,

we stopped over here in Addis Ababa where we changed planes, but one and a half hours after take-off, she died and the plane returned to Addis Ababa,’’ Mr. Abdulra’uf said.

He described the death of his wife as the will of God and that the corpse had been deposited at a morgue, while Ethiopian immigration and airline officials were making necessary arrangement for its transportation to Nigeria.He said he took the deceased to New Delhi for a cancer treatment.

NAN reports that some senior officials of the Nigerian Embassy in Ethiopia, headed by John Ejinaka, the Charge de Affairs of the embassy, had on Monday met with the deceased’s husband at the Chancery in Addis Ababa.

Another Nigerian was also reported to have died last week onboard an Ethiopian Airline plane from Abuja to New Delhi. The deceased was also going for medical treatment in India.

Mr. Ejinaka told the NAN that the embassy recorded six of such cases in 2009.

Police released the name of a woman who was found dead in a suitcase and were still searching for a suspect seen on a surveillance video rolling the suitcase on a New York block.

Police identified her as Betty Williams, 28, from the Bronx. Williams was strangled and then stuffed into the dark-colored suitcase, authorities said. The suitcase was found Wednesday night.

A grainy video, released by police, shows a man dressed in a dark knit hat and leather jacket with light-colored pants, pulling the dark-colored suitcase near a stoop in East Harlem.

The man pauses as three people walk by before hauling the suitcase past a dark-colored sport utility vehicle and out of the camera's sight..

Later, the woman's body was found in the suitcase, and blood was leaking from the luggage, police said.

"The cause of death is strangulation," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Thursday. "We initially announced it was trauma to the back of the head -- that was the belief of the investigators at the scene."

Kelly added, "We're talking to relatives, and we hope to have more definitive information about her acquaintances that will help in the investigation."

The New York Police Department is seeking the public's assistance in identifying the suspect in the video.

Residents of Otto-Ilogbo Community, in the Ebute Metta area of Lagos are alarmed by the murder of a pregnant woman in their area.

This follows the revelation by a 23-year-old lady, identified as Grace Orobo, that she connived with her boyfriend, one Okechukwu Eze, 28, to bury a pregnant woman in a swamp in the community. The victim, Glory Goodnews, from Oron in Akwa Ibom State, was living with her boyfriend, Mr Eze, a loader with one of the transportation companies at Ejigbo, a suburb of the city, for close to three years at Otto Ilogbo slum, when she suddenly disappeared in January. According to one of Ms Goodnew’s relatives, David Sambo Udoh, the victim confided in him that she was pregnant but her boyfriend, Mr Eze, told her to abort the pregnancy.

And the news came

According to residents, the victim disappeared from sight around January this year. News that she was allegedly murdered came out when Mr Eze’s new girlfriend, Ms Orobo, on Sunday, revealed to the victim’s relatives that she connived with Mr Eze to murder Ms Goodnews and later buried her in a swamp in the community, following her refusal to abort the pregnancy.

“Glory is from Akwa Ibom and I am from Akwa Ibom,” said Mr Udoh. “She comes from the same village my wife came from, Oron; so she is well known to us. She was living in an hotel at Orile, but Okechukwu brought her from the hotel to come and live with him at Otto Ilogbo. They have been living together for like three years now. Around January this year, Glory came to tell us that she was pregnant but her boyfriend, Okechukwu, said she will not use pregnancy to trap him to marry her because Okechukwu was also dating another girl called, Orobo. After a while, we did not see Glory again and I personally went to ask Okechukwu where Glory is, but he said he had sent her to his village in Anambra State to go and give birth there. Every time I see Okechukwu, I will ask him to give me Glory’s number so I can call her but he will give me fake numbers that will never reach her.

“When it was like nine months, and I knew she would have given birth, I asked Okechukwu again, but he told me that Glory gave birth to a boy and she will be coming to Lagos soon. But on Sunday, Orobo, Okechukwu’s other girlfriend came to our room and she was holding Glory’s picture. She told us that she want to reveal the secret; that Okechukwu has buried Glory with her pregnancy in the canal at Otto because Glory refused to abort the pregnancy. I went to meet Okechukwu but he was not around. Later in the night, around 10pm that Sunday, 28th of November, I saw Okechukwu coming back home and I held his shirt that he had killed Glory and buried her in the swamp. Okechukwu just keep saying ‘Please, I will tell you everything; I will tell you everything’. He said Glory was sick and she died in his hands so he did not want to alert anybody, that was why himself and his girlfriend, Orobo, went to bury Glory in the swamp at Otto Canal in the midnight. I was angry and I raised alarm and that was how the people in the community helped me to drag Okechukwu to the Denton Police Station.”...

Police take over case

The case was later transferred to the Iponri Police Division, where police officers have began investigation into the case. The Community Development Officer of Otto Ilogbo, Agbodemu Ishola Musbau, described the incident as unfortunate. “Glory is a very peace-loving person and she is very gentle,” he said. “I remember that I last saw her in January and later asked after her and they told me that she travelled to the east. Since then I have not heard anything from her until now that I got information that her boyfriend allegedly connived with a lady called Orobo to kill her and they threw her body into the swampy canal here in Otto. This community is peaceful and we will get to the root of the matter, and we will not condole murderers living with us and that is why we are raising the alarm about the death so that police can investigate it.”

“If Okechukwu is found guilty of the allegation then he will be made to face the penalty of his crime. His girlfriend, Orobo, who allegedly committed this crime with him, is at large but the police will arrest her and with our cooperation, she will be arrested soon. So that this will serve as a deterrent to criminally minded people not to take the laws into their hands.”

The cause of the death of a BRT passenger, Ms. Ifeanyi Dennis, who was allegedly killed by a commercial bus driver being pursued by men of the Lagos State Transport Management Agency on Thursday, is still generating controversy...

While a witness, Mr. Adetiba Joseph, told PUNCH METRO that Ifeanyi was killed by a fleeing bus driver, who was being pursued by the LASTMA men, the agency denied any complicity in the death of the 42 year-old woman.

But Joseph, who insisted that the victim was knocked down by the fleeing driver, added that Ifeanyi died on the spot before medication could be administered to her.

According to him, the death sparked off a spontaneous reaction from members of the public including commercial motorcyclists, popularly called okada riders, who allegedly pursued LASTMA officials at the scene.

Joseph said the officials later reinforced, stormed the scene and confiscated 15 motorcycles, while the motorcyclists ran away.

Joseph said, “Around 1pm, LASTMA people were pursuing one danfo motor. The danfo driver wanted to escape from LASTMA at the service lane when the officials blocked the road with their rake-like equipment. The vehicle crossed to BRT side and knocked down one of the two women that were standing at the BRT tarmac.

“We carried her to the other side of the road. We took her to a nearby hospital but before we could reach there, she was already dead. When the emergency response operation came after being phoned, they discovered that she was already dead.

“Later, people pursued LASTMA officials standing there. Afterwards the officials came and impounded 15 motorcycles from the other side.”

The Pastor of Living Covenant Christian Assembly, Onigbongbo, Maryland, Pastor Timmy Amode, where the deceased worshipped, said although he was not there at the time of the accident, information available to him corroborated Joseph‘s account.

He, however, said he witnessed when LASTMA officials came and confiscated the motorcycles.

Amode said, “She was at the BRT stand to catch a vehicle. How the bus got there and knocked her down, we do not know. Every attempt to talk to LASTMA officials there soon after was unsuccessful as regards what happened.

“When we were still at the hospital, LASTMA people came in five vehicles and cordoned off the entire area and took away some motorcycles. I do not know if they made any arrest but I am a witness at this point.”

But the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa, on Sunday said LASTMA was not in any way responsible for Ifeanyi’s death.

He said the woman had had the accident before the attention of his officials at Maryland was drawn to the scene.

According to him, the officials quickly informed the appropriate rescue and accident management unit, who raced to the scene, adding that the cordoning off of the road was to aid the evacuation and possible treatment of the woman. ,

Opeifa said, “Our record has it that there was an incident around Channels Television at Maryland. The attention of LASTMA was drawn to a woman that was killed by a hit-and-run-driver.

“We called Lagos Ambulance Emergency Response and the Ministry of Heath. “The health officials promptly came to the scene, but before they could reach there, she had already died. As soon as we got there, LASTMA stopped traffic.

“In the process of managing the traffic, the public including, okada riders, who had developed sympathy for the deceased, spoiled for a fight for not allowing traffic to continue.

“They started attacking LASTMA officials. Police came in and dispersed them and the okada riders.”

The younger brother to the deceased, Mr. Onyeka Dennis, advised the Lagos State Government to reform LASTMA to curb their alleged excesses.

He added that people should show more attention and concern for others especially accident victims and people in need.

The Lagos State Police Command spokesperson, Mr. Frank Mba, in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Sunday, said he was not aware of the incident.

Where there is a will there is a WAY !! With a great percentage of our womenfolk who have embraced Prostitiution and other Vices as a means of survival .The Phrase what a man can do a woman can do even .....Omoyeni is one of the Heroes of This country who face the odds head on and will take No for an Answer.Kudos from us all !

Omoyeni Agbokere is a 35-year-old widow who has taken up a task most women would frown at as a means of survival.

‘First lady’ is what she is fondly called by her colleagues at the motor park, a name which she inscribes on the back of her tricycle (Keke Marwa). Driving a tricycle is not what she ever dreamt of as a career, but her husband’s death forced her to look for a means of survival.

“My husband died two years ago,” she said. “ Before he died, I used to engage in some petty trading because he was the one taking care of most of the family’s needs. When he died, I had to look for a better business to sustain me and my family.”

The mother of two says she has not regretted her decision because she makes enough to take care of her family.

“I have two children, a boy of 12 and a girl of eight. This Keke Marwa business, I see it as something I can use to help my family because it is bringing a daily income. The money I make every day depends on how much I work for the day. I make between N2,000 and N3,000 everyday.”

‘I’m my own boss’

Apart from being lucrative enough to cater for her family’s needs, Mrs Agbokere says she enjoys the flexibility that her work provides. “When I’m tired or when I don’t feel like working again, I can just stop and go home. I have enough time to spend with my children and i can be there for them at any time of the day,” she said.

She plies the Mushin-Oye route several times a day, a task which brings her in contact with different people, some of whom are hesitant to have her drive them because of her gender. “Some passengers who see a woman driving a ‘keke’ for the first time are usually scared. They think that if I drive them, they may fall off the ‘keke’ or even have an accident so they won’t enter. The people who live around here see me driving everyday so they are used to me and don’t get scared.”

With only four months experience in the business, Mrs Agbokere says she is comfortable with it and hopes to continue. “I didn’t buy this ‘keke’ with my money because I can’t afford it. If I had enough money to buy it, I don’t think I would have been driving a ‘keke’. I would have used the money to start another business of my own. But I thank God for what I am doing now. This ‘keke’ is owned by a woman who lives in my area. She gave me to drive and I pay her weekly. By God’s grace, I will soon finish paying for it and the keke would become mine,” says the indigene of Oyo State..

‘The men respect me’

Being the only woman working among so many men, Mrs Agbokere says there are more advantages to it than she thought. “I don’t face as much challenges as I would have expected in this business. The ‘keke’ is quite easy to drive. Also, I am the only woman working among these men and they treat me very well. They respect me a lot. They even pamper me because I am the only woman. The police men I meet on the streets when I am driving my keke are usually very kind to me. Even the Agberos (touts) don’t disturb me when I am working.”

Her husband’s death, she says, has made her stronger and more determined to provide a better future for her children. To women who have had similar losses and setbacks in life, Mrs Agbokere says they should look past their loss and forge ahead. “I advise them not to sit down and fold their hands while waiting for someone to help them. Despite any unfortunate incident in their life, they should not think that is the end of their life.”

Like most business owners, Mrs Agbokere has a dream of expansion for ‘First Lady’. “If I can finish paying the money for this ‘keke’, I will buy another one to give out to someone who will be driving it and paying me daily just like I am doing now, preferably a woman.”

"I took [President Obama] to various locations while he was looking for campaign funds. Vera accompanied him to each meeting.

"About 10:30 pm, I drove them to the hotel and they went in together. She didn't ask me to wait or to be taken back to her friend's home - or to her home"

A pregnant woman and four other suspects have been arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for attempting to smuggle 6.3kg of narcotics out of the country.

The agency, on Wednesday, disclosed that the pregnant suspect, Osatohanwen Esohe, 29, who was nabbed at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos for ingesting cocaine while trying to board an Alitalia flight to Rome, excreted 27 wraps of the drugs weighing 350g.

“Apart from Chukwuemeka Kingsley that ingested 1.4kg of heroin, Esohe and three others were smuggling 4.8kg of cocaine when they were caught,” said Mitchell Ofoyeju, spokesperson for the agency in a statement.

Hamza Umar, MMIA commander for the agency, disclosed that the pregnant suspect’s action shows no respect for human life, as he described the act as weird.

“They do not have respect for their own lives neither do they respect the dignity of their children,” he said. “This is the height of desperation by drug barons and their associates.”

Mr. Umar gave the names of the other four suspects that were recently apprehended as Arovo Moses, 42, who ingested 1.7kg of cocaine; Darlington Nwanwere, 48, ingested 1.3kg of cocaine; Okeke Anthony, 46, who ingested 1.46kg cocaine; and Chukwuemeka Kingsley, 34, who ingested 1.4kg heroin.

Explaining her reasons for involving in drug peddling, Ms. Esohe disclosed that she was rejected by the man who impregnated her, adding that she had to fend for herself in order to survive.

“I am three months pregnant, and the man that impregnated me refused to take responsibility,” she said. “That was how I got involved in drug trafficking. They promised to pay me 2,000 Euros and I needed the money to take care of myself and the unborn baby.”

According to the agency, Mr. Okeke, a trader and father of three who was to be paid 4,000 pounds, was nabbed on March 19, during screening of passengers on Virgin Atlantic flight to London, while Chukwuemeka Kingsley, the only suspect that ingested heroin, was arrested for swallowing 95 wraps of the substance while trying to board an Alitalia flight to Milan for the sum of 5,000 Euros.

The agency’s spokesperson, however, disclosed that the suspects are to be prosecuted according to the dictates of the law.

“All the suspects will soon be charged to court,” said Mr. Ofoyeju.