Motorcycle Rider Sells A Nurse N10, 000 To Ritual Killers

A commercial motorcyclist, identified simply as Ifeanyi, has been arrested for allegedly handing over a nurse, Mrs. Helen Ilonge, to ritual killers after collecting N10, 000.

Greenwich News learnt that Ilonge had on Tuesday last week took Ifeanyi’s motorcycle on her way to Igoli along the Ogoja-Ikom Highway in Ogoja LGA.

Ilonge, the coordinator of Primary Health Care in Bekwarra Local Government Area of Cross River State, was coming from a programme at the Assemblies of God Church, Abakaliki in Ebonyi State, and had alighted from a vehicle at Okpongrinya junction before taking the bike.

It was gathered that Ilonge (51) was beheaded while her other vital reproductive parts such as breast and vagina were removed for ritual purposes.

Ilonge’s neighbour, Mrs. Theresa Idagwu, on Sunday said, “Ifeanyi took the lady from Okpogrinya Junction on the pretence that he was taking her to the village, which is 10 minutes drive from the point. But along the way, he stopped and handed her over to kidnappers at Ukpe.

Meanwhile, the woman had called her daughter, Victoria, around 9pm that she had taken a bike at Okpogrinya Junction on her way to Igoli. She said when she gets to her destination; she would call again so that Victoria would boil water for her to take her bath. That was Ilonge’s last call.”

Repeated calls made to the woman’s line, according to Idagwu, indicated that it was switched off.

She said Ilonge’s family became worried when the woman did not return home. “We went everywhere- police stations, hospitals and even her friends in Igoli, thinking that may be an accident had occurred along the road but we got nothing,” Idagwu added.

Two days later, Idagwu said someone called Victoria on her phone and informed her that her mother had been kidnapped. The caller demanded a ransom of N50, 000 to be remitted in form of recharge cards.

She said, “Since her daughter could not raise the money, she rushed to the Bekwarra LGA headquarters where the head of administration, Mr. Bisong Bogbo, and the chairman, Mr. Linus Edeh, provided the money with which she bought recharge cards and sent to the caller.

“The voice claimed that he needed the recharge cards so he could sell and run away from his master who is a ritual killer. He claimed that he had been serving his master for a long time and wanted to run away. He said once he gets the cards, he will break the door where the nurse is being kept and release her.”

The LGA’s head of administration, Bogbo, confirmed that the cards were sent to the kidnapper through Victoria’s telephone.

He said immediately the alleged kidnapper confirmed receipt of the cards; he switched off his telephone.

Luck, however, ran out of Ifeanyi. Policemen tracked his telephone line and discovered that he called Victoria from Abuochiche.

Further investigations, it was gathered, showed that Ifeanyi had been selling the cards in the village immediately he got them.

When he was arrested, Bogbo told our correspondent that Ifeanyi led the police to one of the ritual killers identified simply as Elvis.

Elvis, according to Bogbo, confessed that the nurse had already been killed and some of her vital organs removed before Ifeanyi asked for the recharge cards.

Elvis also said the remains of the woman were buried in a swamp.

At the council headquarters, one of the late nurse’s colleagues, Mr. Gabriel Ogar, said she was probably the kindest woman he ever worked with.

Ogar said, “I have worked with five coordinators, but I know that she is just the best so far. She worked to the admiration of Governor Liyel Imoke and now she has been killed leaving her five children without a helper.

“Her husband died 12 years ago and since then she has been the one taking care of the children and only one has graduated. Please let the government do something for those poor children.”

When contacted on Monday, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Osita Ezechukwu, said the police were still investigating the matter.

He said four suspects had been apprehended by the anti-homicide unit, adding that when the investigation was completed the suspects would be prosecuted.

“We have taken confessional statement from them. Those who are not involved have been allowed to go while those who are involved are still in detention,” Ezechukwu said.

Obama Dusts Romney in the Final US Presidential Debate

Barack Obama pummeled Mitt Romney as “all over the map” on foreign policy, dismissing his “wrong and reckless” positions in the heated final debate of a knife-edge White House race.

With just two weeks until polling day, Obama has unexpectedly found himself running neck-and-neck with a challenger who had long trailed him, and Monday’s face-off on world affairs was perhaps a last chance to land a decisive blow.

“I know you haven’t been in a position to actually execute foreign policy, but every time you’ve offered an opinion, you’ve been wrong,” President Obama told his foe, coming out swinging in the debate in Boca Raton, Florida.

Republican challenger Romney played it safe, avoiding any catastrophic error that would have undermined his bid to be commander-in-chief, but was often on the defensive, apart from when lambasting Obama over the struggling economy.

“Attacking me is not an agenda,” the former Massachusetts governor told the president, and renewed charges that Obama had mounted “apology tours” abroad, prompting the president to accuse him of telling a “whopper.”

Obama had the best lines of the night and sharply cross-examined Romney on his approach to Syria, Iran and trade rows with China, accusing him of “airbrushing history” by dumping earlier hawkish conservative positions.

The Republican, who has spent months attempting to paint Obama as a weak appeaser, actually backed much of the substance of the president’s global strategy, courting wavering voters ahead of the November 6 election.

In a clear bid to moderate his image, Romney endorsed Obama’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014, supported the president’s lethal drone war against terror suspects and congratulated him on hunting down Osama bin Laden.

Romney vowed to press China harder on trade and currency issues but toned down earlier rhetoric, following warnings his approach could spark a trade war.

“We can be a partner with China. We don’t have to be an adversary in any way, shape or form,” he said, despite his vow to brand Beijing a currency manipulator on day one of his presidency.

Oddly, neither candidate mentioned the eurozone crisis — widely seen as the country’s biggest external economic threat — aside from Romney reprising his warning that the debt-laden US economy under Obama was “heading toward Greece.”

An instant poll by CBS News found that Obama won the debate by 53 percent to 23 percent, after a clash that appeared to polish his leadership credentials and saw him showing the passion missing in his disastrous first debate.

CNN’s poll found Obama beat Romney 48 to 40 percent.

But foreign policy is seen as unlikely to decide the election, with voters preoccupied by the sluggish economy, and it will take several days to gauge whether the clash had any impact in the tied up polls.

Dotty Lynch, professor of Public Communication at American University, said that by agreeing with Obama on foreign policy — the incumbent’s strong suit — Romney had tried to maneuver the evening onto more favorable ground.

“By agreeing on the big points of foreign policy, Romney played it safe tonight and tried to move the conversation to the economy, where he thinks he’s stronger,” she said

George Washington University professor Chris Aterton said Romney may have won over some independent voters simply by showing that he is not “the dangerous, wild conservative that Obama has been trying to portray him as.”

Obama looked bemused, puzzled and exasperated by Romney’s tactics, staring intently at him as he spoke, apparently trying to keep frustration in check.

The president accused his opponent of being “all over the map” on a wide range of issues and dismissed Romney’s claims that that he had run down the armed forces to levels not seen since early in the 20th Century.

“You mentioned the navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military’s changed,” he said, to laughter from the audience.

“We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.”

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, warned Islamic extremism was rampant in post-Arab Spring societies and blamed a lack of US leadership over the last four years, warning “we can’t kill our way out of this mess.”

Romney demanded tightened sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, saying the country’s leaders “saw weakness where they had been expected to find American strength” and accused Obama of neglecting close ally Israel.

The president, who withdrew troops from Iraq, pointed to Romney’s past statements in support of maintaining an unpopular US military presence in the country, invaded in 2003 under former Republican president George W. Bush.

And he mocked Romney’s previous statement that Russia was America’s top geopolitical foe.

“Governor, when it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s,” Obama said.

The rivals are effectively tied in national polls after Romney surged following his first debate win in early October and started chipping away at Obama’s foundation in the swing states that will decide the election.

Armed robbers kill three police men in Ogun

Three police men have been confirmed dead in an early hour raid on a community in Abeokuta, the Ogun state capital, while two others were critically injured.

The incident was said to have occurred when the five officers were on the way to address a distress call that a 15 member armed bandit had stormed the Ijemo-Agbadu area of the city.

Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Muyiwa Adejobi stated three police officers were murdered and that two others were injured while an undisclosed amount of money and other personal effects were carted away from the church.

The 15 member armed gang reportedly stormed the community and a church, The Apostolic Church, being  their target.

The Police PRO for the state while on the spot assessment of the area disclosed that a member of the gang who  confessed to be part of the operation has been arrested and is helping the police in their investigations

While seeking useful information from the general public, Mr Adejobi assured residents of adequate security of life and property at all times, stating that the unfortunate incident will not deter the command from performing its constitutional responsibilities.

PHOTO: Psquare's Peter Okoye Changes Look

Recent photos released by PSquare shows a radical change of look of Peter Okoye.

Man opens fire in a salon targeting his wife, found dead later

Radcliffe Haughton, 45, was found dead after shooting an estimated seven people at a day spa in Brookfield, Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon.
Three people were confirmed dead and the four other victims are said to be in non-critical condition.
The deceased and injured victims were all women, police said.
Authorities would not say whether Haughton’s wife was among them.
During the investigation, cops encountered smoke from a small fire that had been started in the building, prompting them to issue a call for extreme caution and keeping them out.
Brookfield Police Chief Daniel Tushaus said at an evening news conference: ‘It appears that he is deceased of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.’
He added: ‘There is no other suspect that we are seeking.’

In an earlier statement to the press, Chief Tushaus said the shooting began at 11.09am Sunday morning inside the Azana Spa.
Haughton was described as a bald ethnic man with darker skin, about 6 foot one inch tall and 270 pounds. He is believed to have taken a taxi to the spa.
Haughton, of Brown Deer, is estranged from his wife, who works as a hair stylist at the salon where the shooting took place.
It is not yet clear whether the wife was one of the shooting victims.
Court records show that a judge issued a order of protection against Haughton just three days ago on October 18, hinting that there was a credible threat against the estranged wife.
Under that order, Haughton was prohibited from owning a firearm.
The protection order was filed after an October 4 incident at the salon, when Haughton slashed his wife’s tires in the parking lot.

Haughton’s two daughters – one of which was believed to have been at the salon at the time of the shooting – were found by police and are safe, according to Brown Deer police chief Steven Rinzel.
Chief Rinzel said that his department was familiar with Haughton – most recently on a domestic violence investigation at the home, which resulted in Haughton’s arrest.
The Journal Sentinel contacted the suspect’s father, Radcliffe Haughton Sr., who lives in Florida.
He said the he spoke to his son by phone last week shortly after his estranged wife had been awarded the restraining order against him.
‘I told him, whatever you do, don’t do anything stupid,’ Mr Haughton Sr. said.
‘He told me, “I have to get out of Wisconsin.”
‘I am so saddened. I don’t know what to tell you. As his father, I am very, very sorry and I did not expect this from my son.
‘So he hasn’t been apprehended? Oh Lord. Have mercy, God.
A witness saw a woman screaming, and running out of the spa towards traffic.
‘She ran right out into the street (and) was pounding on cars,’ David Gosh told The Journal Sentinel.

He then saw a man carrying a handgun run after her, and he was thought to be chasing after the woman.
The gunman then saw police beginning to gather and he ran back in the direction in which he came, and back into the spa.
‘He was the shooter. He was looking for an escape route,’ Mr Gosh said.
A witness told the Journal-Sentinel that a he saw a young girl running through a parking lot in a panic after her mother was reportedly shot.
‘She was screaming, yelling, crying hysterical. She was pleading for help,’ Christopher Pfeiffer told the local paper.

‘She kept saying, “My mother was shot.” And she mentioned that there was a gunman. She ran into the bookstore and I followed her. But I watched her from afar.’
Live video of the Azana spa shows a tactical team moving in around 2pm on Sunday.
According to the spa’s website, it boasts that it is the largest salon and day spa in Brookfield with 9,000-square-feet.
The layout of the spa- which has ten treatment rooms, male and female locker rooms, and a cafe area-complicates issues for police as people may be hiding inside.