Jealous man Sets Lover Ablaze in Lagos

A 35-year-old lady yesterday told how her live-in lover poured fuel on her and set her ablaze in Ikotun area of Lagos State.

The lady, Janet Udegba said her lover, Mr. Kehinde Adesamuye, 39, set her on fire because he was angry and jealous over her relationship with other men. She said she was at the Junction where she does her business of selling cooked Indomie before kehinde came that night, poured petrol on her and lit it with fire.

Janet however says Nigerians should not let kehinde go scot free with what he has done to her.

‘’My husband has always been jealous. He used to beat me every time, under any guise and excuse.
I’ve tried several times to leave him, but he always threatens to harm me. I stayed with him because I was afraid of him and my life. He always told me that I could never escape from him, except I leave Lagos State. Anytime I said I was leaving him, he would say, no problem, but that he would do something to me which I would not forget. Now, see what he had done to me. He wanted to kill me.

“I used to sell indomie at Ikotun round about. There are other men and women selling there too. We’re all friends. Last two weeks Friday, one of the traders had a baby. We went for the naming ceremony. Kehinde was there with me. One of the traders gave me a drink; I just took a sip because I was in my flow.

“That was how it all started. He said I was kissing another man in his presence. He said that I sipped from the bottle that the man drank from. Right there, he started threatening that he was going to deal with me when we get home.

To be on the safe side, I called my younger sister, telling her that I might come over to spend the night at her place. I didn’t want him to beat me. When we got home, he cursed, abused and said all sort of things, but I didn’t respond or reply because I didn’t want him to pounce on me. This behaviour continued till Saturday. He even kicked off the bed, but I didn’t mind. I slept on the floor.

When I woke up on Sunday, he had gone out. I rushed to take my bath because I wanted to leave the house before he came back. But he suddenly came back, and started beating me for no reason. He beat so much that I thought he was going to kill me. It was due to the intervention of our landlord that he left me. After that beating, I moved in with my younger sister.”

Government should make sure Kehinde pays for what he did to me. I am an orphan. I have no father or mother. I sell Indomie to live. Now, I’ve spent all my money. In fact, I need help she said.

For reasons best known to Kehinde, he started sending friends to Janet’s shop, to beg on his behalf. He wanted her to forgive him and come back. But she refused. Last week Tuesday, Kehinde came to the shop with another friend to beg once more, but Janet told him that she was through with the relationship. Fuming, Kehinde jumped up from his seat, told her that he had nothing against her leaving, but that he was going to deal with her. He made good the threat by dousing her.

The following day, Kehinde was arrested by policemen as he was strolling along the streets of Ikotun.

Gunmen Shoot Ex-comptroller General of Prisons, Kill Prison Warder in Bauchi

Barely 24 hours  after about nine persons were feared killed while seven others received various degrees of injuries from gunshots by unknown gunmen, Bauchi witnessed another black Monday as  gunmen yet to be identified  Monday  night shot at a former Comptroller General of Prisons, Alhaji Ibrahim Jarma, killed one warder and injured one in Azare town, headquarters of Katagum local government area of Bauchi state.

A reliable family source told our correspondent that Alhaji Ibrahim Jarma came out from the mosque after night prayer, when he was shot in his arm and leg.

Greenwich News investigations revealed that the gunmen, who were two in number, in the process opened fire on his security guard and killed one warder and injured another one.

Speaking on the incident, some residents of the area who spoke on phone with our correspondent said they heard sporadic gunshots which caused pandemonium making many people to abandon their homes and run for safety.

All efforts to get Bauchi State Police Commissioner Mohammed Ladan failed because he did not pick repeated calls to his phone up to the time of filing this report.

However, our source at the state police command confirmed the attack but noted that the former comptroller who sustained injuries from the gunshot is alive and receiving treatment in an undisclosed hospital in Azare town

The Attack on the former Comptroller General of Prison came barely 24 hours after unknown gunmen attacked and killed nine people in Zango area , a suburb of Bauchi metropolis, Police Public Relations Officer ASP Hassan Mohammed Auyo said he had travelled out of the state on casual leave. And therefore could not volunteer any comment on the incident.

Lawmakers Plot Against Sanusi Over Proposed N5000 Note

A forceful motion from the two arms of the National Assembly will seek to halt the proposed currency reforms aimed at introducing coins and a five thousand naira note, federal lawmakers said Monday.
The lawmakers warned that resolutions emanating from both the upper and lower house will demand a discontinuation of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s policy which is backed by the federal government. This gives an indication that the planned reform may further strain an already frosty relationship between the legislature and the executive.
The Senate and the House of Representatives will resume on Tuesday from more than two-month recess, a troubling period that coincided with some of the nation’s most disquieting events in 2012, from alarming insecurity to flooding to fuel scarcity and the currency furor.
Chairman senate committee on Business and Rules, Ita Enang, told newsmen that the senate’s early sessions from Tuesday will “urgently” address those national exigencies that arose during its absence.
“We will look at the all the urgent issues that affected while we were away,” Mr. Enang said on Monday. “We will treat those issues very urgently and then continue with the legislative agenda of the senate.”
Mr. Enang, however, would not be categorical about the senate’s plan of action on the currency controversy. But other lawmakers who asked not be quoted, said the two chambers are preparing the motions that will be debated on the subject on Tuesday.
Many lawmakers have in the past criticized the currency plan championed by the CBN governor, Lamido Sanusi, which will see N5, N10, N20 and N50 converted to coins while a N5000 note will be introduced.
In previous interviews, Mr. Enang, said the plan will serve the interest of foreign organizations like the World Bank, and has the capacity to undermine the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
The Federal Government has firmly rejected arguments the new measures will usher in inflation and hurt small scale businesses, and announced last week the decision was irrevocable.
The matter will only be amongst many touchy issues to be considered by the National Assembly as it resumes. The contentious Petroleum Industry Bill is also lined up for attention as some lawmakers particularly from the Northern part of the country are reportedly bent on foiling the passage of the bill.

Fresh Facts Reveal That Bakassi Peninsula Actually Belongs to Nigeria

 Fresh facts have emerged, showing that the disputed Bakassi peninsula which the International Court of Justice, ICJ, ceded to Cameroon, actually belongs to Nigeria.

Greenwich gathered that the jurists at ICJ might have been misled by the legal teams of Cameroon and Nigeria, who did not show vital information that clearly placed Bakassi as a territory within the geographical, political and administrative jurisdiction and control of Nigeria, contrary to the October 10, 2002, verdict which awarded the sovereignty of the peninsula to Cameroon.

International relations experts, renowned historians, researchers and politicians told reporters in Lagos, last week, that contrary to the claims by the Cameroon and Nigerian legal teams that the first legal treaty on the Land and Maritime borders between Nigerian and Cameroon was the 1913 Anglo-German treaty, it was discovered that the limits of the Land and maritime boundaries between both countries went as far back as 1811 when the British made the treaty that went from the Lake Chad region down to the Atlantic ocean through the Rio Del Rey Estuary.

The Great Fraud

1. There are evidence to show that in 1994 when  a dispute erupted between Nigeria and Cameroon, Nigeria asked the British government to attest to the true status of Bakassi Peninsula, the British government replied to assert that the Peninsula belongs to Nigeria.

2. This was when Alhaji Babagana Kingibe was Nigeria’s Minister of External Affairs but curiously that document was not tendered at the ICJ trial.

3. There are fresh evidence to show that in the March 18, 1961 plebiscite in Southern Cameroon, to determine areas that either wanted to stay in Cameroon or join Nigeria, Bakassi Penisular was not among the areas that participated in the exercise because it was given that it was not part of Cameroun.

According to Southern Cameroon gazette, Volume 7 no. 14,  the areas that were asked to determine where they wanted to belong included Mamfe, Bamenda, Kumba, and Victoria.  Also, the people of  Bakassi have voted in Nigerian elections and the Nigerian Customs has been in control of the territorial waters since 1811.

4. The 1913 Anglo-German treaty which Cameroon rested its claim was not signed by both countries before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

5. Germany renounced all its terrirorial claims at the end of the war in 1919 and all the former territrories controlled by Germany came under the mandate of the League of Nations.

6. There were clear cases of ethnic cleansing in Bakassi peninsula in the past 10 years in violation of the Green Tree Agreement.

According to Prof. Walter Ofonagoro, a historian and former Nigerian Information Minister, who did  his Ph.d thesis on Southern Oil protectorate, “fresh facts have emerged to show that the Cameroonian legal team deceived the ICJ into believing that before the Anglo-German treaty of 1913 upon which it rested its case, there were no other treaties that delineated the  land and maritime boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon, which is a fraudulent claim”. Prof. Ofonagoro said that he has in his possession, 1822 documents which vested ownership of the Bakassi Peninsula to the Old Calabar Chiefs, by extension to Nigeria, and debunked claims that the 1913 Anglo-German treaty was the first recognised treaty on the land and maritime boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon. Said Prof. Ofonagoro:  “This is not true because as far back as 1811, the British had already established a strong sphere of influence over the territories that eventually became Nigeria in 1914.  The Anglo- German treaty upon which Cameroon built its case was contestible because after the First World war ended in 1919, all the territories controlled by Germany were taken away  from them and given to the League of Nations.

He said:  “There were other treaties between Nigeria and Cameroon on the Land and Maritime boundaries, which were entered into in 1884, 1885 and 1886, all of which clearly demarcated the land and maritime border between Nigeria and Cameroon from the Lake Chad region down to the Akwa Yafe River, which was the land border from Akwa Yafe to Rio Del Rey estuary to the Atlantic ocean.

He said: “When the Germans got to Akwa Yafe River, they discovered that they could not gain a direct access to the sea because going toward West of Akwa Yafe River will take them straight to the Calabar Sea Port. The Calabar Sea Port was clearly outlined in the treaty.  This was the main port of entry for the British merchants, and later missionaries, who were the first to establish sphere of influence in Nigeria.” He said there was no way the British would have granted the Germans a boundary access that would have constrained their access to the Calabar power.

The British were fully in control of the Calabar Sea Port. The Germans went East of Akwa Yafe River, which took them to the Rio Del Rey estuary to the sea. This ensured that the Bakassi Peninsula was on the West, which put the Peninsula on the Nigerian territory. The predominant population on the Peninsula then were the Efiks and Efuts, who were of Efik kingdom which stretched up to Khumba, Victoria and Bamenda.

Grounds for Appeal for review

Although the Federal Government has been reluctant to listen to the calls from the National Assembly, the Judiciary, the Nigerian Bar Association to appeal for a review, Prof.  Ofonagoro said “Nigeria has very strong ground to ask the ICJ for a review of its decision because there were concrete material facts and documentary evidence that were not before the ICJ in 2002, which would have helped to guide the world jurists in their decision”.

According to him, the Cameroonians concealed other vital treaties during the trial and told the court that the treaties were for mere adminstrative convenience, but more suprising is the fact that the Nigerian team did not do their home work to debunk the claims of Cameroon; rather they went there to resurrect a dead treaty in their attempt to justify the 1975 Maroua Declaration which was also an illegal treaty.

He said:  “If the ICJ should allow a judgment that was obtained by fraud and concealment of fact to stand, grave in justice would have been done to the people of Bakassi. The reputation of  ICJ would have been tarnished because the whole world expects it to do justice at all time”.

Ofonagora said the Nigerian defence team went to the Hague to agree with the Cameroonians that before 1913, there were no other treaties between the two colonial powers, which is false. But more fallacious is the fact that the Cameroon of 1919, was not the Cameroon of 1913, because after the end of the First World War, Germany was forced to give up all its territories in Africa, which came under the mandate of  League of Nations.

Germany renounced all its claims to territories and all the treaties it entered into which  gave it control of territories, became a nullity. The League of Nations consisting of Britain, France and Italy, the territory of Cameroon was carved up by France which took the Northern part.

Senator Ewah Bassey Henshaw, in his reaction said: “We have evidence from the memoir of the German Ambassador in 1913, who negotiated the so-called 1913 Anglo-German treaty”. He said the treaty was not signed because of the distrust between Britain and Germany at that time and the conflict between the envoy and some officials of his own country.

“In 1961, when a referendum was conducted in Southern Cameroon to determine on which part of it wishes to belong to Nigeria or Cameroon, after the British ended its colonial rule, Bakassi Peninsula was not included because it was regarded as part and parcel of Nigeria. In the areas such as Issangale that were included in the referendum, they voted to be in Nigeria”.

Speaking in Lagos,  Senator Henshaw said the ICJ has a duty to review its judgment wich gave the sovereignty of Bakassi to Cameroon because it was obtained by fraud and deceits.

He said: “We are not asking for too much for the ICJ to take a second look at the fresh facts and our action is covered by Artcle 61 of ICJ which empowers people to come back for a review of their judgment if there were fresh facts that surfaced after the decision was made, which have substantially affected the judgement.

The president who has sworn on oath to defend the territorial integrity of Nigeria and the constitution should assist the people of Bakassi by asking the AGF to appeal for a review of the ICJ verdict.”

Lagos Robbers Cut Victims' Wrists

Lagos State Police Command’s determination to rid the state of criminals, especially armed robbers, may not be an easy task, unless advanced strategies are quickly adopted. Reason: some criminals have devised a heartless way of forcing their victims into submission and in a manner that hardly raises suspicion.

Instead of guns, they now use short cutlasses, the type popularly called “UTC” in Lagos.

And when they attack their victims, they usually go for the wrists.

The criminals operate mostly in Ajeromi/Ifelodun Local Government Area.

Journalist's investigation revealed that one of their favourite areas of operations is around Tolu area of the council and the most notorious axis is Kumuyi Street and its environs.

According to our source, the reason for the concentration of their nefarious activities, which occurs mostly at night in that axis, is because of a very busy road known as Amodu Tijani, through which people link up Apapa with commercial boats.

Greenwich News learnt that the criminals always lurk in dark corners from where they suddenly pounce on their victims before they dispossess them of their valuables.

Our source informed that in most cases, if they are not satisfied with the victim’s possession, they give him/her a deep cut on the wrist, perhaps, as warning that he/she should work harder.

Some residents in the area told newsmen that the criminals have become more than a pain in the neck for pedestrians and inhabitants of the area.

“Those boys are really terrorizing us in this area and it seems the police are helpless. They have guns, but these days they use cutlasses and they always like to cut their victims’ hands,” said a resident who claimed she knows some of the victims.

Another resident added that the criminals are taking advantage of the thriving night life in the area to rove around until they are ready to begin operation.

“The night life in this area is almost round the clock and you can hardly know who is who,” the resident said.

It was gathered that a victim was terribly beaten and given machete cuts because he had nothing that interested the criminals when he was accosted.

Investigation further revealed that there are uncountable joints in the area where local gin, otherwise known as paraga, is sold and those are veritable hide-outs for the criminally minded.

Also, there are several hotels where young jobless youths while away time with prostitutes, smoking all sorts of hard drugs, particularly marijuana.

It was gathered that police from the nearby Tolu Police Division occasionally raid the black spots to dislodge the bad boys, but they return as soon as the police leave the scene.

“The police sometimes raid the place, but they come back shortly after they leave. Some of them come from outside the council. They just come around, stay in the hotels with prostitutes till late night. In fact, it is very easy to identify them, because they smoke Indian hemp openly in public places,” a resident who preferred anonymity said.

A police source at Tolu Police Division confirmed that the area is a notorious place and some teams from the station have been going there constantly to dislodge the criminals.

“Yes, there are criminals there. Our patrol teams sometimes go there to raid them,” the source said..

Greenwich news learnt that another convergence point for the criminals is the popular Maracana Field around Tolu School complex.

The place is a dangerous spot at night, as the bad boys regroup there for their nefarious acts.

It was gathered that several times, police from nearby Tolu Division would storm the place, but the hoodlums return as soon as the security agents leave and people living near the field had severally fallen victims to the criminals.