A member of the House of Representatives died in the early hours of Saturday after what security sources said was a sexual affair with a female banker in his private residence located at Gwarinpa Estate in Abuja.
Rep. Raphael Oloye Nomiye, 50, was until his death representing Ondo, Ilaje, Ese Odo in Ondo State under the platform of the Labour Party.
The lawmaker was said to have died shortly after an affair with the banker (names withheld). The spokesperson of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) police command, Hyelhira Altine Daniel, confirmed the incident, saying the command was still investigating the cause of the legislator's death.
When Sunday Trust visited the deceased's residence at Second Avenue in Gwarinpa Estate, neighbours and witnesses said the banker, who managed his accounts, was said to have rushed down for the one-storey building to inform the policemen on guard at the house that "oga just fell down and is vomiting blood."
They said when the policemen entered into his room upstairs, they found him laying on the floor with a towel tied round his waist, while he bled from the mouth. He was then quickly taken to a private clinic on 3rd Avenue within the estate in his official Toyota Camry 2012 car with Registration Number 148B Rep.
It was further learnt that doctors at clinic declined to attend to him, saying it was a "serious" matter, following which he was then rushed to the National Hospital, Abuja, where he was later pronounced dead.
Police sources disclosed that the banker, who is now in police custody at the Gwarinpa Police Division, had earlier denied having sexual affair with the lawmaker before his death. But she was said to have changed her statement after doctors at the National Hospital conducted an examination on corpse, which confirmed that the deceased had slept with a woman shortly before his demise.
The sources said after the test, the banker admitted to interrogators that she had actually slept with the deceased and had helped him to clean up, following which he went into the bathroom, where he suddenly fell and began to vomit blood. Police investigators who inspected the lawmaker's house had succeeded in recovering some items, including a bottle of water, which the deceased lawmaker had drank from some tissue papers and the clothes the deceased had worn earlier in the day, Sunday Trust gathered.
When our reporters visited the banker's private residence located at Kado Estate in Abuja, two of her professional friends, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the banker and Raphael had been friends. They, however, denied knowledge of the lawmaker's death.
An investigation by Sunday Trust also revealed that although the late lawmaker was married, his wife and children were not living with him in Abuja.
As at press time, there was no official statement from his family or the House, but a lawmaker in the Lower Chamber confirmed the lawmaker's demise. He added, however, that the House would make an official statement until it received formal notification from Nomiye's family.
"I heard of his death, but we're yet to get any official statement from his family or any doctor. The House will make an official statement when it eventually receives confirmation from his family," said the source.
When contacted, the Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Media and Publicity, Victor Ogene, said he was yet to get an official confirmation of the death and, as such, wouldn't comment on it.
Source: Premium Times
Contrary to the impression created by President Goodluck Jonathan that he plans to 'probe' the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah over the fraudulent purchase of two BMW armored cars, Saharareporters can authoritatively report that the President and his team are working very hard to shield the Minister.
SaharaReporters investigations show that Mrs. Oduah was listed as one of the 54 officials that traveled within the inner circle of the President to Israel. President Jonathan however gave her the permission to travel ahead of the delegation 24 hours early under the guise that she would be signing the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and Israel. As it turns out, the BASA agreement is not due for signing until October 29, following which Mr. Jonathan will depart for Nigeria.
Mrs. Oduah is also one of the ministers listed to follow the President to a meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas in the Occupied Palestinian territory, also on October 29.
Since arriving in Israel, Mr. Jonathan and several officials, including Mrs. Oduah, have occupied the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, and she has had direct access and regular meetings with the President.
Our reporters have seen her many times at meetings. An attempt by a student journalist to interview her was rebuffed as Mrs. Oduah claimed the student was a SaharaReporters journalist seeking to put her into more trouble.
Since arriving Israel, President Goodluck Jonathan has employed the services of Senator Emmanuel Paulker from his home state of Bayelsa to reach out to lawmakers to chill the ongoing investigations.
The Nigerian Senate is reportedly in alignment but the House of Representatives is seen to be a bit more aggressive, which was the reason Mr. Jonathan decided to set up a "probe panel" that would slow down the situation so that Mrs. Oduah can keep her job.
A Presidency source told SaharaReporters that President Jonathan has little regard for the probe going on at the House of Representatives, calling them "hungry people." The implication is that they can easily be bought with money. The source said Mrs. Oduah would most likely ignore the House aviation committee subpoena for Tuesday next week
In all, the Nigeria delegation in Israel is said to be over 800 officials, which means it is considerably larger than the delegates that travelled with Mr. Jonathan to the 68th United Nations General Assembly last month, as was reported by SaharaReporters.
Among them our reporters stated that there are at least 11 governors, 8 deputy governors and 14 Ministers.
The governors include Gabriel Suswam of Benue state, Godswill Akapbio of Akwa Ibom, Liyel Imoke of Cross Rivers, Martin Elechi of Ebonyi, Theodore Orji of Abia State, Peter Obi of Anambra, Jonah Jang of Plateau and Emmanuel uduaghan of Delta State. The Bayelsa State governor whose whereabouts has been mystery is expected to join the train later tonight.
In addition to Mrs. Oduah, the Ministers are Jumoke Akinjide, (minister of state for FCT), Godsday Orube (Niger Delta), Olubolade (Police Affairs), Nyeson Wike (Education), Labaran Maku (Minister of information), the minister of Trade and investment and Fiancnae minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala are also expected to join later.
It would be recalled that the presidency announcement of the visit by spokesman Reuben Abati last Tuesday listed only Senator Paulker; the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Akinwunmi Adesina; the Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Ochekpe; the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen; the Minister of State (Foreign Affairs), Prof Viola Onwuliri; and the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki as the officials accompanying President Jonathan.
According to Jeta, "Mbong is an amazing mother, an incredible wife…all the time we were together she would never let any other person cook my food…she was faithful and good to me and gave me the best gift in the world, our beautiful daughter. If I didn't cage her so much maybe we would still be together. I stole her youth and didn't let her live her dream so it was better to let her go and find new adventures. She's happy and so am I. Despite the fact that we are no longer together, we are still good friends. She even lives close to me here in LA. Things are great between us and I'm happy to see her happy."
Since the separation Mbong has featured in two Nollywood movies, one of them is Forgetting June produced by Emem Isong, which she came back to Nigeria to shoot.
Meanwhile Jeta seem to have moved on as he is said to be dating an Australian actress, Viva Bianca, best known for her role as Ilithyia in Spartacus.
Viva is starring in Jeta's new movie project - Road to Redemption, which also features Ghanaian actress, Yvonne Nelson and pop star, Akon.
Jeta and Viva have been dating for many months now and were even spotted in Las Vegas recently. Although he refused to talk about his relationship when asked
The online news portal, saharareporters, had claimed that it obtained documents which showed the paper trail of the transaction involving Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), First Bank and Coscharis Motors. The cars were purchased by NCAA from Coscharis Motors, paying through accounts with First Bank.
But speaking with LEADERSHIP yesterday, the special assistant on media to the aviation minister, Mr. Joe Obi, said that when the minister came on board with her reforms, which included reversing some concessions and agreements that were not in the interest of the people and government of Nigeria, "a lot of entrenched interests felt that they had been dislocated from the sector. The minister began to receive series of threats to her life, but because of the general lack of security in the land, she did not want to raise an alarm but kept it quiet and then decided to protect herself. So those vehicles were purchased in response to the general state of security in the land and the personal threats to her life because of the giant steps she has taken to reposition the sector."
He said that the minister had been trailed several times and that there were clear and present dangers to her life which were averted or neutralised.
On why N127.575 million for each of the car, Obi said they were special purpose vehicles, even as he explained that the utility vehicles were bought in the name of the Minister of Aviation and not in the name of Stella Oduah.
"Normally, you don't buy one utility vehicle but you buy two at a time because you must have a back-up for public officials. The level of exposure which came with her job warranted the purchase of the vehicles. As a private citizen, she never had these vehicles," he added.
However, the general manager, Public Affairs of NCAA, Mr Fan Ndubuoke, said he was unaware that such vehicles were purchased for the minister.
"I cannot comment on something I know nothing about," he insisted.
When contacted, the coordinating general manager, Aviation Agencies, Mr. Yakubu Dati, corroborated Obi's response - that threats to the minister safety prompted the purchases- and said that he had nothing more to add.
Efforts to contact Coscharis Motors were unsuccessful as its officials failed to pick their calls and refused to answer a text message sent over the issue.
The aviation minister, Stella Oduah, has come under fire for a number of air crashes and near misses in the last one year that have cost about 200 lives. Many aviation analysts have accused her of high-handedness in managing the ministry because of her closeness to the Presidency.
According to the documents obtained by saharareporters, the transaction for the purchase of the two BMW vehicles began in June 2013 but the request for their delivery and payment were hurriedly done between August 13 and 15, 2013.
The two black BMW Li HSS vehicles had chassis numbers WBAHP41050DW68032 and WBAHP41010DW68044 respectively and were delivered to NCAA on August 13, 2013.
UK Prime Minister said in 2010 that he would 'personally intervene' to send more foreign criminals home.
Britain has even made clear it would pay to build new prisons in countries like Nigeria to speed up the process of sending foreign criminals home. Up to £1million has been promised to upgrade Nigerian jails, including a new wing at Kirikiri Prison in Lagos.
Securing an agreement with Nigeria would be seen as a much more significant breakthrough. Latest figures show there were 534 Nigerian nationals in British jails, 485 men and 49 women.
Nigerians account for one in 20 of all foreign prisoners, putting the country fifth in the league table of nations whose citizens have been jailed in the UK.
Justice Minister Mr Wright said: 'I am clear that more foreign prisoners must serve their sentences in their own countries.
'That is why we are currently working with the Nigerian Government on a compulsory prisoner transfer agreement to increase the number of prisoners who are transferred.
'Legislation allowing Nigeria to enter such an arrangement was passed earlier this year by the Nigerian Parliament. We are now working with them on the text of a final agreement.'
Overflowing jails abroad have made it increasingly difficult to deport prisoners to their own country.
It is argued that by paying for building new jails or making existing ones more 'comfortable' so they approach British standards, will be repatriated.
An area known as Imeohia Mmaku in Awgu LGA of Enugu State recently came under the siege of robbers cum kidnappers, who invaded the community to perpetrate their heinous crime. On the fateful day, a priest was said to have led some notorious gang of robbers/kidnappers in the deadly operation.
While the operation lasted, the gang sealed off entrances and exits to the community. Clad in a white cassock, Rev. Fr. James Ani, in company with about eight other people held the community by the jugular and laid siege on their prey for hours.
It was gathered that they combed the community to see if they could find a prime target to kidnap on which they could feed. As the siege was going on, a team of anti-robbery patrol team usually on routine checks on communities in the state was passing by and accosted the gang.
On seeing the police team, Fr. Ani reportedly commanded his 'boys' to launch offensive. Wielding dangerous weapons, the gang reportedly engaged the police team in fierce gun duel which further sent habitants of the community and travellers scampering for safety.
During the clash, Fr. Ani and his gang reportedly got hold of one Inspector Cosmas Nzeribe and a couple of his colleagues, and almost sniffed life out of them. They however bowed to the superior firepower of the law enforcement agents leading to their arrest. Before they were arrested, the hoodlums damaged the two vehicles used by the police.
In the end, Fr. Ani and three others; Ugwu Marcel, Obasi Felix and Norbert Eke were arrested and taken to custody. About five other members of the gang escaped from the scene of the attack.
In a chat with reporters, an eye witness, who identified himself as Okey, said: "I ply this road very often and I can tell you that most travellers had had harrowing experiences to share about this place. It is such a bad spot and when the robbers were arrested and we saw a supposed man of God among them, not many of us were surprised because we had experienced that before in this area. Criminals would put on cloths meant for the clergymen to rob people. Thank God, this one was caught."
At the time of his arrest, Fr. Ani claimed that he is not a robber but a priest. However, upon interrogation, he confessed to his crime, saying he was pushed into the crime due to lull in his business.
Spokesman of Enugu Police Command, Ebere Amaraizu confirmed the arrest. He said "The Commissioner of Police has said it many times that there is no hiding place for criminals again in Enugu. This statement he is matching with actions which are evident in the arrest of the four suspects. Imagine someone supposed to be a man of God, being the ring leader in such a crime!"
A report by a committee of the United States House of Representatives has linked the fundamentalist Islamist sect, Boko Haram to al Shabaab, the terror group that carried out the September 21 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya.
The report dated September 13, 2013 and entitled, 'Boko Haram: Growing Threat to the US Homeland', also acknowledged the growing relationship between the Nigerian sect and another terror group, the Al Qaeda in the land of the Islamic Maghreb.
The 39-page report noted that "while there is no evidence that al Qaeda's core in Afghanistan and Pakistan commands Boko Haram's operations, it is clear from the words of multiple US officials and media reports that Boko Haram is supportive of, and supported by Al Qaeda networks such as AQIM."
It noted that "it is the unity of ideology and mutual hatred for the West between the Al Qaeda networks that exposes the danger Boko Haram poses to the U.S Homeland."
The committee described Boko Haram as a "hardened and sophisticated terror network" that required multiple simultenous local and international efforts to enhance the capacity and capability of the the Nigerian Police and the military to curtail its activities.
It said there was an urgent need by the US to designate the sect as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation because it has shown no signs of ending its aggression against the government of Nigeria and the Western world.
The commiteee wrote, "The world is coming to know more about Boko Haram; their intentions, what they're capable of, and who is supporting them.
"The US Intelligence Community is working to erase the gaps in our understanding of Boko Haram, but it is already evident they are a serious threat to US interests and potentially to the US Homeland.
''Acknowledging this threat publicly by designating Boko Haram an FTO will establish a legal mechanism for prosecuting any supporters within US jurisdictions.
"This is an increasingly important tool given their attempts to market themselves to a wider international audience.
"Boko Haram shows no signs of ending its campaign against the government of Nigeria and the Western world. Two years after their August 2011 bombing of a United Nations facility in Abuja, Nigeria, Boko Haram remains a threat to the international community, and continues to be a developing threat to the US Homeland."
The report said that Boko Haram had "highly skilled bomb makers who might have received training from experienced militants elsewhere, potentially indicating a stronger relationship between them and AQIM or Al Shabaab.
It said that besides building sophisticated weaponry, it was now possible that Boko Haram had acquired or will acquire SA-7 and SA-24 shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.
The SA-7 missile is effective up to 1,300 metres, while some newer models reach altitudes of almost four kilometres. Although most aircraft cruise around 9,140 metres, the SA-7 could be used to target aircraft during takeoff and landing.
In the report, the committee warned, "It does not take much imagination to picture the threat these weapons would pose to commercial aviation in Abuja if they fell into Boko Haram hands."
Out of the 20,000 such weapons in Libya, only 5,000 of them had been secured through a $40m US programme to buy up loose missiles during the fall of the Gadhafi regime. Most are believed to have found their way into countries that share common boundaries with Nigeria.
The committee acknowledged that the Goodluck Jonathan administration had taken some potentially promising steps in its effort to fight Boko Haram.
It said the appointment of Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd), a northern Nigerian Muslim, to the position of National Security Adviser on June 23, 2012, demonstrated Jonathan's willingness to give northerners and Muslims a visible role in Nigeria's struggle with Boko Haram.
"Dasuki has taken the lead in organising government's fight against Boko Haram, and his background as a Muslim from the North may give him obvious and potent symbolic significance," the committee said.
In spite of this, the committee observed that concerns regarding the capability of the Jonathan administration to effectively deal with Boko Haram remained prominent.
The committee said without foreign assistance from countries such as the US and the UK, the Nigerian government would almost certainly face a prolonged battle in neutralising Boko Haram.
According to the committee, the State Department, which has also engaged Nigeria through its African Coastal and Border Security programme, has focused its assistance on peacekeeping support, training, border and maritime security, and increasing military professionalisation.
But it lamented that in spite of the training, the "JTF continues to behave unprofessionally, and has been accused of human rights abuses by Human Rights Watch, among other entities, including the State Department's most recent annual human rights report."
It also warned that greater pressure must be applied to the JTF to abandon counter-productive and brutal tactics alienating northerners.
The committee said failure of the Secretary of State to designate the Boko Haram sect an FTO, was the 'most obvious flaw in the US effort to combat it and prevent its expansion.'
It said, "If Boko Haram were to be designated an FTO, it would support US intelligence community efforts to curb the group's financing, stigmatise and isolate it internationally, heighten public awareness and knowledge, and signal to other governments the US takes the threat from Boko Haram seriously.
"If Boko Haram is not designated an FTO, its potential threat to the US and its capability to attack the homeland would likely increase. It is therefore an urgent next step to take in fighting this growing al Qaeda affiliate in Nigeria."
The committee further said as the number of attacks perpetrated by Boko Haram had increased in 2013, so had the attention paid to the group by the US.
