Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the police command in Lagos State have arrested a driver, who allegedly put four children in a car trunk and crammed 11 others on the seats.

The command’s spokesperson, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the arrest in a post he shared on his verified X handle @benHundeyin on Friday.

He said that the police arrested the driver for negligent act.

“The RRS arrested the driver for cramming 15 children into a Volkswagen Passat in Lagos.

“The vehicle was reported by concerned citizens on the Lekki–Ikoyi Link Bridge at 8.00 p.m. on Sunday

“The police noticed that the driver, who had been contracted to transport the children to a beach, had locked four of the children in the car trunk while 11 others were crammed together,” he said.

Hundeyin said that preliminary investigations revealed that one child collapsed earlier due to similar transport conditions, but recovered after receiving medical attention.

According to him, the children have been released to their parents unhurt.

The image maker said that the suspect would be charged to court.

He said that Lagos State Commissioner of Police Adegoke Fayoade praised Lagos residents for always promptly alerting the authorities to suspicious persons and happenings.

NAN

A Home Office case worker has been arrested on suspicion of trying to sell the United Kingdom (UK) residency to an asylum seeker living in Northern Ireland, BBC reports.

BBC News Northern Ireland can reveal the official allegedly contacted a vulnerable man and asked for £2,000 in return for approving his refugee application.

It is understood sensitive Home Office records were used as part of the attempted scam. 

The Home Office said the member of staff has been suspended.

It said it expected “the highest standards” from its staff, but it would be “inappropriate” to comment further due to the live police investigation.

Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock said they were “deeply concerning allegations” and the Conservative government had “lost control” of the asylum system.

BBC News Northern Ireland has spoken to the intended victim, who we are calling Renas to protect his identity.

He said he was contacted by a worker employed as an asylum “decision maker” in the north of England.

Renas said he received a call in early March 2024 where it was claimed “95% of people like you” have their applications refused.

The decision maker then allegedly suggested a direct payment would guarantee success.

“He said I could be sure he would refuse my application,” Renas said.

“But if I could help him, he could help me and he asked for some money. He asked for £2,000.

“He basically offered me a positive decision.”

Renas, a former journalist, said at first he thought it was “a total scam”, but it became clear to him the man on the phone did work for the Home Office.

“He had all my information. He gave me very specific details from my application.”

Renas recorded a subsequent video call he received from the decision maker, which he passed to police and which has also been seen by the BBC.

The footage appears to show an individual using a laptop which has official Home Office software containing case files.

“He targeted the most vulnerable people in society,” Renas said.

“There will be other asylum seekers who are going through the same process, or maybe there are some people who have already been scammed like this. I feel this is my responsibility to inform them.

“I was persecuted in my home country by the authorities. I was already afraid of the Home Office and other institutions here.”

Renas raised concerns with his solicitor who alerted the authorities.

In a statement Lancashire Police told BBC News Northern Ireland, “We can confirm we have arrested a man on suspicion of misconduct in public office, suspicion of money laundering, bribery, and computer misuse offences.

“Officers from Lancashire Constabulary alongside partners from the Home Office arrested the man, in his 30s, in the Ramsgreave area of Blackburn.

“An investigation remains in its early stages and enquiries are ongoing.”

It is not clear how many other individuals could have been targeted in this way, if any of those individuals handed over money, or if any cases were approved on the basis of a payment.

Renas has since been assured his refugee status is secure, and the decision to grant him UK residency was not affected by the alleged actions of the decision maker.

It was a “very confusing time” for Renas, his lawyer Sinead Marmion said

Immigration solicitor Sinead Marmion said the actions of the decision maker were “egregious”.

“My first thought was this cannot be real,” she said.

“This is an exceptionally unusual situation.”

She praised her client’s “integrity”, adding: “For him to be able to raise an issue like this took a lot of guts.

“He was initially quite frightened about what was going on, and it was difficult for us to give him any comfort because it was a very confusing time.”

Asylum claims – a legal request for sanctuary, or refugee status, in another country – can be made by anyone who comes to the UK under an international convention agreed in 1951.

In 2022 BBC Newsnight reported claims from Home Office insiders who said the system for dealing with asylum claims was blighted by “inexperienced and low-paid” staff being hired to handle applications.

‘Shocking’

“Given backlogs, and promises to clear backlogs, there has been a recruitment very quickly of people who perhaps are not vetted enough and aren’t qualified enough to actually deal with matters of such magnitude” Sinead Marmion said.

She describes Renas’ experience as “shocking but perhaps not surprising”.

Last year a senior Home Office official revealed to a committee of MPs the proportion of asylum decision makers who leave their jobs each year stood at 28%.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “We expect the highest standards from our staff to ensure asylum claims are properly considered, decisions are sound and that protection is granted to those who genuinely need it.

“The member of staff was arrested and suspended. It would be inappropriate to comment further as the matter is subject to a live police investigation.”

Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock said: “These are deeply concerning allegations and it is right that the police are looking into this matter.

“The Conservatives have lost control of our asylum system across the board and should be working round the clock to restore integrity and public trust.”

Renas said he is “relieved” his refugee status has been confirmed by the Home Office and he can now move on with building a new life in Northern Ireland.

“I have hopes to build a career here. I have some real hopes that I can do that,” he said.

Source: BBC

THE biting economic downturn in the country has no doubt continued to take its toll on families who toil day and night to put food on the table.

Aside food, families are facing hard times meeting other needs of members of their respective households.

It is no doubt a daunting challenge in most homes to meet the educational, medical and other essential needs of the family with what comes from parents. In the harsh economic environment in which most families have found themselves, they necessarily have to devise other strategies to make ends meet.

In Benue State, Arewa Voice has found out that young boys of school-going age now resort to pushing wheel barrows in order to raise some money for feeding their families and paying for other needs.

This development has openly manifested in a situation where most markets in the state capital, Makurdi, are flooded with young boys armed with wheel barrows dutifully ferry goods for customers as if their entire lives depend on doing so. But they do that with a sense of duty and commitment all in a bid to raise money and take care of themselves and their parents.

Although it reminds people of the slave trade days and triggers a feeling of dehumanisation to see these kids who should be in school, hustling with wheels to lift goods for customers with raw grit, the little cash they take home at the end of the day’s struggle, gives them some form of fulfilment and satisfaction.

AV notes that at the Makurdi Modern Market most of the children, who fall within the ages of 10 and 14, could be seen running from one point to the other in the crowded market trying to secure the attention of buyers who need their services by moving their goods from the point of purchase to their vehicles or points of departure.

Some of the children who volunteered information on why they took to pushing wheelbarrow, said they were forced to abandon school and take to the “business” by the current economic hardship.

AV learnt that the young ‘businessmen’ lease the barrows from owners at the cost of N200 per day. They are therefore free to use the barrows and make as much money as they can on a daily basis and return them to their owners at the close of business.

Eleven-year-old Ben (surname withheld) told AV that he is a primary four pupil of RCM Primary School Tyoshia Naka Road, in the outskirts of Makurdi town and only pushes barrow to make some money on holidays and weekends so as to concentrate on his school.

Ben said: “Sometimes I also come to do the business after school hours, especially on days when my mother cannot afford to give us food.

“But I do this because my mother who also buys and sells yams in small quantity encourages me to do it because of the money I make to support her.

”On the average I make N1,500 daily and I hire the wheelbarrow for N200 per day. But on school days, if I want to work, the barrow owner gives it out at N100 for half day.

”Most of those who are doing this business like me in the market, hire the wheel barrows in the morning from a man who owns many of them and at the close of the market at about 6pm we make enough to support our parents.

”But in my own case, I push to enable my mother pay all that needs to be paid in my school and for my other three siblings because I am their senior. And I also support the house because my father is in the village and he does nothing for us.”

Another minor, 14-year-old Sonter, who is a JSS 2 student of a popular government secondary in Makurdi, said he does the barrow pushing with the consent of his parents.

”I have been pushing barrow for over one year now since things became so difficult for my parents who find it hard to take care of us. In our house I have three brothers and two sisters. Two of my other brothers are also pushing wheelbarrow like me to assist our parents because things are too difficult.

“Sometime I make N1,700 depending on how hard I hustle. The least we charge customers is N100 for every haulage depending on the size of what we are carrying. But there is no day I don’t go back home with N1,600 after paying N200 for hiring the barrow from the owner.

“If we do not do this ‘business’ our parents might not be able to provide enough for us to eat and also take care of our other needs, including school fees.

“My father is a civil servant and my mother sells tomato and pepper at the Wadata Market. Before now, we were not doing this business but sometime last year my younger brothers and I told our parents that we wanted to go into the business and they gave us the go ahead. And since then we have been supporting our family from what we get daily,” he added.

Speaking on the trend, a trader at the Modern Market, Mr. Joseph Iyaweni, who decried the situation where under-aged children are made to labour to earn a living to support the family, however, blamed it on the present economic situation in the country.

He informed that in the past, those who engage in wheelbarrow pushing in the markets were matured men, “but suddenly we discovered that under-aged children have taken over the business and here in Modern Market like in most markets in town they have taken over.

“Parents push them into the market to hire wheelbarrows and hustle for those buying goods in order to help them push the goods to where they parked their vehicles or to the bus-stops.

“They carry the goods according to their sizes. The very small ones among them who are less than 12 years carry less weighty goods while the bigger ones among them carry heavier items.

“It is unfortunate that these children are engaged in this kind of activity at this time of their lives but their parents must be helpless in the present circumstance in the country to have the courage to send their children out to the market when they know that they can end up mixing with the wrong persons and indulge in social vices.

“You will find them in almost all the markets in Makurdi. Go to Wurukum, Wadata, North Bank, High Level markets; they are everywhere. There is nothing anybody can do about it. It is wrong but it is a creation of the harsh economic situation in the country.”

At the end of AFCON 2023 in February, Jose Paseiro, the Portuguese Manager that took the Super Eagles to Cote D’Ivoire became history. His contract was not renewed by the Nigeria Football Federation despite getting to the final of the championship and putting up a credible performance through most of the championship. The majority of Nigerian football fans insist that he is not good enough for Nigeria’s ambitions into the future.

Since then, some 6 weeks later, the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, have been unable to announce a new gaffer for the senior national team. There appears to be a ‘go slow’ at the bottleneck of selecting the right manager for what would be a new national team.

Two friendly matches were played under a temporary arrangement with the Nigerian assistant coach to Paseiro, Finidi George, in charge. The team won the first friendly against Ghana, but lost the second. The loss to Mali may have sealed Finidi’s fate as the new coach. Despite the team’s unpreparedness for the insignificant friendly match, Finidi working alone on the bench without any other member of the technical crew, and several players not available or reluctant to play, those that don’t like the face of a Nigerian as head, have been unrelenting in condemning Finidi’s seemingly poor technical performance in that match.

Since then, with 6/7 weeks to the next very important World Cup qualifying match to play, the debates and controversy have dominated the media space over who should lead the team. Should it be another foreigner, or a Nigerian for a change? There have been 200 million opinions. Every Nigerian has become an expert. In the midst of these discordant voices, the NFF must make an announcement soon.

One thing is clear, except amongst some academic hard-line critics of Nigerian coaches, there appears to be little appetite for another half-baked foreign coach in Nigeria. The rackets attached to the hiring of foreign coaches may not find accommodation in a beleaguered government trying to reduce corruption in the system. The NFF does not have the funds, and the federal government will not accommodate the humongous fees of foreign coaches in the present dispensation.

So, it will be a Nigerian as next manager of the Super Eagles.

Why has the NFF not identified the most suitable amongst those that have indicated an interest, or that the body has identified and appointed a new national coach?

There is a lot of politicking ongoing. Nigerian coaches appear not to tick all the boxes of requirements, not eliciting the confidence of several officials of the NFF with vested interest in particular aspirants.

As things stand, however, a decision has to be taken now.

Most fingers point in the direction of a former international player.

He appears to be the preferred choice of most Nigerians in the media, particularly the social media.

I will not be surprised if Emmanuel Amuneke gets the final nod to lead the team. It will become a huge task to dispel the serious reservations about his choice by those familiar with his antecedents when he was in one of the junior teams.

PARIS 2024 Olympics – My Olympics story!

I have just made up my mind to attend the Paris Olympic Games this summer.

It will be my first time at the Olympics and not as an athlete.

In 1976, at the Montreal Olympics in Canada, I attended as an athlete but did not participate. Along with the rest of the world, I tasted the incursion of politics into sport and the first deployment of sports diplomacy in international affairs. the names of all the athletes from 30 countries that were involved in the boycott of the games were not recorded in the International Directory of Olympians at the International Olympic Committee, IOC.

In 1980, without officially qualifying for the Moscow Games, but benefitting from the crisis that followed Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan, leading to the boycott by several Western countries led by the USA, the Green Eagles were invited to the Moscow Olympics. I led the Nigerian national football team and doubled as co-captain (with Ahmeed Adio) of the overall contingent to become a registered member of the exclusive club of Olympians.

I would have attended the 1996 Games in Atlanta, USA, as manager of Chioma Ajunwa and Charity Opara. Unfortunately, when I applied for a visa to the Games from my base in the UK at the time, the interview date given at the American embassy was weeks after the Games would have ended. That’s how I sat at home in London, and missed the opportunity of attending the Olympics as a manager of athletes. My two wards won a Gold and a Silver medal.

At the 2010 Games in London. I was at ‘home’. I watched the Games as a tourist, attending a few events LIVE from the stands, but most from the giant screens at the Nigerian village set up for the huge Nigerian population in the UK.

During the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, I became inventive. I did the seemingly impossible. I became an invisible ‘fly on the wall’ reporting from Nigeria everything about the Nigerian contingent at the games with the deployment of technology and the collaboration of athletes and officials at the games.

Now, Paris 2024 Games are here.

I have a strong feeling Nigeria will come away with several medals. The feeling is strong. There are some obvious athletes in the winning zone already.

Having said that, the spirit of the Olympics is more in participating than in winning. That’s why as many athletes as have achieved the qualifying times and distances should be given the opportunity to experience the Olympics. I hope Nigeria will take all the athletes that attain the qualifying standards to Paris 2024.

Winning’ is not only about coming ‘first’.

From AFCON 2023, Nigeria gave a new and interesting definition to ‘winning’.

The country’s national team, the Super Eagles, for 4 weeks, provided the glue that united the country at a time when the country was going through difficult times in perennial economic, political and social challenges. As the Super Eagles, a team that was not given a chance to win by fanatical Nigerian football fans on the even of the championship, started to play well and to win matches in dramatic fashion, the spirit of nationalism took over the country. Temporarily, for a few weeks, Nigerians set aside their hardship, divisions and differences, and focused attention on the feel-good success of the Eagles on the football field. Even President Bola Tinubu became a part of the championship, following the Super Eagles on television all the way to the final match. With hopes sky-high, the entire country rallied around the team and supported their bid to win the most prestigious sports trophy in Africa, only for the hopes to be dashed at the last hurdle.

Despite the disappointment of that defeat, the country demonstrated uncommon appreciation of what the team had done for the psyche of the citizens during the period, a reminder of positive possibilities beyond AFCON, by spreading out the Red Carpet to welcome back the football heroes, compensating the team that came second with rewards unheard of in sports history. It was a beautiful confirmation of that Olympic truism that to be a ‘winner’ you do not have to come ‘first’.

God willing, I shall be at the Paris 2024 Olympics to report Nigeria’s success, first hand!

Nigerian chess master, Tunde Onakoya has reached a Guinness World Record for the longest chess marathon when he reached the 57-hour mark, surpassing the previous record of 56 hours and 9 minutes.

Onakoya currently aims to reach the 58-hour target.

The previous record of 56 hours, 9 minutes, was held by Norwegian players Hallvard Haug Flatebø and Sjur Ferkingstad in 2018.

According to The Gift of Chess on X who posted at 12:34 am on Saturday, “56 Hours Straight. The Record Is SET TO BREAK.”

Recall Vanguard reported how Multiple award-winning Afrobeat singer, Davido and other Nigerian celebrities had turned up to cheer Onakoya while he attempted to set this record.

Details later …

The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, Richard Teng, yesterday said that the company is working very closely with Nigerian authorities following the detention of the company’s Head of Financial Crime Compliance.

A Nigerian court has adjourned until May 2 a case against the executive, Tigran Gambaryan, and another Binance official, who are accused of laundering more than $35 million, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said on April 8.

“What I can say is we are working very closely with the Nigerian authorities to try to resolve the matter,” CEO Richard Teng said, while speaking about Gambaryan’s case at a crypto conference in Dubai.

The other executive Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan who is a regional manager for Africa, fled Nigeria last month.

Anjarwalla and Gambaryan flew to Nigeria following the country’s decision to ban several cryptocurrency trading websites and were detained on arrival on February 26 by EFCC.

In addition to the case brought by the anti-graft agency, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigeria’s tax agency, has charged Binance and the executives with tax evasion, a case that will be mentioned before a court today (Friday).

“This was a one-off. It’s never happened to us before,” Binance’s Head of Regional Markets, Vishal Sacheendran told Reuters on the sidelines of the Dubai conference when asked about the detentions.

Sacheendran declined to comment on the charges against the company.

The founder of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Dr Boniface Aniebonam, says the move by Sen. Rabiu Kwankwaso and the Kwankwasaya Movement to hijack the party structure is a betrayal of trust.

Speaking at a news conference in Lagos on Friday, Aniebonam said he gave Kwankwaso the platform of the party to achieve his political ambition of becoming Nigeria’s president on a platter of gold.

Aniebonam said he single handedly registered and nurtured the NNPP from 2002 until 2022 when Kwankwaso and his team approached him to fly the flag of the party in the 2023 presidential election.

He said: “Buba Galadima led the delegation, including Sen. Suleiman Hunkuyi and Prof. Sam Angai to my country home in Anambra, to plead for us to accept Kwankwaso in NNPP.

“After the talks, I placed a call to Kwankwaso and after asking him questions about his intentions for Nigeria, I offered him the platform of NNPP as its sole candidate.

“I believed that Kwankwaso was not aware of the internal crisis in the party until he came out openly on live television, displaying a new logo and flag for the NNPP and mutilating its constitution.

“The party’s constitution says the founder is a life member of the board and even when I’m alive, my brother and good friend, Kwankwaso, for whatever reasons, is destroying the party I built from 2002 to 2022 when he joined us to contest the 2023 presidency.”

According to him, “I funded the party for 22 years and Kwankwaso wants to hijack it even when he is not a member of the board of the trustees or the leader of the party.

Aniebonam said he founded NNPP after he founded the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) and NAGAFF, therefore, is the parent body of the NNPP.

He recalled that Kwankwaso and others were expelled from the party for anti-party activities but as a life member of the board with inherent powers, he would grant him pardon if he purged himself of what he is doing.

“The kangaroo convention even when there was a court order stopping it, is null and void because a Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday, ruled that NNPP issue is an internal crisis.

“This means that the issues can only be settled using the constitution. However, we are ready to pursue the interpretation of the constitution up to the Supreme Court.”

The NNPP founder said with this singular action, Kwankwaso would no longer enjoy the sole candidacy of the NNPP should he even be pardoned.

A money laundering case to the tune of N300m against former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke has ended after seven years.

The presiding judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed the trial on Friday.

Ekwo upheld Adoke’s “no-case” submission against the money laundering charges against him because the prosecution, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) failed to establish a prima facie case against him.

In 2017, the EFCC had prosecuted Adoke and a property developer, Abubakar Aliyu, alleging money laundering.

charges before Justice Abubakar Kutigi of the FCT High Court, even though the case did not mention the Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 245 transaction.

Although the EFCC admitted before Ekwo that it was a mortgage that Adoke took from Unity Bank, it alleged before Kutigi that the money was a bribe from the sale of the oil block by Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd. in 2011.

However, on March 28, Kutigi identified the paradox, and subsequently dismissed the charges against Adoke and other defendants, chiding the EFCC for wasting the court’s time for four years.

Ekwo further upheld the no-case submission, and consequently discharged and acquitted Adoke.

The Commissioner of Police, FCT, CP Benneth Igweh, has expressed heartfelt gratitude on behalf of the management and personnel of the FCT Police Command for the kind gesture of the minister, FCT, Chief Barr. Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, for fulfilling his promise to the Command.

The minister had directed the FCT Command to hunt down and arrest or neutralize two wanted bandit/kidnapping kingpins who had been terrorizing Abuja particularly the Bwari, Dutse Alhaji and Kubwa axis.

He backed the decisive action/directive by placing a bounty of twenty million naira (₦20million) on two notorious and most wanted kidnappers on February 14, 2024, and has matched his words with action following the arrest of the two wanted kidnappers.

A statement by FCT Command said, “The implementation of such measures reflects the minister’s leadership and responsiveness to the security and safety of residents.

“The Command is therefore highly honored and grateful for his unflinching and continuous support in combating crime and ensuring the well-being of the residents.

“The CP ensured that the fund was distributed amongst the tactical teams and the divisional police officers of the command to ensure better service delivery.

“He also reassures the Minister and the residents of FCT that the command under his leadership will leave no stone unturned in the fight against crime and criminality and will continue to work assiduously to ensure the safety of residents.

“He urges residents to be vigilant and take advantage of the police emergency lines to report suspicious activities through: 08032003913, 08028940883, 08061581938, and 07057337653 PCB:
09022222352, CRU: 08107314192″