Eight suspected armed robbers, including a rusticated operative of the Nigerian Army, have been arrested in Enugu over alleged armed robbery and financial fraud.

According to the Enugu State Police Command, the suspects specialized in interstate armed robbery and financial fraud.

A release by the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, said their arrest followed coordinated operations involving the Emene Division, Crack and Octopus Tactical Squads, alongside the neighbourhood watch group, adding that items recovered from them were firearms, ammunition, cash, and other stolen items.

Ndukwe gave the names of those arrest as Ismaila Isah (23), Sadik Ahmed (a dismissed soldier, 28), Abbas Usman (33), Mubarak Garba (24), Abubakar Haruna (23), Abubakar Sani (32), Obiri Chukwuebuka (22), and Bright Omeniru (22).

He added that two locally-made pistols loaded with a live and expended cartridge and a cash sum of three hundred thousand, four hundred and fifty naira (₦300,450.00) were recovered.

“Further recovered are ten laptops, land documents, ten mobile phones, assorted jewellery and watches, one MP3 player, one headphone, four power banks, two SIM cards, footwear, and bags,” he said.

He said, “The operation commenced on November 12, 2024, around 3:30am when operatives from the Emene Division, supported by neighbourhood watch members, responded to a distress call regarding an armed robbery at an estate in Emene.

“During the operation, Ismaila Isah was apprehended with one locally made pistol, the said ₦300,450.00, and some stolen items, while others escaped.”

He said Ismaila was later transferred to the Crack Tactical Squad for further investigation, noting that his confessional statements and subsequent discreet investigations led to the arrest of Sadik Ahmed, Abbas Usman, Mubarak Garba, Abubakar Haruna, and Abubakar Sani at their hideouts in New Garriki, Awkunanaw, Enugu. Another locally made pistol and additional stolen items were recovered.

According to him, operatives from the Octopus Tactical Squad utilised an intelligence report and arrested Obiri Chukwuebuka and Bright Omeniru in Owerri, Imo State, adding that during interrogations, the suspects admitted to using phones stolen by the syndicate to fraudulently withdraw funds from victims’ bank accounts. He said two SIM cards from different networks were also recovered.

Quoting him, “Investigations reveal that the suspects confessed to committing multiple armed robberies within the Enugu metropolis and using the victims’ mobile phones’ SIM cards to also commit acts of fraud. They further confessed to moving and selling the stolen proceeds in Imo and other states.

“Sadik Ahmed, the dismissed soldier, admitted to exploiting his background as a former security agent to bypass checkpoints during the interstate shipment of the stolen items.”

The suspects will be arraigned in court upon the conclusion of investigations, said the PPRO.

Embattled Nigerian pastor and founder of the Salvation Proclaimers Anointed Church, commonly known as SPAC Nation, Tobi Adegboyega, has narrated why he flaunts his extravagant lifestyle in the United Kingdom.

This is coming on the heels of his immigration status trial at the UK’s immigration upper tribunal that ruled that the 44-year-old pastor be deported.

The court claimed that Adegboyega had arrived in the UK on a visitor’s visa in 2005 but did not leave when it expired, and had sought to remain in the European country on human rights grounds.

However, defending the claim on his extravagant lifestyle in the court, Adegboyega told the judges, Bruce and Rastogi that his wife, Mary Olubukola Alade, who earns £100,000 per year working for AON has been funding him.

He added that his motive for the flaunting was to help young people who are the major congregation in his church believe that there are legitimate ways of making money.

The court ruling obtained by The PUNCH quoted the controversial pastor as saying, “I live with my partner, Mary Olubukola Alade, who earns £100,000 per year working for AON. I spend my time working for the church, for which I am unpaid. I am entirely supported by Mary.

“I have a first-class law degree from Nigeria but I have ‘sacrificed’ my legal career to help those who cannot help themselves.”

The court also heard, “For instance, people have pointed to the fact that he wears designer clothing and drives expensive cars. He was adamant that all of his personal possessions had been paid for by Mary.

“He has never taken a penny from the church. He believes that it is important for him to dress the way that he does because he needs to inspire these young people – they need to understand that there are legitimate ways of making money, for instance through entrepreneurship.”

Reacting to the court’s ruling on his deportation, Adegboyega on Thursday dismissed the allegations, insisting that no amount of persecution would bring him down.

He said, “I’m right here at home, no cause for alarm. Naturally, I will dismiss things that have to do with retrogression; every Nigerian should be proud of me. Living in the UK, a city that is well known for pulling people down, I have survived all sorts, so the matter that they are propagating is the smallest matter.

“No panic, I love London city, it is my city and nobody can do anything. Of all the people of colour you know here – pastors and leaders, I have survived everything.

“I’m here, I am at home, nobody should panic for me. I succeeded well in this country despite all challenges and I’m in the league of people you look up to. I have survived that well, nothing has changed, nothing will change.”

New details have emerged on why the United Kingdom immigration upper tribunal approved the deportation of Pastor Tobi Adegboyega, founder of Salvation Proclaimers Anointed Church, commonly known as SPAC Nation.

The 44-year-old pastor, who arrived in the UK on a visitor’s visa in 2005 but did not leave when it expired, had sought to remain in the European country on human rights grounds. He had married a British citizen.

After the Home Office denied his request, he appealed to the first-tier tribunal, which equally turned him down.

Subsequently, he appealed to the upper tribunal on August 15, 2022.

The controversial pastor, through his lawyer, Dele Olawanle, told the tribunal that his church had initiated various intervention programmes to rescue troubled youths on the streets of the UK from gangs and crime.

Adegboyega also argued that his deportation would harm his projects and community influence, which he claimed had been supported and recognised by prominent UK figures, including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and senior figures within the Metropolitan Police.

He also claimed that he had played an instrumental role in setting up a food bank which had provided 136,000 meals for children, adding that he “intervened in the lives of many hundreds of young people, predominantly from the black communities in London, to lead them away from trouble”.

Adegboyega added that he established a network of safe houses throughout London where he accommodated young people trying to avoid gang conflicts.

But the upper tribunal judges, Bruce and Rastogi, insisted that Adegboyega must return to Nigeria despite his arguments.

In the judgement document obtained by Saturday PUNCH, the court rejected Adegboyega’s appeals, citing his unlawful stay in the UK and exaggeration of his community work claims.

The tribunal ruled that Adegboyega had “grossly inflated” his contributions, describing his claims as “hyperbolic” and unsupported by substantive evidence.

The court noted that the pastor failed to provide corroborative evidence that the UK police endorsed and supported his works.

The court insisted that his work could continue without his presence in the UK and dismissed his marriage to a British citizen as insufficient to counterbalance his immigration violations.

“We do, however, note the absence of corroborative evidence in respect of the most prominent agencies that the appellant (Adegboyega) claims as his supporters.

“There was nothing before us from the Metropolitan Police, Downing Street, the Mayor of London or the Home Office, all institutions which the appellant claims to have enthusiastically endorsed his work,” the court affirmed.

“For instance, there was nothing at all to support his assertions that his presence in London is needed to ‘calm the nerves of people from ethnic minorities’ following the ‘fascist uprising’ of August 2024, or that his presence is an ‘absolute necessity’ to fighting crime. There was no corroboration for his claim to have visited Downing Street on ‘countless occasions’. These are examples of areas of the appellant’s evidence where we are satisfied that he has sought to grossly inflate his influence.

“When we asked him to describe an average day, the appellant told us that he schedules six church events per day, seven days a week. These can be all over London. He visits as many as 20 congregants per week in their own homes, and is often called upon to spend between 3-4 hours talking on a one-to-one basis to a troubled young person. He also told us about the time that he spends supervising and helping some of the many business ventures, or ‘CIC’s set up with SPAC Nation’s help, and to organising the foodbank. Even allowing for his admission that sometimes this packed itinerary causes him to run late, we find it to be implausible that he has the time to undertake all of this work personally. We consider it far more likely that this work is distributed among the many pastors, congregants and supporters of SPAC Nation.”

I depend solely on my wife

Earlier, Adegboyega told the court that he had always depended on his wife, Mary.

“He states that he lives with his partner, Mary Olubukola Alade, who earns £100,000 per year working for AON. He spends his time working for the church, for which he is unpaid. He is entirely supported by Mary.

“He has a first-class law degree from Nigeria but he has ‘sacrificed’ his legal career to help those who cannot help themselves,” the court heard.

Adegboyega also told the tribunal why he flaunted an extravagant lifestyle.

“For instance, people have pointed to the fact that he wears designer clothing and drives expensive cars. He was adamant that all of his personal possessions have been paid for by Mary. He has never taken a penny from the church. He believes that it is important for him to dress the way that he does because he needs to inspire these young people – they need to understand that there are legitimate ways of making money, for instance through entrepreneurship.”

Known for his flamboyant lifestyle, the self-styled pastor has long been at the centre of controversies involving alleged financial misconduct and a lavish lifestyle that have drawn criticism.

The British Broadcasting Corporation released a documentary detailing how Adegboyega, popularly known as PT among his followers, allegedly defrauded his church members in the guise of helping them create their own businesses.

In the documentary, victims claimed that they were “brainwashed” into believing their financial sacrifices would fund community programmes to rescue troubled youths on the streets of UK from gangs and crime, only to find the money allegedly misappropriated to support the pastor’s lavish lifestyle, including designer wardrobes and luxury cars.

But Pastor Tobi did not face any criminal proceedings neither was he convicted of any crime.

The celebrity pastor threw a lavish birthday party in November. The party was attended by popular Nigerian artistes, including Davido and Kcee.

“Let us just have fun as one family tonight and if I get into trouble like I do most times, my lawyer is there right on my table, so nothing can touch me”, Adegboyega said to the cheering audience.

The cleric, who is usually seen in the company of celebrities displaying an affluent and opulent lifestyle,became enmeshed in a scandal when the UK Charity Commission and High Court investigations revealed financial impropriety involving over £1.87m, leading to the closure of his church in 2022.

Responding to the latest ruling on his immigration status on Instagram, Adegboyega dismissed the allegations, insisting that no amount of persecution would bring him down.

He said, “I’m right here at home, no cause for alarm. Naturally, I will dismiss things that have to do with retrogression; every Nigerian should be proud of me. Living in the UK, a city that is well known for pulling people down, I have survived all sorts, so the matter that they are propagating is the smallest matter.

“No panic, I love London city, it is my city and nobody can do anything. Of all the people of colour you know here – pastors and leaders, I have survived everything.

“I’m here, I am at home, nobody should panic for me. I succeeded well in this country despite all challenges and I’m in the league of people you look up to. I have survived that well, nothing has changed, nothing will change.

“I’m here, number one in London City and nothing is going to bring us down.” 

Few hours later, another video of Adegboyega surfaced online showing him dancing with others.

He claimed his companies had raised over £1m since the news of his deportation surfaced.

“They have raised over £1m in 24 hours since yesterday’s news. This is a blessing I couldn’t see coming,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, Adegboyega still has an option of appealing the upper tribunal judgement at the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.

According to the UK Home Office, he must file the appeal within 28 days of being given permission to do so by the upper tribunal.

[PUNCH]

TikTok has moved closer to a potential ban in the United States after a federal court upheld a law that forces the Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its business to an American company or face a ban.

In a ruling Friday, the U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected TikTok’s arguments that the legislation violated the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution.

The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, mandates that TikTok be sold to a non-Chinese owner by January 19, 2025, while U.S app stores and internet services could be fined for hosting the platform after the deadline.

TikTok is expected to appeal the ruling at the Supreme Court,

The incoming U.S. President, Donald Trump, who first tried to ban TikTok during his first term, recently suggested that he no longer wants to ban the app.

In March, Trump posted on Truth Social that he opposed a ban on TikTok as it would rival Facebook, and Zuckerberg, whom Trump has accused without evidence of interfering in the 2020 presidential election.

TikTok’s trouble is rooted in concerns about ByteDance’s potential to share user data with the Chinese government or manipulate TikTok’s algorithm for propaganda purposes.

U.S. government’s lawyers argued that ByteDance’s control over the algorithm poses a national security risk.

The three-judge panel supported the view, noting TikTok’s vast influence.

“In part precisely because of the platform’s expansive reach, Congress and multiple Presidents determined that divesting it from the (People’s Republic of China’s) control is essential to protect our national security,” the judges wrote.

They dismissed TikTok’s claims that the law infringes on free speech.

“What the Act targets is the PRC’s ability to manipulate the content covertly.

“Understood in that way, the Government’s justification is wholly consonant with the First Amendment,” the judges stated.

If the ban proceeds, it will take effect one day before Trump’s inauguration.