The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) police command have arrested four people and impounded 21 cars over illegal car races on Sunday.
The action followed the full enforcement of Regulation 228 of the Road Traffic Act which prohibits illegal car races and other related offences by the FCT Commissioner of Police, Babaji Sunday.
The FCT police spokesperson, DSP Josephine Adeh, confirmed the arrest and the number of cars impounded.
She said the suspects were arrested around Muhammadu Buhari way, by Nicon Insurance where they converged for business as usual.
The command had earlier ordered full enforcement of the prohibition of all kinds of car and speed races in the capital territory.
The commissioner had directed all the Divisional Police Officers and their supervisory Area Commanders to ensure full enforcement of the regulation in their respective area of responsibilities.
The order followed public outcry on the menace of reckless driving which poses risk to life and damage to personal property as well as critical national infrastructure.
The Presidency says there is nothing abnormal for presidential aides testing positive to COVID-19, “and are now on self isolation in their respective abodes”.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, who stated this when he appeared on Sunday Politics on Channels Television, said such incidents only “confirmed that the presidential aides are human and not immune to happenings around them”.
Society gazette had on Saturday reported that some presidential aides had tested positive to Coronavirus.
Mr Adesina’s statement is the first subtle confirmation that presidency has been hit by the scourge according to sources who spoke with Premium Times.
Society gazette had reported how the rampaging coronavirus pandemic hit Nigeria’s State House, as some administration officials and aides of President Muhammadu Buhari have contracted the virus.
But the Nigerian government had kept sealed lips on the matter until the news broke out.
Presidency sources named those believed to have been infected by the virus to include the Permanent Secretary in the State House, Tijani Umar; the President’s aide-de-camp (ADC), Yusuf Dodo; his chief security officer (CSO), Aliyu Musa, and his senior special assistant on media and publicity, Garba Shehu.
One source included the minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on the list. But the minister later told PREMIUM TIMES he was neither infected nor down with the virus.
But Mr Shehu, who confirmed that he was “afflicted by the mild variant of the COVID-19,” in a text message shared with our reporter on Saturday, said he has “no confirmation” of other cases mentioned to him.
He added that he was already fit, claiming he just completed his physical exercises when our reporter called, but that it would require scientific evidence to claim that he no longer had the virus.
His message read in part; “I have no confirmation of the cases you mentioned, but yes I have been afflicted by the mild variant of the COVID-19. I felt okay from the beginning, maybe because one had received all three jabs, and right now, I feel 100 per cent. I just finished my hour-long running exercise.
“But the strange thing about this ailment is that it is the scientists, not you, that will say you are okay. Right now, I’m taking my prescriptions and isolating, and would go back for a test to ascertain if the virus is still here or it has left me. Thanks for your goodwill.”
Efforts to get the reaction of Mr Garba’s colleague and special adviser on media and publicity to the president, Mr Adesina, on the matter, then were unsuccessful as his phone always indicated “busy” when called many times, and he also did not reply to a short message sent to him, many hours after.
‘Presidential aides human’
Meanwhile, Mr Adesina in his reaction to Channels TV said: “Well, what I like to say is that presidential aides are just human. They can fall sick. If anything happens to human beings it can also happen to presidential aides.
”The fact that we are presidential aides does not make us to be immune to certain things. If there is a virus that is ravaging society. Well, it can touch anybody.
”So Malam Garba Shehu has confirmed that, yes, he tested positive but he said it’s mild. And I believe that by now, because it’s happened since Wednesday, by now, he should almost have beaten it if he had not beat it already. There is no cause for alarm.”
Commenting on his contact with Mr Shehu recently, the media aide said: “Well, I also believe God for the best. If it happens (I get infected), I’ll recover. So that’s it.”
Asked how many of the President’s aides in the State House have been infected, Mr Adesina said: “No. That will not be within my purview to discuss maybe if you get the Presidential doctor or anybody in the medical side, they will tell you.
”I wouldn’t know because, it is a private thing. If it happens to anybody, it is between that person and possibly the doctor. It’s not going to be general knowledge.
”So I may not be able to say.”
Mr Adesina also dismissed the fear being expressed in some quarters over the president’s health following his exposure to his aides believed to have been infected with the virus.
He said: “Well, I think Mr. President is quite fine, he is doing his normal routine, following his normal schedule. But if anybody close to him test positive, that person is required to stay away till he tests again, and he tests negative.”
”So, Mr President is following his normal schedule and routine.” (NAN)
An unnamed sex worker was reportedly hit with charm by a suspected ritualist at a hotel in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
The sex worker was said to have been picked at a hotel by three men who requested that she should have a foursome with them.
The lady reportedly turned down the request and said she could only have sex with two of the men at the same time.
While still negotiating the price and the modus operandi, one of the men was said to have hit the lady with a charm and she was hypnotised and started vomiting blood.
The Field Commander of Amotekun Corps in Osun State, Amitolu Shitu, confirned the incident to journalists on Sunday.
The Amotekun boss said he personally led the team that visited the scene the day the incident happened before the lady started vomiting blood.
He said, “The lady told me she was living with an Indigene of Sagamu, Ogun State at the Ofatedo area.
“She mentioned one Becky as her friend. She said three men had picked her from another hotel in Ofatedo and took her to a hotel around West Bye Pass.
“At the hotel, they told her she would have sex with three of them at the same time, but the lady said she told them she could only have sex with two men
“While arguing with one of the men, the suspected ritualist hit the lady with charm on the head and she became almost unconscious. She was still talking to me when she started vomiting blood.
“It was late and I asked the night guard working in the area to watch over her, while I made an arrangement for an ambulance. By the time I returned to the scene, I was told that her friend, Becky she told me about had brought a bus to pick her and took her away.”
Uche Nwosu, son-In-Law to Senator Rochas Okorocha, the former Governor of Imo State, has reportedly been abducted by unknown gunmen on Sunday.
Nwosu was said to be attending a thanksgiving service at the St Peters Anglican Church, Eziama Obire, in Nkwere Local Government Area of Imo State when the incident occurred.
According to reports, the former governorship candidate of the Action Alliance was whisked away to an unknown location by heavily armed men who stormed the church.
This incident came barely five days after his late mother, Jemaimah Nwosu, was laid to rest.
Details of his abduction are still sketchy as at press time.
Indications emerged at the weekend that COVID-19 has crept into the Nigerian Presidential Villa, Abuja, allegedly afflicting some Presidential aides and State House officials.
A number of close aides of President Muhammadu Buhari were diagnosed with COVID-19 infection and reportedly asked to self-isolate while taking treatment.
Among those diagnosed with the infection after PCR test results were released are the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu; the Aide-de-Camp (ADC), Yusuf Dodo; and Chief Security Officer (CSO), Aliyu Musa.
Confirming his health status to The Nation on Saturday evening, Shehu said he had been diagnosed with the infection and had been advised to self-isolate, an instruction which he said he was heeding, even as he has been taking his prescribed medication.
He, however, said he had no confirmation about the diagnosis for the other persons mentioned by the online newspaper as being diagnosed with the virus and removed for quarantine.
“Have you read the Premium Times report? What I said in it is the truth to the best of my knowledge; what is true is that I know about myself that I’m self-isolating and taking my medication, but I know of no other case”, Shehu said.
The report also claimed that the Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed, as well as the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Alhaji Tijani Umar, were also diagnosed with the infection.
However, both the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Mohammed, and the Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Umar, have been seen in the Villa on Thursday and Friday.
Meanwhile, it should be pointed out that testing for COVID-19 had recently been ramped up in the Presidential Villa in the wake of the Omicron variant to ensure the containment of the virus.
A drug addict, Steven Jiya, has set his mother Comfort ablaze in Minna, the Niger State capital, after several failed attempts to kill her.
Comfort was a former Principal at the Maryam Babangida Science College Minna.
She owns a private school, where Steven is the manager.
It was learnt that Steve poured petrol on his mother while she was in the kitchen cooking in her residence behind the Total Filling Station in Durulsalam area of Kpakungu in Minna.
Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu left; a corps member holding a ring as he knelt to ask the female soldier to marry him.
The family of a youth corper simply identified as Remi, who proposed to a female soldier, Private Sofiyat Akinlabi, at the National Youth Service Corps Orientation Camp in Yikpata, Kwara State, has said that the duo started their friendship three years ago in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
According to the family member, Remi and Akinlabi’s friendship started in Abeokuta over three years ago before the latter joined the military.
The Nigerian Army had detained Akinlabi on December 14, 2021, when viral video clips showed her accepting the marriage proposal of Remi at the camp in Yikpata, Kwara State.
The lovebirds had shared a hug and kiss to the delight of other corpers at the Mammy market.
The Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, told our correspondent that Akinlabi’s action amounted to taking advantage of her trainee, noting that the public would have been outraged and accused the Army of coercion had a male soldier proposed to a female corper during NYSC parade.
He said, “The female soldier in question violated the following rules of the NA: fraternisation while on official duty at the NYSC camp. That is, indulging in an amorous relationship with a trainee. Personnel must have served for three years before he/she can qualify for marriage.”
Speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of the matter, the close family member of the corps member told Saturday PUNCH that they had lost each other’s contact, but was surprisingly brought together by fate at the NYSC camp late November.
He said, “They have known each other before they got to camp. They met in Abeokuta over three years ago before she joined the Army but lost contact sometimes ago. Meeting on NYSC camp was like a reunion.
“They have been friends all along and Remi thought it wise to seize the opportunity of their meeting again to propose to her. He had to walk up to her as a man and not worry about her new status as a soldier because she would eventually get married.
“He got the courage and proposed to her out with a ring which she accepted. The whole thing was totally a surprise to her.
“It happened after the passing out parade on December 14, 2021. She was at the Mammy Market pressing her phone, she was just on her own and she never knew something of such would happen.
“When he walked up to her, she was over joyous and dumfounded at the same time. She is a lady and her reactions were triggered by emotions. Like men, women are still emotional beings no matter who they are.
“Remi was not holding any phone and did not record the moment. He didn’t post anything on social media and she didn’t also post it on social media. It was the fellow corpers around that did the posting on social media.”
Asked why Remi preferred Akinlabi, who is a soldier, the family source said, “He can’t explain his love for her because they so connected emotionally when they met again and he believes it is true love.”
The NYSC Director-General, Brig.-Gen. Ibrahim Shuaibu, had during a briefing in Abuja on December 21, 2021, said though the scheme “encourage(s) them to inter-marry, we have never had a situation where a corps member will go and propose (to a soldier).”
He added that the Army won’t joke with its traditions.
‘Romantic soldier may be sentenced to one-month punishment after trial’
Asked whether the soldier has been released, an impeccable military source, who craved anonymity because he was not allowed to speak on the matter, told Saturday PUNCH that Akinlabi would be tried in line with extant military laws.
The military source said upon trial, Akinlabi might be sentence to one-month punishment.
He said, “She will go through summary trial because the offence she committed is not a grievous offence that will attract court-martial.
“During her trial, if she is able to prove that she was not the one who did that (posted on social media), they might overlook it but if she had not violated the military laws by fraternising with the corper, that wouldn’t have happened.”
According to the military official, there is a law guiding soldiers and officers when it comes to marriage.
He said, “There is an extant provision in the harmonised terms and conditions of service for soldiers, ratings and airmen. The provision has been there for years. If you are a soldier, whether male or female, you are not allowed to marry in the first three years of your service.
“It is a law and it is not contestable because the first three years of service, you will be engaged as a soldier, you cannot marry. The law is there and all recruits are told at the point of joining the Armed Forces.
“Also, no soldier is allowed to marry before joining the force. Some people conceal their marriage status, but if it is known, they will charge you for perjury.
“Even after three years in service and you want to marry, you must write to your commanding officer, informing him that you want to get married and the commanding officer will make some enquiries. ‘This officer, this soldier, how is his/her way of life? Is he or she ready for marriage? If she/he marries, hope the marriage will not distract him/her from his military works?’
“When the commanding officer is convinced, he will approve it and then the soldier or officer will start his or her process of getting married.
“If an officer wants to get married to a soldier, one of them must leave the service, but an officer can marry an officer and a soldier can marry a soldier; there is no problem in that. Aside from that, an officer or a soldier, whether male or female, can marry any decent civilian.”
Family appeals
Meanwhile, the family source, who said Remi had been very devastated since the arrest of his lover, begged the military to release Akinlabi.
“We appeal to the Nigerian Army to tamper justice with mercy and release her. She is a woman and she has emotions. We don’t want her to be dismissed; we want her to continue her job in the military,” the source said.
In a related development, civil society organisations, including the Women Empowerment & Legal Aid, chaired by Funmi Falana, have called on the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Farouk Yahaya, to respect the decision of Akinlabi to accept Remi’s proposal.
She argued that no male soldier had been punished for proposing to a love interest in public as seen on social media.
She, therefore, declared as illegal, the detention of Akinlabi.
Also, two petitions on Change.org platform by activists Deji Adeyanju of Concerned Nigerians and Omoyele Sowore of Revolution Now have attracted over 10,000 signatures.
The petitioners shared photos of male soldiers proposing to their love interests in uniform on Facebook and called for the release of Akinlabi.
The federal government on Friday, announced that there will free train services from between December 24 and January 4, 2022.
The Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) Spokesperson, Mr. Mahmood Yakub, disclosed this in a statement.
The free train services are between the routes of Abuja-Kaduna , Lagos-Ibadan , Warri-Itakpe, Kano-Lagos; Minna-Kaduna and Aba-Port Harcourt.
The NRC Managing Director, Engr. Fidet Okhiria, urged Nigerians to maximize the opportunity while urging them to observe covid-19 protocol.
“The decision which was made in collaboration with the Ministry of Transportation, is to ease movement of citizens during the yuletide.
“This is to help ease the cost of transportation and enable citizens move easily enjoy the festive period.
“Passengers are, however, advised to ensure they obtain their tickets from appropriate quarters at no cost, to enable them gain access and enter the trains.
“All passengers are also enjoined to observe and obey COVID-19 rules by wearing of face mask, washing and sanitising of hands,” he said.
Nollywood veteran actor, Chiwetalu Agu who was arrested by the Department of State Service, DSS, for donning a Biafran outfit has unveiled his new rising sun outfit.
Naija News recalls that the 65-year-old actor was arrested in Upper Iweka Bridge by soldiers in October while carrying out a charity activity, for wearing a Biafra-themed outfit, in Onitsha, Anambra State.
He was, however, released but rearrested by the Department of State Services.
The actor who promised to make a new outfit of the rising sun was seen with a new attire with the inscription ‘Rising sun’.
It would be recalled that the comic actor revealed that the soldiers and DSS operatives treated him with respect while in detention.
He said: “It didn’t start well but God took control. I was only buying bread for the poor. Soldiers came in and started scattering things. They said they are calling me in the office but they did not tell me my offence. Because they did not tell me my offence, I refused to follow them.
“That drama that took place was important so that they will know that Igbo are here. That moment of Upper Iweka till the time we got to the army barracks close to Zik Mausoleum, to 82 Division of the Nigerian Army and to DSS office in Abuja, nobody touched me. They treated me with respect.
“Every officer wanted to be involved in the case so that they can have the opportunity to interact with Chinwetalu Agu.”
DSS released him following the intervention of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, AGN.
