Author: Vincent Osuwo

Northampton Crown Court in the United Kingdom, UK, has found two Nigerians, Tosin Dada and Solomon Adebiyi, guilty of multiple rape charges. Northamptonshire Police confirmed this in a statement posted on its official Facebook page on Monday. This comes weeks after a Nigerian pilot, Olukayode Ojo, was convicted in a Texas court in the United States of making false statements to get a Federal Aviation Administration certificate. According to Northamptonshire Police, Dada and Adebiyi were charged with three charges of rape in connection with a March 2022 incident. It was gathered that the convicts had claimed they engaged in consensual…

The president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, has been granted administrative bail by the Department of State Services.  He was released just a few minutes before the organised labour’s 12 a.m. deadline. Omoyele Sowore, a pro-democracy activist and presidential candidate for the African Action Congress, announced his release via Twitter on Monday night. “BREAKING: The fascist regime of @officialABAT has released the @NLCHeadquarters President Joe Ajaero from @OfficialDSSNG custody on bail,” he wrote on X. The Peoples Democratic Party, New Nigeria Peoples Party, and Social Democratic Party all criticised President Bola Tinubu’s administration on Monday in response…

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project’s (SERAP) Abuja office has been taken over by officers of the Department of State Services, DSS. This was announced in a statement by SERAP on its verified X page on Monday. The rights group described the taken over of its office by operatives of the Service as “unlawful.” The DSS operatives demanded to meet with the organisation’s directors. The organisation had called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene and prosecute those responsible for the invasion of its offices. “President Tinubu must immediately direct the SSS to end the harassment, intimidation, and attack on the…

Human rights lawyer Femi Falana, SAN, has warned the federal government against unauthorised invasions of offices, particularly those of human rights defenders.  Falana was reacting to the illegal invasion of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project’s (SERAP) Abuja office by men from the Department of State Services (DSS). Chronicle NG reports that DSS operatives invaded the Abuja office of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP). SERAP said the DSS officers were asking to see the rights group’s directors. It described the action as an ‘unlawful occupation’. However, in a statement on Monday, Falana criticised their actions and advised Tinubu…

Months after detaining Okuama community leaders, soldiers invaded the community on Monday morning in four gunboats and 11 speedboats, shooting randomly and killing three youths before looting food stores.  The soldiers also took away a big granite canoe, a sand dredger, and generating sets needed by the returning inhabitants. A neighbourhood teenager who spoke with Vanguard after returning from his hideout described how the soldiers arrived in four gunboats and 11 speedboats, shooting intermittently. They then arrived on land via the Okoloba community, having previously used drones to observe the community on Sunday. The soldiers reportedly executed three youths, Ojeh…

Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) have arrested Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC. Chronicle NG gathered that Ajaero was arrested on Monday morning at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on his way to the United Kingdom for an official assignment. Ajaero was scheduled to attend the Trade Union Congress conference in London, which begins today. The Police had resummoned the Nigeria Labour Congress, President, and General Secretary Emma Ugboaja to appear at the Force Headquarters on September 5, 2024. The new summons comes less than 24 hours after Ajaero met with the police…

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Kaduna Zonal Command has charged Ibrahim Shuaibu with fraud before Justice Darius Khobo of the Kaduna State High Court. According to a Monday statement on the EFCC X handle, Shuaibu is facing seven counts of criminal breach of trust, impersonation, and acquiring N100 million under false pretences. Count one of his charges reads, “That you, Nuhu Ibrahim Shuaibu (a.k.a. Ishaku Abdulrazak) (M) and lIya Garba (now deceased) sometime in 2017 in Kaduna within the judicial division of this honourable court did conspire between yourselves to do an illegal act, to wit: obtaining money…

The funeral for Ugandan Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who died in Kenya after being set on fire by her boyfriend, will be conducted on September 14 in her native country, organisers announced on Sunday.  The 33-year-old, who ran in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics last month, died from serious burns on Thursday, four days after being doused with petrol and set on fire at her house in western Kenya. “The burial date of Rebecca Cheptegei has been set for September 14, in Kongasis sub-county in Bukwo district (eastern Uganda),” Beatrice Ayikoru, secretary general of the Uganda Olympic Committee…

A plane carrying 48 people went off the runway in Indonesia’s remote eastern district of Papua on Monday, hurting several passengers, authorities said.  The Southeast Asian archipelago has a dismal aviation safety record, and Papua’s rugged geography makes flying difficult due to frequent bad weather. On Monday morning, Trigana Air’s ATR-42 aircraft went off the runway as it took off from an airstrip in the remote Yapen Islands regency for the Papuan capital Jayapura. The flight was carrying 42 passengers, including a baby, and six staff members. “Praise God everybody survived and has been taken to a hospital for a…

Troops from the Nigerian Army’s 6 Brigade detained a suspected female kidnapper informant in Taraba State.  Markus Grace, the culprit, was caught in Sondi Village, Wukari Local Government Area of the state. Captain Olubodunde Oni, acting Assistant Director of 6 Brigade Army Public Relations, stated that the suspect was also the girlfriend of a notorious kidnapper. He said: “Following the recent abduction of one Malam Saidu at his residence in the Vesee community of Ukum LGA, Benue State, troops of 6 Brigade in Sondi village of Wukari LGA of Taraba State conducted an intelligence-led operation on September 6, 2024, and…