THE United States Government on Saturday confirmed the rescue of its citizen held captive in a border town between Nigeria and Niger Republic.
The victim was held hostage by an undisclosed armed group believed to have a substantial affiliation within the northern part of the country and Niger.
“U.S. forces conducted a hostage rescue operation during the early hours of 31 October in Northern Nigeria to recover an American citizen held hostage by a group of armed men. This American citizen is safe and is now in the care of the U.S. Department of State. No U.S military personnel were injured during the operation,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told the Cable News Network in a statement.
“We thank the government of Nigeria for its partnership and support for this mission,” the U.S embassy in Nigeria also tweeted applauding supports of the Nigerian Government.
According to another statement attributed to the US Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo, the rescue was conducted Friday night by top military operatives after the force had gathered enough intelligence information.
Reports say six among seven of the abductors were killed by thy US forces.
“The United State is committed to the safe return of all U.S citizens taken captive. We delivered on that commitment last night in Nigeria where some of our bravest and most skilled warriors rescued a U.S citizen after a group of armed men took him, hostage, across the border in Niger,” the statement reads in part.
President Donald Trump on Saturday praised the Seal officers who carried out the operation during his campaign in Pennsylvania.
The US embassy in Nigeria has always issued travel warning alert for its citizens in the country. The most recent warning – Level 3 alert was issued October 22.
Since 2002, Boko Haram insurgents have been terrorising northern parts of the country, kidnapping mostly locals and aid workers.
On July 22, the Washington Post reported the incident where members of the Islamic sect kidnapped five aid workers in Maiduguri, Borno State.
President Muhammadu Buhari had identified the victims are employees working with the Action Against Hunger, Rich International, International Rescue Committee and officials of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency.
The US government applauded the diplomatic supports enjoyed to ensure the rescue process was a success. It hailed the military officers involved and later assured the rescued victim would be reunited with his family.
It renewed its commitment to protecting the lives of every American citizen, particularly those held hostage.
“We will never abandon any American taken hostage.”
Efforts to get a reaction on inputs of the Nigerian Army in the rescue process from Sagir Musa, Spokesperson for the Army failed.
He did not respond to a text message sent to his line as of the time of this report.
Contrary to the claim of the Lagos State government and the Nigerian Army that nobody was killed by soldiers during the Endsars protest at Lekki toll gate on October 20, an investigation by the premium Times has revealed that soldiers and policemen shot at the peaceful protesters and killed many youths.
Through pictorial and video evidence including eyewitness accounts, the newspaper established the fact that many lives were lost through gunshots, while many others sustained gun wounds.
One of the victims is an unidentified man whose body was found about two kilometres away from the Lekki toll gate.
According to the residents of the riverine community, the corpse was found at Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1, floating on the lagoon just behind their houses.
Sources told the Premium Times reporters that the dead body could be one of the victims of the alleged killing at Lekki toll gate.
“The corpse was that of a man. It was already swollen and decomposing. It was shoe-less. The dead man was wearing blue denim jeans trousers and a flimsy white singlet. It also had a rubber band on its left wrist. The man seems to be slightly bearded, but it was hard to tell as a swarm of flies was already gathered around his decomposing face,” the Investigation revealed.
Eyewitnesses said they saw soldiers taking away bodies from the scene after they had been shot dead.
One of the residents said he saw the soldiers pack about 12 to 13 dead bodies from the shooting that evening.
They also confirmed that police officers arrived the scene of the incident and killed some of the protesters immediately after the soldiers left.
The residents identified Raji Ganiyu, the Divisional Police Officer of Maroko Division spotting white attire, led some police officers to kill more protesters.
“DPO of Maroko we see am face to face wey e blow one person head pull the skull off. Pistol. E wear white and white,” one of the residents narrated in pidgin English.
Another eyewitness interjected, saying the DPO also fired and shot a mentally-ill man in the head at close range.
Sanwo-Olu, Military and Police lie
During an interview with the Cable News Network (CNN), Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos state had said when he visited the Lekki Tollgate following the attack there was no ‘scratch of blood’ at the scene.
The reporters visited several victims of the attack who sustained gunshots injuries from the scene.
The Nigerian military also said although the soldiers at the scene were invited by the state government, they did not shoot at the protesters.
John Enenche, the Director, Defence Media Operations also said the video footage showing soldiers firing at protesters may not be true.
Adamu Muhammed, the Inspector General of the Police (IGP) also said officers of the police did not shoot at any protester.
The Premium Times’ investigation appears to have put paid to all the inaccurate claims.
AT about 6:45 p.m. on October 20, men in military uniform arrived at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos in three Toyota Hilux vans and almost immediately began shooting into a crowd of peaceful protesters gathered there waving the Nigerian green-and-white flag and reciting the national anthem.
Protesters and other witnesses at the toll gate claimed several people were injured and killed in the shooting.
A popular Disc Jockey, DJ Switch, who streamed the incident live on Instagram, claimed that the soldiers, after the shooting, took the dead away. She also claimed that a team of police officers arrived later to mop up after the soldiers.
She said the military initially prevented first responders and ambulances from reaching the injured but later allowed them through. She said she saw at least 15 corpses and claimed that security agents took the bodies away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7bT8KdxsOE
Several people who watched her Instagram live broadcast claimed they saw protesters being fired upon by soldiers. They said some protesters died of bullet wounds while others were left with mild to critical injuries.
Similarly, a rights group, Amnesty International,claimed 10 people were killed during the shooting at the toll gate, and two others at the Alausa protest ground.
However, the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who described the shooting as a “dark note in the history of the state” and blamed the shooting on forces beyond the “direct control”of his government, originally said no life was lost in the shooting.
He later admitted that two persons died from the incident, one of them from blunt force trauma.
On Monday, during an interview on CNN, Mr Sanwo-Olu continued to discredit the accounts of witnesses about the number of deaths and wounded from the shooting. He said no bloodstain was found at the scene of the shooting when he visited
“What has happened is that there have been so many footages that were seen, that people have shown, but we have not seen bodies,” he said. “We have not seen relatives, we have not seen anybody truly coming out to say I am a father or a mother to someone and I cannot find that person. Nobody has turned up. I have been to the ground, there is no scratch of blood anywhere there.”
The army initially claimed its troops were not at Lekki that night. However, it later admitted that soldiers were deployed on the request of the Lagos State government. The army, however, insists that its personnel did not open fire on the protesters, let alone kill any.
The Lekki Shooting: Checking the facts
Piecing together details of on-the-ground reporting, credible information posted online by citizens, accounts by witnesses and victims as well as information obtained from top military sources, PREMIUM TIMES can now paint a clearer picture of what happened at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20.
The newspaper’s investigative team set out to unravel what actually happened on the evening of the shooting and the hours that followed.
As this medium gathered evidence for this investigation, Sodiq Adeoye, an employee of research firm SBM Intelligence, informed one of our reporters after the shooting that some residents of Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1, a highbrow neighbourhood, about two kilometres from the Lekki Toll Gate, found a body floating in the lagoon just behind their houses.
Mr Adeoyo said the residents suspected the floating body could be one of the protesters fired upon by soldiers and alleged by witnesses to have been carried.
On this newspaper’s request, Mr Adeoye sent a brief time-stamped video of the corpse floating in the water. A Google map coordinate he sent indicated that the body was floating close to Bay Lounge, an upscale restaurant.
At around 6 a.m on Saturday, accompanied by a friend, Deji Ashiru, this reporter drove to the Nigerian Army Post Exchange (NAPEX) Car Park Jetty in Victoria Island, where he and his team hired a boat to search for the body.
As the boat approached the bank of the lagoon, behind the imposing Oriental Hotel, the reporter saw a shanty ahead. The shanty is on the left side of the Lekki Toll Gate if one was travelling from Victoria Island. Due to its proximity to the toll gate, it immediately occurred to the reporter that residents of the community might have witnessed things that happened during the crackdown that was not yet in the public domain. His instinct was right.
He told the driver of the boat to stop his team at the shanty. It seems the residents had been waiting for someone to tell the stories of what they saw on the evening of the shooting because team members had hardly introduced themselves or even disembarked from the boat when they started recounting gruesome details about the evening.
The residents, some of whom suffered bullet wounds and other injuries, during the shooting, alleged that several people were killed and injured by the soldiers. They also corroborated the story told by DJ Switch and other protesters that after the shooting soldiers took bodies of those killed away.
When asked if the protesters were killed and whether they saw soldiers carry bodies away, one of the residents said: “Of course, everyone saw it. Those that were present saw it.
“Even the one that died in our presence, wey be say the ekelabe (policemen) carry am go. They shot am there,” another resident said.
“Boss, if you want to camera, you can camera,” said the second speaker who later identified himself as Ray.
“Let me tell you something. This is my country. I am not afraid of anything. Let me say what I saw on that day. I was here from the beginning to the end of everything. What the soldiers and police did was absolutely wrong. Why would soldier come and shoot on us when we were having a peaceful protest,” he said.
When asked if he saw soldiers carry bodies away, Ray responded: “Of course, I saw dead bodies. They packed bodies. They came with their vans. Their trucks.”
Ray, who expressed displeasure that President Muhammadu Buhari did not mention the Lekki shooting in his broadcast to the nation a couple of days ago, said Mr Sanwo-Olu visited the scene of the shooting in the early hours of Wednesday and saw some of the dead.
“Why is Sanwo-Olu denying? Because immediately after when that thing happened Sanwo-Olu himself came. He came. He parked at the toll gate. He saw some dead bodies on the ground. Why is he denying,” he asked.
Ray’s account of the event was also corroborated by other residents of the community.
The residents also alleged that after the soldiers who initially opened fire on the protesters left the scene, police officers led by Raji Ganiyu, a chief superintendent of the police, and the Divisional Police Officer of the nearby Maroko Division, arrived the scene and continued the attack on defiant protesters who stood their ground despite the military attack.
Showing us spent bullet casings they collected at the toll gate after the shooting, they accused the team led by Mr Ganiyu, whom they described as wearing a white native attire on the day, of shooting and killing some protesters, including a mentally ill man who was often seen around the area.
Bullet shells collected from Lekki toll gate by residents of the shanty
“DPO of Maroko we see am face to face wey e blow one person head pull the skull off. Pistol. E wear white and white,” one of them said in Pidgin.
“Na only one him kill?” another resident interjected in Pidgin. “What of the mad boy wey he shoot for our front here. Close range. There was a guy that was abnormal, he was sat at that speaker. He just came immediately, saw the boy, the boy didn’t do anything. He didn’t run, he didn’t harass him, he just removed his pistol and blew the boy’s head,” yet another resident said.
The Maroko Police Division is directly opposite the shanty and on the right of the toll gate.
When reached for comments, Mr Ganiyu declined to respond, saying all requests for comment should be directed to the Lagos Police Public Relation Department.
Also, the police public relation officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, said any question about the shooting incident at Lekki Toll Gate would be decided by the judicial panel of inquiry set up by the state government into alleged atrocities committed by law enforcement officers.
“No comment on this for now,” he said.
The narratives of the residents of the event of Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning correlate with that of DJ Switch.
“Yes, there were soldiers there,” she said. “Another part that people are not really talking about; the police also came. The SARS people we are talking about also came. Maybe 40-45 minutes after the soldiers left.” she said.
The Lekki Stampede
The residents explained that when the shooting started a stampede occurred. They said some of the protesters ran into the community to take cover from the bullets flying all around them and in the process injured some of the residents of the community.
This reporter spoke to a mother who showed him the bruises on the knee of her daughter, which she claimed she got during the stampede.
They said some of the protesters ran into the lagoon in the panic that ensued. Agboola Kapko, a fisherman who lives in the community, explained how he rescued some protesters who ran into the lagoon.
“I dey for that side (points) before dey start to shoot. Many people run enter water. I can’t leave them like that to die so I help many people comot for inside water and they come safe. I carry many people go another way, go put dem and they follow that way go,” he said.
Mr Kakpo’s wife showed our reporter her bruised and swollen hand. She said she sustained the injury when she fell while trying to run from the shooting.
Lekki shooting and the floating corpse
After speaking with several residents at the shanty, our investigative team left in search of the floating corpse. Just about 300 metres after the toll gate on the Lekki-Ikoyi Bridge and about 100 metres from Bay Lounge, they saw the corpse floating near the bank of the lagoon.
The corpse was that of a man. It was already swollen and decomposing. It was shoe-less. The dead man was wearing blue denim jeans trousers and a flimsy white singlet. It also had a rubber band on its left wrist. The man seems to be slightly bearded, but it was hard to tell as a swarm of flies was already gathered around his decomposing face.
“No scratch of blood” – Sanwo-Olu lied
During the CNN interview, Mr Sanwo-Olu, in what appears an attempt to discredit witnesses’ accounts of the shooting, said when he visited the toll gate, he did not find a “scratch of blood.” However, video and photo evidence verified as being from the incident as well as witnesses and victims accounts of the shooting showed the governor’s claim as inaccurate.
One of the photos showed a young man wearing a zip sweatshirt over a Versace t-shirt, with his head lying in a pool of blood. Witnesses said that the man was shot in the head by the police officers who arrived the scene after the soldiers left the scene.
Photo verification tools such as Google and Bing reverse searchers and Tineye indicated that the photo had not previously appeared anywhere else online.
Photo of man in a pool of bloodPhoto of man in a pool of blood
In one video footage, some protesters were seen tying a tourniquet to the badly bloodied leg of a victim with a belt. The unidentified man wriggled in pain. He had been shot in the leg.
In yet another video, a bloodied man laid lifeless, with the Nigerian flag on his hand as a man tried to revive him.
In another footage, an elderly man whose cloth was drenched in blood was seen lying beside another person who had suffered bullet wound injuries.
Footages posted on Twitter of the desolation at the Lekki toll gate the morning after the attack indicated a man showing a large patch of bloodstain on the scene of the shooting.
When this reporter visited Nicholas Okpe at the Emergency Unit of Grandville Hospital in Ajah, he could barely sit up. He had a patch on his right chest where a bullet hit him. A tube was attached just under his right rib cage that drains blood and pus into a container placed on the floor. The bullet was still lodged in his chest while the hospital waits for a consultant to further test before deciding how to proceed.
Photo of Nicholas Okpe lying in the ICU of the hospital. He was shot at Lekki toll gate
A doctor at the hospital, who identified herself as Ikemefuna, said Mr Okpe was in a critical state when he was admitted, and said he was lucky to be alive.
“He is getting better. He is not on oxygen anymore. God so good it (the bullet) hit him on the right. It (the bullet) pushed his lung to the side. He still needs further review,” she said.
Grandville Trauma Centre, Ajah
Moved by the prospect of achieving an end to police brutality, Mr Okpe did not just protest, he did more. He volunteered alongside a handful of other youth to clean the protest ground at the end of each day’s protest.
He told me his case was so critical that three hospitals rejected him before Grandville accepted to treat him.
“The first hospital they said they cannot admit me,” he said. “They poured honey where the bullet passed through and plastered and gave me some injection. They said that will sustain me until I get a hospital that can treat me.
“They took me to another hospital, they rejected me. They took me to another they said they were not open. This is the fourth hospital they came to. The man here said they should admit me if not I would have died.”
Mr Okpe said the blood and pus that were drained from him filled the container four times already. He said he was in severe distress.
“I’m passing through a lot of pains. I am always in pain. Anytime I cry out they will just give me painkiller and they will go. When that painkiller expires the pain will come again. My head is just too heavy for me with pains,” he said.
Mr Okpe also said he saw the soldiers took aim at the CCTV cameras at the toll gate before he was hit.
Nicholas Okpe. Mr Okpe says he saw the soldiers took aim at the CCTV cameras at the Lekki toll gate before he was hit.
Lekki Shooting Victim — Raymond Simon
All Raymond Simon wanted to do was help. But his large heart almost cost him his life. Mr Simon told PREMIUM TIMES he was not at the toll gate when the soldiers shot at protesters. A church instrumentalist, he was at a rehearsal that evening. As he was returning home on his motorcycle, he decided to take some of those injured during the shooting to hospitals.
He said he was returning after making the third trip from nearby Reddington Hospital when he was ambushed by police officers at the toll gate who viciously attacked and abducted him.
“After I was stabbed, they abducted me alongside a corpse. They were driving us around the area and I suspect they were looking for where to abandon the corpse. When they got to Ilasan area, they pushed me down. My hands were tied to the back,” he said.
He said the police officers drove off with the other presumably dead person. He later managed to find his way to a hospital where his wound was stitched, and he was given painkillers before being discharged.
Mr Simon said after he was attacked, one of the police officers tried to shoot him but one of his colleagues pushed him away. He said another officer with a bayonet attached to his rifle aimed to stab him in the neck, but he quickly moved his head and the blade hit his chin.
He said his motorcycle was stolen during the attack.
Lekki Shooting Victim — Bassey
A bullet hit Bassey in his right hand as he mingled with other protesters at the toll gate. Unable to reach first responders on time due to the blockade set up by the soldiers, he said some residents of the area close to the toll gate removed the bullet lodged in his left hand.
[Photos of Divine]
Bassey appeared to be in severe pain and in urgent need of medical attention. He gingerly carried the swollen hand, with a huge wound in the spot where he was hit by the bullet, close to his body, as he spoke with this reporter. He said he has not received any treatment worth mentioning since he suffered the injury.
When PREMIUM TIMES returned to the shanty to check Bassey the next day, our reporter was told members of the community had arranged for a motorcycle to take him to St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos Island. Our reporter went to St. Nicholas Hospital to check on him but was told nobody that fits his description came there for treatment.
Bassey later returned to the shanty on Thursday. Fellow residents said his condition had worsened as he is yet to get proper treatment for his injury.
Lekki Shooting Victim — Patrick Ukala
Mr Ukala was shot in his right arm. He said the bullet is still lodged in his arm and that he had only received first aid and painkillers. He was told by doctors at Grandville to do an X-ray of the arm before the bullet can be removed.
Patrick Ukala was also shot at Lekki toll gate
“I am still walking everywhere looking for where to do x-ray but nowhere yet. They promise that I should come back.”
Abandoned by Lagos Government
His account as well as those of Messers. Okpe, Simon, and Bassey contradict the claim of the Lagos government that protesters who were injured would be treated fully free of charge.
The victims said the state government has not contributed a dime to their treatments. Some of them who were originally treated are now being treated in other hospitals.
Mr Ukala said the bill for their treatment was covered by one Ideh Chukwuma, a filmmaker.
On Sunday when our reporter visited Mr Okpe at Grandville Trauma Centre, he met a team from the Lagos State Ministry of Health, which came with its media crew to interview the victims. Mr Ukala said that was the last he saw of any government official.
“Since the day you saw those people (officials of the Lagos Ministry of Health) there they have never come there neither did they speak with the doctor. Finally, the doctor has asked us to leave.”
He said Mr Okpe was discharged with the bullet still lodged in his chest. He also has not been operated on to remove the bullet in his arm.
When Grandville Trauma Centre was reached for comment, an employee of the hospital who gave her “professional name” as Doctor Adebayo, confirmed that the victims had all been discharged.
“Some that need extra consultations with specialists, we sent them there. We didn’t operate him (Mr Okpe) here. Probably they will operate him wherever he went to,” she said.
Hospitals owners accuse Lagos Government of intimidation
Following the shooting at the Lekki Toll Gate, some hospital owners in Lagos complained to this newspaper that the Lagos State Ministry of Health was using its Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA), the organisation responsible for registering healthcare facilities in the state, to intimidate them.
They said HEFAMAA sent out an online questionnaire requesting details of injured #EndSARS protesters treated at their facilities, a move they said could be used to “arm-twist” them into providing information which might breach doctor-patient confidentiality rule.
They said they were particularly worried about the section of the form requesting their registration number.
Screenshot of the Form
When reached for comment on Wednesday, the spokesperson of the Lagos Ministry of Health, Tunbosun Ogunbanwo, asked for questions to be sent to him via SMS. He is yet to respond days after the inquiry was sent to him.
The protest movement, which is known as #EndSARS, demanded the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a tactical unit of the Nigerian Police, whose members were accused of atrocities including extortion, rape, abduction, torture and extrajudicial killings.
The protesters also asked for investigations into the allegations against SARS personnel as well as the immediate suspension of officers accused of committing atrocities.
At least for 10 days, the protests, especially in Lagos and Abuja, were conducted peacefully despite attacks on protesters by persons suspected to be pro-government hoodlums.
Within the period, no fewer than 11 protesters were killed by the police across the country.
In one instance in the Ketu area of Lagos, on October 19, rival street gangs capitalised on the protests to attack one another.
In the morning of October 20, the protests in some parts of Lagos, especially at Orile and Mushin, turned violent after police officers shot some protesters. The Orile and Mushin police stations were razed by angry mobs. At least one police officer was lynched, and several others injured in the riots that ensued.
The curfew
In a move to check the violence that was beginning to spread across the state, at around noon on October 20, Governor Sanwo-Olu announced a state-wide curfew with effect from 4 p.m that day.
The protesters at Alausa and Lekki Toll Gate, which were the epicentres of the demonstrations, defied the curfew but remained peaceful.
Just after 3:30 p.m, officials believed to be from the company managing the toll gate, Lekki Concession Company (LCC), arrived at the toll gate and removed equipment initially thought by activists to be CCTV cameras. Authorities later claimed that the CCTV cameras at the facility remained intact and that its footages would be released to the panel probing the shooting.
LCC officials accused of removing cameras at the Lekki toll gate
Protesters who survived the attack said lights, including streetlights and a large electronic billboard which illuminated the toll gate area, were turned off just before the attack to possibly provide a cover for the brutal assault on peaceful protesters that were to follow.
The advertising company that owns the electronic billboard at the Lekki toll gate, however, said it deactivated its facility in compliance with the curfew declared by Governor Sanwo-Olu, unaware that tragedy would later struck at the location.
The Police Service Commission, PSC, has urged some members of the Nigerian Police to return to their duty posts despite the killing of over 22 policemen during the violence that erupted after the #ENDSARS protests, according to a report.
Ikechukwu Ani, spokesperson of the PSC stated the killing of police officers was painful but should not be a reason for police operatives in the country to abandon their duty of protecting the nation.
“The Nigeria Police Force is part of the public service and the public service is guided by the Public Service Rules. If you don’t come to work without permission, the punishment is dismissal if it is proven.
“The police as public servants are guided by the rules; so, they cannot on their own say they won’t go to work. Although, the Police Service Commission is also working to make sure they are protected because they are human beings; their lives also matter,” he said.
Section 030402 of the Public Service Rules lists absence from duty without leave as serious misconduct, which can be investigated and if proved, may lead to dismissal.
Ani also warned against further attacks on police officers, saying it could lead to anarchy.
“It would be an ill-wind that blows nobody any good but it is not a reason for anybody to say he won’t go to work. If you don’t go to work, the Public Service Rules will take its course,” he said.
Several reports indicate that policemen had stayed away from blackspots and their duty posts following the killing of their colleagues by suspected hoodlums who hijacked the #EndSARS protests.
“When you make Nigeria lawless and ungovernable, there would be a situation nobody would be able to control,” Ani stated.
Mohammed Adamu, Inspector-General of Police, IGP last week had ordered the immediate deployment of Nigeran anti-riot police unit of the Police Mobile Force to protect lives and property of Nigerians.
However, the riot policemen have also failed to respond to incidents of looting and vandalism of public and private property by miscreants in defiance of a directive by the IGP.
Musiliu Smith, the Chairman of PSC also urged the police to restructure their anti-crime strategies, assuring officers and men of the Force of improved welfare.
He stated this when he inspected some of the damaged police formations in the Lagos State Command alongside some retired senior officers.
He emphasised that officers and men of the command should take the ugly incident as one of the challenges and hazards of police job in a “developing country like ours.”
That the federal government is giving out 3million grants to support Nigerians.
Verdict
The claim is untrue. The website used as the conveyor belt is not only fictitious but also designed to spread false information.
Full Text
A viral ‘forwarded-as-received’ post has been spread across WhatsApp platforms, with the accompanying claim that the federal government is giving out grants to support Nigerians.
The post with a registration link attached to it advanced that the 3 million grant only has 9540 slots available for grabs by Nigerians on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Verification
Although the post did not specify the kind of grant it is, The ICIR visited the website through the acclaimed registration link to confirm the veracity of the claim.
The first red flag sighted by this reporter was how the ‘Bitly’ shortened link changed to “bonanzaoffers.xyz”. After gaining access to the page, another message popped up, congratulating the reporter for visiting the page and standing a chance to “benefit from the 75 billion federal government grant”.
The website went further by asking questions on why a visitor would want to apply for the grant; the amount the visitor would like to apply for; and how a visitor knows about the scheme. These questions are accompanied by varying options.
The ICIR ticked ‘start a new business’ and a verification process which took only four seconds emerged. Having been verified, another message popped up, congratulating the reporter for being “successfully shortlisted” to have access to the grant.
But for the grant to be disbursed, the website asked the reporter to share the claim to twelve WhatsApp groups or friends. This, according to the pop-up message, is to enable other Nigerians to benefit from the scheme.However, The ICIR conducted a google search using keywords like “75 billion federal government grants” to ascertain the federal government grants initiative.
It turned out to be a post-COVID-19 stimulus package for Micros, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) termed “ MSME survival fund.”
The scheme is a product of the Economic Sustainability Committee Plan aimed at developing a plan to respond to the challenges posed by the economic shock of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The grant which is scheduled to run for an initial period of three months, starting from September 2020, is handled by the federal ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment. It targets 1.7 million entities and individuals across the country, of which 45 percent of the beneficiary would be female-owned enterprises, 5 per cent for businesses owned by people living with disabilities.
Another federal government’s package of 75billion found by The ICIR during the search was the Nigerian Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development. The initiative which is funded by the central bank of Nigeria will spread over three years to cater to youth-owned businesses and investment needs.
However, the fund is a loan package with an interest rate of 5% per annum and a tenor of 5 years with a moratorium of up to 12 months. The announcement added that an individual or non-registered business could draw up to 250,000 Naira while youth-owned registered businesses could apply for up to 3 Million Naira.
This is the arrangement the phoney website cloned when it asked for the amount an individual would like to apply for within the range from #200,000 to 3 million.
Who are the impostors?
The ICIR queried the existence of the hoax website through Whois.net to check the website domain information.
As at the time of filing this report, all forms of information always attached to any website is not available for this website in question.
However, while this check can not explicitly state who and where the website was registered, investigation shows the website was created on 08-05-2020 and scheduled to expire a year after.
Other information about the registrant of the website, such as the phone number and email are also not available. All these show the dubious intention by the unidentified owner(s) of the hoax website.
Conclusion
Based on the above findings, the website is not only fictitious but also designed to spread False Information.
EYITAYO Jegede, candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2020 Ondo Elections has approached the State Electoral Tribunal faulting the re-emergence of Rotimi Akeredolu as the governor of the state.
According to a report, Jegede is seeking redress in the victory of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on four grounds.
Some of the grounds on which the application was sort include allegations that the voting was trailed by ‘pocket of violence’ and irregularities.
The PDP candidate also alleged irregularities in the emergence of Akeredolu as the candidate of the APC during the party primary election held on July 20, 2020.
Jegede joined the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), APC as well as the deputy governor-elect, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, in the petition.
Akeredolu had won the October 10 election defeating Jegede of the PDP and his former deputy, Agboola Ajayi.
INEC announced on Sunday, October 11, that Akeredolu returned as governor against his closest rival, Eyitayo Jegede of the PDP.
The results as declared states that Akeredolu gathered 292,830 votes against Jegede’s 195,791, representing nearly 20 per cent lead while Ajayi of the Zenith Labour Party, ZLP was able to poll 69,178 votes in the election.
MEMBERS of the Lagos State Panel of Judicial Enquiry set up by Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Governor of Lagos State to investigate cases of police brutality and Lekki shootings were on Friday taken to an empty morgue at the Military Hospital at the 65 Battalions operating under 81 Nigerian Army Divisions.
This was after the panel was initially denied access to the Nigerian military hospital morgue.
“We were taken to a morgue but it was an empty facility,” Damilola Banjo, a reporter with the BBC Pidgin who was on the team of the journalists who went with the panel members told The ICIR.
Segun Odunayo, a reporter with The Punch who was also there confirmed that the “morgue was an empty room.”
The panel members led by Justice Doris Okuwobi (Rtd), its chairperson who went on an unscheduled visit were denied access as the military officers at the facility pushed them out and subsequently locked the gate.
Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and a member of the panel told journalists that they were at the hospital to check its morgue because they got confidential information pertaining to the military hospital.
“We came to the mortuary of the military hospital because we have confidential information about the event that took place in the hospital. So we are waiting for them to grant us access to inspect the mortuary as we believe that the facility is relevant to our investigation,” Adeboruwa said.
“We don’t want to make any conclusion until we have access to the mortuary to inspect it. We have a pathology who is here to help us conduct a medical examination of bodies that we may find at the mortuary. So we are waiting for the military.”
When asked if the panel obtained the military authority to inspect the mortuary, Adegboruwa, a human rights lawyer said the panel has authority from President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria openly announced to the international communities that all matters relating to the #EndSARS protest should be directed to the Lagos Judicial panel,” he said.
“We are not just here on the authority of the Lagos State, but that of the President and you would recall that it was the national executive council that gave the directive that this panel be set-up. We are only following due process and it is good that we visit the mortuary, make our findings, and make our relevant conclusion from it.”
Also, the panel earlier had found five bullet shell casing at the Lekki Tollgate Plaza, the scene of the alleged Oct. 20 shootings of #EndSARS protesters by officers of the Nigerian Army.
The panel had left the venue of its sitting at the International Court of Arbitration, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, to visit the tollgate plaza scene of the shootings.
It will be recalled that Nigerian youths had in early October gone to the street demanding an end to police brutality across the country and also called for the scrapping of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a notorious Police unit accused of extrajudicial killings, extortions and torture.
The Lagos Judicial Panel was set up by the Lagos State Government after an unspecified number of protesters were believed to have been killed by security forces during the over 10 days’ protest.
Obianuju Udeh, a Nigerian disc jockey better known as DJ Switch, who live-streamed the incident on her Instagram handle in a video shared on her page on October 24 insisted that people were killed when men in army uniform opened fire on #EndSARS protesters on Tuesday.
She said at least 15 persons were shot dead on the night while several others sustained injuries of varying degrees.
Part of the mandates of the panel is to investigate cases of Police brutality particularly those attributed to the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
The panel also seeks to investigate the involvement of soldiers in the now-famous Lekki Tollgate shooting of peaceful protesters.
The shooting which generated worldwide condemnation saw the military earlier denying report that they were at Lekki tollgate.
John Enenche, the Coordinator, Defence Media Operations while addressing journalists in Abuja on October 23 said the incident of October 20 may not be true.
He had said, “I will say that for now, don’t take any response from me that yes we did it or no, but from what I can see, from all the evidence, as a general, I will tell you that it may not be true.”
But the Army in a statement by Osoba Olaniyi, a Major and the acting Deputy Director, 81 Division Army Public Relations, Lagos later admitted to soldiers’ involvement in the #EndSARS protest in Lagos, insisting that soldiers didn’t shoot at peaceful protesters.
It stated that there was no time its personnel shot protesters in Lagos and its involvement was based on a request by the Lagos State Government after a 24-hour curfew was imposed in the state.
The Army further stated that claims that soldiers shot at #EndSARS protesters were untrue, unfounded and aimed at causing anarchy in the country, adding that soldiers acted within the confines of the Rules of Engagement for Internal Security Operations.
It could also be recalled that Kukasheka Usman Sani, the former military spokesperson during an interview on Arise Television said that military personnel present at the Lekki shooting were armed soldiers trained to kill, but they did not take any life, despite the reports of protesters dying of gunshots.
He said, “Remember, the military is armed, and by the nature of their training they are trained to kill, they are supposed to come at a point in time and exit.”
“There are procedures for taking over and handing over. But over time, we have neglected the time tested mechanism of conflict resolution. So the military in their wisdom decided to use blank armour which is meant for training to fire blank and not live ammunition.”
On the allegations of the military mopping up bodies of ENDSARS protesters who were shot, Sani said there were standard principles and procedures on which accountability is cardinal.
“Accountability means they are conscious of the fact that whenever the military is called upon, definitely there would be an investigation, and it has happened several times over especially in the early 2000s where we had an internal crisis, especially in Kaduna,” Sani stated.
“Therefore, you must be accountable and the military is not the public health agency of the government that they will have to clear scene or they have to tamper with evidence, no, they don’t but they must be accountable, take a record of everything that transpired because they know definitely they would be asked questions.”
Responding to a question on whether soldiers could mop up corpses in order to give account, Sani stonewalled. “No, don’t put words in my mouth, I already said they are not public health agencies”.
ABOUT 73 members of a Nigerian mafia organisation in Italy, known as Arobaga Vikings or Norsemen Kclub International, have been arrested by Italian police in continuation of the clampdown on Nigerian criminal groups in the country.
Italian newspaper, ANSA, said the Nigerian mobsters were arrested in two Italian cities, Turin and Ferrara in raids during the week.
The leader of the Nigerian criminal organisation, one Emmanuel Okenwa, 50, aka ‘Boogye’, was among those arrested.
Okenwa was described as an ‘AfroBeat Disc Jockey (DJ) and self-styled King of Ferrara’.
ANSA said the operation involved more than 200 policemen.
The Nigerian mafia organisation, Arobaga Vikings or Norsemen Kclub International, is organised into local cells called Decks and is believed to operate in many Italian cities.
Italian police said the Nigerian gang deals mainly in prostitution and drug trafficking.
Thirty-one arrests were made in Ferrara while 43 other members of the mafia organisation were apprehended in Turin.
Those arrested in Turin reportedly include several women who allegedly ran prostitution rackets.
According to Bologna preliminary investigations judge, Gianluca Petragnani Gelosi, the mafia organisation plans to “violently annihilate” other Nigerian criminal gangs in Italy and take over their turf.
Rival groups include the Maphites, the Eiye and the Black Axe, all of them largely composed of Nigerian immigrants in Italy.
Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese said the police was monitoring the activities of criminal organisations despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
The arrest of the 73 Vikings is the latest in a series of an ongoing clampdown on Nigerian criminal organisations in Italy.
In December 2019, the Italian police reportedly busted two Nigerian mafia gangs – Supreme Vikings Confraternity and the Supreme Eiye Confraternity. The groups were also alleged to be involved in prostitution.
The December 2019 operation led to the arrest of 32 people in Italian cities such as Puglia, Sicily, Campania, Calabria, Lazio, Abruzzo, Marche, Emilia Romagna and Veneto.
Arrests were also made abroad – in Germany, France, Netherlands and Malta.
Forty-nine people, all Nigerians, were also placed under investigation.
Also, in July 2019, Italian police arrested 19 suspected members of a Nigerian mob known as ‘Maphites’.
The police said ‘MAPHITE’ was acronym for ‘Maximum Academic Performance Highly Intellectuals Trained Executioner’.
The gang forged alliances with other mafias and violently punished anyone who rebelled, according to the police.
The Maphites were busted in an operation known as ‘Burning Flame’ which involved over 300 police officers in Bologna and Turin.
Officers carried out arrests and searches in nine cities across northern Italy from Bergamo to Modena, Parma and Ravenna.
According to a statement by the police, Operation Burning Flame, which involved investigations that spanned two years, led to the destruction of “much of what, within the Nigerian community, is known as the ‘MAPHITE’ cult”.
The police statement added, “Among those arrested were those who held a leading role within the criminal organisation.
“Those who decided on the new initiations, who ran the prostitution rings, who dominated by force the other criminal organisations, who ran the drug trade in the city squares.”
The Italian police said the Nigerian mob employed “urban guerrilla warfare which continued for days at a time” to maintain territorial control.
Operation Burning Flame also placed 52 other Nigerians under investigation.
The activities of the Nigerian mafia organisations have become a rallying point for anti-immigration political parties which have been campaigning for restriction on immigration in the country.
An anti-immigration politician, Matteo Salvini, who was the Interior Minister at the time the Nigerian Maphite gang was busted in July 2019, cited the development to justify growing opposition to immigration.
In a tweet after the news of the arrests broke, he said, ”Maxi-operation against the Nigerian mafia, so much for those who denied its existence. Thanks to the police and investigators. We don’t need this kind of immigration. Ports closed, jails open!”
Nigerian criminal organisations in Italy have adopted Italian mafia codes and while they have much in common, they are independently structured and in strong rivalry with each other, according to the police.
According to Italian police, MAPHITE was founded back in the 1980s, along with other Nigerian gangs operating in the country, such as the Black Axe and the Vikings.
The gang, likewise other Nigerian criminal groups, developed into a full-blown organised crime group in the 1990s, police said.
The MAPHITEs adopted the moniker ‘Green Circuit Association’ to camouflage its international expansion and is now widespread in many countries around the world, according to Italian police.
The police further disclosed that the top mobsters in the group are known in gang lingo as the Main Chief, Deputy Don and Checker (the treasurer).
An official known as ‘Fire’ is in charge of giving orders, while an executive committee carries them out.
According to the police, members have to follow strict rules of conduct laid out in a ‘Green Bible’ which is kept by the leader.
According to the police, commandments laid down in the Green Bible included the ‘Mario Monti norm on recycling money to countries of origin’.
“New members are initiated following precise rituals, and treason is met with corporal or lethal punishment,” police added.
Italian media reported that the Maphites are believed to have different families in parts of Italy – the ‘Vatican Family’ in Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany; the ‘Latin Family’ in the North-West; the ‘Rome Family Empire’ in Central Italy; and the ‘Light House of Sicily Family’ in the islands.
According to the police, the Maphite gang maintains close ties to Nigeria and those who cross the organisation could be dealt with not just in Italy but also in Nigeria.
Making a case against Nigerian mafia organisations in Italy, a deputy prosecutor in Turin, Paolo Borgna, “It is not a refined mafia but not one to be underestimated. It must be contained now”.
As part of the clampdown on Nigerian gangs, an investigation by the Bari Flying Squad of the Italian police reportedly found an exponential rise in cash flows from Italy to Nigeria, which was estimated by the Bank of Italy at 74.79 million euros in 2018, double the 2016 figure.
The investigation reported that the cash flows from Nigerian immigrants in Italy included illegal proceeds worth about 6.2 million euros per month.
Investigators compared the cash flow to the number of Nigerians in Italy – estimated to be about 105,000 at the time, most of them men.
The report from the investigation noted that the Nigerian population in Italy had a lower employment rate (45.1%) than the general non-EU population (59.1%) and the highest unemployment rate (34.2%) among non-EU nationals.
Arrests of Nigerian criminal groups in Italy had been hailed by politicians including Brothers of Italy (FDI) leader Giorgia Meloni who said: “we must extirpate this cancer”.
Northern League MP Rossano Sasso stressed that the report from the investigation had highlighted the need to close down the vast CARA asylum seeker centre in Bari, where much of the trafficking and drug dealing allegedly took place.
Interior Minister, Luciana Lamorgese, had also said the arrest of Nigerian mobsters in Italy attested to the readiness of investigators and police forces to combat all the various ramifications of the Nigerian mafia in the country.
SOLDIERS of the Nigerian Army at the military hospital in Lagos have denied access to the Lagos State Judicial Panel trying to enter the morgue at the 65 battalions operating under 81 Divisions.
The panel members who went on an unscheduled visit were denied access as the military officers at the facility pushed them out and subsequently locked the gate.
78-YEAR-OLD Lee Myung-bak, former South Korean president has bagged a 17-year jail term for bribery and embezzlement offences.
The country’s Supreme Court upheld the conviction that was first delivered in 2018, where the former president had been sentenced by an Appeal Court, only to be released on bail, pending the ruling from the country’s apex court.
On Thursday, Myung-bak who severed as president of South Korea from 2008-2013 was convicted for embezzling 25.2 billion won ($22 million) and accepting bribes totalling 9.4 billion won ($8.2 million).
Reports also reveal that he is subject to a 13-billion-won fine and forfeiture of assets to the tune 5.7 billion won.
Myung-Bak is one of four of South Korea’s living former presidents who have either been behind bars or have served jail terms. The others are Park Geun-hye, Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo.
Park Geun-hye who served from 2013 – 2017 was the first female president of South Korea. In April 2017, Park was formally charged with abuse of power, bribery, coercion and leaking government secrets. She was sentenced to 24 years in prison and a charged fine of 18 billion won ($16.7 million).
Chun Doo-hwan, who served from 1980-1988 was on December 3, 1995 arrested alongside 16 others on charges of conspiracy and insurrection. On December 16, 1996, the Seoul High Court issued a sentence of life imprisonment and a fine in the amount of 220 billion won (194.2 million).
Roh Tae-woo also got a 22-year jail sentence for mutiny and treason, which was reduced to 17 years on appeal. He was president of South Korea from 1988-1993.
No Nigerian president since the return to democracy in 1999 has been prosecuted for corruption, let alone convicted and jailed.
