Nelson Ugwuagbo

The Imo state Police command, on Saturday, paraded a suspect, Wisdom Mmaduka, a 30-year-old man, over alleged fake marriage promises to six ladies just to defraud them of their money.

The suspect was paraded at the Imo State Police headquarters in Owerri, alongside other suspects in connection with criminal activities.

Addressing newsmen, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Henry Okoye, tagged the suspect an “advance fee fraudster”.

Narrating how the suspect was apprehended he said: “Intelligence-led investigation and data tracking analysis by detectives of Owerri Area Command led to the arrest of notorious and advance fee fraudster named Wisdom Mmaduka, 30, of Onicha.

“He fraudulently obtained N1,400,000 via ATM transfers from Miss Judith, in the guise of marrying her.

“In the course of the investigation, the accused revealed that his modus operandi is to go after wealthy unmarried ladies, promise them marriage and in the process defraud them of their hard-earned money.

“He has a syndicate he uses as parents and in-laws, who he takes these unsuspecting young ladies to in his village in Mbaise for confirmation of his intention.

“On seeing these, the innocent lady will believe he has good intentions, thus he will steal their ATM cards, withdraw all the money in their account, and fade into thin air.

“Amazingly, on his arrest six ladies he has defrauded surfaced at the station, confirming being defrauded by this same suspect of huge sums of money with the same promise of marriage.

“But luck ran against him this time and he was arrested.

“One Red Highlander Jeep with Reg No. LLD 54AR he stole from one of his unsuspecting victims, Rose Mgbe, of Cross River State, was recovered.

“More so, he has a duplex he allegedly built at Naze with the money he got from his fraud dealings. He has been arraigned in the Federal High Court, Owerri, and remanded in police custody.”

I only collected money from two ladies – Suspect

Reacting, the suspect, Mmaduka, said: “I only collected money from two ladies. I don’t know about six ladies.

“I did not steal their money. They gave me the money. One of them promised to buy a car for me.

“I did not force them. They do it for me freely. One of them even gave me the money to open shop for her and I opened the shop for her.”

The Nigeria Broadcasting Commission’s warning to Arise TV over what the regulatory body called ‘unguarded incendiary remarks’ by the station’s guests is an erosion of press freedom.

According to him, “This is a very unfortunate situation and gross erosion of press freedom in Nigeria which has been on for a long time now. Imagine the sickening and so much slavish ways Arise TV tried to absolve itself from the bare facts presented by Kenneth Okonkwo and Dele Farotimi.

“Just like a slave trying to protect and whitewash the crystal clear brutality of his master to avoid backlash. Yet NBC (the master’s tool of terror) still wants to punish the tv station.

“Let no one tell me that the Nigerian broadcast media is free. And if the media is not free, then the Nigerian press is not free. Pactising journalists should wholly condemn this caging of the press.”

Hisbah uncovers HIV patients, pregnant women among intending couples at Kano mass wedding

The Hisbah Board in Kano has uncovered health conditions among intended couples, including HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B, and those carrying an early pregnancy ahead of the consummation of a sponsored mass wedding in the state.

Hisbah’s spokesperson, Lawan Ibrahim Fagge, told The Guardian that most of those found with the conditions realised their status for the first time after they were subjected to medical tests.

The state government re-introduced the mass wedding initiative with 3,600 men and women selected to benefit from government funding to set up their marital homes.

N800 million was budgeted for the mass wedding as part of palliatives by the government.

The Director General of the Board, Barrister Abba Sufi, had told journalists plans to sponsor a bill that mandates pre-marital screening to determine the health status of couples.

According to him, the laws will allow anyone with diseases like HIV and other conditions to be advised appropriately, while those with other ailments that could be treated will be placed on medication immediately.

“The discovery has proven the importance of pre-marital screening, which has made it essential for us not to take things for granted. For instance, what we discovered during the screen is because we mandated it.

“Only God knows the number of children that are going to be born as sickle cell patients, and so many diseases will also be transmitted among people,” he said.

Sufi added that in Islam, it was forbidden for pregnant women to get married, adding that so far, the board had completed the screening of 1,600 people from the 44 local government areas of the state.

Suspected armed robbers on Friday engaged men of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, in a gun duel while robbing a hotel in the Sagamu area of Ogun State.

One Police Inspector and two security guards were shot by the armed robbers, according to a statement by the Ogun State Police Command.
The injured policeman and the guards were rushed to the Olabisi Onabanjo Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) in Sagamu, where they are reportedly responding to treatment.

The police spokesperson in Ogun State, Omolola Odutola, said in the statement that the Sagamu Area Command had received a distress call at about 1:00 am “that armed hoodlums were operating at Remo Majestic Hotel in Sagamu”.

Based on the report, Odutola said a combined team of policemen were mobilised to the scene.

“Immediately the hoodlums sighted the policemen, they opened sporadic firing while the policemen engaged the hoodlums,” she explained.

According to her, “two of the hoodlums were fatally wounded while others escaped into a nearby bush with bullet wounds”.

Odutola disclosed further that “two locally made single-barrelled guns, four unexpended cartridges, 13 expended cartridges, one big scissors, 10 Android phones, one Java phone, a white Toyota Venza Car with registration number BWR 123DD Abuja were among items recovered at the scene of crime”.

She added that the suspected armed robbers had earlier mingled with lodgers before launching the attacks.

The Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alamutu Abiodun, ordered an immediate manhunt for the two fleeing suspects, the statement added.

Gombe State University is set to honour Abdullahi Usman, popularly known as Engineer Hadi, during its combined convocation ceremony.

Usman is a 71-year-old self-taught engineer who has built a helicopter, water powered stove, among several other inventions.

Other prominent personalities to be honoured include the Vice President of Nigeria; Kashim Shettima, former Secretary to Government of the Federation; Boss Mustapha, Professor Idris Mohammed, former board chairman of TETFUND; Alhaji Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, former Finance Minister; Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, former ECOMOG General Commander late Timothy Shelpidi.

Announcing this during a media briefing at the council chamber, Vice Chancellor of GSU, Aliyu El-Nafaty, noted that the individuals have distinguished themselves in their various fields, noting that their efforts have been outstanding in the development of the school.

On the choice of Usman, he said “the self-made scientist and innovator, comes from a humble background as he trained himself into innovating electronics/electrical appliances that addresses the challenges we face today, especially energy. He invented cooking stoves that us water and generating plants that generate energy up to 7.5KVA without the use of any fuel and many other gadgets.”

Speaking further, El-Nafaty, disclosed that Shettima, Mustapha, Ibrahim-Imam, Ahmed, Shelpidi would be conferred honorary degrees.

While Professor Mohammed would be bestowed with Emeritus Professor of Infectious Disease and Immunology, following his contributions in the control of HIV/AIDS, Meningitis epidemics, adding that he is the first to be so honoured.